This week's camp update comes to you all the way from New York State, where Erin Tanner has traded her native Brisvegas for a summer camp by the name of Huntington

• COUNSELLOR: Erin, aged 23.
• CAMP: Camp Huntington, New York State- a co-ed, residential, seven-week program for children and young adults with a variety of special needs.
• POSITION: Program Counsellor

The Latest

"Hello there!

There are 2 computers here and about 50-60 counsellors. Internet time is like gold here so this is just a quick update because I'm running out of time before the campers get up!"

The Camp

"Anyway, about the camp. It's pretty remote! High Falls [closest town] has about 600 people, but it has no grocery store and no corner shops! Just a restaurant (The Egg's nest), the High Falls Cafe, a few cute but expensive little shops, a Chocolate Shop (yay!) and a fire station.

"It's so lush out here. It's been raining here since Saturday afternoon. Mum told me that it made the local news in Brisbane! Here at camp we have a creek running through the middle, and it's gone from a little trickle to a big gush of water. I've been telling people we had more rain here in a couple days than we have had in Brisbane the last 6 months! The rain has been good though as it means it doesn't get hot until 12-2pm. The sun sets after 9pm, which is soooo weird. I went to bed last night at 9:30pm; I was so tired because we were down at the creek the other night around a bonfire until 3am (we were allowed to do this until the kids arrived!)"

The Counsellors

"I seem to be one of the older staff. Most are 19-20, but there are a few 18 year olds and a couple of people who are 25-26. The unit leaders are also older than me, and the directors of the camp are a mother and son. Pretty much everyone is really nice!

"At the moment I'm in a bunk with 6 beds. Originally I was sharing with 2 other girls from Israel and now that camp is in full swing I've been sharing a cabin with 3 English girls and 2 Americans. I feel like I'm losing my accent already (to the British!). A few people haven't noticed I'm Australian - they think I'm British as well. One person even thought I was Dutch!

"There's a wide range of nationalities here. There are only 3 Aussies here, heaps of Brits, 3 Dutch, 6 Israelis, one girl from Poland, 2 guys from Egypt, 4 from Russia, one guy from Africa, I think it's Zambia, plus more. It's cool, the international counsellors outnumber the Americans!"

My Job

"Most days I will be running the independent living activity, which means that all of the other bunks will come to me for 'lessons'. So I get to work with all the campers, as well as my own small group. There are 2 sessions of camp, some campers stay for the whole time but others stay for only 3.5 weeks.

"I asked for Tuesdays off, the same day as a couple of the other girls. Becca lives an hour from here so if we do get the same day off, we'll all go to her place, especially for July 4. Tuesday is a good day to have off because the bus into NYC is cheaper for a return trip! ($28 instead of $40).

"I'm going to be a program counsellor for independent living, which means I get to teach all of the kids in small groups for 1 hour a week each. I get one day off a week but I'm not sure what day it is yet, they're going to work that out on Thursday. I also get 45 min off each afternoon, and 5 or 6 nights off a week from 9-12."

The Food

"The food is weird! We get cereal for brekkie (banana nut cornflakes, and raspberry cornflakes are really nice) as well as something else. The first couple days it was bread and cheese - fake plastic cheese, although the Americans took offence to us calling it that; they said it's 'American cheese.' But then since the cook arrived (cook, not chef, he's actually a high school English teacher!) we've been getting pancakes, scrambled eggs and French toast!

"Lunch is usually fresh salad, with something hot like pizza slices or chicken nuggets. The other day was tuna and bread, which is good. Lunch seems to be the best meal of the day, and the rate at which the food disappears reflects that. If you're late, you'll go hungry. At lunch they usually give us tin fruit as well, which is great except when it's tinned pineapple - ew!!!

"Dinner last night was chilli con carne with rice and green beans, we've had a couple BBQs where its hamburgers and potato salad (not as good as Mum's, in fact their potato salad is quite weird!) There's always dessert, which might be fresh watermelon or brownies.

"The thing I can't get over is how sweet their bread is here, like finger buns without the icing or sultanas!"

The Campers

"They arrived here Sunday afternoon. They're great, and the place is so different with them here. Very tiring though- it's all go with them from 7.30 am til 9pm, with only a 45 min break in between we also have to do 'on duty' once or twice a week which means we sit outside the bunks and make sure the campers stay asleep. At the moment we have 64 campers and 69 staff so the ratio is pretty good!

"Apart from the rain, camp is cool. We had our first camper talent show last night and we will have one every week. I was the MC for this event. All the campers were adorable, getting up on stage and singing their favourite songs to CDs or MP3 players which were hooked up to speakers. Most of them used the microphone, and a couple even dedicated the songs to other campers!

"Anyway I better go, we have morning circle soon. It's where we all get together on the basketball court and sing the camp song. Kind of cheesy but!"