El Lago del Bosque, 2006

(This is Ty writing, and he took the photos, too.)
Last week I went to El Lago del Bosque. I had gone there for a weekend before, though this was nothing like I thought it would be. It was different because there were different activities you got to choose, and there was a very different schedule.

I usually got up at 7:27 - 7:30, though the first day I woke up at 8, which was when you were supposed to get up. If you wake up earlier, you have to stay in bed unless you have to go to the bathroom. At 8 you had to get up, get dressed, or if it was your assigned time, you took a shower. I was assigned to take evening showers. Then we went to breakfast. Before every single meal, we had to sing a song I call "Gracias por el pan" which means "thank you for the bread." We usually had some kind of cereal or oatmeal for breakfast, but it usually wasn't very good. There were croissants with cinnamon replacing the butter, which were bad. On the last day they had Fruit Loops for breakfast, which were great.

After breakfast we cleaned the cabin. This is what it looked like in the evening, so we had to clean in the morning. After the cabin was clean, we had free time for half an hour. Usually I played ping pong. Then, we did our first activities. I did a nature walk every day. We went down to the lake, and we had to walk down this long, winding old deer trail to get there. It was too cold to go swimming until the last day, but I didn't want to go swimming that day. We would occasionally stop to see an animal or interesting plant, but I wish I could have been signed up for boating instead of walking.

After that, we had more free time, then group activities before lunch. It varies what activities you do, though each group does a different activity each day. One day we did a play. Another day we made folders and put papers with the names of our familiy members, in Spanish, in them. Ben was Benito, I was Martin, my parents were Mama and Papa, and Colby was Perro.

After that we had lunch. We usually had salad, bread and something else. The bread was wonderful. It was homemade every day and I loved it!

After lunch was a half-hour siesta and we actually had to rest in our beds. This is the view from my bed. I am taking a picture of Jose and he is taking a picture of me!

After siesta we would get even more free time. This time we had an hour and a half, from 3:00 - 4:30. I usually played more ping pong, though I also liked to relax in these comfy chairs. There was usually a counselor sitting in one of the chairs, also, so I usually chatted with him or her, en espanol.

The buildings all surrounded the center of the camp, where there was a fountain. Here is a picture of it.

The last night we had a fiesta. Every person got one ice cream cone, and chances to do activities, like trying to cover a balloon with whipped cream before it popped. It was very hard - I only saw three people who did it. There was music and some dancing. I didn't dance but I had fun anyway.

On the last day I was very happy to see my Mom. Then we went to pick up Ben at Skogfjorden, and drove back home.