All right, so. Fish camp 2010.
I spent the night with my parents in hotel on Friday night (the dorms were pretty creepy mostly empty like they were) after making a 3 hour target run and picking up the necessities of life. Not much fun-my dad snores like a dragon, so neither my mom nor I got much sleep. Woke up at 6 and started getting ready...I still had to pack everything up. So we finally get out the door at around 7:30 and I realize I bought two conditioners last night instead of a shampoo and a conditioner, so we run through Kroger and pick up shampoo. My whole family is freaking out at this point, because we get there about 7:54--just in time, we think. Oh, the irony.
We get to Reed Arena, and are greeted by a bunch of people who have spiked and died their hair strange colors, wearing tutus, ribbons, boas, and anything else you can think of. My mom turns around, takes one look at my green face and says, "You sure you want to do this?" It's all I can do to step out of the car when we stop. I don't have time to think about it, though, because as soon as I do this girl whisks away my luggage and basically tugs me towards the sign-in. She's very friendly, though.
I go to the sign-in table, and they give me my id/book of camp info, and apparently I'm in the Red Group (otherwise known--and later known to me--as CAMP SHEHANE.) When I get pulled to that area, I'm accosted by one guy with a red mohawk screaming in my face and waving what looks like a wooden spear, and there's another guy running around with a red skull on a stick, and a guy with a really creepy expression holding a stick with a baby doll head on it...a little panicked at this point, won't lie. Then I sign in, and a nice, CALM guy helps me put my bedding into a trash bag, and directs another guy to take me to the arena. He's nice, friendly, introduces himself, isn't jumping around like a maniac, and offers to take my backpack. Kind of weird, because that's all I'm carrying, but whatever, it's all good. So this guy takes me to check-in with the co-chairs--and I remember he's walking really fast, and I don't have time to run or even think about what's happening--and before I know it, I'm walking into a barely populated arena with about 3 people ahead of me in the Red Group, sitting in the bleachers, and a few counselors, all of whom scream, "Do you wanna have a slumber party in my basement?" in really monotone voices. I, of course, don't know Ke$ha, and only find out later that this is from a song; thus, it's really creepy. I sit down though, which is more impressive than it sounds. These people are freaking WEIRD. Weirdly cheerful, weirdly energetic, just all around weird. Oh well, I like weird people, right?
So. I sit down. Immediately I'm introctrinated to my first camp Shehane yell:
Blood, team Edward, blood blood, team Edward!
Abs, team Jacob, abs abs, team Jacob!
followed by our lovely camp yell, which originally consisted of a segment of "What do Tigers dream of" from The Hangover and had various things tacked on through four days. All I can do at this point is laugh. I'm here, I might as well enjoy it. And since its four guys and girls using Twilight as a yell, I can't help but laugh at that, period.
About then is where I find out that 8 o'clock...is the start time for arrival. There's 77 people in our camp. I'm the fourth to arrive.
It's going to be a long morning.
Annnnd...it was. I, in my rush to get there on time, forgot to eat breakfast, although luckily I had some granola bars with me. So I spent a lot of the morning really hungry, as slowly the stands behind me filled up. There were about 5 counselors that were pretty constant, 3 girls and 2 guys, and more cycled in and out. They were all very friendly and outgoing, and really very funny. I started to realize that all the crazyness was for fun, and started to relax. By the time everyone got there I knew most of the yells, and was screaming "do you wanna have a slumber party in my basement?" with the best of them. I was actually one of those there when we decided to add on to our camp yell, and to know where the joke came from: at aroud 20 people we realized that this would be a fairly large party, and of course, we'd need more chips. Thus: moooooooooooooore chips!
Ok, yeah, so I got sucked in. It didn't take long. The atmosphere these people put on was incredibly infectious, I felt more awkward being secluded than just joining in. And once I joined in, it quit being awkward completely and just became fun.
Oh, and one enormously lovely thing. When you're part of a crowd, you don't feel alone. I think some of the easiest moments for me over that week was just screaming Camp Shehane yells with 70+ other people.
Anywho. So we set out at around 11 for the actual camp. They serve us food on the bus, and there's a few more counselors there I haven't been introduced to. One guy is a real smart ass, and of course when I'm nervous I'm really sarcastic, more so than usual...so we sort of battled one another every time we had cause. I enjoyed it thoroughly, reminded me of home if I'm honest. I didn't really have much interaction with this particular counselor other than that (we crossed paths a few times, and every time he had a biting comment for me), but it brightened up the first day considerably on the scale regarding my individual self. I had started to think sarcasm had been left at home.
We played some really strange games on the bus there. The speed dating one was fun (moving around the bus talking to almost everyone), but the stand up/sit down find your soulmate thing was really boring, partly because you could never hear what was going on. I was a little disappointed, my phone died so when we started quieting down I couldn't listen to music.
When we finally got to the camp, we had the usual things...introduction to camp, some fun screaming and bouncing around...we loaded our stuff into our cabins, and headed to a particular cabin for Camp Time. I think this was about when we got sorted into DGs (Discussion Groups). I kept hoping I'd be in a DG with someone I had actually talked to. Unfortunately (I thought at first) I was in a group with two people I definitely hadn't met. Unless the girl is the one who signed me in at the Red table...and the guy is the one with the baby doll head on a stick...uh-oh. This may be bad, I think.
So we go to dinner. Then we go to a presentation on Aggie traditions. Then we go to Camp Time. (And yes, I'm using my schedule as a reference. Just too much to remember otherwise!) I think this is when I finally feel like this could be a good thing.
See, I haven't really talked much to my counselors; but of course I'm skeptical. When we go back to the Red Room, the counselors start putting on skits. I notice my male DG leader is pulled out of the room. I'm wondering what's going on, but put it out of my head as soon as the first skit is done (and honestly, I can't even remember what it was...there were so many really funny ones. They did a really amazing job with that part of camp.) A few minutes later, I hear the opening chords to Iron Man (Black Sabbath if any of you don't know). I start laughing, of course; I was raised on classic rock and metal, and my dad has been quizzing me on it since I could think for myself. Black Sabbath's one of his favorites; ever since I can remember he and I would scream out "Paranoid" late at night on the way home. I would look over at stoplights and he would be playing air guitar or headbanging. (I love my dad.)
Point being, all I'd heard music-wise to date was party pop and rap. This was refreshing, and my interest was peaked at once.
Then the doors opened. My mouth fell open, and I immediately realized, ok, this is going to be better than ok. This is going to be GREAT.
Coming through the doorway is my DG leader. He's wearing a really poofy, curly wig, a bright red tutu, a black tube top, fishnets, and what looks like women's square-toed boots. Now, to really get an understanding of what this looks like, you'll have to know what my DG leader looks like. He is, first of all, hairy. Really, really hairy. And he's dark; dark skin, black hair. He's pretty muscular too; you definitely couldn't mistake him for a woman, like you can with some guys when they wear women's clothing. All in all, he looks a lot like Dr. Frankenfurter.
Most people this would scare. For me, it feels like home. See, I celebrated my 18th birthday by going to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show with my friends. I dressed up as Columbia, and one of my best friends who I will never stop thanking for doing this and providing us all with such great entertainment dressed up as Dr. F. We also had a Magenta and some Unconvential Conventialists. So if nothing else could put me at ease, a guy dressing up in fishnets? Oh yeah. This is gonna be good.
What makes it even better is the role he was playing. I notice as he walks through that he's got wings on, and when he gets on the stage he finally reveals his costume: he is the "Rumour fairy", he says, speaking in a high pitched voice, and he pulls out a box with some slips of paper, where he reads rumours about the camp and labels them "rumour" or "not a rumour", as well as calling them "saucy" and "juicy". We're rolling at this point, or at least I am. And another fear is put at ease; not knowing my DGs, I'm of course worried I won't like them. Although I don't know the other very well yet, just seeing this I know this guy will be fun, if nothing else. I mean, as a guy, how do you have the guts to walk out in front of a group of 70+ wearing fishnets and a tutu--a TUTU-- if you aren't somewhat cool. I don't know that it's possible. So, I feel better already. It's amazing what acting ridiculous can do for the people around you.
So. Rumour fairy is gone. We go to Yell Practice, which is great (what else can I say? It's screaming with a room full of people, of course it's fun). Then we transition to Campfire, which is kind of cheesy but fun all the same. Our namesakes come and talk to us, telling us about how fish camp can change your life, and I'm starting to believe it by that point. They seem like really amazing people (and they are, I can tell you that already).
Then we have camp time. We have a random dance party in the Red Room--epic, epic win, at least for a while. It's no music that I know, but it's fun, and there's a strobe light going, which is always great. About fifteen minutes before we have to be back at our cabins I start heading back--the strobe has finally gotten to me and my head's hurting, so it's a relief to jump in the shower and crawl into bed. I'm not happy-not yet-but I'm definitely more at ease.
There's a yell we laughed about quite a bit...something about "first day: this is awkward, this is awkward". There was definitely some truth in that; but on the whole, I think the first day went pretty well. Maybe this will be fun, I think, about to fall asleep.
Little did I know. But, thus ended day 1 of fish camp. Stay tuned for more adventures.
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