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!
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