Summer School 2008

I'm not really sure where to start with this one. This year's summer school (the first one I'd attended since 2004) was exhausting, challenging, exciting and lots of fun. So I shall write under those headings:

Exhausting

I have really grown old since 2004. Back then, I went the whole week without a single nap. This year, at exactly 2pm every day (apart from Wednesday, when some friends came up for Oscars night- more on that later) I would retire to my room for a sleep. For a good hour. And even then, I ended up looking like this after the week had finished:

Challenging

Now, there are two kinds of challenging. There's the 'fun' challenging, for example trying to get a Jaffa Cake from your forehead to your mouth without using your hands (it will come as no surprise to you that I failed this particular challenge...):

And then there's the 'challenging' challenging. And in a lot of ways I found the week really tough. There was my cell group of 16 year olds, who I initially really struggled to connect with but by the end of the week felt like we'd all come a long way, learnt a LOT about each other and that it had been the making of me as a cell group leader- a learning curve indeed!

Also, I'd chosen the Social Action option this year. Our leader, Jo Taylor, was excellent- so passionate about social justice and determined to instill that same passion in us. And she did a very good job. I came away from the week with a real drive to Do Something- we'd spent some of the week helping a charity called 'Re-Cycle' prepare old bikes to be shipped off to Africa (where bikes are life-changing), and would like to carry on helping those guys in some way. One quote that really stuck in my head was:

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."- Edmund Burke

So will keep you posted on that one!

Exciting

The entire summer school was split into 8 tribes (I was the leader of The Flowerpot Tribe). Each tribe had to make a short film in preparation for Oscars Night. Ours was called 'Overfield', (a variation on 'Cloverfield'), where the students get a little too curious about what was beyond our field boundaries at the University of Essex... Anyway, we won the much coveted 'Best Film' award, at which point I couldn't even imagine winning an actual Oscar, the feeling was that good! I think we look a little famous in this photo, like we've just been snapped by the papparazi (although I think that was the idea):

However, whereas all the other award winners when home with actual Oscars (well, garden gnome shaped Oscars), Chell hadn't bought quite enough, so I was handed a bit of playdough instead. Rubbish.

Fun

We had a really, really fun week. There were lots of silly games, running jokes (who knew that holding a banana to someone's ear and making them pretend to have a conversation would never, ever get old, no matter how many times you did it...) and late nights where we would literally cry with laughter over the most ridiculous things. I made plenty of new friendships, rekindled one or two old ones and had a brilliant time. Roll on next year...

Yes, that is toilet paper wrapped round my head.