ICEP 2019 DAILY REPORT

Tuesday, June 25: Our ICEP Uruguay group came together for the first time at 12pm at the Chimney sign barn for our group orientation. After goodbyes with families we put on our rain jackets and played some name games and icebreakers in the drizzly summer day. We then walked quickly on the inter-camp trail to Becket where we set up our beds for the evening. The Becket campers were also on the quest for dry spaces, so we ventured to the blue loop on Rudd Pond and cozied up in the Green Point shelter. We came up with our group contract, discussed expectations and leadership roles on ICEP. We also addressed some worries and exciting hopes for the trip. We had some free time in which the kids played some games and hung out.

Chat question: Who is a leader you admire and why?

Wednesday, June 26: We woke up, had a delicious Becket breakfast then went straight to the infirmary for health checks. Afterwards, we jumped into some leadership training and had a large discussion and exercise to learn about Behavior Interaction Styles. The group responded really well to the concepts and we were able to have a productive debrief and discussion about the importance of having a balance of different roles and personalities within a group. After lunch we played more team building games and each participant gave their assigned presentation about Uruguayan culture, food, geography and history. We reviewed our itinerary, addressed all questions that came up, and then had some free time before dinner. After eating, we played volleyball and ultimate frisbee with ICEP Peru 1 which revealed our group is incredibly athletic and know how to have fun with one another! Toward the end of our games, we had the most brilliant sunset which bathed camp in a golden light - reminding us of the magic of this place. We got into our pjs for our night before our big adventure, had chat and went to sleep.

Chat question: What is a memory that brings you comfort when you’re in a new situation?

Thursday, June 27: After another toasty night in the Gibson bunks, we woke up early to pack up belongings, do a final weight check of heavy suitcases before lugging our belongings to Moose Field. After breakfast we were picked up by ICEP Australia Sydney on a yellow school bus headed to JFK. At the airport we had a bit of a snafu with one participant’s ticket, but with Jim Brown’s assistance and excellent service from Robert at the American Airlines check in desk we were soon on our way. The first flight to Miami was decked out with TVs so we all got right into the movie zone. When we landed in Miami, our first priority was dinner.

Afterwards we worked on some CCRs at our gate, played spoons and had chat in the midst of airport chaos.

Chat question: What is an imaginary world (pre-existing or made up) that you would like to live in and why?

Friday, June 28: What a whirlwind travel day. We all had a pretty sleepless night on the plane, but landed in Montevideo in the morning all in good spirits - feeling excited and a little nervous. As we made our way out of the airport we were greeted by a massive group of our Uruguayan hosts - at least 15 teens, Guille and Diego. They were wearing huge smiles and holding up individual letters to spell out “welcome”. What a start! We formed a line and greeted each person with a kiss on one cheek. We loaded onto the bus waiting for us, and as we drove to the YMCA, our two groups began venturing into tentative Spanglish communication with lots of laughter and body language. We drove along La Rambla and watched the view of the river bank which looks almost like the oceanside. We dropped our belongings at the YMCA then ventured into town to stretch our legs and get our bearings. Guille and Diego bought us pastries which were delicious! The day was overcast and misty, a welcome change from the muggy 85 degree NYC weather we left behind. We walked to the Mirador to the Intendencia of Montevideo - a business office that is quite tall and offers a beautiful and architecturally informative view of the city. When we returned to the YMCA, we had our first meal at the camp canteen right next door. For lunch we had soup, chicken milanesa and mashed potatoes with flan and coffee for dessert. After lunch we were shown around YMCA which has 11 floors, many gymnasiums, a swimming pool, school classrooms, workout machines and rooms and has about 3,000 visitors each day! In the afternoon we played soccer, basketball, handball and volleyball. There was quite a range of abilities and it was fun connecting through physical activities. We were all craving a siesta after our 24 hours of travel, but somehow we all made it until dinner at the YMCA of tortas pasqualina and chat. Our bedrooms for the next two nights are the classrooms for the little ones at the camp on mats and our sleeping bags. There was some drama before sleep when the girls room had many small bugs and cockroaches. We found some small tables and they created their own raised cots. There were some small freakouts, but mostly giddy laughter that went late into the night. It served as quite an effective bonding strategy for all.

Chat question: What is a time you stepped out of your comfort zone?

Saturday, June 29: We woke up well rested after our first night at the Montevideo YMCA. After a late breakfast at the YMCA canteen of biscoches (pastries) we met up with Vicko, one of our hosts who helped us to exchange our USA money into pesos. Afterwards the group had some free time playing ping pong and pool in the salon. Afterwards we met up with Diego (el Oso) and Lucia for lunch. We were working on pacing ourselves during mealtimes as we are unaccustomed to having 4 courses. Lunch today consisted of soup, gnocchi with red

sauce with ground beef and dessert options of jello, flan or vanilla creme. Feeling stuffed, we headed back to the YMCA. The group brainstormed some ideas for games to play with our Montevidean friends. When they arrived we played “Where the wind blows”, ninja and some name games. At 4pm sharp we headed downstairs to the YMCA theater (this building has 11 floors!) to watch the quarter finals for the Copa America in which Uruguay was competing against Peru. The game was fairly uneventful, however, the energy and shouting from our Uruguayan teens keep the energy up. Some of our group found themselves drifting into dreamland in the cozy seats and darkened theater. For merienda we had a smorgasbord of tasty cakes and cookies, most containing a layer of dulce de leche - our new favorite spread any time of day. After more games and an epic 30+ person round of ninja, we said goodbye to our new friends. We will see them again Thursday when they come to Camp Artigas for the exchange camp. We had a chill evening with lots of ping pong, laughter, dancing to music before a dinner of pizza, chat and then bed.

Chat question: What is a lesson you have learned from friendship?

Sunday, June 30: We started our day with breakfast at the YMCA consisting of baguettes, dulce de leche and bananas. We then packed up our things and hopped on a big travel bus to Campamento Artigas – our home for the next two weeks. We were accompanied by Lucia, Teo and Alita, three of our youngest hosts. We arrived and were treated to many delicious steaming bowls of soup as the first of our 4-course lunch. Our accommodation was a cabin that was split in two sections for boys and girls. Each had its own bathroom, a fireplace and small common area. After dropping off our things we took a tour of the camp. It is beside the Rio de la Plata which looks as expansive as the ocean. We explored, played on the playground and marveled at the massive eucalyptus groves scattered throughout camp. We had a tasty merienda consisting mostly of dulce de leche and played some games of Up Chicken with Lucia, Teo and Alita before they returned to Montevideo. We had the evening to ourselves at camp, and we had a wild few rounds of World Cup – playing until it grew dark. At 8:30pm we had dinner, gathered sticks and logs for the fire, fully settled into our new home and had chat before bed.

Monday, July 1: We woke up and were startled by the chilly morning air at Artigas. We stoked up the fire using the coals from the night before and headed to breakfast. We used the morning time to discuss the plan for the upcoming days and brainstormed activities and games to play for service projects. Before lunch, we were joined by the entire group of Nueva Helvecia teens. Our group was a little overwhelmed by just how many people were joining us! We met Damian, the head of their leadership program and one of our hosts. He led us in a group introduction in which we all said where we were from, what sports we like to play and how old we are. We shared lunch all together during which the walls began coming down and the two groups started to mingle and form connections. After lunch Damian led us in some icebreakers and group games. After merienda, our visit culminated in a game of

soccer with vs ICEPers – with the ICEPers coming in with an unexpected win! After the Nueva Helvecia kids left, we played some more rounds of World Cup before dinner. Afterwards we stocked up the fire for a cozy chat and went to sleep.

Tuesday, July 2: We are starting to get our Camp Artigas routine. After breakfast of toast, jam and many many jugs of hot chocolate, we got on our paint clothes and set out for our first service project. After a 45 minute van ride we arrived at Los Panchitos (Little Tummies). We arrived with the plan to paint a mural and had made a plan and painting groups accordingly. We were greeted by many smiling and waving children. The club informed us that they wanted us to repaint a white wall in the school courtyard instead of a picture. We jumped right in, with many little helpers in tow. This was our first time working with kids in Uruguay and members of our group pretty quickly figured out ways to interact with the chicos even without a common language. We joined them for lunch and had some play time at a nearby park. We joined in with their recess time and played soccer, did relay races and generally ran around. By this point, each ICEP participant had a posse of young Uruguayans attached at the hip. Overall, it was a very successful first service day and helped to break the ice in working with kids. When we arrived home, we chilled out a bit in our cabins, played some run-around games to stay warm and enjoyed another delicious feast before chat and bed.

Wednesday, July 3: Today we got up early, had the usual Camp Artigas breakfast, and headed out to our second service project. We arrived at a school near an arroyo of the Rio de la Plata and painted in the freezing cold wind with one of our hosts, Santiago (nickname Chicle). Some of the guys covered each other with paint on their faces, shoes, and clothes. The group struggled a bit but got the wall and playground games looking much nicer. People were pretty cranky after the cold and paint but Chicle helped us wash it off with some foul smelling aguarras (paint thinner) and then we were warm and clean and happy as we ate lunch. After lunch we had a lot of chill decompression time where the campers drew pictures and made art while bumping chill music in the girls’ room. Then merienda then some games of copa mundial (world cup), which got super competitive, followed by some chill yoga and crossfit stretches. Then another delicious four-course dinner, followed by an intense discussion chat about what we wonder about on the beach.

Thursday, July 4: We started the day after the usual breakfast planting trees with some little kids participating in a winter camp program, then we led sharks and minnows with the kids after brief name games. Afterwards, we ate lunch and then went to paint the posts on the soccer field of a nearby fútbol club and had a blast in the sun listening to music – this, our final service project before heading to the Nueva Helvecia homestays, was a resounding success. After the usual merienda of dulce de leche, bread, fruit, and hot chocolate, we all put our bags on the mini-bus and headed to the Nueva Helvecia church center where our kids were picked up by their Nueva Helvecia host families.

Friday, July 5: Today the group spent the day with their host families and met up for merienda at the church center and played “la viudita” and some other icebreaker type games.

Saturday, July 6: Another day with the host families. We met up as a group with all the host siblings and Damián again, this time for dinner and hide and go seek outside. Damián, Alyssa, and Sam hid by sneaking back into the church room after they left to look for us.

Sunday, July 7: Today Damián, his family, Alyssa, and Sam met the group with their host siblings at the church with all of our stuff then took the omnibus to and had a tour of the historical quarter with Veronica, learning about Spanish and Portuguese colonization and cattle, agricultural etc, and slave trade with and Europe as well as architecture and history of war between Spain and Portugal. After our tour we took some pictures around the beautiful historic area and then had a delicious lunch of chivitos al plato at the Colonia old city location of La Pasiva. After, we got helado at Grido to celebrate a camper’s birthday and then took some quick pictures at the Colonia sign. Then we had chat among the lemon trees at La Casa de Limoneros, a luxurious and beautiful hotel and lemon orchard located just outside of Colonia del Sacramento and owned by the director of Sam’s study abroad program in Argentina. We headed back to Camp Artigas for dinner and went to bed after a long day.

Monday, July 8: After the usual breakfast we began planning starting with a productive brainstorm session of games, itinerary, and assigning roles and partners for leading different games for an upcoming service project with adolescents. We had some chill time where kids went to the beach and some napped, then lunch followed by facilitation practice and debriefing as a group running activity introductions in Spanish and critiquing one another as a group. We then left for Juan Lacase with our host Adrian and had merienda at the Club Chiquillada and worked with a pretty challenging group of 12-17 year olds, many of who had no interest in the games we planned and decided to sit out. People got it together after some stress and did some good work leading games before heading back relatively early. Then the group had to time to shower at camp before dinner where we sang happy birthday to our camper, gave her a cookie and card and hat, and everyone sang for her in the dining hall (remixes of Old Town Road, Bruno Mars, and When We Were Young by Adele done by groups of campers) in front of the Uruguayan Adventure Camp for learning English, to a round of applause. Then chat which was the “tap someone who” game.

Tuesday, July 9: Raucous wakeup by our LOD followed by a chill breakfast of the usual. The kids then facilitated their own planning session led primarily by LOD but with help from everyone to

organize a good schedule of programming for 2 hours of games with young kids ages 3-11 at a school 1 kilometer from the camp. After deciding on the schedule of games and who would lead what, the squad had a productive and fun session (if intense with LOD barking critiques and compliments as he jokingly described himself as a dictator) where they ran through explaining and partially running their activities in Spanish. We had some short free time before lunch. After lunch, we went to the school with Adrian and played some tiburones y peses (sharks and minows) before doing a circle to introduce everyone and their favorite dance moves. Then we played pato pato ganso (duck duck goose) followed by kung fu panda (ninja). After that the kids facilitated blob tag and wax museum and ended with a great game of el semáforo (rojo luz verde luz). Then worked on CCRs and had some free time before merienda. We played sports and chilled in the cabins before dinner (this has been an extremely cold week and it is difficult to be outside when it’s not sunny) and after a delicious four course meal, had chat and went to bed.

Wednesday, July 10: We had a similar last servicio comunitario today at another school close to Campamento Artigas, but with a much smaller group of even younger kids (ages 3-10) at an idyllic school next to some sheep grazing fields. We ran through a similar rotation of games including pato pato ganso, el semáforo, and blob tag and had a blast with many of the kids bonding on an individual level with students as young as 3. After this we returned in time for merienda and then our LOD led games of wax museum, assasins, and sardines for the group while some people worked on CCRs. We then had a stimulating cabin chat where our LOD led a round of chocolate vs vanilla for the squad. We spent our last night in Los Pinos before moving to las cabañas tomorrow for the intercambio.

Thursday, July 11: In the morning today we began by packing out of our rooms and working on just one CCR before all of the intercambio campers arrived just before lunch. After lunch we had an activity of various rotating games including an impossible obstacle course and 4-way dodgeball. We began planning a major activity for everyone run by our campers in the theme of the intercambio: Juego de Tronos (Game of Thrones). We decided on capture the flag with 4 teams and 4 zones, and one group of roving white walkers. After that we had a lovely merienda and a raucous activity in the parador (meeting building) involving shouting extremely loudly. We had chat in Los Pinos before dinner followed by a juego nocturno of musical bingo that ended in a rave that lasted just a little bit too long. The kids all went to bed pretty late as we were not allowed to leave the dining hall to get ready for bed until midnight. The addition of many new Uruguayan teens in the cabins meant that tonight was quite rowdy, especially in some of the boys cabins, although our group mostly just wanted to sleep. While tired, they made the best of the situation and found the craziness pretty entertaining.

Friday, July 12: We met as a group after breakfast to plan our activity and assemble a list of the materials we needed. After this session we had a brief activity of decorating flags for each team in el Juego de Tronos del intercambio. After lunch, we had free time before leading our activity in rain and mud. To end the game with a final spectacle, three of our team leaders and one other boy on the trip dove face first into a huge mud puddle and fought for the throne (el trono). The muddiest folks all showered and then we had merienda. After merienda we had a bit of free time to work on CCRs and shower before cabin chat, where we talked about leaps of faith we’ve all taken. After dinner, we had a juego nocturno trying to avoid death by white walkers while walking in teams with groups of Montevideo teens, Nueva Helvecians, and ICEPers.

Saturday, July 13: We woke up and after breakfast had a blast enjoying the three most epic components of the Artigas experience: the river/arroyo, the food, and the tirolina (zipline). Groups roved between a boating activity involving retrieving colored strips from branches along the banks of the arroyo (the offshoot of the rio de la plata that runs through the bamboo forest), the tirolina that runs across the arroyo, and an activity making tortillas for deep- frying for merienda. After that we had a delicious final lunch and ate enough soup for three lifetimes and then packed up at our cabins. We worked on evaluations of the intercambio for understanding what worked and improving what didn’t for the future while helping the campers to all reflect on their experience and share their opinions and feelings with one another. We then enjoyed a delicious final merienda of deep fried tortillas and shipped out on an omni towards Montevideo after exchanging gifts with our gracious hosts. We will miss Artigas!! We had a long and sleepy bus ride to Montevideo and at the ACJ introduced Mica, another host, to our group and explained our plan to tour a flea market tomorrow before eating amazing pizza and faina. Then we had a chat about our goals and went to sleep in classrooms in the Infancia part of our area in the ACJ.

Sunday, July 14: We started the day with breakfast at the ACJ (dulce de leche, bread, fruit, and chocolate milk), and then met Mica to head to the flea market where we explored myriad stalls of used clothing and some people bought fake jerseys and t-shirts of Jose Pepe Mujica. Afterwards, we ate a delicious parrillada at Don Koto and found out that we are famous: we are all over the ACJ Montevideo instagram! The kids tried all kinds of meats and liked chorizo but hated chinchulines (chitterlings on the asado). After this lunch, we stopped by the feria and bought more fake jerseys. We finished up our CCRs at the ACJ and prepared for our last chat before the exciting and hectic time of homestays. After our LOD led a chat about turning negative situations into positive outcomes, we met all the host families and took a big group photo before sending our group off to their new homes for the next 11 nights.

Monday, July 15: Today all the kids went to school with their host siblings, some for four hours and some for ten. Then we met up at the ACJ and played sports while waiting for everyone to arrive. The group planned an amazing birthday song for one of our campers and made her a card and hat. We ate cake for merienda and sang to her in a room by the ACJ lobby. After that, our LOD led a wonderful chat in the room asking about everyone’s three simple pleasures. We had a long goodbye to the group as the host families slowly trickled in to pick them up. We finally said goodnight to the last of our group around 8:30. Alyssa and Sam called everyone at their homes to check in and heard great things from everyone that wasn’t asleep.

Tuesday, July 16: This morning everyone went to school for the second and last time and then met up at the ACJ for a delicious lunch of pollo enrollado y papas al horno and then had our postre in the salon de juveniles. Then we went to a colegio of bilingual students in the ciudad vieja and were given a tour of the school where we were shown a very cool modern patio where they grow native plants in raised and not raised garden beds. They also had a very cool set of musical instruments made from repurposed pots, pans, and plastic bins. After that, we walked around the old city with Guille and Oso and visited three plazas: Plaza Zabala, Plaza Matriz, and of course Plaza Independencia. We had chat led by our LOD in Plaza Independencia where everyone shared a quality they admire about the person to their right and then we ate bizcochos for merienda and took the omnibus back to the ACJ. There we planned for Wednesday morning at Escuela Chile until saying buenas noches and sending them on their merry ways.

Wednesday, July 17: This morning we met up bright and early at the ACJ restaurant at 8:30 where we had some breakfast snacks and coffee before heading to Escuela Chile for a lovely welcome from the teachers, students, and director. We introduced ourselves and talked about Uruguay, the school and its diverse student body, and our trip and where we come from. After that, we went to different classes and in small groups of two talked about our home lives and shared cultural aspects of our cities in the US and about Uruguay. After that we played red light green light, fishy fishy cross my ocean, and blob tag in the patio with rotating groups of kids between each game. We returned to the ACJ for a lunch of soup and ravioli and then headed to Club Piedras Blancas to play games with some teens of ages 12-17. After a variety of fun games and riddles in Spanish and English, we had merienda together and then returned for a second larger merienda at the ACJ. After a debrief of our service for the day and some downtime, we gathered for the ACJ teens weekly leadership course. Because of the leadership course and the intense service projects and meetings, and because one of our campers had to be picked up early today and would have missed chat, we didn’t have one today.

Thursday, July 18: We began our day early with a 1.5 hour bus ride to seaside Punte del Este. Our first stop was at a viewpoint of the ocean and our second was a viewpoint from a peninsula with fishermen and kayaks. We then stopped for a third photo session at Los Dedos, the iconic hand sculpture on the beach in Punta del Este. We journeyed to Piriápolis and went to a strange castle built by a 1950’s alchemist. We then went to Rafael’s and Maria’s, some host parents’, country house in Flores, a tiny town near Piriápolis. After a lunch of grilled hamburgers, we walked to a beach near their house and skipped stones and took pictures. We then drove up the Cerro in Piriápolis for a stunning sunset chat about learning from our past demons and then journeyed from there back to the ACJ where the kids went to their homestays.

Friday, July 19: We started the day by changing money on the way to the Estadio Centenario, location of the first ever world cup, and Fútbol Museum where we visited the stadium and saw lots of fútbol memorabilia. After returning to the ACJ for lunch, we headed out to a local library near Escuela Chile in Ciudad Vieja where we played games, read stories, and did an art workshop with kids from ages 6-11. After this, one of the librarians enacted her version of an old story about elephants and gender roles for us before telling us all about the library’s role in the community and how it operates. After merienda, we returned to the ACJ for our final chat as a group before a full weekend just with the homestays.

Saturday, July 20: Free day with homestays

Sunday, July 21: Free day with homestays

Monday, July 22: We started the day playing Set at the ACJ before heading to the lovely Escuela Suecia to do English interviews with young students (8 to 12) and play games and visit their greenhouse. We also learned how to make clay seedballs from composted dirt and clay. After lunch at the ACJ, we went to play games with kids at the ACJ school nearby. We watched a lovely presentation on Uruguay and its culture before playing games on the school’s patio. Then, we tried a lot of typical Uruguayan foods with the kids for merienda and then said goodbye. We returned to the ACJ and had some planning and goals meetings before having chat and then heading to the homestays for dinner.

Tuesday, July 23: We began the day traveling to plaza 6 where we quickly got to work sketching and then painting a beautiful mural of a burger over a calm Rio de la Plata sunset by the beach. We had fun painting and then ate burgers grilled by the plaza workers on their parrilla. Then, we walked to Los Tejanitos children’s club and participated in a yoga/massage relaxation

class before playing games and having merienda with the kids there. We played a game of dodgeball and then returned to the ACJ for meetings, chat, and free-time before our second to last night of homestays.

Wednesday, July 24: We began the day with a later exit from the ACJ and some shopping at a feria de techos verdes. After this, we went to Teatro Solis for an entertaining tour of the famous theater. After raviolis at the ACJ for lunch, we came to Escuela 45 for an interview, classroom visits, and games during their recreo. We had merienda at the ACJ and then chat followed by some pool and table tennis before sending everyone home early for their final night at the Montevideo homestays.

Thursday, July 25: Today we began the day chilling in the Salón de Juveniles and getting ready to spend time with gym classes for infancia kids at the ACJ. We split into 3 groups and played games. The group working with the youngest kids read a story to them in Spanish about a cold bear named Oscar. After lunch of chicken cutlets at the ACJ, we went to the Museo de la Memoria for a really interesting tour translated by our host Mica. The information was eye opening and stimulating as was our discussion afterwards on the bus. We got back to the ACJ and had merienda followed by an excellent discussion chat about community service and our experiences in Uruguay. After this, we attempted to watch a movie but it wouldn’t load so instead everyone showered, ate milanesa sandwiches, and got ready for our giant slumber party in the Salón de Juveniles.

Friday, July 26: We started the day by moving out of the Salón de Juveniles and a breakfast of dulce de leche, pan, y chocolatada followed by heading to Escuela 45 for some indoor games with the 6th form students (unfortunately, due to weather we were not able to set up the first box of their huerta or orchard/farm/garden). We began the time at the school with another interview where students each asked us questions in English. We went to the sixth grade classroom to play some games on the whiteboard and then had a small snack followed by musical chairs and ninja. We then had lunch followed by a great time meeting a new group of Uruguayan adolescents at the youth club Anhelo where we had a candombe workshop and a delicious merienda/birthday celebration with cake and pizza. We had chat that night with our LODs playing Lost by Frank Ocean and asking about a time we felt lost and how we found our way back home (metaphorical home). That night we had our last big dinner at the ACJ restaurant with our homestay families and the hosts and watched a lovely video slideshow summing up the intercambio experience with the hosts pictures.

Saturday, July 27: We began the day with everyone heading to another feria of secondhand clothing and various products. After returning for lunch, we went out to a candombe parada “Llamadas de Invierno: Abrazo Candombero”. We watched three of the best cuerdas play and dance

their hearts out for a chance of winning the competition and for practice for the real thing in February. After this, we did some grocery shopping for snacks and dulce de leche at the mall and returned to the ACJ for merienda, chat (an emotional chat about how this trip has changed our lives), and showers before all heading to Yuka’s house for a goodbye party and dinner (minus Sam who got very sick last night and this morning). The group got back around 3:00am and stayed up even later hanging out, eating snacks, drinking mate, and enjoying our last night in Uruguay together.

Sunday, July 28: We slept in and got up in time to shower and pack before leaving. We then met up with the hosts for a delicious steak chorizo and bread asado on the rooftop balcony prepared by el asador Oso with help from Guille, Sam (who already felt mostly better), and Alyssa as well as our host Lu. The kids hung out with their host siblings from Nueva Helvecia and Montevideo and we all took a bus to the airport together where they said tearful goodbyes for two hours while we checked in before going through security. Our first flight was long so we tried to sleep.

Monday, July 29: Today was our last full day and a long travel day. We woke up as our plane landed and spent the early morning rechecking in and going through security in Miami before getting breakfast. Then we tried to get some CCRs at the gate before boarding but only had time for 1. After a short flight to JFK and a long ride home to Becket, stopping only to get Chipotle lunch and use the restroom, we finally arrived at Chimney Corners in the middle of dinner. After dinner, the kids had their debrief and filled out their evaluations. Afterwards, we worked on our slideshow and did CCRs before a long chat in the Creative Arts Center reminiscing about favorite memories from the trip. After finishing our last chat quite late, we finished up (mostly) the slideshow and the kids watched the sunrise on the big top before going to sleep.

Tuesday, July 30: After a very sleepy breakfast we finished up the slideshow and practiced our speeches twice. We spent some time hanging out and said a tearful goodbye to one of our group who had to be picked up early. After lunch, we brought our luggage over to the sign barn and hung out in and around the sign barn. Everyone’s parents showed up right on time and our group gave an amazing presentation of our trip with very meaningful and well- delivered speeches. We said some tearful goodbyes and gave a lot of hugs and our group left to enjoy the last month of summer.