Chautauqua

So, I'm posting over a week later than when I said I would.... But, I'm a procrastinator, and that's pretty much my only excuse other than being slightly busy and tired.

So now I'll finally tell you about Chautauqua.

We got there, unloaded our stuff, and waited for everyone else to arrive, when they did, we all loaded up the ferry, and then loaded all the people, and went over the river to the other side, then we loaded all our stuff onto a truck, and started walking to the lodge, we all unpacked the truck, brought our own stuff to our lodges, and came back to the lodge so we could hear all of the rules and sign up for jobs. (Chores) There's all sorts of jobs,. bathroom cleaning, dishes, cooking, kitchen clean up, sweeping, tidying up, mopping, et cetera. I chose cooking, mopping, and dishes. Cooking is definitely the most fun, you make food, talk to people, chop things, hang out with your friends, and get to listen to music, it's tons of fun. But it is the most time-consuming, so you don't want to cook too much because you want time with your friends. But all of the chores are really fun, it's a big place with lots of people, so you always need a bunch of people doing the chores, which makes it more fun since it's more social. (By the way, all of the meals at Chautauqua are vegetarian, always with at least one vegan option)

There's a beautiful beach, and a gorgeous meadow, and hikes and mountain views. I brought my camera and took lots of photos, unfortunately Chautauqua is also very sandy, which got into my camera, and broke it. Now when I turn it on, the screen doesn't work, it makes an angry buzzing noise, doesn't take pictures of course, the lens won't retract, and it won't turn off without pulling out the batteries. My dad completely took it apart and tried to fix it, but it won't work. So I no longer have a working camera, and don't have the photos, and I'm not sure I ever will. Hopefully I'll get a new camera soon... If I ever get the photos on my memory card, I'll be sure to post them.

Anyway, there's tons of cool people there, most of which I only get to see once a year, so it's always nice to see them again. Every family is supposed to have someone in their family put up a workshop, and there's all kinds, most of which are games, like card games, board games, frisbee on the beach, there's sandcastle building, hikes, how to build a fire, and all sorts of things, which are different every year. I didn't plan ahead enough this year, so I didn't do anything, I think I'll teach people how to make vegan sushi next year. Either with brown rice, or quinoa (I got the idea from some other blog I read, I don't remember which one though. It sounds delicious!).

Even if you aren't a very social person, you can always stay in your cabin and be alone, stay on the beach, go on a hike, whatever you like. But I think after a while you would warm up to the people and want to be with them more. If you like people a whole lot, you can pretty much be with people constantly if you want.

For three of the days (Every day other than the first and last day) there's a day-long assassin game. (For those of you who don't know that game, don't worry too much, it's not very important. And if you will be going to Chautauqua, and want to play, the rules will be explained)

On Thursday, there's also a dance, it's mostly just the teenagers, but the first hour or so there's usually a bunch of kids and adults, and then later there are slowly less and less adults and kids, and more teenagers.

And this year, someone's workshop was to have a talent show. There weren't that many people in the talent show this year, but it was still a lot of fun.

The last day everyone completely cleans the lodge and their cabins, pack up the truck, and start heading out. Then after the ferry is unpacked, people start loading their cars, and saying goodbye to eachother, and getting eachothers phone numbers and email addresses, and some people meet up at McMenamins, and then after getting lunch, it's goodbye. Which is always pretty sad.

That's all I have to say for now. If you have the time, you should definitely try to go to Chautauqua next year, it's incredibly fun!