NCS-Week 1

Hi, I apologize for the fact that I have not posted in 2 weeks, but as most of you know I have been taking part in NCS, you read my post about it here. Because of the lack of WiFi and the fact that our week was packed with activities I never got the chance to post, and when I got home for the weekend I was extremely tired and wanted to just catch up on sleep and YouTube. I will have a post about the last week I spent at Durham university but today I will be posting about my first week of NCS. It was one of the most challenging but fun weeks of my life. I discovered I had a fear of heights and tried to challenge that and I also made some incredible friends along the way. So I'm just going to tell you what I did throughout the week. None of these photos were taken by me because only one person in our group was allowed to take photos during the activities.

Tuesday 7th July
The day that we got the coach up to Kingswood in Hexham, I was feeling quite nervous to begin with because a lot of the people in my team knew each other already and I felt a bit left out and to begin with we weren't really that close. Once we got to Kingswood which was an hour away we got our rooms and sorted out everything in there. Then we had our first activity, the first thing that we did was Hopes and Fears which was where we just talked to our group about our worries about that week. We then went on to our proper first activity which was Night Line. A blindfolded obstacle course, my friend Taela held my hand through all of it because I couldn't hear what any one was saying, I got really muddy but it was really fun. We then had dinner, the food wasn't too bad and after that did fencing, which I wasn't that great at. Our last activity of the day was meant to be Problem Solving, but our instructor was just telling us all riddles, because we found that to be a lot more fun.

Wednesday 8th July
The beds were not very comfortable and we had to wake up at 7:00 am in order to get breakfast at 7:45, so that was a struggle especially on the first morning. Our first activity on Wednesday was Rock Climbing, I have no upper body strength so I was really bad at that, but I did have a go. We then had review which we just discussed how we were feeling. Shelter building was after that but the weather was getting worse, however we didn't let that get us down. We also had our first Archery Lesson that day, I am also not very good at that but I had ago. After Dinner we had one of my favourite Activities which was the 3G Swing, which is a massive swing, we didn't go right to the top like the others, because I got really worried, but it was such an adrenaline kick. By this time our team was really starting to gel, and I started getting close to Bethany, through an inside joke which spiralled out of control.

Thursday 9th July
The weather was getting better and we had another review session to begin with, we then did Jacobs ladder, which I hurt my leg on and got a massive bruise. However it was really fun. Afterwards we had another archery lesson thing, I started to improve but i'm still not great. We then had knife skills, and abseiling, which I got to the top and couldn't abseil down so I went back down the stairs. We also did  Zorbing on this day, that was really fun, although all of the boys thought it would be funny to try their best to knock into me as hard as they could.

Friday 10th July
On the Friday we had high equilibrium on our list, however I didn't do that, it was way too high. We had environmental art, fire lighting. We then had leap of faith, which my friend Amir challenged me to get quarter of the way up, but with some encouragement from my team I got half way up before I started to panic. During that day we also had Zip lining, we had to get to the top of the same tower as abseiling, and I was really panicking, but the instructor and my friend Bethany helped me get through it and I had the most fun ever. Apparently I never stopped smiling when I was on it. We then had team challenge which was an obstacle course we had to complete, it definitely wasn't easy but we had fun trying.

Saturday 11th July
Our first activity was rock climbing on the big abseiling tower, I was really bad at this but kept trying my best to get as high as possible. We then made bottle rockets for our last activity at kingswood. We were all quite sad to leave, especially me. Because although I was really challenged, I had so much fun. I had also gotten really close to the people in my group and we were getting along really well, I knew at that point that these weren't just friends for NCS, they were friends for life.

So I hope you've enjoyed the little run down of my first week of NCS, it honestly has been one of the best experiences of my life and if you get the chance to do it, you should grab it with both hands. I have learnt so much about myself, and I became so much more comfortable with being myself around others, and not worrying about what they think of me. Because actually I am quite a loud person, but in order for me to be myself, I have to be around people who I feel 100% comfortable with, like my team for NCS. Hopefully this post wasn't too boring, and I will be posting a lot more now fingers crossed. Enjoy some of the photos I am leaving below.

Until Next Time, Katie