No alarm to wake me up meant that I woke up by a quarter to seven. There was plenty of activity in the camp as people were packing up to go home.

Some of the youth had left the previous night, and the rest were leaving today. I’m very glad our team was done, and didn’t have anything to do with that process. International Service Team members were also getting loaded onto buses to go to airports.

Because I didn’t know how early we were going to be done when planning for the Jamboree, and was expecting a seven hour drive home (plus pit stops), I had put my departure time for Saturday. That meant I had absolutely nothing to do today. I took my time getting up and dressed, and then met my friend for breakfast. We then moved over to the Chat-and-Chew to hang out. We read, colored, journaled, and otherwise passed time.

The Food Team was packing things up, so they closed up shop. Then they started taking the fans away, and even turned off the vending machines. It was hot, and the tent was getting stuffy. I understand the team needs to pack up, but I don’t see what harm would have been in leaving at least the vending machines on, and the fans as the last things to be put away.

We decided to head to our respective tents to pack up and take a shower. My tentmate and has been placed into one of the two-person tents, and we were being required to pack those up before leaving. We figured the tent would be wet in the morning, so we decided to move all our things into one of the now empty four-person tents for the night, and take the tent down this afternoon.

My tentmate decided to go up to the welcome center to see if she could drive her car down into camp. I packed up my bag, took a shower, and laid down on my cot. I dozed off for a bit, and when my tentmate got back I was sweating again. Since she was able to get her car down without any difficulties, I decided to get mine, too.

After we moved our things and took down the tent, I let my friend know of my plans. We met at the shuttle, and headed out. Since we had the car at our disposal, we decided to drive into Beckley for dinner. We looked up what was near by, and decided on Cheddar’s. We had a delicious dinner, then went next door to stroll through the aisles of Joann Fabric & Crafts.

We headed back to camp, and I was able to drive my car down to the base camp, and park right next to where our tent had been. We made our way to the dining hall, as that’s where some of our other teammates had congregated, since they still had fans up. We chatted for a while longer, before calling it a night.

We bid farewell to our new friends, as we would all be heading out of camp early in the morning on our respective journeys home. I met some really awesome people over the past two weeks, and I will Mia not being able to hang out with them every day. Thankfully travel is relatively easy in today’s world, so I am sure we’ll meet up again.

Yesterday was the last day of visitors, and all our stuff had gotten put away. One would think this meant we could sleep in this morning. One would be wrong.

We had a reception at 8 AM with all the other teams that fell under Guest Services. The location where all receptions were held is in Summit Center. This meant getting up just as early as the other days and catching a bus. We didn’t need to get breakfast because we were told there would be breakfast served, but we did need to go pick up our lunches. Today there was no meal ticket or restrictions on what we could take. I grabbed a few extra goodies to take home to my boys.

We hopped on a bus that took us to Summit Center, and made our way to the tent. Breakfast consisted of yogurt, fruit, mini muffins, and ice cream sundaes. Couldn’t have asked for anything better. Then we had a fairly standard program of the leaders thanking everyone for their work, and we were given a few goodies.

Afterward, we headed back to the bus stop, but none of the buses stopped. This was frustrating as one schedule said the route should run continuously, but there was a second that said it only ran in the morning and evening. We walked down the road to the main Summit Center entrance to see if there was a bus there. There wasn’t, but my friend hailed a ride for us with someone in a Gator.

Once we got back to Echo, our mission was to get the sauna heater to my car. One of our team leads met us by the sauna area, and we loaded the heater into the back of the SUV he had. We then drove up to Ruby, and straight into the long term parking to my car. Using mostly the Team Lead’s muscle, we transferred the heater from one car to the other. Unfortunately the trunk opening in the rental car I have here is about an inch too small, and we couldn’t fit it in there. We did manage to wrangle it into the backseat though.

We said goodbye to our team lead, as he was going home, and got into the car to head into town. We drove into Fayetteville with the intention of walking around the downtown shops. The ones in the downtown area were mostly decor items, a climbing gear store, and an outdoor equipment store. We had lunch at Pies and Pints and walked around a bit more. We then headed over to the big superstore to look for reading material. We found a few odds and ends, and even some ice cream, and then headed back to camp.

We headed for our usual hangout, the Chat-and-Chew. We read, surfed the web, and just plain hung out for a while. In the late afternoon we headed back to our campsites to freshen up, then met back up before the closing ceremonies. We elected to stay in camp and watch the live feed.

After the show was over I headed back to my tent. On the way there the fireworks started, and I had a pretty nice view of them from the edge of the lake. I started taking pictures, then decided to switch to video. Unfortunately my phone ran out of room. So I switched to Facebook Live for the last few minutes.

It was a lovely way to cap off the evening, made better only by knowing I didn’t need to set an alarm for the next morning.

We went into our last day of visitors in good moods. I grabbed a ride with my team leader, and made it to the welcome center very quickly. I also got to avoid the line for the bus. We were some of the first people to arrive thanks to our ride, and had a chance to see Ruby Welcome Center with no one in it.

We expected around 1,000 people on the last day, and there was rain in the forecast. But at the end of the previous day we had done some rearranging, and were able to position the security screening so that our operations all fit inside our big tent. We did not end up with a line outside of the tent after we opened up (there were a couple of dozen people waiting for us to get started when we arrived). We were even treated to a rainbow to crown the morning.

With such few guests coming in, we had lots of time to continue breaking down the things that were no longer needed. Having worked a full day yesterday, and with such few things to do remaining, we were able to take a half day. We hopped on one of the buses with the visitors and headed to Summit Center.

We first went into the trading post. The one at Summit Center is much bigger than the one in Echo, but this far into Jamboree their selection was pretty depleted. We didn’t find anything we wanted.

Next, we headed to the Sustainability Treehouse. We took a look at the different exhibits in there, and climbed to the top. At the top we were asked to write our commitment to sustainability onto a metal tag and hang it with everyone else’s.

We moseyed through Center Mondial, but didn’t spend much time at the country booths, as we had seen them earlier. We made our way to North American Dream, and looked through the booths there. We even participated in an activity in the Natural Resources tent about how manage forested area, and made some paper.

We continued around the area, and started to head back to Echo. On the way we stopped by Brownsea Island, which featured displays about what scouting was like in 1907 when it first started. Then we walked over to Pigott Headquarters, and caught a bus back to Echo. Then we headed to our usual hangout: Chat-and-Chew.

After our sauna yesterday I had half-jokingly mentioned to the Sauna Team that I would buy one of the saunas off them if I had a bigger car to get it home. They responded by saying they would gladly sell them, or even just the heaters. I immediately called The Engineer with these grand news, but he quickly said no.

Tonight I asked a bit more about the details, as building a sauna has been in our plans, this would just accelerate some of the steps. I learned that the pretty heater had already been sold, but the other three basic ones were still available. They were Tylö brand, specifically from the Karhu line. They were being offered at $450 each, and had been purchased new just for Jamboree.

I relayed this information to The Engineer, and also shared it with my family. I had a discussion with The Engineer about how much I wanted the heater, what a good deal it was, and how we had planned to build a sauna anyway. Just about the same time he agreed, I also got a message from my sister saying she and my brother would send me money to cover the cost of the heater as a wedding gift.

I was so excited about it all working out, I ran right over to the sauna to let the sauna master know I was ready to buy. He said he wouldn’t be able to charge a card, so I had to wait until the trading post opened so I could access the ATM and get cash. As soon as I had cash in hand I ran back to the sauna, and we wrote up a bill of sale.

We found a good spot on the outside tables, and set out our swopping items. Throughout the late afternoon I was able to swop almost everything I had brought. I had not purchased additional official neckerchiefs, but had made some of my own. Unfortunately these did not turn out to be popular, as they weren’t for a specific country. I did get several patches, and also was able to trade my scout cap for a Dutch cap, which I then traded for the Finnish cap I wanted.

Our team had also passed out items as gifts to each other earlier in the day. I had handed out most of my neckerchiefs to those I had worked with most during the last two weeks.

When the wind kicked up, and the sky clouded over we headed inside the tent before the mad rush we knew would occur once the rain actually started. And it did. One group of people who came into the tent started singing scout songs. It was pretty cool to see adult volunteers from several different countries singing Boom-Chick-A-Boom.

We socialized while waiting for the rain to clear up. Once it did, it was also late enough to head to bed.

Same morning routine as before. Until we got to the bus stop.

When we walked up we saw that there was already a long line. In speaking with the ladies who were at the front, we learned that while the bus to Ruby had started running by 6:30 AM on previous days, it had not yet started this morning. The folks from the transportation company were there, and were trying to find out where even the 7 AM bus was.

I saw that quite a few people in line had their packed duffles, meaning that they were probably going home or off site to do laundry. At the beginning of the Jamboree we had been given special wristbands that were meant to give us priority access onto the bus so that we could get to work in a timely fashion. I told my teammates to make sure they had their wristbands ready.

What happened next was a perfect storm of lack of information across different teams.

The transportation person essentially commandeered a bus that was meant to drive a different route for the Ruby bound line, as there were multiple buses for the other route, and she still didn’t know where our bus was. I stood at the door to the bus to let the other people know that my team had priority access with our wristbands.

Well, the first person to come up was not having this at all. He argued with me that he needed to get to work, and that he had been waiting. I tried to explain that we had been given the wristbands to make sure we got to work, and I was just making sure my team got on the bus. He continued arguing and was trying to physically push me out of the way (in reality he was pretty much pushing me backward into the bus).

The transportation manager had gone off somewhere else, and the bus driver did not know anything about the wristbands. No one was backing me up, and this man who was a good foot taller than me was continuing to aggressively push me.

At this point, I threw up my hands, said “fuck this”, and walked away. There wasn’t anything else I could do, and I was outnumbered. I walked out of sight, trying not to cry from the anger I felt. One of my teammates came after me asking if I needed some water. I told him I was ok, I just had to walk away. He joined the rest of the team, and my friend came to see if I was ok. She had left her gear on the bus, which had left, but stayed with me.

We waited until the bus had left, and walked back into line. As we were waiting, a transportation employee finally came over and told the people with bags that those who had jobs to get to had priority to get on the bus. At this point it was a bit too little, too late: there were two buses lined up to take people. We ended up on the third bus, though that one sat for a bit waiting for more people.

We sat down and the people in the row behind us were apparently leaving for home. I overheard one of them discussing the incident. She was specifically referring to me. So I turned around to face her through the seats, and wished a good morning in a very clear voice. She wished me a good morning as well, as I was turning back around. It seems at that point she realized who I was. The topic of the conversation changed quickly.

I spent the ride just trying to keep my composure. It’s been a long two weeks, and my mental energy is quite drained. That kind of clash just caused everything to spill over, but I didn’t want to break down crying in front of everyone.

Once we arrived, I took some time away from everyone else to release some of the dammed up emotions and compose myself. I spoke to my team lead about what happened. He even offered me the day off, but I didn’t take him up on the offer. What would I do by myself all day?

The rest of the work day was pretty uneventful. We had almost half the guests of the previous day, the buses flowed smoothly, and the visitors came at a steady pace. A little before noon we started taking some things down, mainly the canopies. We got most of them taken down and their tarps inside right before the sky opened up.

In true southern fashion we had a proper thunderstorm that poured buckets for about 10 minutes, then disappeared as soon as it had appeared. During the storm though, the wind blew so hard that I had to physically lean against the tent flaps to push them, so that we could tie the opening closed against the storm.

We finished the rest of the day without anything unusual. We hopped on a bus to Echo, and headed for the Chat-and-Chew. I had made a sauna reservation and invited the team from 6-7, so after sitting for a while I went over to my tent to pick up my sauna gear.

The sauna experience turned into a bit of a flop. Only two other people from my team showed up. Additionally there was some sort of a mix up because another person with the same name as me had made a reservation, and was from a team with a similar name as ours, so we got double booked. No big deal though, they also only had three people, so we had plenty of room.

After sauna we had dinner. After dinner we checked out what was available for trading and I got a couple of fun patches. Then I got a message from someone I had been discussing a bag trade with, and was able to meet up. My tentmate was extremely generous and gave me her USA contingent backpack so that I could trade it for a Finland contingent one. I had wanted one of the Finnish bags since I saw it, but I also liked the functionality of the USA bag so much that I didn’t really want to give it up. Thanks to some wonderful people, I was able to find someone willing to do the swap, and also keep a USA bag.

Then our choices were a pub quiz at the Rainbow Tent, or Forrest Gump in the cinema. We went for the quiz, but the tent was swamped. We heard they had expected maybe six teams, and there were closer to 60. The crowd was too big and tight, so we opted out. The movie had already started, so we passed on that too. We ended up sitting in the Chat-and-Chew a bit longer.

Before heading to bed, we stopped in at the Trading Post, as we heard they had gotten new stock. Unfortunately said stock wasn’t anything interesting, but this also meant money savings. We called it a night, and went our separate ways to our tents.

Up and out like the previous mornings.

We were confident that we had everything figured out with our experience from Saturday. We were expecting a crowd almost as big, but since we didn’t need to hold folks until 11:30, they wouldn’t back up.

But then we didn’t have Enough buses. We were supposed to have as many buses today as we’d had on Saturday, but for whatever reason we didn’t. We got the first ones loaded up and sent off, but it takes them an hour or so to make the loop and drop off visitors, so that meant those who didn’t make the first buses had to wait. And they kept coming. The line snaked back and forth in the lot, and stretched out into the parking area on the other side of the road.

We worked to keep the lines in place, and eventually we got everyone on their way, and the crowd died down. Since I had worked a full day Saturday, I got a half day today. We had talked about going to Summit Center again, but knowing the crowd that just went there we decided to head back to Echo.

Our leaders had arranged for a bus from Adventures on The Gorge to come pick up the entire team and take us to their property to have dinner. We decided that we wanted to be able to take showers before doing that, so we sat in Chat-and-Chew for a bit before heading to our respective tents.

The shower was quite refreshing, but due to the heat that feeling didn’t last very long. I didn’t rush back to meet my friends to minimize the sweating.

We caught a shuttle to Ruby, met up with the rest of the team, and waited for the bus to show up. It finally did, and we headed out. We entertained ourselves by singing songs, and soon we were at our destination.

We were all divided up into tables of 4-6, rather than sat at a long row of tables pushed together. I actually liked this, as we could just chat with our own table and not feel like we needed to connect with everyone. The food was delicious, and the view was gorgeous. I had brought my camera so most of my pictures are on my memory card.

We made sure to get a group picture. The team leaders presented a few recognition items to us, and we thanked them for paying for the bus ride by picking up the tab for their dinner.

On the ride back, a bit more singing and general hilarity. Because the resort works with Summit Bechtel Reserve regularly, they have a pass that allowed the driver to get us straight into Echo. He dropped me off right by my tent section, and I headed straight to my tent and to bed.

Today we got to sleep in a bit since it was Sunday. The Summit Center didn’t open to visitors until noon, so our start time was respectively pushed back by three hours. I didn’t set an alarm, but my brain woke me up by six anyway.

It was significantly warmer than the last few mornings, but I again took my time getting dressed and out of the tent. I headed to breakfast, and met up with my friend. A little before nine we got a message that people were already lining up. We caught a shuttle to the welcome center, and headed to work.

Even though we’d had fewer tickets sold for today, on our side of the process it felt a lot more hectic. People were showing up at the same times as they had the previous few days, but since the buses couldn’t leave for Summit Center before 11:30, they started piling up. We had no problem with getting them through security, and their tickets checked, but they couldn’t go anywhere. This caused the line to back up into the queue outside of the security screening tent, and into the lot. We had the line snaking back and forth in multiple folds. Thankfully most of the visitors are scouts and scouters, so everyone stayed in an orderly fashion.

That parking lot was hot and dusty, and I’m quite sure I’m going to be brining a good bit of West Virginia home with me on my clothing.

Eventually we got the visitors on their way, and had a chance to breathe. The last bus to Summit Center leaves at 3 PM, so at that time we were done for the day. One of our team members had already earned the International Service Team Service Award, and has told us of the requirements. We had met most of them, but volunteering for extra hours with the arranged opportunities wasn’t feasible with our schedule. Most of us had done extra beyond our shifts, though, so our team lead wrote us a letter attesting to this. We headed to Echo, and went to look for where to turn this in.

As we were walking over, I saw that there was a training going on in the cinema tent, and that was one of the requirements. We were able to join in progress, and learn about West Virginia history. Once that was over we did find the spot for the award. Turns out the Native American dancers we had seen before the opening ceremony counted as the cultural event we were missing, so we had now actually completed all the requirements and got the award!

From there we found a spot in the Chat-and-Chew. Having learned from yesterday, I went to check on the status of sauna availability. We were told they were all reserved 7-9 PM. So we made sure we worked it into our schedule: 6 PM sauna, 7 PM dinner, and 8 PM movie. Tonight’s feature was Guardians of The Galaxy.

The evening was mostly relaxing. There was a DJ playing music right next to the cinema tent throughout the entire movie, and after it. The movie volume was turned all the way up, so we were able to hear most of the dialogue. This was another evening I was glad my tent is about as far away from the hub of activity as possible. It seems the music went until right before 11 PM, but with my earplugs in it didn’t bother me.

You can refer to days 7 and 8 for how my morning went.

The ticket sales for today had been shut off weeks ago, and I had heard the number sold exceeded 3,800. We arrived to the usual line of early birds. We set to work and got the visitors through security and on the buses. After the largest crowds had come through, about half of the staff was released. Those of us who stayed would be getting a half day on Monday.

A Finnish visitor that I had connected with through Facebook before the Jamboree came through, and brought me a few fun patches. When we were got on the bus I saw a Hemulen dressed in a Finnish scout uniform. I was told that he is a Reippailija-Hemuli, and first attended the Japan Jamboree.

Once we got back to Echo, we headed to Chat-and-Chew, and grabbed some cold drinks. We sat near a fan for a while, charged our devices, and browser social media. I popped by the sauna and found out the whole thing was reserved for the Finnish leaders all night, and I would not be able to go in the sauna tonight. I was quite disappointed.

We hung out until we got hungry, then went to eat. We even found someone with a box of Cards Against Humanity cards, and played a few rounds. After dinner we went to watch the movie of the evening. Tonight’s showing was Hidden Figures. I hadn’t seen it before, and really enjoyed it.

On my walk back to the tent after the movie I called home, because I knew my friends were at our monthly game night. The Engineer said he couldn’t hear me on a video call so I tried again with a regular phone call. They seemed to be having quite a bit of fun.

After I hung up a person walking near me asked where I was from. I saw her Finnish contingent name tag and answered in Finnish that I had been born in Finland. For most of the week I have phrased my responses in the form of “I live in”, as that’s really what most people mean when they ask that. But when I get into a bit of a more involved conversation I let them know I was born in Finland. We chatted for a bit, and I learned that she works at the same hospital as my mom does. She had also answered my question before Jamboree in a Facebook group about the wool socks I had seen for the Finnish contingent. Small world.

This morning did not require an alarm. Friday was Culture Day across the Jamboree, so the site was closed to visitors. All the participant units were encouraged to showcase food and culture from their homes, and visit each other.

I spent the early part of the morning sleeping. I took my time getting up, enjoying the fact that I didn’t have to be anywhere. Well, I did have to go get breakfast before they closed up shop at 10 AM, so I did that.

After breakfast I came back to my tent and did laundry. There are no laundry facilities in Echo, and the Jamboree has not found anyone willing to take on all the laundry for the event, so I’m on my own. I brought a dry bag from Sea To Summit, and some Wilderness Wash with citronella. A dry bag is meant to keep water out, so it works quite well to keep water in, too. I had been using it to hold my dirty laundry, so now all I had to do was fill it up with water, add some soap, and agitate. I have to say, a 35 liter dry sack full of clothes and water gets pretty heavy.

After laundry I laced up my shoes and made my way to Camp Foxtrot. There are several scouts from The Appalachian Trail District in two of the USA contingent troops, and that’s where they’re camped. I wandered around a bit, checked out the displays, and found the two units. I took pictures of the scouts I know personally, and sent them to their parents as proof of life. I even FaceTimed one friend so he could chat with his son for a bit.

On my way back from Foxtrot I ran into joulupukki! He was out visiting, and I had a quick chat with him. He looked a bit hot, but did let me know that his belly was actually a hydration bladder, and he was steadily getting skinnier.

For the rest of the evening we hung out a bit in Chat-and-Chew, got dinner, and sat a while in the Meet & Greet tent (they have couches). No sauna tonight, as it closed at 4 due to the evening’s camp wide Unity Show. We were told there would not be buses back to Echo after the show, so we opted to watch the live stream in the cinema tent, as we had another early wake up the next morning.

Each of the big shows features one of the three host countries. The Unity Show kicked off with a Mariachi group. There were also presentations from the different religions represented at Jamboree, and we also heard from Jayathma Wickramanayake of Sri Lanka, the UN’s Envoy on Youth. She had a wonderful quote she shared from a refugee she had met years ago:

There are hundreds of reasons that divide us. But there are millions of reasons that unite us.

There was another inspiring quote later in the program:

You don’t have to be a superhero to bring the world peace. A scout in a neckerchief can change the world.

Once the official part of the program was over the live stream ended. The scouts at the stadium continues to have fun in the form of Disney singalongs and fireworks. We headed to bed so we would be ready for the crowds the next day.

Another 5:45 AM alarm, another cool morning, another snooze. I did manage to get out of my sleeping bag, dressed, and out of the tent. After breakfast a couple of us were able to catch a ride with the team leads rather than a shuttle.

Today several friends from home came as visitors. It was great to see some familiar faces, and we snapped a few photos. Once the morning rush died down those of us who had worked a full day yesterday got to leave earlier. We hopped on one of the visitor shuttles and went to check out Summit Center.

At Summit Center we first went to see the food houses. Along the way we ambled through the Global Development Village which had booths about topics like sustainable fishing, alternative protein sources (spoiler alert: that means insects), clothing manufacturing, the impact of plastic, and much more. The lines for the food houses were so long we skipped them altogether.

After the food houses we checked out the CONSOL Energy Wing Tip Bridge, and walked around Action Point. Then we headed back toward to the other side of Summit Center.

On our way back one of the places we stopped was the booth by Czech Scouting. They had activities teaching about how scouts worked against the Nazis and Communists over the years. We watched a video about the history of Czech scouting which was very interesting:

I love that it shows how resilient the scouting movement is.

We moved on to World Point where each of the participating nations had booths with information about their homes and activities to participate in. We made our way through the countries, checking out what they had to offer. I found the branding tent, and got a brand put on my hat. We also found the Great Britain tent and got some awesome inclusion wristbands.

Eventually we made our way to the tent with the Nordic countries. They had an opportunity to earn a Nordic Challenge patch for completing an activity at each nation’s booth. First we sang karaoke in Icelandic, then we discussed and filled out a survey about carbon emissions for Norway. For Denmark we did a communication challenge where one side built something out of LEGOs and then had to describe it to the other side so they could build it without seeing our creation. For Finland we voted on what was most important to us about nature. For Sweden we needed to get Pippi Longstocking’s treasures to safe harbor while avoiding pirates and running aground. We accomplished all the tasks and were awarded the patch.

After this we had been walking around for long enough, and headed back to camp. We went to gather our gear from our tents, then met back up for dinner. After dinner, we hit the sauna again. It was wonderfully relaxing after a long day. We sat, enjoyed ourselves, and chatted with the other ladies. A great cap to a fantastic day.

My alarm was set for 5:45, and I snoozed it twice. It was cold, and I was bummed I had not thought to put my clothes in my sleeping bag with me. I did eventually get out of my bag and get dressed, then I grabbed my bag, and headed to breakfast. After eating I picked up my lunch, and made way to the parking lot. We got a ride on a 15 passenger bus, which meant we got to our destination much faster. In order to keep traffic flowing smoothly, the buses take routes that are more circuitous, but a car can take the shortest route.

When we arrived, there were already a few people waiting. We got everyone in place, and started processing them through security and check in. I did some ticket scanning and wristbanding first.

After a while we did a bit of rotation. My team lead asked me to go down to the parking lot with a few others and direct people to walk on the side of the road. I did so, and spent several hours down there. At some point I sent a message asking how long he wanted me to stay. He told me I could come back, and as I did I realized the others were all gone. Seems I had been overlooked. Oops. Oh well, it was relaxing out there. Plus this put me in the group workout the whole day, so I would be able to get a half day the next day.

Once we were dismissed for the day, I went to sit at the Chat-and-Chew for a bit, before going to my tent and changing into my swimsuit (under my clothes). I met with my friend for dinner, and then we went to enjoy the Finnish sauna. As I walked up I realized I had forgotten something critical: my towel. So I ran into the trading post and bought one, rather than walking all the way back to my tent.

The Finnish Contingent has four saunas set up. Three of them are tents, and one has plywood sides. This last one also has higher benches. The löyly was fantastic. My friend also enjoyed it, and said it was very relaxing. After sauna we went into the cinema, and watched Mamma Mia. We were encouraged to sing along. The only downside was that someone had decided to schedule an open mic event on the stage right next to the cinema tent. The dialogue was hard to hear at times, but our singing drowned them out. The best part was that someone played bagpipes on stage at the exact same time as the bagpipes appeared in the movie.

After the movie I headed straight back to my tent, as the next day would be another early alarm.