The Bickery becomes the Bakery once again.

When I worked here 2 summers ago, the intern (Nate) and I re-named the Bakery the Bickery, because we bickered all the time. but now, its returned to being the Bakery.

This is the bakery, aka the dungeon in which i work. to the far left you will see the counter in which i regularly work. above it is a collage of pictures i made with all my friends and family on it! its graduation heavy because.... well, some of the best pictures are from that day! to the right of that is the hobart, the machine i use... all day. its a 60 qt bowl, so i can make a lot of stuff. such as enough bread dough to make 17 loaves of bread, or cookie dough to make 100 cookies. then to the right of that all hanging up are the attachments for the hobart, along with whisks, spatulas, and a variety of things that I never used but apparently need to live in the bakery. below that are cookie trays i use and bread pans, also. the counter on the far right holds a mini hobart and behind it is a microwave. the counter in the front right (with 2 bags of bread on it) isnt utilized for much but storage and holding the recipe book. above it though is the white board i write all the days tasks on, and my calendar is there also. in the close left side, you can see in bottom corner all the sugars i have (white, brown, and powdered.) above it is a rack of all the dry ingredients i use all the time (baking soda, vanilla, chocolate syrup, etc. i guess some of those arent dry, so pantry items we'll say.)

this is a closer picture of where i spend.... 70% of my time. that counter is where i work most of the time. thats why i put the pictures above it (as well as a michigan alumni bumper sticker from Josh!). shelves of tons of measuring cups, and those white trashcans under the counter? flour. have to have trash cans to hold the flour. love it.

this is the area where most of the cooking goes on... the left is all counters, the right front is the tilt skillet where they make meat and stuff, and then the griddle where they make mostly breakfast items, and also peppers for philly cheese stakes. back right (with the red handles) are the ovens, which is pretty much all i use in this area.



this is the "sailboat surprise" that happened for dinner tonight. isnt it pretty? it looks really sweet but guess what it is? -- an ice cream bar with it's stick pulled out. Brian thought he ordered ice cream sandwhichs but really he ordered bars. but after a colaboration of Brian and Deb (the assistant cook) and I, this is what we came up with! i was impressed.

Here is Kenny (here for work week, and has done summer staff like 5 times), then Alicia, the AM cook that goes to Hope, Deb, and Maddie, on of my roommates and she goes to school in Santa Barbara who is the PM cook.

Ok, after all these pictures I'm tired and wanting to go to bed. Things are going well. Nothing is normal anymore, but normal is starting. its weird to have nothing familiar and that feeling is kind of catching up with me. Nikki told me week 2 would be the hardest. she's kind of right. I miss home but am also content here.... its a weird feeling and i wish i could have a taste of home... a certain taste.

oh, and Ray Donatucci is our speaker for work week. how great. I love Ray Donatucci. I took a notebook to club last night to take notes so i could hang on to every word he says, haha. we are going through the apostle's creed and last night a point he made was that the single commandment that appears the most in the bible (365 times... once for each day of the year?) is "do not fear" and what is most commonly following that command? "I am with you." Ray pointed it out this way, which i write and posted above my bed --

I AM with you -- I AM, the name the God says to call himself, is with you.

I am with you -- I am here, now, with you. Its not that he used to be with you or will be with you... but he IS with you.

I am with you -- i am here, now with you... not ahead of you, not in heaven away from you -- i am with you.

I am with you -- you! not just him, or her, or them -- but you! You are God's beloved, he pics YOU. (thanks again Kenny...)

just cool.

goodnight!
em

MIA....

sorry its been a while. my life is:

7:40a - wake up
8a - 12:30p - make baked goods
1 - 2p - make more baked goods
2-5p - clean kitchen
6 - dinner
6:30 - pits from dinner
8 - club
11 - go to bed


pretty standard. i'll talk pictures of camp in the next few days and take you on a tour :)

love!
em

Memorial Day Weekend

Hi!

Sorry it's been a few days. I find that the longer I'm here, the less I need to write. Things were a bit rocky at first, with getting to know people has gotten a lot better -- barriers are breaking down and we're all beginning to become a family. I'm really glad that we'll have all been here for 2 weeks before any summer stuff or work crew shows up -- it gives us time to establish ourselves as a intern group and get closer to each other before meeting a flood of new people!

This weekend (Sat - Mon) we've all had off because there are no campers here. Last week we had an Inter Varsity group, and tomorrow work week starts, but this weekend we were the only ones here (thus spurring a lot of singing of our 'theme' song -- "we're interns, we do what we effing want, but not really because we dont have any actual power..." ... a joke, and we say effing not the real word, dont get crazy.) its funny because i think that everyone (well not everyone but...) there is this concept that interns run the show but really, we dont. we get told what to do, and many assigned team people see us as just glorified summer staffers. we have keys, but really.... they dont mean anything. haha. we have the highest expectiations out of anyone, including property staff. shoot.

Friday night Maddie and Alicia (cooks) made us a fantastic flank steak dinner and we all enjoyed that at one large community table (vs the round 8 seaters we usually eat at.) we dressed a little nicer and had a fun night. after that we had a meeting with Greg (camp manager) and talked about what the summer is going to look like. he announced we'd be having the amazing race on sunday/monday. the interns were spit into teams of 4, and we had to made team names and then shirts (more later)

Saturday we got to sleep in and the first thing we did at 10:30 was we set up carnival, which we will do once a week (but with the help of WC and SS). we had to set it up because we were changing the orientation of hwo things were set up. despite the economy, many of our camp weeks are packed so we had to make the carnival area bigger. so we had to set everything up (~45 minutes) and then move stuff around, then we had lunch, then we tore it all down. after that, bunch of us went to Fargo, ND which was a lot of fun. We went to Scheel's, which is like REI/Dick's. I got a rainjacket, which i really needed, and a pair of shorts, as i realized many of which i had werent quite conducive to what i was doing. then we went to target and i got some craft items (shock!) and some other assorted things. we went to B dubs for dinner and my spicy garlic sandwich, at the very least, left something to be desired.

saturday after coming back some of us were hanging out in the cutter (SS housing) and people were tinkering around on the music stuff down there - keyboard, drums, guitars. it ended up with joey and kate started singing a blues song about joey getting a ticket the night before. it was probably 10 minutes long and the funniest thing that has happened yet. after that just hung out and went to bed late becuase we didnt have anything to do in the AM.

sunday was waking up late again and then some of us headed to the flea market, which was AMAZING. i wish i had sundays off because i would go all the time. hopefully i can get out of work early enough sometime to make it over there again. they had some great stuff that i would love to decorate my future apartment/house with.... ahhh, so great. i got a necklace that im going to take apart and make a new necklace with. yes, i would.

afternoon was the amazing race. my team was kate, jimmy, and alicia and i and were were the rhymnoceri (after flight of the conchords song). the events were:

- put the buildings at castaway in order based on when they were built (super hard)
- fill up cups on people's heads from 3 stories up
- canoe around a bouey, someone retreave something at the bottom of the lake near the bouey, and get back. we got sabatoged when someone (STEPHANIE) swam over our canoe and made it take on too much water. then i tried to swim down and get the object but the lake was too cold (mind you, it had ice on it a month ago) and i almost hyperventaliated so.... we bailed on that one.
- retreive 2 leeches each from a bucket and run 30 yards back to our own bucket and put it in it (gross, but doable.)
- bow and arrow -- each person had to hit the target (and i was the first out of everyone to hit it... on my second shot! i remember doing it when i was young... i guess it helped!)

after that we had pizza and hung out. we had worship and a talk from greg, and then went to DQ where i found out jimmy and i have the same "regular" blizzard - cookie dough with choc ice cream. i introduced him to bananas in it, and it was magical. more hanging out commenced when we got home, and i went to bed early b/c i was tirrred.

woke up this morning and just hung out until amazing race part 2. we went to park and had to do a photo scavenger hunt for 4 different locations and then also take pictures of letters spelling out 'castaway club'. apparently, it was supposed to be using signs, but we got creative and used objects, too (honestly, i didnt hear "signs" but others made it clear and said we were cheating.... actually, we were being creative.) here are a few pictures from the event:

Us and Lady Liberty

and A

An L

After that we went to Greg's for a BBQ (kind of.... it was rainy all day so we were inside) and had one final task - to be a garage band and perform a song. we won by doing a re-write of "light the fire" about being interns. it was epic.

then we came back and just hung out, which is what we are doing now. but i've been writing this post for like 2 hours on and off so im going to finish.

goodnight!
em

and they say "she's so lucky, she's a star"

current situation:

- jimmy (landscape) and kate (retail) playing "lucky" by b spears on guitars
- jimmy, kate, james (maintenance) and i singing
- everyone on the computers
- maddie and i crafting birthday cards
- bj (waterfront) just replaced the screen on his macbook
- we are the only people on camp property

life is good.

hard but good.

When you are invited to pray, you are asked to open your tightly clenched fist and give up your last coin. But who wants to do that? A first prayer, therefore, is often a painful prayer because you discover you dont want to let go. You hold fast to what is familiar, even if you aren't proud of it. You find yourself saying: "That's just how it is with me. I would like it to be different, but it can't be now. THat's just the way it is and this is the way I'll have to leave it." Once you talk like that, you've already given up believing that your life might be otherwise. Yo've already let hte hope for a new life float by. Since you wouldn't dare to put a quetion mark after a bit of your own experience with all its attachments, you have wrapped yourself up in the destiny of facts. You feel it is safer to cling to a sorry past than to trust in a new future. So you fill your hands with small, clammy coins which you don't really want to surrender.

- Henri Nouwen, "With Open Hands"

deep clean, then make pancake batter.

today i thought i didnt have any food work to do except to prepare the angel food cake for dinner. so, i deep cleaned the bakery, meaning move evvvvvverything, wipe it down, and scrub where necessary. i also cleaned the air vents. that was fun. well i was just about to move onto the counters and floors (the last steps in the process) when Brian (food service manager... i dont know if ive introduced him before or not) reminded me that we are having pancakes tomorrow and i have to make the batter (yes, at YL camp there is no box batter.... made from scratch yo) so i did that and then did the counters and floor. but then i had the rest of the day to myself. i took a shower and went down to the coffee shop to write some cards and stuff.

i made a sign thing of colossians 3:14 - "and over all these virtues, put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity."

my good friend and saline teammate hannah hunt has shared this verse before and "wondered" at the idea of "putting on" love... almost like it was a shirt you put on before you put on all your other clothes. and what i see so interesting in this is the part after it.... is that the love you put on binds to form unity. that love is the unifying element of... everything.

i put it up in the intern lounge in hopes that we can read it and think about how a great love that we can find and together put on can bind us together as an intern group and also bind us together with our summer staffers and other people here at camp.

its interesting i was thinking today that this is such a weird social place -- not only camp, but often young life as a while. because we are all "young life" people, we are almost automatically predestined to be friends and get along. especially as a group of interns... we are asked to be all friends and all gel together and work together. and sure, part of that is the job of property staff when they select interns to work together and another part of that is us working on our own to mesh well and to give a little here and there to get along but -- really -- above it all, we are just called to love each other and use that love to bind us, regardless of our personal feelings about one another. we are called to reach out to one another and make an effort to get to know others and not just "be" and expect others to pursue us, becuase thats what true community and love is.

we were playing a game last night -- table topics -- i guess its not really a game, but everyone would go around and choose a card and there is a random question on the card and each person answers their question. one of the questions that someone else got was "what is the difference between who you are and who others percieve you to be." i think it is so interesting to me how that answer is very different for me here and for me at home. i think that, at my core, i am a midtrovert (in between an introvert and an extrovert), funny (if thats concieted, im ok with that, haha) and contemplative. i think that in each place though, im on one side or another of that line - or at least, in how im percieved. its weird to be in a new place and know noone well, and be able to project whoever you want... or, withhold as you try and observe and figure out where you fit in it all. so, i guess now begins the process of trying to find the middle group of that and somehow try and have myself and my percieved self match up. but, i guess you dont necessarily have that much control over that.

anyways, that was perhaps deeper than i intended and it may not stay.

we just went to walmart, and i was so reluctant to do so. its a hard line to dance between principles and necessity of items to purchase with few retailers close.

time for bed before making double chocolate chip cookies and big cookie tomorrow.

love,
me

joey has an oar and carries it around.

today was a pretty good day, definitely not as loco as yesterday. i woke up at 7:20a with a substantial headache as I got ready for 7:30a breakfast. I have entered into summer kitchen mode, which means waking up 10-15 minutes earlier than i need to be at work. so, i did that, went downstairs to a delicious french toast breakfast before going to work. today i made oatmeal cookies, coffee cake, and angel food cake. thats.... about it.

we (first year interns) also had safety training and learned how to life safely and evacuate safely. both good things to know. then it was back to the kitchen to assemble cookie plates for lunch. then the rest of the day was kind of just prep stuff, cleaning, and i also decorated the bakery with a poster of pictures i made on snapfish, my calendar, and a few other little things. it looks more homie now.

its still kind of weird as far as community goes. a lot of people know each other in one way or another, and i feel very much the new kid. on top of that, im back in seclusion (the bakery is within the kitchen but off to the back/side) so even when people are in the kitchen i rarely see them. so, its just still very much a getting to know you process, and figuring out what my place is within the group. some times are better than others, some times are lonely and others i feel like i cant find a minute to myself! but right now im good.... sitting in the west wing (what we call the intern apartment type area, where we have bedrooms, bathrooms, and a lounge) and all of us are trying to do stuff on the YL staff website but YL hates mac users, so we cant. lame.

off to go clean up dinner and re-set tables.... im excited for work crew to be here so that we can do our jobs and not do what they usually do (mainly, dining room - serving, setting, and cleaning up, and pits - which are the kids that wash all the dishes.)

until next time.....
em

ps the title is b/c joey (one of the parasail interns) found a mini oar and carried it around all day.

i now have stumps with no endings.

aka, i feel like my feet are going to fall off. i need crocs (as much as i hate to say it.) brian (the food service manager) is going to get me some soon, but hasnt found any in my size around here yet.

today i didnt really know what to expect for the day. so, i made the (in retrospect) poor decision of taking a shower. i went down to breakfast and 40 minutes later i was in the kitchen baking away. today i made white bread, chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, foccacia bread, poppy seed bread, and oreo ice cream pie. oh goodness. what a long day. all those things are manageable, especially in the amounts i made them (for 80 people) but by yourself its still not a walk in the park.

thats pretty much all i have to update on, since i worked from 8:45a-7:45p. im tired. we are all getting to know each other better so thats going well. im going to head down to the porch right now and hang out with some folks before returning to take shower #2 and sleep like a baby.

God is good, even in the hard work :)

em

I have arrived!

seeing Chicago from the the road... it was the first time i had seen it since i was .... 10 maybe, so that was fun! i hope to stop by there for a day or so on the way home.

so back to today. got back on the road and after not too long i had to stop and get gas. i got off at one exit. there were 2 gas stations. BP had gas for $2.29/gal, and the cheaper place across the street was $2.27/gal. So, not only was it less expensive, but look what it was called:


Hi everyone....

I left Meg's house this morning at 10:30a.... only to return at 10:45a because I forgot my sweatshirt. haha. here is a picture from yesterday, since I didnt post it:


One of my mom's nick names was Chrissy Cruiser, so I thought it was funny :)

Drove a bit more.... reflective of the future and what was going on and my drive. was increasingly nervous throughout the drive, but then passed this exit and thought, wow, God is speaking to me through highway exits!


So the rest of the drive was good. Got off the highway and and made my way to camp. Called some people (and NO one answered... thanks mom and dad, haha) and then I was pretty much here! stopped at DQ to calm my nerves.... and can i just say, that they wouldnt give me a twist cone with sprinkles? they said they couldnt put it on a cone, but could give it to me in a cup with sprinkles and a cone on top. so, i took that and then scooped the ice cream into the cone. (and it wasnt that hard, pelican rapids DQ)

got to camp and pulled in the drive and .... no one was around. shoot. luckily, i saw Russell (Guest Services guy) coming out of the windjammer (where our rooms are, as well as the coffee shop, dining hall, and kitchen. i'll take you on a photographic tour of camp later) and he greeted me and told me where to park. then, it was right off to cleaning! they had a group that just left so we cleaned the clipper (which is the adult guest lodge) and then James and Alicia helped me unpack my car. I unpacked my room a bit, and now we are all sitting in the intern apartment-like area, each on our own computer (the mac to PC ratio is 4-2... macs provailing, clearly).... listening to Disney soundtracks and singing along. well, actually they are. i should brush up on my disney! Here is who is here so far:







<-- here we have Christine and Joey















< -- the is Ben




< -- and my movers, James and Alicia












all told, its going a lot better then my nerves would have originally dictated. im glad im here! i just dont know whats next :)

will talk again soon!!

love,
em

In Minnesota!

Hi!

Well, I made it to Minnesota safe and sound! Meg (a friend I made on my Spring Break trip to the Dominican Republic) and I left Ann Arbor at 7:15am and made it to Minnetonka (where she lives) at 7pm (6pm local time, MN is central... keep that in mind when calling me! :)

We had a good drive with little/no trouble. We pass through Chicago (beautiful! Had only seen it once before) around 11am EST and traffic was fine. Beyond that, when we got to the Twin Cities it was a bit more congested due to traffic. Oh, and OH MY GOSH toll roads in Illinois. Are they serious? It felt like there was a toll booth every 15 minutes. All told, I think it was only like $5 though so not a big deal.

Meg's house is beautiful and so far I have enjoyed shrimp with her dad and her two sisters are making spinach artichoke dip. Its great to be in a place and not driving!

I will leave tomorrow morning (unsure what time... probably around 10 or 11) to drive the remaining 3.5 hours to Detroit Lakes, which is where Castaway is.  I'm still a bit nervous about entering the new social situation (havent had to do that in a few years!) so pray for calm and an easy time with home sickness in the beginning (I realized a few weeks ago that the longest I've been out of Washtenaw County was the last time I was at Castaway, for 2.5 weeks, in August 2007)

I will try and update this frequently so that you know what's going on!! Feel free to send me an e-mail if you havent heard from me in a while :)

Love,

Emily