After almost 4 hours of travel, crossing an incredible huge forest, we finally arrived to a small town in the middle of nowhere. The place was called Hancock (NY). Hopefully no-one feels offended, however I felt that way when I arrived. Today, I would like to go back and visit this amazing town again.
I stepped out of the bus, looked around, took my luggage and sit on the closest bench. I’ve been told that there will be someone waiting for me and taking me to the camp. To be honest, I was totally excited. My fear changed to excitement and I got new energy. It was an incredible feeling. Finally being here, being in US, in this amazing country, meeting new people with different habits a living style. I was happy experiencing how things will be in the United States.
I already fall in love with the houses. It might be funny for you, however those were typical wooden houses similar to the houses from movies like: Patriot (with Mel Gibson), which I’ve seen as a kid. I was really thrilled.
Luckily I haven’t had to wait for long. A really nice girl came to me, asking: “Koloman?”, I’ve said: “Yes, and who are you?” She said: “I’m Vicky, I came to pick you up and take you to the camp”. Now I was even more excited. Took my luggage and just followed her. In 1 minute we arrived to a car where another guy was waiting for us. “Nice to meet you, I’m Nick”, said the guy, took my luggage and we were already heading up to Camp Wayne for Girls. Yes, this was the name of the camp, which chose me and where I was planning to work the whole summer.
In the car Nick and Vicky started to ask me several questions. We talked about my home town, school, how is the life in Europe and about the camp. I’ve asked them to tell me something about them as well. After about 15-20 minutes we arrived to the camp. It was in the middle of a forest, surrounded by a small lake. It was simply wonderful.
Such a peaceful place, with trees and fresh air everywhere. It was like a wonderland. Nick took me to room where the other maintenance guys were living and went for Matt. Matt was a friendly guy in his early 40’s. He was the manager of the camp. His wife Adena was the daughter of the owners (Noel and Georgeann).
Matt was also responsible for running the camp. He picked the staff (including me), ordered the food, managed the transportation of the kids, simply everything. He introduced me to the other kitchen boys (that was our name given by Matt) who already arrived. That’s how I met Vitalii, his girlfriend Helen, their friend Jurij (all of them from Ukraine) and Rico (from Turkey). Except of Vitalii all of them were in the camp for the first time and working in the kitchen. For him it was the second time being in this camp, and now he got responsible for making movies about the kids, who are supposed to arrive later in June.
Vitalii showed me the camp, explained everything and got me comfortable with my job. As I’m not a lazy person, and don’t like to just ahng around, so I’ve decided to help since my arrival. I unpacked my stuff, changed clothes, and went to help to the others to prepare the dinner. That’s how I met 2 amazing guys: our cook, who was the chief it the kitchen and his friend, who was working there as 2nd cook. I’m sorry, but I don’t remember the names. It was 10 years ago.
Later that week new colleagues of my (kitchen boys and cleaning girls) arrived. We all got to know each other and started to work/live together. I will tell you more about it in the next chapter. 😉
Treska - Travel Smart with Koloman 