Random International Update (14.9.13)

A week has gone by, but due to what I think is sensory over-stimulation, it feels like I have been here anywhere between two and three weeks. Maybe it's just all the walking. I would love to go over in excruciating detail every last movement and adventure since my last random update. However, that is impractical and boring. For me, at least. Apologies. Instead, I'll go over what I did and when it happend in the photos that follow. But for now, some thoughts. 

Going to visit Boston College for a few days before leaving for Barcelona sounded like a great idea at the end of school last year. Mostly because exams are the absolute worst time to say goodbye in a meaningful way, or to say goodbye at all, for that matter. But when I got to BC and had a great time with my old roommates in their new casas, played soccer with all the guys, and made a deadline-day signing for BC club soccer with their new coach, a recently minted BC graduate and the dude who is almost directly responsible for me being in Barcelona (he studied at UPF for a semester, and in Buenos Aires for a semester) It felt really weird to leave all that. I had half a mind to petition the Office of International Programs to let me register for classes at BC and move in off-campus with everyone else. But no, that would be silly. Far-fetched. And after spending three months getting an FBI-issued proof of absence of criminal record in order to obtain a year long student visa... ha! What jocularity!

I have since ignored any and all second thoughts. After a week, I can safely say that I am going to not want to leave in June.

Barcelona is not what I expected. I was not aware such an amazing city existed. There is a criminal lack of information available to Americans about the amazing place that is Barcelona. The history, the people, the food, the things to do, the places to go, it is all quite overwhelming. Unfortunately, studying abroad in Europe is a privilege and not a right. It is hard to express how grateful I am to sit where I am sitting in my little apartment in this city and type this very sentence. 

The culture here breeds poor work ethics. Mind you, this is an American speaking. An American from a very structured academic and temporal culture. In America, assignments are due on time.  Things get done on time. People eat normal meals at certain normal times. People wake up at certain times. People do not venture out their abodes for the first time at 2:00 AM to hit up the beach clubs. On Tuesdays. For better or for worse, all this happens in Barcelona. It is quite relaxing well perhaps not the clubbing but nonetheless I have made my point. It all begs the questions: is one culture better than the other? What is normal?

I need to better organize my paragraphs. Sheesh.

 We went here on Tuesday after our first day of class. We took the Metro to a stop a little farther away from the center of town, and then took a series of outdoor escalators to the foot of a large hilly park named "Parc Güell". The park was originally planned to be the residence for the wealthy families of Barcelona, which each property outfitted with a pool, garden, etc. However, since it was too far away from the bare necessities of life (food, water), no one really ever lived here. Besides a certain architect.

 Panoramic view from the top of the park, on a brown religious mound designed by a certain architect. 

Gaudí is the certain architect. He's quite the famous dude around here. His buildings are impressive. This, for example, was the front of his house in the park (he was one of the few who lived there).

I thought "Rome" when I was sitting out there twisting my head around and seeing nothing but Barcelona in all directions. But I've never been to Rome.

La Diada, it is called. Catalonia, the state/province in which Barcelona is located, very much does not consider itself a part of Spain. La Diada is traditionally a holiday commemorating the defeat of Catalonia to the French throne in 1714. Contemporarily, it is a celebration of Catalan nationalism and a springboard for political action. The big thing the Catalan people did on Wednesday was to make a big human chain throughout the whole province at 17:14 (read: 5:14 PM).

These guys played drums and walked up and down the path by Parc de la Ciutadella. Pretty cool.

Blaumut performed a free concert near the Arc de Triomf, a big red arc you can see me standing under in a photo from the last random update. They are a Catalan rock band. Very chill sound. 

Look! A small memorial to Pompeu Fabra, the dude who standardized the Catalan language in a dictionary and multiple books on its grammar. He is after whom my university is named.

Gràcia, perhaps my favorite barri in Barcelona. Full of walking streets and restaurants and beautiful buildings and cafes.

People enjoy hanging those yellow and red flags off the balconies. This is very much related to La Diada.

Gaudí is everywhere. Even in Gràcia.

The beach is named Barceloneta. I have gone the last two days, and it has been lovely. Today especially. I ventured down the left (right if you use the above photo as a reference) of the coast past the marina and out to a less crowded and more relaxing area with a few restaurant bar things on the beach back near the walking path. It is so great there. I have now swimmed, swam, or swum in the Mediterranean Sea!

The FC Barcelona store. I actually went here with Grady and Ryan, two BC students in our little group, on Thursday afternoon and not on gameday to check out Camp Nou. Grady had his phone stolen the night before. We decided to rendezvous at a Metro stop, but he was 15 minutes late, so we kinda just telepathically assumed that we would reconvene here in the store. Which we did. After the store, they went back to their apartments, I went to El Corte Ingles to buy some clothing and a pair of shoes. Unless you categorize "shoes" under "clothing" in which case I only went to buy "clothing".

Pièce de résistance: the first FC Barcelona game. Almost our whole group went, and despite not all being soccer fans, it would have been hard to find anyone who wasn't entertained. Barcelona scored mid first half, and mid second half, making it 2-0. However, Sevilla counterattacked twice late to tie the game with only a few minutes of stoppage time left to play. However. Messi is a magician, and in the last few seconds he bundled past a few defenders in the box and Alexis Sanchez scored to win 3-2. What. A. Show. I regret missing the first 15 minutes (I lost track of time at the beach. Whoops. However arriving late is a very Spanish thing to do...)

Barcelona's first half goal. Messi and Neymar were so CLOSE.

Random International Update (9.9.13)

I have since Saturday morning 1) caught up on sleep and 2) finished buying the things I need in my apartment, but need, as we all know, is a strong word. I have hence deemed a blog update necessary, as the outside familiar pressures to write one seem to have reached a critical mass of some sorts. I have even scrambled together, as best I can, some photographs to document some of what I have done, where I have been, and where I will be. I will avoid "horse captions" at all costs.

Off we go. Like I mentioned, I arrived Saturday morning. I was first of the BC group; excitement, cheering, woohoo. I was quite tired due to the stereotypical crying baby and the not-so-stereotypical young girl who buckled and unbuckled her seat belt non-stop for three hours. Click. Slightly different click. Click. Slightly different click. Click. Slightly different click. For three hours. You catch my drift. Anywhoozle, I collected my conveniently together checked bags at the baggage claim with no troubles and left the terminal to meet our lovely coordinator, Teresa. I had Skyped her this summer (5:30 AM PST) however her video was broken and/or my WiFi was terrible so I only knew her by her choppy static Skype voice and her emails in Spanish. We emailed a lot in Spanish last summer. Picking classes in Spain is not a simple, formulaic formality. No. It is an art. An art I have not mastered. I am currently registered for 5 classes; two economics/business classes (perhaps in English... who knows!), two Spanish literature classes (God forbid in Catalan), and an intensive Spanish grammar class, which I will be beginning tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at 9:30 AM (assuming things start on time here, which, they don't). But I digress. Teresa I met after baggage claim, and I enjoyed a private,chauffeured ride to Melon District apartments (I arrived two hours before everyone else, I'm special read: high maintenance, it would seem). 

I napped. From 9:30 to 12:30. It was lovely. The big white bed had pillows and blankets and I napped. 

I bought towels. I felt a shower was a good idea. I adventured to Glòries, the local big mall that, I was told by the receptionist as she walked outside and pointed, was "just beyond the big tower over there". So, off I went with the 65€ dad gave me to buy towels, which I did.

That night, 9 of the 10 Boston College students had our first orientation, we met each other, it was all very nice. One student was delayed in Heathrow for a day. How unfortunate that must have been. We ended up meeting three other BC students from another university in Barcelona for dinner, which we had at a nice place by the water (there was a big dock with sail boats outside). I ate some muscles; I am still unsure how I feel about this.

Sunday was Sunday. Everything is closed, people do even less than what they normally do. I woke up at 2:00 PM after 14 hours of sleep and went for a run along the beach. It is gorgeous. I'll take a camera next time I go for a walk down there. Truly stunning. AND may I just mention that it rained for the first two days? We were all told quite sternly that "It never rains in Barcelona" by many people who live here. It was almost as though they were embarrassed by the poor weather. Like they were somehow personally responsible for the good weather and our derived enjoyment from it in their city. Not much else to say about Sunday. We wandered around the cool gothic area of Barcelona (El Born). 

Today, Monday. We are almost caught up. A few of us BC kids met for breakfast around 9:00 AM before going over to Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF from now on) to take our Spanish language placement test. Somehow I am in the "native speaker" class. Which a horrendous mistake. My grammar is quite rusty. And the test was written. I think it must be my level relative to the other BC students. Not sure. Anyways, that class is tomorrow, which I think I mentioned earlier. After the test, we had another meeting with Teresa about school and classes at UPF. But she was 45 minutes late, so Bradon, Peter, and I walked around the Plac de la Ciutadella, a big park and zoo right beside the school.

So, we have these hotel-like cards to swipe into the building. But also these cards turn our rooms on and off. The lights won't turn on until the card is in its slot by the door.

A lovely bathroom. It is so white. I hope I can keep it that way. The small brown shag carpet was one of those things you buy, which afterwards makes you think "Yes. I sure did a good job buying that particular thing."

Mi casa. That's my laundry bag in the corner. Fun story: the Ronaldinho jersey was lost for a year and half with Pat's friend up in Maine. He tracked it down, we are happily reunited in Barcelona.

For the record: the bed is much bigger than I was expecting, the room a little smaller.

One of my lovely ladies. Those handles under Clint Dempsey are my closet doors. 

Ah, the other lovely lady. Rita. We have a TV. I shan't be using that too often.

Can anyone say rooftop pool? If I'm bored I go up here and meet random people. It's like an OnDemand new people finder app.

The view from my lounge/kitchen room is quite nice. That is the Sagrada Familia over yonder with the cranes. I have not been there yet. But I will.

Stopped by the local semi-pro club today. They took my name and contact information and position and experience playing and should get back to me soon. However, I'll probably end up bothering them every day in person until I get to go to a practice.

Parc de la Ciutadella

Building on right: before restoration. Building on left: after restoration. The university is expanding, but the owners of the building on the right are being stubborn. Le sigh.

Inside of UPF. This building won an award for architecture. I kinda saw why. 

BC Barcelona

Try clicking on this one. And zooming. It's the panoramic view from the rooftop of my apartment building.

I am here.

Random Update (8.5.13)

Got back to camp today around 5:30 PM from Lake Tahoe. Half of the staff had our day off from Saturday to Sunday, and we had a great time up there. Sam left yesterday to go to San Francisco for a few days before heading back to Boston to start his new job; Zach had the same day off as mine, which was nice. Everyone stayed at one of the counselor's houses Saturday night, and then went to the beach the next morning/afternoon. The final week of camp has started, and I leave on Saturday to Los Angeles to see Mitchell in Hollywood. I'm sure going to miss everyone and everything here in California. It is truly a hidden gem out here in the middle of a dry valley in northern California. I cannot say for certain what I want to do after college, but I do know that I love being around kids and being outside all day. I will also say that I am quite exhausted, mentally and physically, even after an awesome day off. It takes a lot of effort to deal with kids and be in the sun all day. Shout out to all you parents and grandparents out there (for the being around kids part, not necessarily the outside part, seeing as most of you do not perform manual labor or play professional beach volleyball these days).

But anyways, I have slacked off in updating this here blog, which I regret. I have been too tired, and each day is full of enough funny and amazing things that compressing a week or two at a time is a herculean task. This summer will probably be memories of the old-school variety, without electronic blog transcripts and witty, preserved reflections in type. Writing letters has been great, though! I almost forgot about that. That takes up some time, too. I love snail mail. It special. What I will try to do is get some photos and videos from the camp's website, because boy oh boy does the video guy, Tyler, make awesome videos. The photos I take help, too. But I don't take many, sometimes because I don't have my phone on me, other times because I have my phone on me, but decide that taking out a phone to take a picture is tacky or requires far too much physical labor.

I'll end with some of those photos (they go back to my birthday... wow... not a teenager)

Primas y hermanos

Golden Gate

Giants game

Banana s'mores and fire moon

The sky split into two wild colors right down the middle as we drove down the road. Wild. So wild.

Big tree up on a mountain

S'mores time on the boys overnight camping trip

Paintball. We spent a day building new forts

Sunrise

Random Photo Update (7.15.13)

 View from Thompson's Peak

 The desert

 The valley

 Susanville lights in the valley to the left. Prison lights on the right. 

 Luna

Random Update (6.29.13)

The dryness is a constant reminder of the nearby desert. The other evening at the campfire, we saw a lightning storm in the distance over the desert in the East sky, opposite the clouded, pink sunset in the West. My skin has been getting a bath of lotion twice a day. The last two days I have included baths of sunscreen due to the final day pool competition and a day at a nearby secluded lake with the staff on our day off. I will a) be very dark and b) have a severe farmer's tan by the end of the summer.

I am very fortunate to be outside so often in such a naturally beautiful area of California with such great people. I feel like I am going to camp with the kids I am supposed to take care of, because I have never done anything like it before. At camp, I have seen a simplicity of living that is definitely admirable. By simplicity, I mean in materialistic terms. It does not take much to live in the climate here. It hardly rains. The nights are cool and refreshing. The days are hot and empowering. Paper signs can be left outside on trees. Shoes are all left outside on porches. Things have a perpetuity here that is nothing like any other place I have been. Many of the people here have traditions that follow this same spirit of continuity. A few girls have grown up on the ranch. A few of their close friends practically have, too. Two of the older (read: mid 20's) male counselors have been campers or counselors here for over a decade, and are full of facts and hints and tips and information about the camp and the nature environment that it sits in. I think it is a quite normal thing for small, secluded areas of the world to develop strange and unusual customs that create their own identity. That is certainly true at this camp. Some traditions are silly: the legend of the pink dolphin, nutty Friday night dances. Some touch the heart: kids faces lit by wispy campfire light singing "Blowin' in the Wind," or laying out on the grass and wishing on shooting stars together, the night before they all leave. 

It is not a perfect place. Kids are a handful. Time to myself is precious. I am missing possible time with family and possible time at home. But it is pretty darn awesome so far.

Random Update (6.23.13)

Entrance to Mountain Meadow Ranch

First week of camp is officially over, and it came to a really smooth conclusion, which I'll talk about later. First, I would like to present a general camp schedule. It is so:

7:10 AM Wake up, wash up, clean up. 
7:50 Walk down to breakfast line at 1st bell
8:00 2nd bell, begin eating
9:30ish 1st activity period. Campers and counselors gather at the campfire and pick kids for their activities. I run paintball and riflery. Both activities finish early because the kids only get so many shells/paintballs. After they finish, I have been going back and playing soccer tennis, doing the slackline, and going to the pool, basically playing with the kids until lunch time. 
12 noon Lunch (same dual bell system)
1:30-2:45 PM Rest period. I usually nap, refill CO2 tanks, or call the Spanish Embassy during this break. 
2:45 PM 2nd activity period. Same deal as the 1st, except we play until dinner time.
6:00 Dinner (with bells)
7:30 Any number of evening activities which include 3-ball soccer, Olympics, color wars, capture the flag, counselor hunt (hide and seek), and story time. 
9:00 Back to cabins.
10:00 Lights out. Counselors are free to leave to the lounge in the dining hall to update blogs. 

So that is a typical day at camp. However sometimes we do other things. On Tuesday we had our overnight hike and camp. The guys and girls hike to separate camp sites and brave the elements for an evening. We cook hotdogs and beans, smores, pancakes, and hot coco for the two meals and late evening campfire snack. I had a really fun time climibing some amazing rocks with the kids.

We walked across the great fallen tree. 

Cool endangered plant.

We, however, did not make it through the night. It started raining. Counselors spread tarps over the kids, hoping for the rain to pass and hold out for the night. However, lightning started hitting very, very close, and with the dry climate, the risk of being trapped by a forest fire meant that vans were sent to pick us up. Since all the girls were picked up first, the male counselors lead companies of campers down the mountain in the middle of a storm, through mud and rain. Those guys must have felt like they were the manliest 9-16 year-olds in existence. Their attitudes (helped along by enthusiastic staff) really made what was a horrible situation into an amazingly memorable night.

Some other days are a little different, too. For example, in addition to rest periods and relaxing time after lights out, each counselor gets 24 consecutive hours off per week. I left on Friday at 6 PM and got back Saturday at 5 PM. Here's what we did.

11 of us piled into cars to go eat buy some groceries at Safeway and then eat at Buffalo Chip's:

It was pretty darn delicious. After dinner we were tired so half of us crashed at someone's house and the other half split a motel room. Dan (Las Vegas), Alan (Scotland), Katie (CA), Ashley (CA) and I stayed at a cheap little place. Dan, Alan and I stayed up quite late talking about life. It was really nice to get to know them better. The following morning, we stopped to get some breakfast. I got a peach, banana, and strawberry smoothie. After breakfast, we headed over to Lake Almanor to hang out at the beach and relax. We were armed with food and relaxing music. The other half of counselors met us there after an hour or so (and brought us sunscreen. My feet and back got burned good, though). 

Lemonade + sun. It makes sense that I'm on the Yellow team for color wars.

Lake Almanor. 

Got back to camp after a quick stop at a thrift shop (got a denim jacket and a matador jacket for $5), Walmart (boo, hiss, sorry), Starbucks, and finally back to camp. We got to eat dinner at 6 PM with everyone. About an hour later, the whole camp piled into the dining hall for movie night. We watched Brave. We made jokes about Alan because I guess it is supposed to be set in Scotland. He was a good sport about it. Probably because he was asleep.

I am really excited for Sunday. The plan is to sleep in an extra hour and get breakfast at 9 AM, then take a walk out to the rock pile to practice our skit for the Sunday night show. Each cabin performs a short sketch in front of the whole camp. Ours is called "Pun-ishment: A Word Play." Here is our practice destination. 

California dreamin

Random Update (6.17.13)

Last Monday Sam and I flew out to Reno, Nevada for staff week at MMR. We arrived safely and were picked up by Rachel and Sarah. After a quick lunch in Reno, we drove about an hour out across the Nevada-California border, where the border guard asked if we had any seed or plants. The country here in Susanville is high and dry. Zach, a friend of Sam and me from Boston College also working at the camp, has been besieged by spontaneous bloody noses all this past week, especially on Friday near Lake Tahoe. The ranch where the summer camp itself is located is out along a dirt road I wouldn't think to turn down at first glance. Even the first glance around the ranch itself didn't thrill and amaze me— grassy meadows of both fresh and old horse manure don't have that affect on most people.

Having been here a week and having gotten to know a bunch of the other camp counselors has definitely made the adventure worthwhile already. We all have gotten trained on our various activities and the various camp traditions (there are a lot of traditions. Some I don't understand). Last Wednesday the whole staff took a field trip to see some local waterfalls, natural underground cave labyrinths, and sulfur hotspots. All very cool. California sure has a lot of outdoor opportunities. 

We jumped into that water. It wuz cold.

Thursday night we had our hike and overnight camp out in the woods at the edge of the ranch's property which involved a campfire, hotdogs, beans in cans, s'mores, and banana pancakes for breakfast. 3 PM Friday until 4 PM Saturday was the staff's allocated day off, which we spent at Luke's small lovely cabin at Lake Tahoe. For some reason we decide to buy about 10 frozen pizzas instead of delivery... So Kim and I cooked those for the group of about 25 people. Well, I mostly sliced the finished product. But still. My only regret was sleeping on the floor for a second night in a row. But what can one do when 25 people are in a cabin that can sleep 5-7 normally?

Saturday night was the final preparations and staff talks from our bosses, Chuck (with beard) and Chip (owner of ranch, mustache). Yesterday the campers arrived, at last. We helped them get settled in their cabins and oriented with the ranch by taking a camp tour and going to various areas like the infirmary for a quick medical checkup or the pool/horse stable for swimming/riding assessments (required to do any of the water or horseback activities). After lunch the pool was opened and most of the campers had arrived. I helped some kids learn the slack line, a line hung between 2 trees and walked across. Overall this first day has been nice. The ranch is full and alive, and most of the kids aren't too darn annoying yet. But a few look like they'll be handfuls... Some act as though no one has ever told them 'no' their entire lives. Anyways. This has been the week 1 update from out camp California (we do have WiFi in one building).