I have to admit that I allllllllways wanted to go off for summer camp to some lake with cabins and (sorry Tina) outdoor bathroom facilities. I wanted to make a bird cage out of popcicle sticks and a bird feeder from pine cones - all the things that Girl Scouts engrained in me. Alas, it was not to be. My parents, God love them, didn't feel good about sending me off into the "wilderness" and so my time at a dream camp never happened.
However, I did get to go to a summer camp with a twist...
I went three years in a row to summer music camp at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. First off, if you know me, you know I went to The University of Alabama and Auburn is our arch rival...so for me to step foot on this campus, let alone live, eat, and sleep there for a week, was an act of faith. LOL!
Music camp was a blast though...but it wasn't fun and games. This was for people who were serious about their art. There were two tracks: choral and band. For those of us who really lived on the edge, you could do both tracks. I did choral only my first two years and both tracks my third year, which was mega hard work.
In choral, we had to have a singing try out to be placed in the proper voice group. I was a soprano for two years and an alto my third year. Inside choral, it was broken into subgroups: formal chorus, accapella, and show choir. I, of course, did all three. Formal chorus consisted of singing arias and opera-type stuff. Accapella is singing without musical instruments accompanying. The secret to that is staying on key. Let me tell you, it sounds easier than it is. And, show choir is performing dances while singing popular songs or ones from Broadway shows. One year, we did a tribute to Barry Manilow. To this day, I still can't hear "Daybreak" without running through the dance steps and hand motions in my head.
Band was a bit more challenging. You had to try out for a "seat" with whatever instrument you played. I played cornet - or a smaller trumpet for those of you not familiar. I nabbed a second chair seat, which was pretty cool, considering how many trumpeters there were in the camp. Practice was long and hard, but our concert totally rocked.
By the end of the week, I needed another week of vacation just to recuperate! But it was an amazing experiences and I met a lot of wonderful people along the way. The "camping" part was spent in dorm rooms on the campus and eating in the cafeteria. It really got me excited about college life to be with so many people from so many different places all after the same purpose.
I wish I could post some of the pics that I have from those days, but sadly...no scanner in my abode anymore. You'll just have to imaging...LOL!!
Did you ever experience a different type of summer camp? If so, what was it? What was your experience? Leave your comment in the trail to be entered to win a copy of Tera's book! Feel free to enter as many times as you'd like!
Hugs,
Marley = )
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Summer Camp with a Twist
What an exciting week we're having here celebrating Tera Lynn Childs’ second book Goddess Book Camp with a daily book giveaway! Thanks for hanging out with us and huge congrats to TLC!!
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17 comments:
I've never been on a summer camp. Hmm... Do we even have summer camps in Germany? One of my friend own a lake and she's always celebrating her birthday with camping there. I think that's the nearest summer camp experience I ever had.
I did this thing called Mountain Top in high school which was a Methodist Youth Fellowship service where we went up into the Tennessee Mountains and did manual labor for a week.
Marley, I think maybe we were babies switched at birth. ;) I was supposed to get the parents who said NO to summer camp, and you were supposed to get the ones who said, "Sure, if that's what you really want to do." =)
GREAT stories here about your summer music camp!
I've never been to summer camp. There aren't any near where I live and I'm not really outdoorsy anyway.. =[
Music camp sounds like fun! (Even if it was at a rival school.) The summer after my sophomore year I went to an academic camp called the Missouri Scholars Academy. It was three weeks on the Mizzou campus and we got to choose a "major" and a "minor" class to take. My major was about Evolution and my minor was about Time Travel. I liked them both, but the Time Travel class was awesome!!!
I went to Drama Camp at the YMCA three years in a row and it was fantastic and fun!! Lots of work, but so worth it in the end. :P
i had girl scout camp. so many fun experiences!
I always went to boy scout camp during the summers. It was an old CCC facility in the panhandle of Idaho that had been purchased by the BSA. It was alot of boys playing with matches and axes. Good times...good times!
The highlight of the summer though was our troop's annual 50 mile hike. We went to the North Cascades along the Washington/British Columbia border, the Olympic Peninsula, the Bitteroots in Montana.
Luckily, I have never been to summer camp, and now that I'm 33 will probably never go. But I love books, wouldn't mind winning one. Most importantly though, like Marely, I am a graduate of the University of Alabama and so is my wife. ROLL TIDE!!!!!!!!!!
I did not go to summer camp in the traditional sense. I use to figure skate (not nearly as glamorous as it sounds:) and they would have "camps" during the summer that I would attend at the local rink. Thus I did not get to leave my house, learn how to build a fire or learn to pee in the woods (which I have since learned, it is a very liberating expereince FYI) Yes, I was deprived which is why it is imperative that I win a book!
xoxoxo
Kate
P.s. Don't you just love how I worked that plea in there?;P
I've never really been to a summer camp, but I'm so uber psyched because in a little over a week I'm heading off to Show Choir Camps of America. Show Choirs amazing and I absolutely love it, so the camp should be fantastic!
:) Erica
The only real summer camp that I ever remember going to was church camp. I still have a lot of fun memories from the experiences.
The only summer camp I took part in was a Christian camp that lasted a week. They had tons of arts and craft activities, and what seemed like endless sing-a-longs that were torture. My sister and I were forced to join,and we did not know anyone. Pretty much the whole camp was a boring and lonely experience for me,because it was separated into age groups so my sister and I were apart the entire time.
My friend participated in a week long camp. She got there and the counslers thought she was big for her age, so she was moved up with the older kids, where she didn't know anyone. She was homesick and missed her mom so much that she cried every day. The counselers got tired of her crying so they shipped her home asap.
I actually never been to a summer camp...I live in Sweden and that's not very common here :)
sara
I went to a leadership camp once, a 3D2N affair. One of the main events we "leaders" had to go through was to stand in a line and absorb all the insults and harsh criticisms given our way without reacting.
It wasn't my favourite camp, but it did give me a chance to thicken my skin up! ;)
the only camp I attended was the camp week that is usual here in the highest class of primary school. we went to a scouting camphouse with the class and the teacher and help parents and it was fun! the beach was close so we went there a lot to play games like frisbee and beach volleybal.
But the one thing I remember most of it was the little present my parents had for me when I got home (I was terribly homesick and scared to go to camp): a book!
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