The First Day
I was so nervous when my family reached IGC. What if my strained arm would not hold up all the pressure? I had no idea what I was going to do. So we checked in, and I found my friends from the school team. It turns out our cabin was 25, which is the last cabin (meaning we're last being called for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner). After my parents left, we had a cabin meeting. We all introduced ourselves, and went over the rules and stuff. Our counselor was Betsy, who is so nice! I learned that we were being screened that night to be put into groups! I was so scared! When it was my turn on floor to be tested, I just decided to go for the back handspring. I really didn't CARE if my arm hurt, honestly! So I went for it...and I had no pain! It was unbelievable. Then on bars, I showed my kip and front hip, but I noticed when I did a pullover, my arm really hurt...so I decided to stay away from stuff like that. So all in all, I was very happy about the outcome of the screening.
In the Gym
The next day, I still had some nerves, but I knew that I could still do a lot of stuff if I tried. Beam was first, and I could do most stuff, I just didn't want to try walkovers, because that was way too much pressure. Our coach for beam was Betsy's best friend, Kristin, who is also so nice. All week she kept coming up with new moves for us to try because we told her our routines were all blah. Next we had bars with Stephanie, who is also really nice and so funny too! The majority of the week we worked kips. Bars didn't hurt much either. Next we had floor. I couldn't do much on floor, because there was so much pressure involved! The first day when I tried back handsprings, I kept bending my arm, b/c I think I was afraid to hurt it. The first day I kept stinging it, so eventually I just sat out. But by the end of the week, I tried to just go for my back handsprings, and not even think about it. It worked, and I was doing them by myself! Next we had strength and conditioning or flexibility...I don't know what they called it! But Svetlana Boguinskaia was teaching it! She was really nice to us, and was funny also. Sometimes she would just ask me a question or something like that, and I'd be thinking, "Svetlana just talked to me!" It was kind of funny. After that, we had dance. Dance was okay...we learned a dance, and then whoever did it the best was put in a group to perform it in front of everyone. Last we had vault. I was very afraid to vault the entire week, but everyone kept telling me I should, and eventually, I made myself vault, and it didn't hurt too much actually! My vaults were bad...but at least I did it at all, right? Then, one day in open workout, I was doing aerials, and I landed pretty hard on my left leg. I must've pulled a muscle, and it kept me out of doing stuff on Friday. But that was pretty much fine by me, because I think my body needed a rest!
Recreation
The second day, we went horseback riding! It was so much fun! I got a slow horse, but I didn't care, because I was nervous about it anyway. We trotted a bit, but mostly we just walked through the trail in the woods. It felt so relaxing!
The third day, we went on Scary Aerie! Scary Aerie is a rockclimb, then a beam which is REALLY high, and then a zipline. The rockclimb was fairly easy. But when I got to the top and was about to go onto the beam, I got a little scared. This was NOT for someone who was afraid of heights, which I'm not really that badly. I just kept my head up and walked it like a normal beam, and I wasn't nervous at all. Then came the zip line. The zip line was so much fun! It went right over the lake, and you could see some of the camp. The zip line made it all worth it!
The fourth day we went jet skiing. Jet skiing was fun, and fast too. While we were at the other camp, we got to kayak and paddleboat a little too. The fifth day we got rained out on trapeze :(.