-Where: On the coast of the Irish Sea in West Wales within an ex-students large estate.
-Who: Half of the Atlantic First years, Camp Leaders [Second years], Peer Listeners, staff, and induction crews from each service.
-Why: To commence extremely rapid and intense bonding between people of all nations, to have fun, to learn about each other, and to make us appreciate home.
-When: The beginning.
After spending the first few days in shock because of the situation my co-years and I were all in, the time for “serious bonding” came in the form of a longggg bus ride to the coast in which I learned every detail about the lives of the three people sitting around me, as well as the eminent three day induction period that has been so anticipated since it’s mentioning. I’d heard many different stories, most involving the abundance of cow patties, freezing weather, falling tents, and frightening food, as well as the seeming side-effect of bonding and having a great time. Luckily for us, it was just the opposite! We slept [quite tightly might I add, with no pillows and no showers!] in British Air force Tents on a field overlooking the coast [Breathtaking to say the least], which we were unaware of as we arrived in the middle of the night thinking we were just on a farm, and woke up to the Irish sea and sheer cliffs around us. On the night that we walked in, dreary eyed and bums aching from the drive, our second year camp leaders were in the large barn leaning forward, heads down, and hands on their knees. Being the History Channel lover that I am and the memory of the movie “Whale Rider” popping into my head, I knew that they were going to greet us with the traditional, yet frightening “Hakka” practiced by the indigenous people of New Zealand. So, our first greeting of camp was a fired up bunch of second years screaming an indigenous war chant with painted faces while looking as scary as humanly possible. Great way to wake us up, as well as a way to confuse us just a little bit more, which usually turns into asking tons of questions and looking oblivious. We were woken up after a few hours of sleep [Dance party all night anyone?] by the second years chanting “Wake up” around our tent, while “affectionately” opening all the windows, and letting the cold air whip into our bundle of ACers huddling for warmth. After a night of fun and some talking with our second years, we started the rotations for activities at camp, which went as follows: Environmental, Surfing, Coastering, Initiative Games, Coastal Walk. For Environmental we helped build a traditional Pembrookshire Hedge with the farmer, as it would have taken him much more time than the two hours that it took us together. Initiative games was really fun as we played a bunch of leadership oriented games that I’ve never seen before, mind games, and games just to get us dirty. The coastal walk involved walking 17km down the coast of Wales, which literally means walking on a pathway with a cliff two feet away from you, and gale force winds pushing you down. Our walk leader from the CAVRA service took us to a place where we saw sea lions, and eventually to a small beach where we all had lunch and talked, until we had to run past the wild horses back to camp. And now, for the two most amazing things, Surfing and Coasteering. In order to go surfing in Wales, it’s generally a bright idea to wear a wetsuit, as it’s absolutely freezing in the water [as in much cooler than barton springs], and the jagged rocks generally don’t mix well with people. So, my Induction group and I waddled out of the van that Alan so generously sped through the practically 4ft wide roads to get to, and stripped down to get in our Wetsuits in the gale force winds, light rain, and majestic life jackets and helmets. Yes, we looked like a bunch of goonbas running around in our bright yellow helmets [Confounded British health and safety regulation!], while small children ran beside us in their stylish wetsuits into the surf. We did some warm up exercises with our French Instructor Nick, and then linked arms to walk straight into the biggest surf that I’ve ever seen in my life. Truly, While walking the waves were a couple feet above our heads like mountains crashing down, and all the time Nick continued to laugh and push us forward to the point that we were on our tippy-toes in the water. Finally, a massive wave blew us all apart and we body surfed back to shore, and commenced in beginning to surf. Much to everyone’s surprise, a Texan can surf! I actually did really well despite the large surf, and we all had an insanely fun time surfing together. And, for the Camp Finale, Coasteering. Coasteering involved my group once again suiting up in our wetsuits, our helmets, our lifejackets, and this time our Tennis shoes [or “trainers” as they say here]. Our iron men of instructors charged up the hills down to the old ruins of a slate mine, and jumped into THE coldest water I have ever felt [Most likely because MY wetsuit had a GIANT hole right in the crotch…my luck!!], and swam/tried to swim to the open water. We slipped around over seaweed and climbed through the inlet, only to jump into the expanse that was brimming with sea lions. Yes, we were swimming with sea lions in the Irish sea with people from a million different countries…Wicked. We practiced proper technique to jump of cliffs [Hurrah!], and then swam over to the part of the land mass that was jutting out, with a smallll hole that you could see when the tide went back and forth. Naturally, our instructor decided that we would go under the cliff through the tidal hole and come out the other side. As we went one by one, it literally felt as if the cliff was sucking us under and popping us back out into it’s stomach; we were in a massive cavern under the cliff, and once everyone was inside we swam out to the other side. The Using the barnacles on the slate cliffs, we were all able to scale nearly vertical parts to once again jump off into the violent water and roaring waves. I still can’t believe that it passed health and safety regulations, but it was definitely fun! We went down a few natural slides, got sloshed by massive waves that would pull you back and then cover you with the next one, climb up the sides of cliffs, and then reach a massive jump with which nearly everyone jumped off! We had two non-swimmers, so it was definitely difficult for them, we be managed to pull them along through the water and help them out with everything. My tutor, who is also my English teacher was also with us, as well as Neil Richards [Our new Headmaster/Principal] who went with the next group. We went back to Camp pumped with adrenaline at the insane feat that we had just conquered, and had the traditional bonfire that night. During our last night’s bonfire, every country that was represented sang their national anthem for everyone, and sang different campfire songs in different languages. On that note, everything here is very multi-lingual; during anything that requires counting or numbers, you say it in your own language, which becomes very interesting when you’re stretching and you hear 12 different languages within a few minutes. In the end, camp was amazing, I became extremely close to the people in my tent, the second years that were with us, and the people that were in my induction group. I hope to be a camp leader next year so that we can have as much fun as we did this year next year with our first years! Neat eh, while everyone else was in school, my school sent us on a camping trip to go cliff diving, surfing, and hiking. Everyone should get the chance to experience an education as it’s done at Atlantic, and that’s why I love it here.
Loving it,
K
Did I mention that there are sheep EVERYWHERE? Plus, I learned something ridiculous the other day; sheep are born with large bush tails, but they take them off! There's a bunch of sheep that are brown and white in Llantwit that have their tails still...we were dumbfounded.
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