Its all started!!

The other day I started typing out some letters to send to local business and organisations like the Lions in Calne to ask if they would donate any money to me and Oscar going to Japan. I have had one reply so far. We also sent one to the Principal  of our school to see if we can do some fundraising there.Bake sales and maybe a non uniform day. Oscars scout troop have said they will do a sponsored thing to raise some money for us. We are going to the Swindon bag pack and my brother is doing carols outside M&S with his band the same day, so Mum and Dad will be running between the 2 things! I'm looking forward to meeting my friends and seeing who else got through. I might even get my special necker there!

The Process-The Selection Weekend! Xxx

Basically, i was told about this great experience by my parents and scout group about going to the World Scout Jamboree in 2015. I automatically thought ' I would love to go! It would be a once in a life-time opportunity' There were 3 parts to being selected; an application form and creative submission which reflected what Jamboree meant to me, and also if you got through that, you went to a selection weekend and the people who ran the camp then decided who got to go. 

On the 31st of November to the 1st of December, me and 99 other applicants went to the Wiltshire Scout Jamboree selection weekend at Youlbury Scout Centre to decide which 27 of us will be going to Japan. It was a great experience and I met LOADS of new people who are also going to Japan with me! 

First of all, when i met my 3 other friends from my troop and we waited in line to sign in and get out numbered shirts and photo's. When we got to the front of the queue we had to hand in out permission form to the people and they gave us numbered groups for the 2 days and they also gave me my number. I was number 21. But i felt very proud because i guessed that I would be 21, my friend Oscar would be 79 and i guessed us both correct!!! Once we all got our numbers and had our photos taken we then went over  to  the group of other scouts and we had to play a big game of 'Person Bingo'. It was very fun, we had to find people who doesn't like chocolate, who have a brother or sister, come from a different scout group from you. All things like that. It was very fun because you  got know load of people before you even got started.

After that we then went to flag and we were told all the leaders names and who we could go to throughout the weekend. It was very exciting. We then set off in our patrols to start with some games. We did two different sets of activities, 4 different thing to do with each group. After we made some badges, activity wall and some juggling, we had our lunch. Which then gave us a chance to get to no some other people. We have a 40 minute lunch break then straight after we went back to flag we were told that we were going to put up our tents. I had to provide the 8 man tent..... for 4 of us! I found the 3 other girls who were in my tent. They were all really nice.

It took us a while to set it up, with a little help from the older boys who were next to our tent. It took us a while, but we did it and put all our bags in the tent and then chose who we were sharing a pod with. We then went back down to flag to finished our days activities which consisted of badge making and camp-fire sketches plus LOADS more. We then split up into our final groups for the day and we made our fires to cook our food on. I was in a great group. We all got along perfectly! It was great fun! For tea it was Sausage Casserole. Which none of it i like (i'm very fussy but getting better). It took us about 30 minutes to chop and another 2 hours to cook properly. It took a while! But it was finally cooked and ready to eat. I tried it but i didn't like it that much so i at some of my left over lunch.After we did all the washing up and cleaning, we were all gathered together to do a wide game. What we had to do was find all 9 of the leaders who were somewhere in the woods. They each had a a word and if you get all the words it made up a sentence. The sentence was something like Please pick to go to the Japan jamboree or something along those lines. So we all had 45 minutes to go out in groups of 5. I was with 4 really nice girls who i think are all going to Japan with me! I think we got on really well!!!

After about a 1 hour laze around we all went to the camp-fire. We sang songs, watched sketches and had an amazing time. When it got to about 10:30 we were told it was time to get ready for bed and lights out was at 11. We all raced back up to our tents and got all our stuff ready. When it was 11 we were all told to go to sleep. I fell asleep nearly immediately! So did everyone else too! 

We were then woken up at about 7 o clock the next morning at break-feast was at 7:30.We had to pack away as much of our things as possible. I packed away most if my stuff. So did everyone else. 

Break-feast was porridge (which i hate) and then a sausage and bacon butty. Which was VERY nice! We then finished off our packing of bags and then went to flag, saluted, went off to our next 2 activities! We did stuff like an activity wall/walk blindfolded, knots, and some team-building activities. It was all very fun..... Until we were told that we had to go home. We all were very sad and had to say goodbye to all the new and nice people we met. But we all knew that we would all meet up again soon. So once my ride got to Youlbury I said goodbye to everyone, thanked the leaders and went home!

I had such an amazing time and i'm OVER THE MOON that i got through! When i read the email i read the first 5 word..'We are delighted to tell....' It felt like i was just told that i was the queen!! I was so shocked!!! 

I would like to thank the leaders who ran the weekend and to say that they did such a good job. I was very entertained both days! <3 xxxxxx