It is 7:30 AM. I open my eyes, feel a pang of excitement, but immediately fall back asleep again. I stay that way for five more minutes, when I am coaxed out of bed by my mom. My brother is eating his breakfast at the dining table already. I would be too, because on any normal day, school for me would start at 8:20. But not today. Today is the day I've been waiting for since first grade. Today, I go to Science Camp. Since we don't get to take a shower where we are going today, I take a rapid shower and brush my teeth. Breakfast is cereal, and I say goodbye to my mom, who is heading off to work. At 8:40, my dad heaves the duffel bag into the car and we drive for two minutes to get to school. The duffel bag is heavy, and it is with a lot of huffing and puffing that we transport that, along with my sleeping bag and blanket to the designated area outside my classroom.
The black buses are there, and everywhere is chaos. My dad leaves quickly, and I am left to stay with my friends. I have never really appreciated just how many kids are in my grade. Ten minutes later, my class lines up in number order (albeit for about three minutes, then we get into a jumble again), and we get on the bus.
I go sit with my friend Emily, who is somewhere near the back. I am a bit hesitant about this seating arrangement, but I decide to go with it. Naturally, the more outspokenーshall we sayーboys gravitate towards our area, and soon we find ourselves surrounded by people who might not be the best people to sit next to for a two-hour bus ride. We haven't even been in the bus for five minutes when the boys start to sing. They sing the most random songs that you can think of. The "Kars4Kids" commercial. "New Rules by Dua Lipa". "The Duck Song". "Glorious" by Macklemore (one of their favorite songs). I take out a science book that I have in my backpack, but I can't concentrate.
I decide to talk with Emily instead. To my delight, she has brought a duffel bag, like me (and like any real camper should). Everyone else seems to have brought suitcases, which in my opinion, looks like they're going on a business trip. We decide to ask one of the boys whether he has a duffel bag. "Hey," Emily calls out. He looks at us. "Did you bring a duffel bag?"
"I don't know," he says. I proceed to give a brief explanation on what a duffel bag is, and Emily asks him again. "I don't know," he repeats. "Did I, Adwithi?" After asking him multiple times, we give up and just listen to the (somewhat awful) singing.
Another boy starts making up a rap. A lot of it I can't understand, but I do catch some "hey it's Adwithi" and "if you don't know it ask Adwithi", which confuses me a little bit. After fifteen minutes, we pull in to Camp Loma Mar.
We get out and a woman directs us to the dining hall. I later learn that her name is Acorn. I manage to fit myself into a table with several of my friends, and I eat the lunch that my mom has packed me, which is a turkey sandwich. I finish it quickly, and see that there are many kids there from another school, called Vallejo Mill. After a few minutes, another woman calls everyone to attention.
"Hello, boys and girls," she says. "My name is Zaria and I welcome you all to Outdoor School!" Everyone cheers, and I notice that the people that work here call it something different. After going through some rules, she gestures to the door. "Boys, my good friend Bobcat here will take you outside to talk about some things." The boys all get in a jumbled line and follow him out." Zaria looks at us.
"All right, girls, we're going to have a little talk." Zaria goes through some more rules and guidelines. The groups of cabins are called "villages", and there are two: the Near Village and the Far Village, the latter of which the girls have. We play a few games while we wait for the "List Fairy", who will bring us what we consider the most important thing so far: who's going to be in our cabins.
The "List Fairy" turns out to be a naturalist (staff member) named Starshine. She strides to the front of the dining hall and begins to read out names. After she reads out three cabins, she comes to my cabin.
"Mapache Cabin, counselor Upasana," she says. "Akshaya, Neha, Praniti, Aparna, Shrimayee, Aparna, Kaylyn, Christine."
I grimace. Two of the kids in my cabin (not naming names) I don't like very much. Luckily, I have three of my best friends in my cabin: Kaylyn, Christine, and Shrimayee! We were supposed to put down three names in who we wanted in our cabin, and I got all of them. The other four I did not put down on my list. Our counselor is a bit late, so we have to wait five minutes before going out.
Outside, our bags are put out for us to collect. My bag is mixed up with someone else's, but it is sorted out in the end. We now have to head up to our cabin, so we start walking up a path.
They told us that we were in the Far Village, but I did not anticipate so much walking. We have to go up several hills before we reach the first cabin, and our cabin turns out to be the second-furthest cabin from the dining hall. We head up a flight of stairs and across a small dirt path to our cabin, which shares a staircase with another cabin.
I flip on the lights, and everyone scrambles to find a bunk. I choose the top bunk nearest to the door, and Shrimayee chooses the one under me.
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| Diagram of the Mapache cabin |
Afterwards, it is recreation time, where we can do whatever we want. I have to go to the camp medic, Ginger, to tell her about a certain cream that I brought to camp. Afterwards, I head to the dining hall for an apple to eat.
Cabin time follows recreation time, where we just spend time with the people in our cabin. I finish setting up my bunk, and we get ready for dinner at at 5:30 PM.
If there's one thing I have to say about that dinner, it is that it was one of the best I had ever tasted. We picked a Gopher, or person that would bring us the food. Neha was the Gopher, and what she brought out was delicious.
First she brought out a basket of breadsticks. The breadsticks were coated with garlic and butter, and they tasted better than the ones at Olive Garden. Next, she brought out a bowl of salad, with crumbs of cheese and Italian dressing. Of course, there was a small fight for croutons. Finally, she brought out a large bowl of spaghetti, and a small bowl of cheese on the side. I put a lot of cheese on my food, and we all started to eat the delicious meal set in front of us.
After seconds and everything was completed, we headed outside with Erosion. "We're going on a night hike," he told us. "Don't turn on your flashlights."
I was fine with no flashlights at first, but it started to get really dark, and I slipped in a puddle. All the while, Erosion played his guitar. When it started to darken, Erosion told us all to get in a line, and to put our hands on the shoulders of the person in front of me. I was second, with Shrimayee in front of me. As it got darker, though, Shrimayee got frightened of being in front.
"Adwithi," she said. "Can you please, please go in front?" she asked. Being the good friends that I was, I agreed. We switched spots, and we started to walk again. At one point, Erosion stopped, had me put my hand on his guitar, which was slung over his shoulder. The path started to get steep, and I slipped a few times, causing everyone to crash into me.
After some time, we stopped. I could hear a river rushing by, and Erosion asked us all to sit down, and cover one eye with our hand. He lighted a candle, and talked to us about empathy and being brave. When he was done talking to us, he asked us to stay quiet for a bit and watch the candle. He then started to sing a song and play his guitar (he told us later that he made up the song, to which I was very impressed). After that, Erosion put out the candle and asked us to take the hand off of our eye.
I did as he told, and I was immediately amazed. The eye that had been covered could see so much better in the dark! We walked home after that, and my heavy-duty, super-bright flashlight lit the way back.
When we got back to our cabin, nobody could stop giggling. We tried to be quiet for a little bit, but everyone kept laughing. Christine, Shrimayee, Kaylyn, and I were huddled on Kaylyn's bed, Aparna was on her bed, and Praniti, Neha, and Akshaya were on Akshaya's bed. After some time of giggling and chatting with each other, we went to our own beds.
Kaylyn cornered me, however. "Adwithi, I'm a bit scared, so can you sleep in my bed with me?" Again, being the good friend that I am, I did not object. I got my sleeping bag and blanket, and slept next to Kaylyn that night.
I was the last one to fall asleep.
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