Restless

The Girl Who Camped

If you couldn't tell from my horrible pun of a title, this entry shall be a remembrance of my time at a Girl Scout camp that was Harry Potter themed.

To this day, it is one of my fondest memories. All in all, it was a great week. My friend, Kendall, and I had been planning on going together for quite some time, and we got really excited about it. She came over to my house, and we made ourselves wands to take for the occasion.

Now, I had been to Girl Scout camp many times, but that was only for three days with my entire troop. This would be very different because it would be just Kendall and I going for a week long camp. So, of course, we wanted to be prepared, and our giddy anticipation greatly contributed to that.

So, what we did for the wands was we took the cardboard rods from dry cleaner's hangers and decorated them. My dad even got out fancy baseball bat wrap so that we would have handles. Then, from the assortment of crafty things from my basement, we put jewels on the end (most of which fell off because the stickyness didn't last), and we stuck feathers into the middle of the rod, since it was open like a tube. This had to be the best part because we imagined those feathers to be phoenix feathers. I felt so close to Harry Potter it was a little scary.

This was the summer before eighth grade granted.

We were were ready to go by the time of the camp date. We drove out to the rural location in the woods and lugged our bags to our designated area of cabin tents. I still can't decide whether they were cabins or tents; they really weren't either one. It was as if a cabin and a tent had a baby. Impossible, I know, but that's what they were. Built into a hill of woods, the floor was made of wooden boards, and it had a wooden frame. But, canvas hung over the wooden frame like a tent. So maybe it was a nicer tent. I honestly don't know.

Now, I don't remember every detail of this week, but I'll tell you what I do remember. Also, it'll probably be horribly out of order.

I know that the first night we were sorted into houses, and we would compete for the house cup at the end of the week with the people in our house. I already knew that I was made for Ravenclaw. As much as I'd like to say that I belong in Gryffindor, I know that Ravenclaw is my niche at Hogwarts. Kendall had her sights set on Hufflepuff. Her and I both knew that she would be a lovely addition to that house.

But, we were not at Hogwarts.

My friend got Ravenclaw while I got Slytherin.

At first, I was very upset. I didn't belong in Slytherin with all of the evil wizards and witches. But, looking back, I know that it was a good choice. I mean, I am a bad ass.

*audience strongly disagrees respectfully*

Yeah, just kidding, I'm really not. It's still cool to think about though. Besides, Slytherin won the house cup, and Tom Felton's a hottie. So, it's all good in the end.

As a big camp group, we all participated in typical camp activities, but they were called different names so that it was authentic. For example, arts and crafts was called potions class when we tie dyed shirts. It was epic. Mine turned out to be really ugly, but that's beside the point. Point was the camp was freaking cool. We took a hike through the Forbidden Forest and played Quidditch.

Quidditch actually was extremely fun. See, some of you may be wondering, how do you play Quidditch as a Muggle? Well, I shall explain. We obviously had two teams, and a couple of people held hoola hoops at each end of the field we had mapped out to act as goal posts. Then, a softer, plush kind of ball was the quaffle, and one of those awesome exercise balls was the bludger. The snitch was a ping pong ball expertly hidden in the grass.

Each of us was given a position on our team, and we could take turns. For instance, the seeker would trade out constantly because, although it sounds easy, finding a damn ping pong ball in a large area of grass is difficult. I don't remember who won or any other details, but it was amazing.