Siberia 2013: 08.08.13 The Change Station and Closing Ceremony

Today was our last full day at camp! We were early for morning exercise for the first time (but only because everyone else seemed to be late!)

After breakfast it was time for the 'change station' which was one of the scariest things we experienced on camp, it was totally manic! The whole of the building where we ate meals was given over to people in order for them to swap badges, gifts and neckers etc. We set ourselves up on a couple of benches at the front and were promptly swamped, we keep forgetting that there's only seven of us and almost 2000 on camp! Once we'd explained for the umpteenth times that we had no UK neckers to swap we successfully swapped our badges for an unbelievable range of items including pin badges, cloth badges, combs, bark pots and of course some Russian neckers.

Following this it was on to the Scout Rally where we continued with the main theme. Hannah and Vanessa were on the orienteering team with Max and Anton while Olivia and Emily were cheered on to the eco challenges alongside Dima and Jenya with shouts of "run England, run!" coming from the rest of Sparta. We're still not entirely sure who won the competition but it was good fun.

In the evening it was time for the Closing Ceremony but a large part of this was the Miss Jamboree contest which we had all entered earlier in the week. Hannah and Vanessa had managed to get through to the final stages after completing some smaller challenges the previous day and were required to provide a 'presentation' on the camp mood. Hannah did a sketch about a day in the life of a Brit on camp making good use of the enthusiastic Russian Scouts who were eager to help. Vanessa wowed the judges by singing a Russian campfire song - in Russian! In the final presentations Hannah was awarded the title of "Miss Tenderness" (or something similar, the translation was quite difficult) and Vanessa was awarded the title of "Miss Baikal" which was a special commendation from the judges!

Then we had the actual closing ceremony in which we Anglicized Sparta and became "Spartanglia! This was followed by a concert, firework display and performances from lots of people from camp. Finally it was back to the camp site for our last round of tea, snacks and songs round the camp-fire with Sparta.