Stuff you don't normally do

The thing about doing things you don't normally do is that they surprise you when you actually like them. Take getting up at quarter past six. In a place that has no curtains, where afternoon naps are not only encouraged but necessary, quarter past six in the morning doesn't seem that bad. Why am I getting up that early? I hear you cry. To go to the gym. That's why. Yet another thing I don't normally do but am actually liking. The next question you might be asking is why again... Well, when you're surrounded by people who do things you don't normally do there are two fairly clear options, you either do or don't do. "Don't do" is a dangerous option when you're six thousand odd miles away from home and living in a different time zone. Don't get me wrong, I'm with some excellent people, they just don't sit around and talk about nerdy stuff/art/anything else I like. So, I'm picking "do", or applying to the "just say yes" school of social politics. So. What else am I doing that I don't normally do? How about football and touch rugby. Impressed? I can tell you are.

In other news I've been put in a cabin with the youngest age group - the seven/eight year olds. The Camp Director spent a week getting to know us before settling on where he thought our interest/skills/energy levels lay. His reasoning was that he thought my temperament, slightly more diverse range of skills and lack of skills in the sports department would stand me in good stead. I don't have a problem with this. Although I am fully expecting to get far less sleep than I normally do.

It's the Camp Director's sixty-eighth birthday today and he looks it, but he has the energy of someone half his age. He has one of those American personalities which seems very intense and personal but at the same time a little stand-offish. This entire experience so far has been an exercise in stuff I don't normally do, the bizarre thing is it's a bit like an "exercise" in that I'm extending myself a bit more every day. I'm so glad that I've had a week to get used to the place. I feel like I've been here for months, I don't know if time has dragged for everybody else but it really has for me. On a slight tangent I'm still getting eaten alive by bugs. As it turns out, not only am I getting bitten by mozzies but spiders too! Isn't that nice? I bloody hate spiders. Oh, and the ants here are double the size of normal ants. They're called Bull-ants, proving beyond all doubt that everything is bigger in America.