WildWood

I just came back from a field trip. It was different from most field trips, though. For one thing, it lasted for three days and two nights. For another, it was at a very fun place: WildWood!
WildWood is a camp for schools to take their kids to. You can learn about nature, have fun, eat good food, have fun, have a campfire, have fun, see animals (including deer, which I liked, and copperheads right outside our cabin, which I did not) and have a lot of fun!
A lot of the stuff we did at Sequoia Kings Canyon, but with friends from school, not with family.
The first day started at school, where we had a brief explanation of bus rules (no yelling out, keep your hands to yourself, blahblahblahblahblah...) and then got on the bus for the hour-long ride there. Unfortunately, what we had on that first day was whatever you had on the bus, we didn't get to our cabins and unpack until 5:30, and I didn't have my camera. So when you look at the pictures on my NEW PICASA SITE there aren't very many on the first day; only the first four, in fact.
So!
After we arrived, we had an explanation of the rules at WildWood (no yelling out, keep your hands to yourself, blahblahblahblahblah...) and then split into our groups. The 6th grade was divided into groups A,B,C,D,E, and F. I was in group E. Most of the kids would say things like, "Group F is for FANTASTIC!" or "Group A is for AWESOME!" We came up with, "Group E is for EGGS!"
Hey, we were hungry.
So!
Groups A,B, and C went off to do the Challenge Course which I'll tell you about later. Groups D, E, and F went to play some kickball!
I'm not saying who won F. But rest assured, it was probably the one I was on No it wasn't. But you can't have three teams playing kickball so group D played a game called Sprout ball against itself., which is basically tag except that you tag the other person with a ball, not with your hand.
After that, we got into our real classes. E went to Sensory. First, we went along the Unnatural Trail. It's a normal hiking trail, except that there are things planted along. Things like old mops, bottles, ratty pieces of string, an old broom, a rusty cage...
well, you get the idea. You had to find all of the unnatural things you could, then we went back and she told us what everything was and we could see how many we got.
I got four...out of eleven.
...
Well, anyway [koff] moving on. Then, as more sensory, we went to this big treehouse in the woods. We sat, listened, and wrote poems about nature. I wrote one about spiders, which I'll put up on the site later.
Maybe.
Anyway, after that we had Recreation Time, which I do have pictures of because we did it again on Friday. At Recreation time, you could do one of three things. You could read first of all, which I'm normally all for. However, choice number two was to canoe, which I had never done before. Let me tell you something...
I loved it!
That was the only thing I did in both of my recreation times! It is so much fun! I HEART CANOEING!
Choice three was fishing. (yawn.) You go ahead and catch the fish, I'll wait for you at home and help you eat it.
Third class. We went to the cemetary! I was so disappointed not to have my camera for this part. There was some really ornate stuff there! Fortunately, I have some good friends in group F, and I had them take some pictures of the place for me on Friday. So you can see those.
We went on a scavenger hunt there, looking for certain names, looking for the oldest person there, things like that.
Then we went back to the cabins to unpack, then off to the dining hall for food. This is where I got my first glimpse of what cabin life was going to be like.
It scared me!
And with good reason, too.
Pillow Wars, easily ten times more dangerous than measly pillow fights, raged on. In the night, I couldn't get to sleep until around midnight thanks to people saying things like, "OMG! There's something outside!"
There was one event in particular...
(VArious boys in the cabin, looking out the window, around 11:00 at night:) OMG! There's a demented dog outside!
(Isaac, trying to sleep and quite annoyed at this point:) A what?
A demented dog! Dude, I swear it's moving! It's so freaky!
Groan. Let me see. (shuffle shuffle.) You Shmuck, it's a trash can.
No, Dude, it's a demented dog.
It's a trash can.
Shut up, Isaac!
(Mr. Whitney, gym teacher, sleeping at the cabin, trying to keep order:) Hey! We do NOT use that kind of language!
Sorry. But Mr. Whitney, Dude, there's a demented dog outside! Dude, it's FREAKY, dude!
(Many of the boys in my cabin, I noticed, tended to say "dude" a lot when they got scared.)
What? (shuffle shuffle) It's a trash can.
What? But I swear, Dude, I saw it moving!
(Isaac, shuffling back:) I wish you guys would go to sleep.
Dude, it was-
Go to sleep.
But, Dude-
GO TO SLEEP!
(sigh.) Anyway, I was going to talk about what happened before all that but right after supper. Each cabin was instructed to get a pillowcase, fill it with "things you think you'll need", and meet back right outside the dining hall.
A lot of the boys in our cabin wanted to fill it full of underwear. That idea was scrapped by Mr. Whitney, but he couldn't stop them from putting a couple pairs in there anyway. I took a picture of most of the stuff we put in there so I won't go into detail.
What happened when we met with the other cabins was that one of the teachers would read out something like, "a box of batteries, 100 points," or, "an ace of spades, 50 points." If any cabin had that in their pillowcase, they brought it up and got that many points. At the end, the cabin with the most points won. Would you like to guess what cabin won?
BIG PRARIE!
...
MY CABIN!
After thst, we had to put on a skit or write a song about WildWood using those things as props. Big Praries passed the pillowcase around the circle, pulled something out, said, "this is what I brought to WildWood!" and passed it along in a poor excuse for a skit. I had a different idea, but I was outvoted...meh!
And now, it is past my bedtime. So I'll write more tomorrow.
Fair enough?
Ok, then.
Good Night!