Monticello---Band Camp! Day 1

Last weekend, I went down to the itty-bitty town of Monticello, Illinois for the most amazing and insane two and a half days of my life up until now! The Monticello 4-H camp was where I went with my marching band (shout-out to the Marching Wildcats!) and we worked on the halftime show (Cuban Fire) and grew closer to our sections and to each member of the band (aww). 

The day before (Wednesday, the 8th): 
If you have been to camp before, then you know that camp is expensive. And even though my mom had made prior payments to the band program, we still spent a decent amount of dough on supplies for my sister and I! Here's a list of everything we needed: 

-Instrument 
-Music stand 
-Music 
-Marching appropriate shoes 
-Flip-flops (for the showers; this is camp, after all) 
-Bed sheets 
-Bath towels 
-Lotion sunscreen 
-Lotion bug spray 
-Flashlight 
-Refillable water bottle
-Clip-on fan (the cabins were not air-conditioned) 
-Extra food, SPECIFICALLY junk food (because the food there tasted like, well, camp food)
-Phone (in case of emergencies) 
-iPod (I would die without my music. Plus the bus ride is three hours) 
-Backpack to hold all of your junk, because one suitcase just won't cut it. 

I spent the day going across town trying to locate all of these things then went home and packed and repacked about three times and stayed up late fretting over stuff I didn't pack. That night was very emotional for my parents though, especially my mom. It was the first time my sister and I had been away from home before and she was worried something was going to happen to us. But as you will read on, you will find out my band camp adventures.   

Thursday, the 9th: 
I set my alarm for five o'clock that morning because I was afraid I would forget something and woke up an hour later than planned. I also didn't forget anything. I rushed around the second floor of my house for no reason for an hour, threw on sweats, shoved a bagel thin in my mouth, carried the eight pieces of luggage FOR TWO GIRLS out to the car, and after a very huggy goodbye, my dad drove us to the high school to go to camp. 

 The entire band had to assemble at Neuqua at seven, then we would all leave in our comfortable coach buses at seven thirty. After a near miss where a girl almost forgot her instrument ten minutes before we left, we pulled out of the parking lot cheering. I was so excited!!! I was about to lose my Monticello virginity while all of my friends were old pros at it. I was ready to join the gang. 

 Lucky me, I got a whole row to my self so I stretched out and ate the most AMAZING chocolate chip cookies my friend Madi brought in three Tupperware containers. They are, apparently, a clarinet section family recipe and have a pound of butter and a pound of Crisco in them. Yum. So we ate those, then I drank my body weight in sweet tea and went on a sugar high and started singing One Direction and fell asleep for an hour. I woke back up, and we past the sign welcoming us to Monticello, Illinois! This was it. 

We entered the camp (which is property of the University of Illinois) and passed by the historic mansion (Shoutout to Allerton House!) before reaching the wooded campgrounds. We drove up into a clearing, and for some reason, heard shrieking! We turned around, and there was the SLT (Student Leadership) Team screaming at the top of their lungs and chasing the buses, giving us a very warm welcome! We got off of the bus, collected our luggage, and I was finally able to get a proper look at the camp.  

There were about fifteen cabins on each side of a very grassy, very dead field with about three bathroom complexes to every fifteen cabins. The cabins were wood (obviously) and the bathrooms were made of wood too. There was a mess hall to the left of the cabins and another large practice field to right and past the mess hall, there was a pavilion, some beach volleyball courts, and a small lake where I had several rowboating adventures. 

As if it was a collective idea, the whole group of kids that had gotten off  the buses started screaming and tore off for the cabins. We were hyper and super excited to be there, I guess! I reached my cabin with the rest of my cabin mates (shoutout to Cabin 5!), we unpacked, changed, and headed for the pavilion where our director, Mr. Lauff, made some important announcements and we headed off to lunch. 

Afterwards, we were given a twenty-five minute break and we all met on the football field to start setting up charts and coordinates for the first part of Cuban Fire! We got plenty done in that four hour rehearsal, more than the directors expected, we ended and went off to Rec Time.   

Rec Time (short for Recreational Time) was the hour and a half to two hour break we got every day to go and do whatever we wanted, within reason. Since it was a little drizzly, my friends and I played BS and Spoons with plastic spoons and ate cookies. After Rec Time, we ate dinner and had another one hour rehearsal before going back to our cabins, changing into sweatshirts and sweatpants, lathering ourselves in bug repellent lotion and grabbing our flashlights, and we all made our way to the Senior Campfire! 

The Senior Campfire was the start of the marching band seniors' good-byes. Some were funny, some were awkward, and some included audience participation (various shoutouts and the C-A-M-P-F-I-R-E S-O-N-G Song). I was sitting next to my friends' Ashly, Bethany on my left, Sam on my right, then Austin and Vishnu. Bethany was pretty quiet, Ashly got a shoutout from the most amazing mellophone player in the world, Drew McCrimmon, Sam would make me look up frantically at the sky every time there was a shooting star, Austin made sarcastic comments directed at me and the seniors, and Vishnu, another mellophone player made the loudest noise we never know possible could come out of him when a mellophone senior said, "Shoutout to my mellos!" during his speech. We all thought it was a bear. 

The campfire lasted close to two hours. When it ended, it was close to ten o'clock and the kitchen staff had very nicely set out a bedtime snack for us (chocolate cookies and milk). We all said our respective good nights, brushed our teeth, and settled down in our cabins for a quiet night while Ben Hunter played Taps on the trumpet, the signal for "Lights out, kiddos!"  

My first day was over and I already was in love. I had had so much fun just in that one half day! Here are some pictures from the bus ride and you will get another update on the camp in a day or two! 

Me and Madi, getting ready for a fun bus ride down to camp! (I am the one in the glasses) 

Awww. Emily, one of the girls I shared a cabin with, and Ashley, one of my good friends, on the bus!    

Poor Haley. This was her last trip to Monticello, since she is a senior this year. We hope it was her best!  

Madi's zebra headphones were the hit of the bus. We had a Call Me Maybe dance party. Be jealous.