Backend of Forever

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well~ Sorry that it has been so long since I've posted or commented or even visited. I started my new job at the summer camp and haven't had any time to find internet, let alone use it. I have today off, though, and am finally able to post!

In the romance department, the boy and I just passed 2 weeks as officially a couple (May 25 was the official date). I think we're doing pretty well keeping it going so far, and I have hope for the summer for us. We text every night, and I try to send ones here and there when I can. My phone is not allowed to leave my bunk, so I only get about 5 minutes at a time to send a quick hello. When we finish early (like 9pm), we will call and chat for a bit, too. I don't feel like it's too hard to keep things going, as we're used to being apart but keeping in touch every day, but it will definitely be easier once summer is over and I'm back at school. Then we will be able to chat whenever, and I will be able to visit him on weekends when we are both free.

NOW ON TO WORK!

Things have been... interesting. It has been a very long, very tiring, very frustrating two weeks. Our first week was for riding camp only. We spent a lot of time in the saddle, running mock lessons, so that we could practice teaching, and get to know the horses. We rode the trails twice, too, to get an idea of how they are laid out. They aren't too tough to remember. They mostly all connect to the same road and just loop around it. We even did a mock river ride so that we all knew how those worked. Essentially, we take 4 of the really well behvaed ponies down to the river where the water is maybe 3.5-4 feet at the deepest part, and let the kids swim. We give bareback rides and walk the ponies in a circle in the water so that the kids can have fun. I had a lot of fun during training. We did a fair bit of "jumping" (nothing over 18 inches), which I haven't done since I was 11 or 12. Not intentionally, anyway, haha. I've accidentally jumped several things.

Last Saturday started a week of staff training. We had to move from our nice little lodge into the crappy cabins in one of the other villages. We were all mixed in with the other villages' counselors,which makes no sense. We never interact with them ouside of meal times during the summer, and this year they are focusing on teambuilding within the individual villages... They made the first few days an unnecessary emotional roller coaster, that only exhausted people. The exhaustion was made worse by the fact that days started at 6 and they didn't let us go back to the cbins until 11:30pm. Add in an hour because everyone needed to shower and there were only 4 showers and around 50 of us. We were finally able to move back into our own lodge Tuesday night. We spent Wed and Thur scrubbing down the barn and lodge to get ready. We also received our age assignments. I will be one of the two counselors for the girls aged 11-12. I will probably be teaching the two beginner riding levels, as well, which will be fun. I will only be teaching one level a week, but there are 6 levels and the director is very confident with me teaching any level. I'm not a hunter/jumper, though, so I asked to be kept at the lower levels.

Throughout all of training, there has been a ton of drama. One of the girls is very... obnoxious. Spoiled, has to have all of the attention, has to be in on everything, one-ups every story, interrupts constantly because she has to have the attention and be the one talking and how dare anyone else have something to say. The other 7 of us mesh really well as a unit, but that one girl, we shall call her Flower, has been screwing with everything and everyone. She has no work ethic at all and stands around all the time, then complains how tired and exhausted she is. She takes up 4 bunks with all of the crap that she brought with her. She cries every time someone so much as looks at her wrong because how dare everyone hate her (her words, we are annoyed, yes, but trying to be civilized...). Our supervisors and directors have all noticed the tension and seen a little bit of her shit, but not enough to remove her. We end up having to individually meet with our supervisors and director every day, and the last few days they keep asking certain questions that lead me to believe tht they are trying to find any excuse to let her go. Unfortunately, they have to have solid proof that they can see for themselves, as Flower likes to avoid being around our bosses because she doesn't want to get caught. This girl has even said that she hates kids and hates living in the lodge and hates the food and hates pretty much everything (she never phrases things positively, only negatively). This is a summer camp. We are counselors. To have this job we need to be ok being independent, be fine living in a lodge with no AC and bugs everywhere, and like working with kids. Those are pretty important requirements. I had one incident with her on Wednesday and my supervisor, when I discussed it with her, actually asked me if, during that situation, there would have been a danger to children. Life-threatening, no, but the way that Flower spoke to me and what she said would have been terrifying to children. There were numerous witnesses to that particular event. Her speaking to me the way she did very nearly made me break my few year long streak of not punching people... I grew up thinking violence was the norm, and didn't realize until I was much older that it wasn't. I worked very hard to get past my anger problems and learn to keep level headed. She is making it nigh impossible for me to not lose my shit. She says that she will be different when the kids get here, but I really don't expect that. I fully expect her to sit on her lazy ass and just yell at the kids for nothing.

But I'm looking forward to the kids getting here. I think it is going to be a ton of fun to finally start teaching lessons and theories, and watching the kids learn and grow and have fun! I'm really excited~

Anyway, I tried to keep this post brief. I am posting some pictures under the cut from the past couple of weeks! (possibly a bit heavy for slower connections). Hope everyone is well!

-N.E.( Some pictures from the summer so far! )