Ozrat is leaving!

Ozrat

Ozrat

Antediluvian as Feck
Orderite
Okay, so no I haven't gone yet. I'm leaving on May 26th to work at a summer camp until early or mid August. I'll be working 120+ hours every week, so I'm probably going to be here on NMA extremely rarely, if ever, until then. It's a long haul and I only get around $1.00 per hour, but its damn worth it in case you're wondering.

So this is everybody's big chance to talk about me behind my back! If you have any comments questions or concerns about me feel free to post them here before or after I leave.

If you really need to, just yell some random stuff about me here to get it off your back. Don't like how my name is spelled? Say it here! Are you a girl and want my number? Say it here with a picture! You get the general idea.

Now, I'm going to go back to my Calculus II for a few more hours, so here's your chance to get started!
 
Summercamp - are there cute girls there?

All I can say is that I am glad I am finished with all that Calc/Diff eq shit...
 
Dagnabit all! There's some real hotties on the staff, but that's only a benefit, not the reason I go there. I went there for most of my childhood, so its my home away from home.

There! One question finished. Any more out there?
 
Here's some obligatory tears: *sniff*.

120+ hours a week? 1 a hour? Man, I think I got better wages from my parents for mowing the lawn. Well, I've never made 120 dollars in a week but that's besides the point. I'm just wondering, what does this job entail? And how is it worth it?

I just want to know since, you know, I'm writing a biography on you and all.
 
Hmm, its actually $175 a week, so I guess its more like $1.50 an hour. Well, we live there the whole summer so you have to include room and board along with meals all the time. Plus those hours include time when we're sleeping because we're still responsible for the kids.

What would you rather do? Flip burgers all summer? Be stuck in a room on a nice day? Not me. I'll be outside all the time getting my suntan and be getting paid to do it. Like I said, its my home away from home, so I love it there! Its a camp for kids with special needs, so they're all cute and sweet to you! Then on the weekends there's always a party to go to.

So yes, its way worth it. I highly recommend it for anybody who wants to try something new this summer
 
I was going to tell you that it´s a big mistake, you should just hang out and enjoy life while you can, but then i read this

Its a camp for kids with special needs
Click to expand...

so i guess it`s ok, enjoy and party much at weekends.
 
Oh I know its not a mistake because I did it last year and had the time of my life! There's no better reward than knowing that you personally made in impact on around 150 kids in 3 months. Not even teachers can do that!

Any more misconceptions about summer camps I can clear up?
 
I usually don't double post, but I've forgotten to describe what the job requires.

Well, the most important part is to be open to these kids. For one whole week they're not going to be the "weird disabled kid." Instead they're going to be with 200+ kids with the same disability for a week. It's a complete reversal of society for them, so its really important that you know what to expect from certain special needs and what nots so that they're not even aware if it.

Other than needing a little help for this or that, these guys are completely normal! I know a little deaf boy who was in kindergarten and already almost done with his 3rd Harry Potter book. I know a blind boy who could run very well. The list goes on. These are the kids who need summer camp, not those little brats whose parents pay $500 a week to send them off to a day-camp. Come to think of it, that's why these kids only pay $25 for a 1 or 2 week stay.

Other than the above, you're always in charge of their safety, their health, etc. You're the parent of 5-7 new kids from noon on Sunday until 4 p.m. Friday every week. You are only off duty 1-4 hours a day depending on if you have night watch duty or not. By the time Friday rolls around you're about ready to go out and have some fun!

Want more info?
 
Seems like you're doin' a fine job Ozrat. Good luck. ( I still having second thoughts about this blind kid running, probably not running alone in the woods...smashing from one tree to another, falling in ditches)
 
The only time I've been to summer camp was when I was in junior high and worked at a DNR work camp up in Manitowosh Waters. They ran it like boot camp and every one had be up at reveille at some godforsaken hour of the morning. We had to make our beds so you could bounce a quarter off it and then shower, get dressed and go to roll call before breakfast. If you screwed up you would get KP duty or some other form of punishment. We spent 8 hours a day clearing trails or chopping down aspen trees. It was pretty fun stuff and we paid minimum wage with room and board thrown in for free.
 
The Dude said:
( I still having second thoughts about this blind kid running, probably not running alone in the woods...smashing from one tree to another, falling in ditches)
Click to expand...
Don't worry, its not like he ran without help. There was somebody right next to him to help him out.

DNR work camp, eh? Knowing some people in the DNR in Wisconsin, I figured that they'd be more laid back rather than drilling some kids in junior high. More like "smoke a fatty!" instead of "make those beds!" But hey, Michigan is crazy anyways.
 
Ozrat, can i just ask what age group the children attending the camp are? Is it for any ages or children under a certain age?

I did a summer camp job last summer for about 5 weeks and i enjoyed it immensly. The children there were aged between about 7 and 16. (There wern't that many 16 year old's but that was the eldest teen there). During the course there, you did different weeks with different age groups. Like from 7-8 one week and so on as in a lot of the activity's they were split up according to their age.
Because of my shorter stay there i didn't get a chance to work with all the children of different age groups. Mainly from 11 up. Below that i didn't get the chance.

I just allways remember the older teenagers mostly the 14 to 15 year old's could get quite Ill-tempered when it suited them. You wouldn't belive some of the mood swings that i encoutered. Well, i was just wondering weither you ever found the same?
 
Ozrat said:
DNR work camp, eh? Knowing some people in the DNR in Wisconsin, I figured that they'd be more laid back rather than drilling some kids in junior high. More like "smoke a fatty!" instead of "make those beds!" But hey, Michigan is crazy anyways.
Click to expand...

Well actually that was in northern WI around Minocqua. There were plenty of times when we would be smoking a fatty when we weren't working though. I think things have probably changed and they don't do this anymore but it was a cool thing to do for a couple months.
 
Hmmm, Minocqua, eh? I know that place. My sources on the streets have told me that that's a good town to travel to and get stuff from... Coincidence? I think not! Other than that, I think Wausau and Racine are also prime areas.

Which reminds me. The camp has a random drug testing policy. I was telling that to an adult camper, and he thought that meant that we have to test random drugs! Funny at the time.

We serve campers ages 6-17 for 10 weeks and adult campers 18-90 for 3 weeks. Personally, I've found all age levels to have their problems, but the good outweighted the bad. The very first meal that I had with some campers a camper of mine had a puking incident all over the table! Oh what crazy times I had... What's your favorite camp story?
 
Well....i got a few. But one of the moments that made me laugh the most was near to the end of camp. Nearing the closing time, we tend to let the rules slip abit which leads to water fights at night and all different tricks getting played. Things that would normally not be allowed so much.
Last season, we got completly hammered by the eldes't of the campers. They said they were getting payback for some of the tricks that the seniors played on them.

I remember one distinct moment when one of the seniors, i think he was maybe 24, or somwhere around that age, anyway, he had the loved job of night watch over the sleeping accomadations. Most of the other seniors were still awake. All we heard is this huge yell and the sound of shouting! We dashed out side thinking somthing bad had happened and the poor sod was layed on the ground, shaving cream all over the place. It turns out that this was sweet payback from the kids. They ambushed him when he was outside after checking people were a sleep, held him down and shaved his eye browse off. Anyway, we got them back by using marker pens and drawing faces on nearly every one. This is just one of the wacky things that happens at the camp.

What i really like about it is the sense of one big family where every one is the same. Because alot of the children who attend are regulars, most people know each other. New children are easily intergrated and doesn't matter who they are they can have fun. Really, i can't wait to go back there again. It was so much fun and i would reccomend it to any one.
 
Heh, your story brings a smile to my face. That reminds me when my campers once ganged up on me, tackled me to a bed and tickled me nonstop for about 5 minutes. By the time they took mercy on me I was completely worn out from bearing all their weight and laughing my brains out for that whole time. I needed a couple of minutes after that to catch my breath...

Another great story from this summer is the time when a boy cabin decided to impress the girls they liked. While the girls were out doing something, the guys went over to the Nature Center, took about 30 stuffed animals and skins and set them up in strategic locations around the girls cabin! There were at least two per bed, scattered around the room and even a stuffed bear in one of the showers! They had proper supervision with them, so it didn't get too carried away. That sure got a reaction when discovered later that night...

Of course, I wasn't exactly innocent when I myself was a camper there! Shaving cream is always good for a good joke! My favorite one was when somebody went to the bathroom and we took his entire bed outside of the cabin where he wouldn't find it right away. Too bad he didn't like that one too well...

Then there are staff pranks, which are taken to a whole new level... One that comes to mind is running boxer shorts up the flagpole. Luckily not mine, and I wasn't involved, but I did get to enjoy seeing it. Another one I've heard about is setting up multiple alarm clocks around somebody else's cabin to go off at random times in the middle of the night. Then there's the mysterious person who rearranged most of my stuff on my desk and walls while I was sleeping... That one still drives my crazy trying to figure out who it was.

Yea, campers really do come back almost every summer. I was a camper at this camp for almost every summer between the ages of 6 and 17. I'm hardly the only one who does that. A trend that my camp has is campers coming back after they're too old to be a camper and work there instead because they love it so much. That's true in my case. In fact, the camp director and a couple of other administrative people used to be campers there as well. This summer I'll be working with about 5 staff memebers that are around my age and used to be campers as well. Crazy eh?

So you're going to work at camp this summer as well? Good for you! It really is the best summer job to have, in case anybody is wondering. Yes, just put down that computer for three months to increase the overall enjoyment in children's lives.
 
Yep, I’m looking forward to going back again this year.
Well, after thinking about other things that happened last year, I remembered another thing that happened and I’m actually really looking forward to this again this year.
During camp, there is some time spent camping outside under the stars and so on.
Well, it was one of the nicest nights there had been, really warm, loads of stars in a clear sky. Anyway, we had like a camp fire and so on and we were telling ghost story’s, you know as you do. Well, there is this one senior that is extremely good at telling these kind of story's, he even gives me the creeps, I’m not kidding. I don’t know why, it's just the way he tells them and where he gets them from I have no idea but they are great.

Well, round about 10:30, he'd been telling story's for maybe 45 mins and the atmosphere was amazing, people were on the edge of their seats, including me.
Round about 11pm we called it a night and people went to their tents but they were dead jumpy.
So we got to gather maybe 4 or 5 staff and decided to scare the big Jesus out of one of the girls camp locations. But we got some of the lads from their tents to help, told them what was happening and set off. We decided that we were going to play one of the stories; after all, Mike, the guy who was telling them, was directing us.

So...once we were ready and knew what we had to do, we waited till the tents lights won’t out meaning that they were at least trying to get to sleep and moved in for the kill.
The story we were doing by the way is about this child that died, and he comes back on certain nights, but his legs have been broken from when he died, so he drags himself along the ground making a noise as he moves. The way it was told really does get to you.
Well, we got one of the smaller boys, added some old cloths and a wig from the stores and told him what to do and he played it to the punch.

This is what you could vaguely hear from the tents:

"Shh, I heard something."

"Shut up, it isn’t funny anymore."

"No, I really heard something."

"There, you hear that noise."

"What is that? Sombody go and look."

By this point their lights were on but they wouldn't come out to look. They were genuinely scared.
Then, he followed up be scratching the side of one of the tents and you should have heard the screams, the staff and lads watching were nearly on the ground laughing.
He just kept going. Moving round the tents with noise and then scratching in certain places. I never heard so many screams.

The best part was, we didn't let them know it was us, they still don't know, some may have their suspicion’s but we didn't tell them.
The next day they spent ages telling us about it, we just said that it must have been an animal or something.
Well, this year, were going to do it again, same time, same place and see what happens.

The trick is a little more detailed than what i described but would take too long to describe in full. You really nneded to be there to hear what they were saying and the screams. Ahhh, i love that place. I'll try and think of some more, there are loads.
 
Ozrat said:
Oh I know its not a mistake because I did it last year and had the time of my life! There's no better reward than knowing that you personally made in impact on around 150 kids in 3 months. Not even teachers can do that!

Any more misconceptions about summer camps I can clear up?
Click to expand...


where is this place it sounds cool?
 
I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Releasing too much personal information for my taste.

Well guys, only two more weeks until I'm gone. I better get to work and break 200 posts before then... Not that it will be a challenge or anything...

Any more questions?

BTW, can I get a title that says I'm away while I'm gone for the summer?
 
Update: Only seven or eight more days to enjoy my wonderful postings before I go away for the summer working at camp.

So is there any word on getting a special title while I'm gone? Honestly, I'll be gone until sometime in August, so it'd be nice to let people know that I'm not going to be replying to their posts for a loooong while. "AFK for the summer" sounds good to me! But if you have any suggestions that would seem more appropiate to the NMA style, feel free to post them here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top