Our First Day off

Today was officially our first day off. I did not set an alarm and slept in until I woke up, which was only about 8:20am. Then I spent most of the rest of the morning doing homework and sending updates and emails. But the afternoon was a blast. One of the interns here has a friend that has a cabin out on Lake Almanor, so we headed there for the afternoon. We spent the afternoon tubing, boating, and sailing!!! I feel like it wouldn't be summer without going tubing at least once, so that one's checked off my list. Then we boated around some while others tubed a little bit more. When we got back we went out sailing. We went out onto the water with our two sailing leaders, Bob and Paul, who both had lots of stories to tell. Bob was the one we talked to the most and he told us all about his adventures. He's an entrepreneur who's created lots of thing including 1-800-DENTIST. He also told us all about how he traveled around the world right out of college. He's been to India, Burma, Kenya, Thailand, and many other places. He did lots of traveling by himself, but also with his wife soon after they married. His story was really compelling, he even shared how two of his three kids have already passed away. His advice to us was to live our lives to the fullest, to take risks, and go out on adventures. We sailed around for a little but, but then we got stuck pretty close to shore, luckily on of the other guys from the house saw us and was able to Ski-Doo over to us and bring us back to shore. Without that, I'm not sure that we would have made it back before sunset. After that we hung out and threw around a foot ball before dinner. We ended our day with a nice homemade meal of chicken, broccoli, and watermellon before we headed home. On the way home we saw four deer, one dog, and hit a bat. They warned us about deer out here, but we didn't realize how bad it would be. Thankfully we made it back, safe and sound, ready for our first official day of camp tomorrow!!

Here's some pictures from our day at the lake today:

California Cows we passed today:

 Lassen Mountain

  Lassen Mountain

 Lake Almanor

 Lake Almanor and the sailboat we sailed on:

  Lassen Mountain

 Group Picture at the lake:

 Sunset

 Tubing on the lake (I'm in the middle- notice the mountain in the background)

 Hanging out on the boat:

Camp Day

Today was camp day. We got to pretend to be campers this morning while we got to lead and experience various daily activities. We got to do arts and crafts, drama, nutritional education, waterfront, sports, and outdoor education. It was cool getting to see what the other interns have planned for this summer, since we have campers coming in two days. BUT there was a twist to this morning's activities. Since we serve disabled campers, we ourselves had to be disabled. Everyone was given a "disability" that affected them all morning. I had to use a walker to get around everywhere and my feet were tied together. It was hard hopping and shuffling around camp. It normally takes me 2 minutes to walk from the top of camp to the water front, but today it took a solid twenty minutes since I couldn't move that fast. Other staff members had disabilities like blindness, deafness, couldn't speak, had no arm or leg movement, or were in a wheel chair. The training was done in order to get us to experience what it's like to live with a disability, even for a short amount of time to try to understand what others go through on a daily basis. This afternoon we got a food order in, so we had to put that all away. Then the Food Service Interns got to teach the Program staff about Food Safety and we all took the California ServSafe Food Handler's test today because That certification is required for our employment here at Camp Ronald. Tonight we still have lots of fun activities plavved. We have our all staff talent show and bonfire. And then I'm sure I'll be quickly off to bed. We've had long days the past week, and I'm looking forward to my break tomorrow for sure!

Water Front and Nutrition Day

Today we were pretty busy (as far as our schedule has been so far). We started some diversity training by watching a video that talked about people with different disabilities and how the "R" word has had a big impact in a lot of communities. The rest of the morning was spent at the water front. We got to help the life guards out by being different victims they could practice lifeguard saves on. I got to go canoeing with my friend Ali, and were told to tip the canoe so the lifeguards could practice running out to us and saving us. The water here isn't very deep at all, so we could touch the bottom on the lake where we were at when we "tipped." Other people tipped kayaks, did practice swim tests, pretended to drown or get severely injured.

After lunch we spent some time brainstorming as a group (food service interns) to figure out what type of nutritional education and cooking classes we wanted to teach. So far we'll be doing classes on ice cream (dairy), smoothies (fruit), pancake with toppings (fruit), pizza (colorful meals), and raisin cinnamon bread (cooking). We also tried out our home made ice cream in a bag recipe, but it needs a little bit of adjustment and more time, but we'll work the bugs out of that.

Prison Day

Today was the most relaxing day I've had here thus far. This morning I got up to run again, and while it was still difficult adjusting to the altitude, I can tell I'm already getting better (or maybe it was just today). At nine we started off with a nature walk. We got to see the local trail and a little bit more of the area. Next we did training on recognizing and reporting abuse since we're mandate reporters. Then before lunch we helped finish the water front by setting out more supplies and the life jackets. After lunch we made our way into town and spent two hours at the local prison. We had to get finger printed for our background checks. Since there was eleven people there, it took quite some time. Then we made a Walmart run to get supplies for camp this summer and any other personal items. Lastly, before we headed back to camp we had dinner at the Pizza Factory, the local pizza joint. We ended our day early with a staff meeting.

Here's some pictures from my morning nature trail walk:

A Daily Post

It's more than likely you'll see me post almost daily for the three weeks or so. And while I'd like to keep that up the whole summer, I can't make any promises quite yet. I'll post more these next few weeks in order to keep up with my summer assignments. I'm getting a little bit of college credit for this internship and part of my homework is to fill out weekly reports. Technically, I'm supposed to fill out daily reports and then use them for my weekly report, but you don't have to hand those daily reports in unless your weekly report is too short or vague. So in order to remember my daily training and tasks, I will be blogging them to keep each day straight from the next. This morning we started (you guessed it) more training! We learned more of the program aspect of camp. We learned how to lead and instruct both biking and archery, two programs that are often lead by various staff. So while it is unlikely, there is the possibility that I would need to instruct biking or archery at some point this summer.

That was morning training. For this afternoon, I did more Food Service training. We worked on all the tedious tasks and paper work that goes into planning the menus each week. We wrote out a prep list for the food we have to prepare a day ahead, did a complete inventory check, and completed our first food order. This food order was through Martin Brower, who supplies food to McDonalds and other restaurants like Chipotle. After all the paperwork was done, we got to ender in the updated inventory list into our computer. I'm not sure what the evening holds for us, but I guess I'll just have to wait to find out.

Hiking Day!

Well, today was another good day here at Camp Ronald McDonald (CRM). It was the first full day with all the staff since the program staff arrived yesterday afternoon. We started the day off early with a nice hike up a nearby mountain. We didn't go all the way to the top, but we made it pretty far up. It was beautiful to walk the trails and see the area from a different angle. And so far, I'm convinced that California is the sunniest state in America. We have had wonderful weather here so far, which is nice (especially since I've heard it SNOWED the last two years during staff training). Here are some pictures form the hike:

Summer Staff 2013 Picture

The rest of the day was full of more training. After the hike we learned all about Camp Ronald, Ronald McDonald Charities, and the Ronald McDonald house. We learned all about how camp started out and how it's funded today. Interesting fact: for every happy meal sold in the area (Northern California/Nevada/etc...) one cent is donated to the camp. A penny may not seem like a lot, but they add up fast. Camp is also funded by many other grants and fundraisers held throughout the year. 

After lunch we broke out into our service areas and had more individual training there. As a food service intern I learned more about special diets, the menus and our modifications for next week's group. Camp Ronald has a pretty impressive menu and I'm really looking forward to making (and eating) here this summer.

I got to make dinner with one of the other program interns. We had Angel Hair spaghetti with alfredo or meat sauce, garlic bread, salad, and chocolate covered Rice Krispie bars.

We finished the day with a round of Jeopardy to learn all about camp policies, rules, and procedures.

Tomorrow I get to learn how to instruct archery and biking, along with much, much more, I'm sure. Thanks for reading!

A Summer Beyond

I wanted to take a moment to explain my blog's title and web address: "A Summer Beyond."

I decided to name it that because I think it fits my summer very well, since I will be spending my summer "beyond."

Beyond. Most obviously, beyond refers to the location of where I'm spending my summer. California's a long ways away from home, way beyond where I've traveled before. Beyond the Mississippi Rive and Rocky Mountains. Beyond the place I've called home for so long, and away from my friends and familiar faces.

Beyond. I'm definitely going to be pushed beyond my limits this summer. Working in the Food Service business isn't an easy job. It's long, hard hours, and sometimes stressful work. I'll be pushed to work and do things beyond my usual routine. Beyond what I'm used to doing. Beyond the familiarity of the work I've done before. But in that I also find comfort. It's nice knowing that I'll be expected to expand my knowledge under the instruction of a very well organized and experienced Registered Dietitian.

Beyond. This last one is more of a goal I've set for myself. Being that I'm not in a Christian environment this summer, I'm going to have to be personally motivated to spend time with the Lord in solitude. It's not built into my schedule like it has been in the past. If I want to continue to grow in my faith it's all on me this summer. I'm hoping to go above and beyond when it comes to learning about God and the Bible this summer. But what will be unique about this experience is the fact that I'm not submersed in a Christian atmosphere where you naturally get the opportunity to learn about God. At home and at school those are things that naturally happen. I get to go to church regularly. I get to go to bible study. I get to be surrounded by lots of encouraging Christians. But not here. And it's not that I'm in a bad environment, I'm surrounded by good people who love to work together and serve others, but without Christ being the center of the atmosphere, it's just a different feel.

So that's a little bit of insight into how I feel my summer's journey will be:

A Sumer Beyond.