My Motherland is Ghe-tto

We walked into Brooklyn yesterday, over the bridge, and of course yelling over the side (well as close to the side as we could get) just like they do in Newsies. We also found a statue of Horace Greeley and did a brief reinactment of a Newsies dance sequence....you know, it's just how we roll.

But yes...yesterday was the most bizarre, out of whack, yet amazingly entertaining day ever. We caused a car accident (not at all a serious one) because some dude was staring at us from out his car window while attepting to drive, thus causing him to run smack into the back of the van in front of him.

Then we missed out on the time of our life with this creepy old man in Brooklyn who stopped us on the street.

We made an attempt to get to Coney Island which resulted in riding the subway back to Manhattan, switching to a train going in the right direction, and then re-entering Brooklyn and eventually making our way to Coney Island...a ride which would not have been complete without silly middleschool and highschool boys trying to look cool and tough in front of us.

Coney Island is quite an interesting place....not at all glamorous....seriously, not at all. The main attraction was a game called "Shoot the Freak"...with a live human target and an obnoxious guy with a microphone. We did eat at the famous Nathans and get a funnel cake and got to do some people watching, so the day was well spent.

Oh yes, and did I mention in some way shape or form we always seem to end up in Chinatown.

Today we were all dragging but determined to see more of the city. We hit up the Tenament Museum which was really cool. A man on the tour with us actually lived in the neighborhood when back in the day so it was really neat to hear his stories. We also did some last day galavanting about the city and then called it an early day to get back to clean up and pack.

We are leaving at 5:15 in the morning and I really ought to be in bed but I am suprisingly not really tired...my body is just exhausted...

Either way, I believe I shall head to bed...good night dears

If you were aiming to shoot an arrow through my heart........BULLSEYE

Thank you Chinatown...I am now officially the owner of a hot pink "Prada" bag...I love New York.

today was our Big City Day. We went to see "The Producers" which was pretty amazing and then grabbed dinner in Times Square, complete with a quite wonderful honkin' huge piece of cheesecake. We also wore dresses, which is always a great thing.

I saw the movie Say Anything for the first time tonight, I must say, I enjoyed quite a lot and it had potential to go on my list of favorite movies.

anywho, i'm about to head off to bed.

So New York is pretty sweet I must say. We got in yesterday and pretty much hung out in the apartment for the afternoon and evening, so we called it an early night.

BUT today, we got an early start and hit up the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island which was so good. So much history there and so much more interesting then I remember it. There is just so much personal history there, millions of people went through the same doors I walked through, but it wasn't just some quick check in, it was a long, tedious, and frightening process upon which their entire futures laid.

After all that though we walked around Little Italy and China Town. I invested in a killer pair of aqua sunglasses with purple stripes and a plaid scarf...it's killer, oh and more costume jewelry...i'm such a sucker.

anywho, tomorrow I believe will be our chill day in Central Park which will entail peeing at the Plaza Hotel, riding the carousel, and eating a hotdog from a vendor. so it should be lots of fun. we also might try to get on TRL, which would be sweet, we're going to ask for Peru money (by the way, if you would like to contribute to the Peru Mission Trip send the money with my name to 226 Camp Rockfish Road Parkton, NC 28371 and make the check out to Rockfish Outdoor Center for it to be tax deductable).

well i'm out, early morning...

ahh so much to write but not the motivation to do it all...

most importantly, the first week of camp went awesome. It was a good learning time for a lot of our new staff and busy for those of us on support staff because we were running program like crazy. for example, I lead 25 hours worth of GCC this week...go me, i'm so pro...

we had two teams in, one from IWU and another from Bethany Bible College who were SO awesome, we tried to buy the one team from BBC but it didn't work out. we were really blessed to have such hard workers come help us out...good servants and tons of fun to have around.

it was good to have kids in, there is always a good energy when kids finally come to camp, even though staff training brings its stresses and worries, kids are such a good reminder of why we're doing what we're doing.

I had one ROTC girl who seemed to warm up to me and I am hoping to get an email from her soon. She was pretty much amazing and seemed to be open and searching. The ROTC kids were wonderful, some of the most amazing kids I've worked with at camp. Sometimes I feel like God is really calling me to work with the military...I don't want to be in the military, but between Operation Purple and this week with the ROTC I just see the hurt and love to hang out with those kids.

anywho, tomorrow Jordan, Petra, and I are making our way up to the BIG APPLE BABY!! That's right, 6 days in NYC and the town will never be the same!

tis all for now, more later

p.s. zac hanson is getting married

Camp Has Officially Started

Kids came today...camp has officially begun...pray...things are kinda going nutso around these parts, but the kids seem to be having fun...more later

p.s. umm yeah...mail me stuff