Hello from Nashville!

So I'm finally here in the home of country music woo! My flight landed at 2pm yesterday but by the time I'd waited for Sophie's flight to arrive and we got a shuttle here it was about 5pm so we didn't do much last night, just unpacked a little bit, went for dinner and then explored a bit. Our hotel is lovely! It's called the Scarritt Bennett Centre and it's used for conferences so it's a quiet place and feels really safe, it's converted church buildings, I think it used to be a missionary centre. Anyway, today we slept in a bit to recover from lack of sleep the last few days and we're going to go down Broadway to check out the bars by day as well as the music stores and the country merchandise stores, can't wait! We're also going to do a weekly shop to walmart at some point and buy our week long bus pass. Tonight we have tickets for the Grand Ole Opry, there's no one on that I'm particularly excited to see but just being there is going to be amazing!! My friend from camp studis in Nashville so when he arrives on the 21st he's offered to show us around a bit which will be cool because he knows the place well.

Anyway, I should probably fill in the last few days. Leaving camp was SO sad once again! The last 2 days were just packing but they were the hottest days of the whole summer so it was tough! The kids were great, they got over their hatred for me in a day and loved me again luckily! The second to last night they had something called Feathers where they all sit around in a circle and present each other with plaques they've made with messages on them about all their memories, it was so sweet but it went on until about 2am! The last night is when they have a closing ceremony type night with the last campership and they give out awards, one of my campers got a creativity award I was so proud of her! Then we set off little wooden boats with candles into the lake which always looks pretty. They lit the 2009 sign and everyone got emotional! Sunday was leaving day and the kids left by 9am, then we had a staff BBQ and everyone hung around doing last minute packing until 2pm when the bus to NYC left. I didn't have to say too many goodbyes at that point because most of the staff where coming to spend the night in NYC but the goodbyes I did have to say were really tough ones with people I was really close with, it was hard! The bus journey to NYC was ridiculous, it took about 4 hours and I've never been more hot and sweaty in my life, it was about 95 degrees in a school bus with no air con with 3 of us all squished onto a seat...torture but a lot of fun and laughs all the same especially when the lady drove us past our hotel about 4 times! haha anyway the hotel we stayed in was the Carter and I actually thought I was going to be murdered there...it was SO ghetto like haha. The first room we were given, the beds hadn't even been changed or made, it was sick! I went and complained and got another room, I slept over the covers though because I was scared of actually getting in the bed lol. That night we went to a couple of bars and then went walking around times square at night which was so nice, I love times square! Afterwards we all sat in one of the hotel rooms so it was pretty crowded! I didn't get to sleep until about 3:30am and had to be up at 7:30am so I was pretty tired going the airport but I managed it all ok and arrived safe! Because I was up so early I didn't get to say bye to many people but I was grateful for that because I hate saying bye! Most people were the brits anyway who I'll see again in October at the reunion (yes already!)

My flight to Nashville was strange...it was the smallest plane every and only fit 40 people on it, it was so small that we actually walked out on the runway and climbed up the steps into the plane that way, it was like some private jet or something! It only took 2 hours and I slept all the way which was nice.

Anyway we're off to explore now, I will fill you all in when I've seen a bit more of Music City!

Love you all!

Hannah xxx