Surviving camp and extreme make-overs

 Well somehow I managed to survive the marathon 32 hours with my Year 9 form class. I was nearly crying at 2am in the morning on Thursday when I was still unable to get to sleep over the whispering, snoring and wriggling but nonetheless was able to drag myself out of bed at 6.15am.

The noho was an interesting experience but a stressful one. It was my first noho at the college wharenui*. Organising parents and students to make food and do the various activities was hard. Getting 25 hyper-active 12-13 years to actually go to sleep was considerably harder. It actually took my reading a bedtime story to them for about 30 minutes, followed by being yelled at by the principal, and then certain particularly loud students being sent outside to sleep on the concrete before they settled down to a quiet state (which still meant that many were whispering or sneaking a text on their cell phones under their sleeping bags).

The following morning I was a shaky mess but ran around frantically trying to get kids up, breakfasted and packed up and doing their assigned chores** before the bus arrived to take us to Otaki Forks at 8am. Not easy.

I relaxed a little on the bus once I was sure that all students were on the bus (although some boys hid under the seat in an attempt to panic me). I had an interesting discussion with the kids in my class about the grossest thing you have ever eaten. It turns out that many young boys have tried to eat some pretty gross stuff but that is another blog post in itself.

We arrived at Otaki Forks at about 8.45 for a crazy action-packed day of rock climbing, abseiling, kayaking and lots of running around amongst the beautiful scenery. Yay for scenic rivers, mountains (OK hills really) and bush!

My students were really encouraging to one another with various activities and even I got in the spirit and did my first rock climbing (I was slower and far less graceful than all my students but the instructor said it was a good climb so I felt proud. It turns out that I am actually REALLY scared of heights when I have to climb up them. Sitting in rides or looking out from high building is fine but climbing up is a little terrifying. Also in rock climbing, it really hurts when you are clumsy and bump into things. I have many bruises.)

I think I walked and hiked for a total of over 3 hours and I actually raced some of my kids (and lost, grumble, grumble, fast teenagers…)

Trying to get them back on the bus with all their gear and clothes (many were wet and had to change) by 2.45pm was tricky but by the end I only had one unclaimed pair of socks and a T-shirt, so that is pretty good.

I was a shattered wreck of a person by the time I finally arrived back at school to collect the colossal amount of marking I had to do over the weekend.

Friday night was a nice movies and take-out curry evening with Matty (whom I missed immensely after our epic 30+ hours apart) which helped me recover a great deal. Saturday we visited Belmont and then returned to Kapiti to have people over for delicious home-cooked food*** and Shaolin Soccer/Gloom fun.

On Sunday I interspersed marking with shopping and getting a haircut. Yay! My hair is short and layered and dyed. Woot! I like my hair and I have had a great deal of student approval so it probably doesn’t look too dorky. One Year 10 student worried me with his extreme surprise and recation to my new appearance.

“Wow, Miss. Did you get Extremed Makeovered?” he asked.

“No, I had a haircut,” I replied wondering if you could use 'makeover' as a verb.

“But you are wearing different clothes, and your hair is coloured as well. Definitely extreme makeovered!”

* Although I was not a ‘Noho Virgin’ as Paora claimed as Matt and I did a noho at TCOL.

<>** I was surprised at what a new experience doing chores such as vacuuming, making breakfast, setting tables, cleaning the bathroom and doing dishes was for some students. Each group of 4 students was only responsible for one thing but some had obviously never done certain housework before in their lives. One boy had no idea how to vacuum and actually claimed it was ‘fun’ when he did it.
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*** I have been on a trifle making bender – I think I have made over 12 individual trifles during the weekend (very restorative after roughing it at school). I made black forest trifles (cherries and chocolate custard!) and more standard type vanilla and raspberry trifles. I am still not sick of making or eating them, maybe I will reach my limit this week…