But I’m going to post it anyway

Got my degree results this morning and I got a first! Wahooo.

Signing off now, Katie McPhillimy, BA (Hons) Journalism. First class honours.

And it took a lot of internet searching to get the best deals!

After much browsing of travel sites I’ve got my flights to LA (via chicago) and from New York for £807. OUCH! That was through Trek America, and it really was the best ones available.

Trek America also organised me two nights in hotels- one in LA the night before the trek (£31) and one in New York the night it finishes (£67), both twin share rooms. I’m spending another night in New York before I fly back, so thought I would be clever and find myself a cheap hostel. I read about one in my guide book called the Gershwin hostel- which doubles as an art gallery. They had shared rooms (up to ten people) for $40, which were sold out. But they also had shared rooms (up to 6 people) for $44, but you have to be an aspiring model to stay in these, and have to book through your agent. How strange??!! Sadly, I’m not an aspiring model, just a travelling student on a budget, so I carried on looking.  

And I found one, £25 through expedia- with a common room with a pool table and table football, so booked a shared room there (up to ten people) and was feeling VERY proud of myself– until I read some reviews online, which included “the hallway smelt of piss”, “staff were rude and swore at us” and several mentions of cockroaches and mice. Oh dear. Still, it’s only for one night, I’ll survive.

And then finally, I booked train travel and a hotel for the day before I fly- for under £50 together!!! And less excitingly a flight home to Leeds Bradford for £60.

So now I’m feeling very VERY skint, but am really struggling to find employment because I’m going away in less then a month. I’ve been turned down by 6 temp agencies, my boss at my previous job and bar work in several local pubs. Any suggestions of where I might be able to get work are VERY welcome. I’ll do anything… (within reason).

Definately over. I’m getting a refund and everything, there’s no chance of getting placed anymore. Boohoo.

CCUSA rang me yesterday morning and said they had a camp who wanted to hire me, I just had to wait another day for them to confirm. So being impatient, I rung them at 3.30 yesterday afternoon (knowing that they would have had chance to speak to the camp, which was in Pensylvania, by then), and they said that unfortunately the placement had not been successful, and that they would refund me my fees, my visa money and the money for my CRB check.

So that’s the end of that then.

But on the plus side, I booked my trek and flights this morning, so I’ll be in LA in just over a month, and blogging from there. And maybe a bit about preparations inbetween. I’m quite liking this blogging lark now I’ve got the hang of it.

So stay tuned!

This blog is getting alot of attention recently! This is just a quick one, honest….

A girl I met at a CCUSA meeting in Leeds got place today to go to a camp in Southern California. And CCUSA have extended their deadline until Sunday. So you just never know, it could still happen. I almost told them I wanted a refund on the phone this morning, but decided to hang on another day, just in case.

However, if I dont get placed I have picked my trek- a 3 week one from Los Angeles to New York, calling in at Hollywood, Universal studios, San fran, Yosemite national park and Yellowstone national park (where Yogi bear lives, my dad informs me), Chicago, Ohio and Niagra falls… and a few others.

Unfortunately yes, I’ve had another setback.

As I said the other day, I’d been emailing round camps to see if any had any vacancies, and for every no I go I was sending back an email to see if they knew of anyone who did. That eventually lead to one camp putting me in touch with another camp who do need staff. Hurrah!

It’s a girl guide camp in New York, and the work is starting July 6 just for a month, leaving plenty of time to travel afterwards (yippeee). So they asked me to get some references and fill in an application form, which I did.

But then I hit a snag. I realised that my visa will only allow me to work in the US if the camp is a CCUSA camp, as CCUSA are my ’sponsors’. Whatever that means. And this camp isn’t registered with them.

So I rang up the US embassy to see what I could do and if I could change my sponsor, and they said my only option is to apply for a new visa. The waiting list for which is 37 days. So that’s that idea out then.

My only hope now is that the camp will change their minds and decide to restart their membership with CCUSA, and be willing to pay them fees to organise me going. I think it’s unlikely, but you never know.

If it doesn’t work out, fear not (!) I’ll go travelling in the states for 3 or 4 weeks instead, and I’ll blog that. It looks like Trek America do some really amazing trips.

In the spirit of staying positive and not giving up yet, I decided to see if I could help my placement along any way. If there’s one thing journalism has taught me, it’s to be persistent.

So I found a website that camps use to advertise vacancies, and although most were posted in January-March and so have probably been filled, I decided to email a load just to see if they were still looking for international staff. I emailed 36 in total, and had a few responses that mostly said they were full up. For every no that I got I’ve sent an email asking if they know of any other camps that are still looking for staff.

And after a while I got a response from one camp saying they only accept international staff from organisations such as CCUSA. So I mailed back to say I am with CCUSA, please have a look at my profile. And she mailed back “Ok, I might have one position left, I’ll check your profile out right now”. So I got very excited, jumped up and down and frightened the cat. But it was not to be. The camp was a Christian camp, and they only wanted staff who had made a committment to Jesus, and could be a good Christian role model to children. I do not fit either of these requirements in any way. Back to searching.

But not wanting to be deterred so easily, I decided that targetting camps that I know use CCUSA was a good way to go, maybe they’d be impressed that I’m so keen to go that they would look at my profile immediately and decide that I’m the girl to fill their last spot. So I did a CCUSA search on facebook and found a group of people talking about the camps that they’d been to, I put them into google and sent some more emails.

So far I’ve only had “no”’s, but maybe soon…

I’ll be honest. All is not going to plan.

I got an email from CCUSA this week saying that they can’t guarantee me a place at a camp now, because the camps are needing less staff this year (due to the economy being down, less families are sending their kids to a camp).

I believe them, because I have a friend who went last year to a camp with 180 staff, and she says this year they are only taking 120 staff.

But it leaves me in trouble. They’ve said because my application wasn’t accepted by the UK office until after April 1 I’m not guaranteed a place. But until Wednesday I didn’t know that my application hadnt been accepted until after April 1, I sent it off in the middle of march and had my interview on March 31, which I thought meant I’d been accepted. I also received a letter from them in the middle of April saying I was guaranteed a place once I was accepted by the US office if I could fly before June 15. I rang and checked I’d been accepted by the US office (I had) and I said I could fly from June 6th. Obviously I’ve put all of this in an email to CCUSA, but had no response. I guess they’re snowed under with emails like that.

So basically they’ve said they’re still trying to place me, and I might not know until June 26th. So I could be waiting around for ANOTHER week, just to find out that I’m not going. But I’m hoping for the best, I’ve improved my application so it says I’m willing to work at any type of camp (including religious camps, camps for people with disabilities and underpriviliged camps, which I’d said no to before) and I’ve started searching for camps online and emailing them to see if they need any staff- I’ve had one response from that so maybe that’ll work out.  

I’ll keep this blog updated, keep your fingers crossed for me!

I haven’t forgotten all about this blog already, I’m actually still waiting to find out where I’m going, and it’s getting very frustrating!

Particularly as I’m back in Leeds staying with mum and dad and so keep bumping into people from school who I haven’t seen for a while and obviously I want to show off about how well I’m doing, so I say “oh yes, I’ve just finished university, loved it. And now I’m going off to America for the summer to work on a kids camp and do a bit of travelling” and they say “oh right, where are you going?” and I reply: “Ummmm, welll…..”. Not too impressive. 

And of course, while I don’t know where I’m going I also don’t know when, or what exactly I’ll be doing (could be just a general councillor at a general camp, could be hockey coach, could be at a sports camp, a drama camp.. etc etc)

I’ve rung up CCUSA this morning and they’ve told me not to worry, lots of people are still waiting for their placements, and that the last flights out are between June 22-27th. And I might not know where I’m going until two days before!! So I’m just waiting around until then… think I’ll go start building up my tan in the garden.

 

So this summer I’m going to spend nine weeks working on a kids camp in America, and I’m going to be using this blog to record what I’m up to.

I can only describe me going to do this as completely mental, and totally out of character for me. I’ve never been travelling before (other then family holidays) and to be honest I’ve never really wanted to, until a few months ago. A friend said that she was going to work on a camp, and I thought: ‘that sounds interesting’, did a bit of research and just decided to go. It’s my last summer of complete freedom, I’m just about to finish my degree (Journalism at the University of Lincoln), and when I get back from the states I will have to get a proper job and be a real grown up. So what better way to spend this summer then doing something completely different, meeting new people and learning about a different culture? I can’t wait.

I’d love to tell you all about where I’m going and what I’ll be doing, but that’s the one snag. I don’t know yet. Although I applied a few months ago (I’m going through an organisation called CCUSA who organise my placement, flights, accomodation etc), I’ve paid my fees, sent off for my CRB check and had my Visa interview, I haven’t been assigned to a camp yet.

There are more then 10 thousand kids summer camps in America, ranging from girl guide and boy scout camps, to specialist sports camps, drama camps, adventure camps, watersports camps and so on… I could be at any of these, in any state. I don’t know when I’m going either, could be any day from June 6th. But of course I might not find out until June 4th.  

Anyway, I’ll keep you informed, hopefully my next blog post will be within the next few days and it’ll be almost incoherent babble of excitement about where I’m going. Until then, I need to buy a backpack, a torch (or flashlight as I suppose I should say) and a sleeping bag….