Unexpected Awesomeness

I have never had many exciting thoughts about North Carolina. For me it's just always been one of those states that is just there and not a lot happens, it's just not an "exciting" state for me. I have also never spent much time there: A trade show with dad as a child, maybe a ski trip or two, and a few drives right on through it to get to another, more "exciting" state. But yesterday, whew!, yesterday it exceeded all of my expectations.

I drove up to North Carolina Monday evening and stayed with some people that work at Camp Hollymont, then got up yesterday morning and drove to another camp a little less than an hour away. As soon as I got into North Carolina the scenery immediately changed. It went from boring interstate-flatness to high mountains and many trees that seemed to never end, and they didn't. I was driving through mountains the entire time I was there. I spent the night up on Black Mountain which is where our brother camp, Camp Rockmont, is located. Then I drove, with one of the girls behind me, over to Camp Carolina where we would be learning to do archery and teach it to children this summer.

Now you must understand our mindset going into this training program. We are two girls who will be working at an all-girl camp for the whole summer. We new that there would be guys at the training too, but we weren't expecting what we got. Also, if you would have told me how bizarre the day would have been, this situation would never have crossed my mind. We got there quite a bit early and it took us a minute or so to find our way around but eventually we found the dining hall and that's where we met the first males of the day. Mostly older guys but all very nice and we ended up sitting with them once the doors opened for breakfast. We learned quite a bit from them. Come to find out, Camp Carolina is an all-guy camp. So we were two of maybe 10 girls I saw all day. Also, these aren't your typical guys, really. They're mostly from another country!! (And when this was first mentioned we didn't truly see the extent of "mostly"). I heard a few of the guys speak and they had "British" accents... then a few more.

After breakfast we went to the skate park thingy they had on their campground, that's where we were told to meet. Here we're sitting and people start coming over a little at a time, all guys. By the time we had all introduced ourselves, Hallie and I had come to a realization: not only were we the only two girls in the class, we were the only Americans. And a conclusion to follow: today is going to be an interesting day.

These guys were awesome. There were two Scottsmen, Ali (allistor... or something) and Hani. Two Australians, Kriston and Matty. Three englishmen, Gary, Neil, and... Tom?. A South African, Hanno (pronounced Hanu, with a South African accent, of course). And one more guy who I do not remember the name of or the country he was from, but I remember his face.. BAH! The guy who instructed the class was from Augusta, Georgia. He was a character, too.

Back to the guys, Hallie and I spent the day saying "huh?" (mainly to Ali who, if remember correctly, was from west Scotland... he had the most difficult accent to understand), and asking them to repeat things and the spell them (so we were sure we heard it right) then explain the meaning.

A few interesting things and mythbusters: (all said with the proper accents)
- Scotland: "Have you got a giraffe?" has the same meaning as "Are you pulling my leg?"
- England: A "Trolley" is not one of those red double decker buses, it's a shopping cart. And they just called the buses, buses. They don't go grocery shopping, they go fruit and veg shopping. The red phone booths are only there for tourists, people don't actually use them and they had to remove some of them from the streets because they are becoming vintage items and people were stealing them. They graduate from "senior school" at the age of 15. Then the system gets very complicated... but there's a lot of education opportunities.
- People from every country thought our idea of "Middle School" was ridiculous and we should just have two schools instead of that extra one in the middle.
- OH! And this one is my favorite. All these guys came to America to work at a camp. Why? Because they want the "American Camp Experience".. Apparently it's a big deal in other countries that we have camps. I didn't know it was so exciting, I'm missing out. HA!
- There IS a difference between British and English, like it would be insulting to call a Scottsman English, but he is British and you can call him that.

The coolest things I learned were through just sitting and talking. Once the conversation moved to God and faith and they saw that I was a Christian, they were shocked. They said they expected American Christians to talk and do and be all about God all the time and not have any fun. One of the guys said "But you guys have normal conversations and stuff". It really showed me how much the stigma of Christianity has spread outside of our borders. They really thought that as a Christian I would tell them they were bad people when they cussed and make them accept Christ. It makes me sad that this is the reputation our Religion has.

I know many people who hate the word "Religion" because it represents tradition and a lack of emotion and relationship. And I too don't like the word because that's not what we should have as Christians, but that's what Christianity has turned into and thus I have come to hate the word "Christian". I was talking to a long-time friend the other night and we were talking about words, and how the meaning of them changes, like in the song "Mayberry" by Rascal Flatts. I think the meaning of the word "Christian" has changed so much that I don't want to be associated with it.

One of the guys from Australia, Kriston, said that back home him and his friends are called "churchies". I had a hard time explaining to him that around here, that's a bad thing. That I would never want to be called a "churchie" not because I don't want to go to church but that "churchie" would mean that I was pushing my faith on others.

I really enjoyed talking to everyone and the day could not have been better. It ended with a beautiful ride back to Athens, full of winding roads and sunsets over the water. Misty swamps in front of trees and mountains that go on forever. I saw things you only see in pictures in that state. After this first day in the NC, I am very much looking forward to spending the summer up there and I hope to go back and see these guys on my off time and talk about their "American Camp Experience". Haha.

WHOA! I leave one week from today.

peace.