10 day absence and my camp experience

Whoo! My life has been kinda crazy for the last 2 weeks. My last post was 10 days ago, but I think the storm has settled and I'm back on track now.

This past weekend contributed to my absence from blogging because I was away at a camp that had no computers or cell reception (AT&T that is, the Verizon people were gettin' by). I went to a silent weekend, for the whole weekend talking is banned and everyone must use American Sign Language. It was a really good time. (This is going to relate to veganism really soon)

When I sent in my registration there was a vegetarian option. I didn't circle it, I wrote vegan next to it and circled that. Then I wrote a note listing the things that I don't eat and expressed that I was willing to bring my own food, but I would need to know in advance. I didn't hear back from anyone, so a few days before the weekend I emailed the coordinator. She told me that she put me in the vegetarian group and I'd have to ask the cooks what was vegan. Arrgh...I wasn't about to travel to the reddest of red parts of Ohio without an assurance that I would have something to eat for the weekend. So, I prepared food and brought it with me.

During the first meal I went back to the kitchen to inquire whether or not the vegetarian option was vegan, as well. This was an amusing experience because I was not allowed to speak, but the kitchen staff didn't know ASL. So, I wrote on paper and they talked back to me (for all they knew I could have been deaf, how rude of them to talk back to me instead of write down what they needed to say). While working through a language barrier, I had to explain to one of the staff what vegan means. It was a lot of fun :D Turns out the leader of the staff is a vegetarian, who ate vegan all summer (for a health thing, whether or not that's really vegan is a matter to be discussed later). She felt the need to take care of me. So, for the rest of the meals I was set.

For the first breakfast, they whipped up some sort of grilled tofu. This was about 10 minutes after they found out I was vegan. So, they were improvising. It was okay, I wouldn't make plain grilled tofu for myself, though. For lunch they made me a veggie soup and black bean burgers. I'm pretty sure they took every vegetable they had and put it in water. It wasn't bad, but wasn't terribly flavorful. The black bean burgers were good, though. For dinner, I had vegan chili. It was good. Different from the kind that I make for myself, but still very good. It had a good tomato flavor with a little bit of spice. For the final breakfast, I was given a giant bowl of grapes, cherries and an avocado. I shared this with the other people at my table because there was a ton of fruit. Given that the cooks were unprepared to cook for a vegan, I think they did pretty well. I really appreciate their efforts to accommodate me and I made sure they knew it.

I brought soy milk with me, so I had cereal with both breakfasts, as well. I snacked on homemade roasted red pepper hummus and pita that I had brought with me, too. There were some cliff bars there, those were very good.