Yes, it’s true!  We have a new record for XUK!  We are so pleased that Erica Gould has received our Citizen of the Week acolade.  She won the prize during XUK 2010 and has now received it for Week 1 in 2011.  No camper has ever achieved this before!  Well done Erica!!  Erica received a trophy and wins a free week at XUK in 2012!

Today has been very very wet at XUK with rain falling all day long.  We still managed a jam packed day of activities with circus skills, cooking drama games, face painting and duck duck goose!  We had a table tennis tournament too before our talent show which included lots of dancing, singing and piano playing.  Well done to everyone who took part.

We are just about to finish our disco which has been pumping out some quality tunes tonight.  We are sure there will be some sad goodbyes as several campers are leaving tomorrow or transferring to our new language school, XUK English, which is very exciting for them!  We hope to see them again next year and are ready to welcome our new campers in tomorrow for the start of Week 2!!

Sadly, it’s been raining at XUK today but it hasn’t stopped us – we’ve been to our local theme park and riden “Wipeout” – it’s over 120 feet tall, touching speeds of almost 50mph and pulling over 5-G’s…it’s big, it’s bad, it’s the region’s most extreme rollercoaster – we were brave!

For those back at camp, we’ve had Dinosaur Day for the juniors and inters, they made the most amazing costumes and solved some tricky puzzles to find out what dinosaurs had returned to XUK.  Tonight is casino night so get your XUK notes at the ready and we think there might be a few staff challenges to bet your money on!

We had a great trip today.  Bury is an important market town with a rich heritage.  We saw lots of medieval architecture, has a snack in some of its Georgian squares and saw the glorious Cathedral and Abbey.  We also squeezed in plenty of shopping – thankfully we travelled by coach so could fit all the bags in on the way back to camp!

We had a BBQ dinner tonight, managing to keep the rain clouds at bay so we could play out on Camp David after our sausages, burgers and lamb kebabs. Yummy!  The melon for desert was delicious too.  Tonight is the famous wide game – you will emerge victorious?!

Pictures will be uploaded tomorrow night – sorry for the delay!!!

Today, a group went on a trip to Laser Combat – and what a trip it was!  They had the best time, running through the woods with laser guns trying to capture bases from the other team.  There were team building tasks too to build a shelter from anything they could find in the forest as well as trying to get their entire team through a giant spider web without breaking the silk!  It was tricky!!

Tonights activity has been a murder mystery – there was a murder at XUK tonight – we are hoping one of our groups can solve the case and find out what happened to our poor manager, Richard!!  Fingers crossed!!!

Welcome everyone to the blog for XUK 2011!!

We are excited to be half way through the first day and it’s been a fun filled start to the week.  We’ve had quad biking, wall climbing, low ropes, lacrosse, basketball, art and drama to name a few of the activities and are excited for what the afternoon will bring!  We can hear the cookery group cooking up a storm in the Stables Kitchen now – brownies are on the menu and they smell good!!!

Everyone arrived safe and sound to camp yesterday and took part in initiative games to welcome them and get to know each other.  All were in good spirits even after some long trips to camp, some came from as far away as Beijing!  It’s lovely to meet everyone and the sun is shining for us on day 1!!  Long may it stay that way!!!