Hopefully the last enstallment of the world scout jamboree :)

Day 13 (5.8.11) - Packing up :(
Tomorrow we're leaving so we need to pack up everything, its rather sad :(
Although, so we don't have to faf around in the morning we are packing the tents sway today which means that we'll be sleeping in the mess tent to night, which might i point out IS NOT WATERPROOF, this is going to be fun. Can i point out that I think this is a really bad idea!
Tonight we went to the closing ceremony which was in a different place to the opening and cultural day ceremony's as instead of being a big stage at the front, it was a square stage where people say all around it. It was okay, but it started absolutly chucking it down. I'm not kidding, the heavens opened. We got absolutly soaked! The best bit was that Europe played. They were pretty awesome but as i thought, they were only really good at the final countdown, which was an absolute rave, however when they started playing other songs everyone was like 'what on earth is this?' You can tell that the final countdown is there only good song as they played it twice in a 4 song set... Me and a few others left early because it looked like it was going to chuck it down again and we thought we would get soaked again. When we got back to our camp (which was a feat in itself because it was PITCH BLACK) we watched an awesome fireworks display which we saw from our mess tent, it was beautiful. That night, the plan to all stay in the mess tent changed because we wouldn't all fit in. So me and 5 other girls slept in one of the tents that was not taken down. Bare in mind this tent is only a 4 man tent and it was full of bags so that they didn't get wet, and we couldn't all fit on the one ground sheet that was in there. So it was cosy, and extremely uncomfortable. What made it worse is that there was a MASSIVE thunderstorm that night, and i mean huge, the ground was shaking everytime there was thunder. It was completely misrable but i was so completely tired that i pretty much slept though the whole thing!

Day 14 (6.8.11) - Travel day
Today was pretty horrible. After only having 5 hours sleep we had to get up, pack away the mess tent, the remaining sleeping tents and tidy up while it was still raining. We got the bus from the Jamboree site at the airport which was 2 hours but i slept most of the way (sound familiar?). We then waited at the airport for HOURS. And im not kidding, we waited for a while to get our tickets because it was produced by a little machine in the airport before check in. We then had to wait for check-in to actully open. We then once it was open waited to actully check in for ever. Because of all this waiting in Queues we actully had to rush for the plane even though we were 3 hours early. So stupid! When we got on the plane i realised i wasn't sitting next to my plane buddy, or anyone i knew. A scary prospect for those who DISPISE flying. However, when i actully sat down i found out i was sitting next to two really nice guys, who luckily were confident flyers!  We landed at 9:30 in Prague airport and waited to get the bus to start out home hospitality experience! The bus journey to where we were staying however was a disaster. The bus driver had no clue where we was going and it was pitch black. So he managed to turn a 2 hour journey into 4 and a half hours... Half way we stopped off to drop of Darling patrol, which was hilarious because the people who were there to welcome them were all dressed in old clothing so looked like pilgrims. Most of the Darling patrol looked terrified, and we were terrified for them!
We then pushed on to our camp which took forever, however i slept most of the way (your getting bored of this now arn't you?) When we got there we found out we were going to be sleeping in a building! Hurrah! Unlike the other patrol who would be sleeping in teepee's, we felt even more sorrt for them at this point. We got into the building and found that we even had foam mattresess, brilliant! Living the life of luxury! The Czech's had also made us some salami sandwiches which were wonderful because we hadn't eaten since 7 and it was almost 4am! I was really happy and greatful that the Czech's had stayed up that long and welcomed us so warmly because we totally needed it after our horrible day of travel. We went straight to sleep and i had a twinge of sorrow for the other patrol who i assumed were freezing to death in their teepee's. Although, because we were now in a lovely comfortable warm cottage, i didn't have much sorrow for leaving the jamboree site, as by the end, it was absolutly filthy and i was sick of not sleeping much in bloody tents!

The room we all slept in and our wonderful foam matresses. The strange woman is my best friend, of whom im sure won't mind me having her photo on me blog :)

Day 15 (7.8.11) - Home Hospitality (HoHo)

First day of HoHo in the Czech republic started at 9, a lovely lie-in for the first time in 2 weeks! It started with a nice breakfast of bread and jam (of which the bread was really nice for some reason, it was the shape of a Croissant but was much thicker and more bread like) where i sat on a table with 5 Czech people, who were very shy at first, but slowly i got to know most of their names. The plan was then to go to the nearest town of Krasna Lipa and then go to a lake for a wash. We walked the 3 Kilometres to the little village where we found the quaintest little town which was wonderfully picturesque. We then were desperate to get into the equivalent of a little corner shop in the town, it was quite a squeeze to get everyone in, so that we could stock up on lodes of crap, i.e chocolate and crisps, which we haden't eaten since we left the UK. We were delighted to find that it was insanely cheap! I bought a milka bar, a bottle of coke and a big bag of crisps (god that makes me sound fat) for 63 czech crowns, which is the equivelent of £2! It was so wonderful to eat crisps and chocolate again, its one of those things where you don't miss it untill you are without it. We then went into a little museum in the town to learn more about the area and perhaps find things to do, where we watched a film which made no real sense to us as it was all in Czech, but it looked pretty!
We then went on the supposedly 'little' walk to the lake which was actully MILES away. But when we got there it was totally worth the trek because it was absolutly beautiful but, according to the boys that went for a swim/wash, VERY cold. Such wimps. We then trekked back to the cottage we were staying in, where, even though they didn't admit it, we got lost because there were many times where the Czech's didn't seem to know where they were going and were often in a debate on where to go. I could be completely wrong, i speak absolutly no Czech, they could have been discussing how ugly we all were, who knows! On the way back someone, of who i shall not mention their name, Jonny managed to step on a wasp nest. Turns out, wasps don't like being stood on, so everyone had to run/dance, out of the forest we were in and many people were stung. You'll be glad to know i wasn't.
When we got back we had tea which was absolutly beautiful, it was a pasta in this pasta sauce (which was amazing!) and meatloaf (which was also amazing!). At night we then had a campfire were we sang some funny songs which made us all laugh in histerics but made the Czech's look at us as if were were all going mental because they had no idea why it was funny.

Day 16 (8.8.11) - Second day in HoHo

An impressive view

The view going up the river

Today began at 7:00 with Cappy's (our leader) shouting and a promise of 'morning exercises' (a promise we were not looking forward to) which turned out not to be too hard and were some little jumpy around things and a little chant that was supposed to keep the rain at bay. In the morning we decided to walk to another town, in another direction that i can;t remember the name of, to get the bus further into the Czech wilderness to see more Czech nature. The bus ride took much longer than i thought it would: an hour, where i almost fell a sleep (getting better) but couldn't really because it was packed! Once we got there the weather was really nice and we began our walk into the nature reserve. It reminded me somewhat of Humford  (a forest close to where i live) for some reason, but it was much, much more impressive and rocky. The path went right next to a river which was set in a vally. There were very impressive rock formations, probably formed by the river that made the vally, and there were MASSIVE tree's. It was absolutly beautiful.

Once we could no longer walk on the path (as the vally got steeper, so a path couldn't be made) we got a small boat ride down the river which was 'driven' by a guy with a rather large stick ;)

On the boat with guy with big stick :)

We then walked up the vally (which was very steep and went on for ever, we lost many men) back to the bus stop. However, the bus wasn't due for another hour, and we still all really wanted to visit the rock bridge (which was apparently in Narnia, but i don't think i remember it) which really really came here too see. So this was our challange, To walk 4km in one hour, bearing in mind that to get there it was all uphill. We accepted this challenge and left! As we didn't realise how uphill it actully was, it took us 40 minute to get up (Uh oh).  However, it was completely worth it. It was absolutly amazing. The rock was good, but the view was even better! I felt like i was standing on top of the world.

The view from near the rock bridge

Although, once we seen that, we realised we only had 20 minutes to get back down and catch the LAST bus. We did make it though. However, the bus was so full we couldn't all fit on it. So the Czech leader, Romana, had to walk up a hill, to get a signal, to ring the bus company, to see if they could send another bus to pick us up. Luckily they did otherwise we would have to walk back, which would of taken 5 hours...
For our tea we had some of this soup which was really nice and these fruit dumplings with cream and buttery stuff, it was lush!
That night i played my first ever game of uno! It was pretty good actully and we had a good laugh :)

The rock bridge

Day 17 (9.8.11) - Third day in HoHo
More walking today, God HoHo is turning into an expedition weekend!

The Quarry

Today was a walk through the woods around where we're staying with a ranger from the area. We seemed to trek for ever, but it was very interesting and the ranger taught us what the landscape was made of, predominantly limestone. He also took us to see lime stone quarries which weren't what i expected  because they hadn't been dug for ages, so there was a lot of vegetation not just bare rock which i though. So it looked like a massive hole in the ground with lots of tree's. After taking us through the forrest and stopping at random points to tell us certain things, he then left us to make our own way back. Something we did in spectacular fashion via clambering down very unstable looking stairs and 'paths,' i really was terrified for my life. Nice views though :)

The group photo :)

After decending to get to a view point which was okay, but as we had decended a bit it didn't feel like the top of the world, just relitivly high with lots of tree's, we got a group photo. We then decended all the way to the bottom where people could go and see some sort of castle thing, but i was too tired so i didn't bother. We then climbed up another very unstable path, inwhich again i felt in imminent doom. When we got back, after our tea, Me and 3 lads decided to go back down to the local town to stock up on supplies from the shop and to visit a little pub that they had went to yesterday. We decided to go to the pub first where we all had a coke  (promise). It was really good just to sit and have a drink with me mates. It was really weird though because there isn't a smoking ban in the Czech Republic, so Hale and a few other men in the pub were smoking, which is stange because you never see that in the UK any more.

Day 18 (10.8.11) - Final day

The main square of Varnsdorf

Today was the last day in HoHo before we had to leave and go back to Newcastle. We were planning to go to Prague but the bus that was meant to take us to the airport that night wouldn't take us early, so we couldn't get there. It was a shame because i did really want to visit Prague, but instead, we decided to visit the town that all our Czech friends were from, a place called Varnsdorf. Which is right next to the border to Germany, infact, on the way there we could actully see Germany we were so close. And guess what our mode of transport was? You guessed it, walking! However it was a really nice, if not quite long walk, with no real uphilly bits, yipee! On the walk, we passed a spring with the nicest, clearest water i have ever seen/tasted!

One of the many churches :)

Once we got to the town, it was very pretty, and very similar to Krasna Lipa, but much bigger with much larger buildings. I went with two of my Czech friends to one of their houses so that she could have a shower, it was so nice. I got to sit on a sofa! A luxuary a hadn't had in weeks! While she had a shower, me and Raddy watched buffy the vampire slayer, in Czech, which i found highly amusing because i had no idea what she was saying. We then went to a little cafe right next to the house (handy) where i had a mahoosive vanilla ice cream, it was absolutly lush! After that we went to the local supermarket, which was pretty much EXACTLY the same as ASDA, but without the Brittish signs, here i got some Czechy snacks (which i later ate at home and they were great!). We then met up with the rest of the unit members and we went for an explore of the town, primarily to look at the many churches in their town (there was 7, 7!)
After visiting some of the churches (it would be quite a feat to see them all) we went to their scout hut, which they all said was rubbish, but i thought it was great! It felt just like a home, unlike our cold, bare and big scout  huts.
Because i was so tired and we would be traveling all night and day, i thought it was best to try to get a few hours kip downstairs, do i did.

Day 19 (11.8.11) - The final day :(
It was time to say goodbye to our wonderful hosts when the bus arrived at 1:30 in the morning. It was actully really sad and i was way more sad leaving HoHo than i was the jamboree. This is probably because, unlike the jamboree, i made real, genuine friends who i think are absolutly wonderful and i still stay in contact with them now.
I slept most of the way to Prague airport and didn't wake up or notice in the slightest Darling Patrol getting back on the bus. So i was supprised to say the least to find Abi waking me up, it was a terrifying, but nice supprise (once i had realised what was actully going on).
We waited for a while at Prague airport where many of us slept (supprisingly not me, you'll be pleased to know). Then we got our plane to Brussels for our highly anticipated 7 hour wait for the plane home...
However, the wait turned out not to be too bad as there was quite a lot to do. Firstly, i went for some much needed tea (as they don't really have tea in the Czech Republic, just this sweet stuff that unfortunatly i didn't like) in starbucks which was REDICUOUSLY over priced, and i felt like just walking out, but i really wanted some, so i paid the STUPID price. We then had a lovely breakfast (Egg and bacon sandwhich... Mmm... *dribble*) with Abi and a few others, went for a wander around the shops, tried to have a little nap (too noisy so i couldn't), then we had the biggest lunch ever (a mahoosive bacon burger with a load of chips and a bath of sauce) in which there was (dun dun dun) a unattended bag! Oh no! Everyone thought we were going to die, so we sat the closest to the bag to if the bomb (it was clearly a bomb) went of, we would die instantly, unlike everyone else who would just burn. Unfortunatly, a man came and retrieved the bag, rewining everyone's fun and noone died (unfortunate for some). We then went on a wander, then another wander, and then headed for the flight (along the cool walky thinggy's again).
 All was going well, i had images of home in my head, my bed, my house, my guitar, the TV, junk food, my dog, the nicely shaped tree outside my window, oh, and my parents, untill i realised that the plane we were going on was the dinkiest piece of shit i have ever seen (you know that moment in Star Wars where Luke gets a flight on the Millenium Falcon and when he comes round the corner and says 'What a piece of junk!' Well it was a very similar feeling but 10 times worse because it was real.). It must have only been a 43 seater because there was 40 of us, and only 3 other people that wasn't us.
So here i am, sitting on a tiny plane catching up on my Jamboree adventure at the end of my Jamboree adventure with a feeling of imminent doom as i have no idea how this tin can is still in the sky. Goodbye Jamboree, its been a laugh.

World scout jamboree continued...

So, lets start of where we left:

Day 7! (30.7.11) - Quest!
Finally, a good activity! Quest was an awesome activity. there were 4 parts to it: Conquest, cave, viking and medieval, i mean come on, you have to say that sounds pretty good! First we did medieval which was a set of quite easy tasks, such as making a ball go through some plastic tubes (riviting to say the least), making a puzzle blindfolded (interesting), and pulling a wooden castle from one square to another, which sounds easy, but it was actully quite difficult because the ropes were mixed up, so it went a different direction to what you thought it would. Next was cave, which was a very impressivly made maze in the forrest (made by wrapping black cloth around tree's so you couldn't go though) in which we had to do more tasks to get numbers, these numbers in turn would let us out of the maze. Next we did conquest, an obstical couse. The obsticals were relitively easy, but there was quite a lot of running involved which i am completly terrible at and will most likley die during long periods of running, so therefore i came 3rd last (go me!) and almost died in the process, your very lucky im here. Next was viking which was also pretty cool and there were REAL *cough* vikings! They growled and everything, but that might be because they were particularly nasty IST members. In viking were a few tasks my favorate being a task where you stood on a triangle (pioneered of course, as everything *cough* was pioneered this 'simply' scouting camp) which had a rope attatched and you were lowered, by your team mates to the ground where you picked up a bean bag, your 'life' was litrally in their hands, a scary thought!
An interesting day to say the least, and best of all, it was a beautiful day! hurrah!

Day 8 (31.7.11) - Camp in Camp
Today we headed for a traditional Swedish camp after waiting FORVER for the bus, sound familiar? Yes, well its because we waited for ever for everything! Anyway, The bus diver was really funny but i didn't listen to most of the things he was saying because, as per usual on buses, i slept. When we got there it was beautiful, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, the grass was green and there was a BIG ASS lake.

 

The (big ass) lake ^^ 

 We walked the short distance from the bus to the campsite in which we were staying which contained dining shelters that were made by hand and lots of teepee's which we slept in. These were pretty cool but not temperature cool because they were absolutly BOILING during the day, im not kidding, 1 minute in there and you'll suffocate and you're eyes will melt, it wasn't pretty, many people unfortunatly lost their eyes. In these tents, all 10 of us: 2 girls and 8 boys slept. This was not a good thing because one member of our unit of which i shall not mention *cough* Joss *cough* snores like a frigging whale. The only problem with this beautiful campsite however was the water. They got the water from the lake and i don't                                                                                                 The teepee!     ^^                                              think they did any sort of filtering to it because they said it was clean, but it bloody wasn't because it was YELLOW. Don't know if you've ever noticed, but water isn't yellow unless i am mistaken. It was pretty vile and tasted of metal but we had to drink it because it was so hot!
Today however, we did water activities and it was brilliant. First we did canoeing, which was hilarious because the whale snorer fell in, brilliant! We then played hockey, which may sound boring, but it was on a plastic sheet, covered in soapy water. I'll tell you this, it turned rather violent.

 <-- The home made dining shelter

Then i took of my top and pants, the boys stared with mouth's wide open because i am so mind-boggingly beautiful (in fact, some of them fainted) and went in the lake, which was by the way FREEZING. I was under the impression it was going to be warmish, but OH NO, not in this lake, the bitch. At night we had a very cool Swedish camp fire where they sung some swedish songs (of which we hummed along to) and some other countries came up and sung some pretty crappy song and then, we came up (meaning two of our patrol members) and sang Marylin Monroe, which made everyone happy. We. Are. Awesome. All the little Swedish kids were singing it in the morning, so cute, although the lyrics are perhaps a little inappropriate for children of the age of 5. Although im sure the Swedes don't know what see-through bra's, or magical hips are, its fine. :)

Day 9 (1.8.11) - More camp in camp
I was not impressed at the slightest this morning when a very anoying man with a trumpet started blowing his instrument (hur hur) at 7:00 this morning. I mean come on, 7! I'm assuming it was the same guy at 8:30 at flag break playing the trumpet while they were putting up the flag, which for some reason i found HILARIOUS, very dirty looks gained there. Today we did forest activities. The first forest activity was 'captrure the flag' again the Belgians, who totally cheated, but ended in a draw, even though they had the cheek to tell everyone they won! Tssk! Then i made a pretty necklace (very foresty, clearly) out of tin.
We got back on the bus about 1 and i slept the whole way back, what a supprise, im sure its an illness to sleep so deeply everytime im on a bus.

Day 10 (2.8.11) - Earth and the beach
The activity today was 'Earth' which we were told was not very good and could be much better, good start! (so we secretly planned to go to the beach instead, but we would have to go to the activity in the morning)
When we got there there we found out there was 4 parts to it, although we only did 2: Oxygen and wind. Oxygen didn't have ANYTHING to do with oxygen the element. We had to write about natural problems in our area, we clever dicks (i had nothing to do with the decision or the final product) wrote about costal erosion. In 'wind' we made a pretty little windmill, which sort of failed, but also worked! Hurrah, we succeed in something! Then we went for lunch and buggered off to the beach so we didn't have to endure the other parts of earth which im sure would be very hippy and we would all come out wearing tie-dye t-shirts. The beach was absolutly beautiful and the sea was properly warm, unlike the nipple hardning lake in the middle of Sweden and the rather cooler north sea. So we played around and sunbathed for a few hours and came back thoroughly relaxed!

The Beach ---> 

Day 11 (3.8.11) - Cultural day
Everyone is ill! And everyone else is paranoid that they'll be next, 11 out of 40 have now fallen i'll and i bet there will be many more...
Anyway, on to happier things, cultural day was awesome. Almost all contingents had food that they made and was from their country. We made 'singing hinnies', basically flat scones, they were loverly. My favorate though was the people from Trinidad and Tobago who had battered swordfish with this spicy sauce that looked like soy sauce and mango chutney, it was LUSH
At night there was a big stage performance which was much like the opening ceremony, however i thought that there was going to more CULTURAL stuff, but no. It was just music really.
That night was then the activity 'dream' which was highly anticipated and our last activity of the jamboree as a whole. It was pretty cool and was basically a walk though the woods in the middle of the night along lantern lit paths. The idea was that we started at death, which was represented by a tent full of smoke which i thought i was going to choke to death in, but when you actully went in it was fine. We then worked backwards from death with silly little tasks. One of these was do make up a person and it asked questions about their job and hobbies etc. We made a guy called CHAD (must be said in an american accent) who was a professer of marine biology and liked to scoober dive. We then had to draw chad on this big board with chalk, but we just drew lots of penis's on it because we are hugely mature, obviously. Although the funniest part was the exit of dream which i will let your imagination draw a picture of, but think about it, we started at death to birth, and the exit was meant to be birth. Keyword: EXIT. So yeah, it made me giggle, a lot. Again, maturity taking hold.
A very good day all in all, but long as we didn't get to bed till like 2 in the morning...

Day 12 (4.8.11) - Free day
Today was a free day so that we can have a lie-in after dream, and boy did I take that opportunity! Most people, including me when i eventually woke up, spent the day trying to swap things as the jamboree was comming to an end. I managed to swap my spare uniform for a 'boy scouts of america' again must be said in an american accent, one which is pretty awesome. I also swapped my spare UK jacket for a spanish one :)
After wor tea, Me, Abi and Mundy went to swap more things. Robbie also cam along and managed, hilariously, to swap his UK necker for a pair of Ski's! Abi also, stupidly, did the same thing but later realised it was a bad idea so decided to try and swap it with a german guy who already at home had 6 pairs! They argued for AGES. She eventually (and i mean eventually, it was getting dark and we must have been there for like 2 hours) managed to swap the ski's for a scottish guys rugby shirt. Then the German guy swapped the rugby shirt for this bloody necker we'd just been trying to get for the past 2 frigging hours! Bloody foreigners.

Continued tomorrow...

The World Scout Jamboree!!

Now i know for the past few posts i've only been talking about things that have happened in my past, and there are a few reasons for this:
1. Because many important things have happened in the past few months of my life of which i think it is important to tell.
2. Because bugger all has happened in my life since setting up this blog because it is the summer holidays and NOTHING happens then. Well, apart from something of which im about to talk about, but this again was in my past and before i started this blog.

So, what is this something of which you are talking about Megan, you may find asking yourself. Well, my dear blogger im about to tell you, however from the title, you should have some sort of idea. And i may have to warn you, this blog post may be quite long, there's quite alot to talk about. So, lets get onto it before you leave...

THE WORLD SCOUT JAMBOREE!
The world scout jamboree is where basically scouts from all over the world, and i mean all over, there were participents from 143 different countries, when you think about it, thats pretty impressive. There were over 40,000 scouts there, all camping on one MASSIVE field.
That is the WSJ in its basics, but for us, there were 3 main parts to it: Copenhagen, The Jamboree and Home hospitality.
While i was there, i wrote a diary to remind me what the jamboree was like. This is because we were going to be away for 3 weeks, and i knew i would forget things. So, im going to copy my diary here, for you all too see. Enjoy!

Day 1 (25.7.11) - Travel day
Got to Newcastle airport at 1.00, way too early concidering the plane lef at 4:30, just made me more anxious, bloody planes. Abi held my hand on the flight and it helped, but i was still shitting meself. Arrived at Brussels which had these amazing walky platforms which ment you could get to your destination faster because its such a massive airport.We then left Brussels to fly to Copenhagen. Then we got a bus from Copenhagen airport to the hostel we were staying in. Dinky room but pretty nice, went to sleep pretty early, hard day of feeling terrified but doing practically bugger all.

Day 2 (26.7.11) - Copenhagen day!
Today was a day of walking around Copenhagen. First we had breakfast though, which was pretty shitty but it was OK compared to the HORRIFIC supper we were given (soggy cookie, mankey gone-off sandwhich, fruit which was squashed and water). Then we were given a map and told to wander and meet at a river and a specific time, so we did. Turns out Copenhagen is much bigger than we thought... 2 hours later we got, exausted (as it was a hot day) we got to the riverand waited for a little while with many other British scouts. Then we got to go on speed boats which took us out to see at an allarming pace, it was amazing! It was so fast! We were then told to head for Tivoli, a theme park for lunch. Once we had our lunch we had free reign of the park. I actully went on a rollercoaster! (which is a big thing for me concidering i have never been to a theme park, boring i know) It was also amazing! Only problem though was the queues, they were huge for every ride. Then at night we had a massive party, in a massive wearhouse for all of the UK contingent members, and there was over 4000 of us.

^^ on the speedboats, im the one at the back, being the normal one of the group.

Day 3 (27.7.11) - Nother travel day
Beginning of the day began with wandering around the city, mainly looking for food for the bus journey to the Jamboree sight as we knew the lunch we were to be provided with was going to be rubbish. We found a 7 eleven and i bought a coke and some danish pringles! How cool. Then we waited FOR EVER for the bus to arrive because we were one of the last to leave, and as ever, everything was late. We eventually got on the bus with some scottish people (who were very nice) and started on our 2 hour journey to the Jamboree site!
When we first saw the site it looked quite small, however when we went further in we realised how big it actully was, and im not kidding, it was frigging huge! We got to our little sub camp, called Kivick (actully pronounced shivic but everyone pronounced it with a K) and spent the rest of the day setting up camp. With our absolutly B-E-AUtiful tents... LOOK AT THEM. Whoever designed these buggers was clearly stoned at the time...

Day 4 (28.7.11) - Setting up camp.

Today was mainly a day of decorating the campsite with a gateway likey many contingients had already started or finnished making. We decided to make a gateway with the Tyne bridge on. And concidering we are shitty at pioneering and have never really done big style pioneering before, i was rather impressed with our structure! We then also decided to make a kitchen because there wasn't much room in the mess tents we were given and it wasn't exactly waterproof which was turd since it had rained for 2 frigging days. I was very impressed at our constructions!


Above: The lovingly named the "Bitchin' Kitch'n"


Left: Our wonderful gateway with the Tyne bridge and LOTS of flags.


Bottom left: Opening ceremony 

After a hard day of blood, sweat, tears and lots of changed waterproofs because it chucked it down all day, it was time for the opening ceremony! Which was absolutly awesome! I've never seen so many people all in one place at the same time. I mean the show wasn't amazingly spectactular although the swedes got very exited over a band i've never heard before, but were clealy famous in Sweden. Although there was a very good act right at the end that had lots of fire, very cool. At the end a guy came on with wings that were ON FIRE. I want them. Now. Although, im not sure i would really survive. This was the view we had of the stage, there are an amazing amount of people infront of us, as you can see, but we were pretty much in the middle, so there were more behind us too!

Day 5 (28.7.11) - First day of activities!
The first activity day was called 'people.' I was pretty rubbish actully and it rained a lot, which didn't really help. Firstly we did a game where we had to decide how to act in a society, i.e. how to say hello, goodbye, how to greet the leader of a society etc. Then a few members from a different society had to come and find out what these actions were. This activity was interesting as it helped us understand that when going to other, real, cultures we had to accept their rules are different to ours. After this we had to sit down, choose pictures of what we think represents our life, i chose a road because i said the jamboree was like being on a journey. It was all very corney and cheesy and clearly noone really thought this we were just choosing things that looked good and sounded good. After this we were then given different colour ribbons, mine was red and we split up to do the different 'culture' activities. After quite a lot of deliberation (because i had no idea what i had to do, evetually i found out from a mexican that didn't really speak English that i had to go to the 'red' tent. By red he meant a white tent with red ribbon on that looked EXACTLY the same as the pink one (that was fun)) It turns out once i EVENTUALLY got there that i had to make a stupid tattoo on my arm with ink that was completely SOLID, so it was neon impossible and i got it everywhere, including my face, which made me look like i was on a special FBI mission, or i was just special... After that disaster, we had to go to the 'garden of reflection' which was as gay as it sounds (and was also, as i found out later, the mating ground for many a frustrated, desperate young boy/girl). Firstly we had to decide which was most important: House, health, family, money etc. Then we acted out stupid scenario's with hand puppets ¬.¬ clearly a well thought out task for 17 year olds... Lastly we did a timeline thing which was bacically a length of string with toys dotted along it, really badly put together.

Day 6 (29.7.11) - Global development village.
Day 6 was as bad as day 5 and it was STILL raining. this activity made us choose 2 activities from 5 which had very 'wide' name's which ment they could have been anything so they could be bad or they could be good. Turns out we chose the crap ones! First we chose 'health' which was basically a lecture for an hour and a half on not drinking alcohol. It made sense what they were saying but it was stupid and out of context concidering we were ment to be having fun and we learn this at school. However the people who took the lecture were nice people, if a little hard to understand because they were from Sri-Lanka. The second task we chose was 'peace' and it was worse than the first one. It was basically two people, one of which didn't speak good English, playing 'games' that seemed to be completely made up on the spot and somehow they managed to link these games very loosley to peace. During these 'games' we have to stand FOR EVER so my legs started to kill! Although, that night, we went to have tea with the Japanese which was pretty awesome but it was very difficult to communicate with them as they didn't speak very good English, which i don't really blame them for because Japanese is so completely different to English. The Japanese also invited some Germans and Irish who were all really nice people.

Okay, this post has gone on for ever, so i will leave it here and carry on tomorrow.

Bon Voyage!

Nottingham University nursing conference

So, i think i better start at the beginning, where the whole idea of a blog was mentioned, because it was a very interesting and important time, which i think you may be interested to know about.

As the title suggests I, and a good friend of mine, attended a nursing conference at the university of Nottingham, which my brain, for some reason, insists on being the university of Birmingham and many of my friends believe i went there instead, but i did infact go to Nottingham. I didn't see much of the town itself apart from the taxi too and from the train station. This is because Nottingham uni is a campus uni so everything i needed was in one small, very lovely place, completely isolated from the town. In idea i find interesting but also rather lonely. I don't think i mind which sort of uni i go to (campus or town uni) because both has its up sides and down sides. Campus uni's have, like i said before, everything you need in a small place, so its litrally a 5 minute walk from where you live to your lessons, very good for the average lazy student ;) However, nights out in the town could then be difficult because of getting there, the night suddenly become's expencive when you have to pay for a taxi. Town universities are the oppposite, easy nights out, but long walks to lessons, it all depends on the person. Me, im not that bothered, either one sounds good :)

So the conference itself wasn't exactly a conference, it was a series of lecutres about different sections of nursing that all lasted about an hour. Some were really good, and some were extremely boring and i found that it depended intirely on who took the lecture. For example, the branch of nursing i am most interested in is child nursing, and the person who took that was pretty boring and stood at the front and talked the whole time, so i found it boring. However, there was two students who did a lecture on midwifery, a branch of nursing i am not interested in, and i came out wanting to be a midwife it was so good. They moved around, joked about and generally looked like they were having a good time, so i did too.

There were many lectures, and the one i found the most interesting was Auscultation, i.e. how the heart pumps. It was brilliant, and i think that, again, was down to the lecturer, who happened to be the same guy who did the EDGE session. He was amazing, and i kept eye contact with him in complete concentation and slight awe from the whole hour and 15 minutes. When he said the lesson was at an end i thought i had just jumped in the tardis, it really didn't feel that long.

There were many other lectures including Adult nursing, another midwifery one, one about nursing in communities, one about mental health nursing and another about disabilities nursing. Others were focused about finance, how to get into nursing, and generally nursing itself, i.e. what your letting yourself in for.

However, the lectures were only a half of it! I also booked to attect a 'practical session' on the second day, which had to be one of the most interesting experiences of my life. We did many different things, from learning about X-rays, to ECG's. One of my favorates was suturing, i.e. sewing people up. I was absolutly RUBBISH at it. I was so bad that i lost the little hook (that scarily looks like a fishing hook) which you use to penetrate the skin and hook through, therefore sweing the person up, in the fake skin we had. And i mean seriously lost, i don't know how, but we couldn't get it out. So, god help my future patients when they have a laceration.

Another one i found very fun and interesting was taking blood and needles in general. Now this one i was good at, i was the only one on our table that managed to get blood out of the little fake vein thing first time! Everyone else kept going too far, or going in at the wrong angle. Not me!

Also, one of the other main thing the course offered was not only the chance to sit in real lecture theaters, learn from real professers and get the chance to try things that we will hopefully be training for in the future, but i was also a chance to see what general student life was like. For example, we slept in real halls of residence and got our own room, we ate in the actual food halls normal students ate in, and we got to live like real students. And i have to say, i absolutly loved it!

So to sum up, I think i will love being a student, Campus uni's are very different from City uni's, Don't let me anywhere near someone that needs their arm sewing but if you need blood taken or need an injection, i am the person to come to!

Bon Voyage!
P.S. If you get the chance to go to a conference of your subject in the university of Nottingham, Go for it! it was a fantastic experience. Check out workshop's (the people who organise it) website and see if there are any you wish to attend: http://www.workshop-uk.net/

Day 4 in the big ass (sarcasm alert) blog!

Did you, or did you not read out that title in a Geordie accent? I thought so. Big brother is brain washing us all, which is bad because soon our minds will melt and come out of our noses, its not going to be a pretty sight people!
And yes i know, before you start whinging <-- (i've just spent almost 10 minutes of my life trying to work out how that bugger was spelt, stupid silent H's) at me, i know its been more that 4 days, but im counting posts because i was away at the weekend.

So, as i am sure you have already guessed if you have been reading my other posts, i would like to become a nurse and i have made this blog so to convince anyone that is from a university how much i actully want to be a nurse. This is because unfortunatly i can only write about my desires in 4000 characters on my UCAS form, which is utterly stupid because i could never convey this in 4000 words, so im cheating... sort of. If anyone is reading this from a university, Hello!

My interest in nursing came from when i was much younger, smaller and pretty stupid (i.e i was in the second lowest class in both setted subjects, English and Maths) at the tender age of 7. When i was 7 i contracted a disease called henoch-schonlein purpura, also known as HSP. Don't worry, the name terrified me too, but it is names so because the people who found out what this disease was were two scientists called Henoch and Schonlein, obviously Brttish scientists, as you can tell. It is called Purpura because of the nature of the boils and spots that develop on the skin, i.e. they are purple. HSP is a rather unknown (at the time i had it anyway) and rare disease, where the immune system attacks itself, resulting in rather horrible boils on the skin, mainly near joins, so the elbows, knees, feet, and rather hilariously me bottom! So yes, it was rather horrible and i had to stay in hospital for a number of weeks, i can't remember how long but at the time it felt like years.

During this stay in hospital i had one main nurse that looked after me and i remember the first time i met her. I was lying in my bed, in quite a lot of pain with my mam next to me and a nurse comes walking towards me, and i am not going to lie, it was quite terrifying, the main reason why was that she had a shaved head, so looked like a cage fighter, no kidding. I remember my mam sitting next to me saying 'please don't let it be her.' But, it was. She came over and greeted us with a hello and a 'My name is Hayley and I'll be looking after you.' She must have saw the PURE TERROR in my eyes because she then explained that the reason she has a shaved head was that she had been on holiday and contracted a serious disease which meant she has to go to hospital and they shaved her head. And then she smiled, and im not kidding even though this may make some week stomached people throw up, it was if all of my worry about being in hospital had faded away.

Over the next few weeks Hayley looked after me and cared for me. She was the nicest, most caring and loving people i have ever met in all of my life. She was brilliant. I remember lying there as she took my blood pressure (of which she then let me play with later, and i watched my arm slowly go blue, quite facinating) thinking, i wish i was Hayley. Then it struck me, I can be her, I can be a nurse!

So from then on i wanted to be a nurse, and i put all my efforts into trying. I actully started trying in school and i went from almost bottom set, to almost the top set. Then when i got to high school i realised i would have to try much harder because i wasn't born with a natural intellegence, much to my horror. So i tried and tried, and after a few failed attempts, i finally started to receive C's and B's, then eventually, in year 11 i recieved my first A! I was amazed! Then i realised i can actully achieve my goal, i can actully become a nuse! And hopefully, in the next yar and a bit, i will be training to do so.

So i encorage all those who think they can't, to go for their goals because that is what will make you happy, which i feel is the most important thing in life.

Bon Voyage!

The fringe festival!

Hello fellow bloggers!

I am back from the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh! Hurrah! It was brilliant! We camped outside of Edinbrugh in a place called Beil, i've been there before and it is a lovely place... well, field. The festival itself was really good however the problem was we couldn't see any really good acts, like the famous comediens because they were all on late at night and we had to get the train back at 6, it was a shame but we saw some excellent street performers. There was one guy, a beat boxer who sung the 7 nation army, doing the bass, the drums and the lyrics all at the same time! It was truly amazing! We also saw a guy called Carus, a singer from Australia, he was also amazing, so i bought his album :)

I'm not going to go on and on, but if you have the opportunity to go to the fringe, GO! It is awesome, but i would advise that you stay late so that you can see the good shows :)

Bon voyage!

Next update: Tuesday!

I was planning to update the past few months of my life per day because i didn't want to blow all of your minds all in one day, but I was out most of the day today to cinema to watch Captain America! (review will come at the end of this post) And then tomorrow morning im heading to the Edinburgh fringe festival, Yay! So therefore i won't, unfortunatly be able to update untill tuesday, sorry bloggers! So in the next post i'll talk about why i want to be a nurse, which i'm sure you'll fine extremely interesting!

So, quickly, Captain America! I was really looking forward to this film because i love the comics (well from the ones i have read, which is limited, but still, you can tell how good the book will be from the first chapter, and i found Captain America's 'first chapter' rather interesting and exiting) and i love the superhero genre. I had to debate between seeing Captain America and the Inbetweeners movie, which i also really wanted to see! And i have to say i completely and utterly wished i went to see the Inbetweeners. Captain America was possibly one of the worst films i have EVER seen in all of my life. It was i film i new that would either be amazing or completely S**t, and let me let you it was deffinatly the latter. It was so over the top and fake i actually got annoyed at quite a few points. One of the worst parts of the film was the german accents, and im sure many germans watching this film would commit suicide over how bad they were, and also how bias the film was. The americans seem to think that by changing every W into a word into a V this counts as a german accent, Ja, zey do indeed, i mean vhat ze 'ell? It was also unbelievibly predictable, as soon as you saw the pretty woman (who had a Brittish accent) you know Captain America would fall in love with her, i was almost sick. The only thing that i got wrong was the fact that the Brittish woman was not evil, because usually, as in ALL american films, the Brittish are evil.

The only thing about this film that was good was the fact it was so bad me and my good friend could have a brilliant laugh over how hilariously bad it was, so it turned into a comedy!

Rating out of 10: 2