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).

Random Update (6.9.13)

Friday (31st): Arrived in Philly with Mitch, and Sam picked us up and took us to a philly cheesesteak place. However, Sam couldn't parallel park, so I had to parallel park for him. The place we went to was a curious one. The owner put a sign on his front window covered in patriotic colors that says "This is America. When you order, speak English." I was informed it made quite a splash in the local media a few years ago. Despite the bad press , it remains to this day. We arrived at Sam's house and dropped off our bags in the basement about an hour later. Sam lives in New Jersey, but his house is only 10-15 minutes outside of Philadelphia. The rest of the day we helped set up for Sam's party. 

Matt and Sam #2 on the right.

Toasting the graduates.

Saturday (1st): Sam had a bunch of family and friends over to his house, including Matt, whose house I'm at now. The party was a blast. Matt and I played cornhole (a game where you toss small beanbags into a hole from a distance) with El and Judy, Sam's grandmother and her friend, respectively. It was a little hot, but it got perfect by evening. That night Matt and Sam's other friend Sam #2 slept with Mitchell and me in the basement. 

Sunday (2nd): Party cleanup and a sleeping bag purchase from Target. Sam, Mitch and I got really bored Sunday night, so we hacked the system. And by hacked the system, I mean Sam and I both got on C-SPAN (he called in, I tweeted at them and it was  put on television). 

Lolz

Monday (3rd): Got up and went to see Sam's high school and a nearby town called Haddonfield. We all got lunch and bummed around, among the highlights being this dinosaur.

Tuesday (4th): Sam's Dad took all of us out to go tubing down the shore (read: go tubing down on the New Jersey shore). We stopped at WaWa, a sort of convenience store, on the way home. Mitchell loves WaWa. 

Wednesday (5th): Sam and I had our CPR/First-Aid class downtown in Philadelphia. Mitchell brought a book for the few hours he waited. Oddly enough, during the class, a building collapsed about a block away from the Red Cross building we were in. We decided never to leave Mitchell alone again, for the safety of the city. That afternoon, we went to visit the Department of Labor (da DOL) where Sam's Dad works. We all went to get pizza for lunch together. After lunch, the three of us went to the Franklin Institute, got some dinner, and then drove to the Philadelphia Union game. It was a great game. The Union won 3-0. 

da DOL

First half kickoff.

Second half kickoff.

Thursday (6th): Travel day. Mitchell flew home, and I was dropped off at the train station to get to North Jersey to stay at Matt's house a few days. I learned the Septa/NJ Transit system a little bit. I did get some reading done on the ride, which was nice (A Thread of Grace). At night, Matt, two of his friends and I went out to watch game 1 of the NBA Finals. 

Friday (7th): Spent the day hanging with Christine. It was really rainy, so we spent it indoors (originally we were going to the beach). I got Matt's family some nice chocolate, and I got me a new pair of sunglasses. At night, Matt, Connor and I went bowling and injured ourselves. Matt bowled a turkey (woo). Connor is a friend from Duchesne (freshman dorm) who went to Matt's high school. 

Saturday (8th): Played some pickup soccer at the 'cage' nearby. The 'cage' is an enclosed but not indoor soccer field. Matt and I played with Connor, Connor's sister, and a handful of other people randomly there. Benjamin was the star. He was only 12 years old, and everyone else was at least a senior in high school. He scored the winning goal. It was hot out. After soccer, I got to see Christine again for a few hours. When I got dropped off at Matt's house later that evening, Sam and Conor (not to be confused with Connor with two n's) had arrived. We all sat outside and played a new game called "you take band names and make the opposite of them." For example, Vampire Weekend becomes Werewolf Workday, The Avett Brothers become The Thedocc Sisters, and Neil Young becomes Stand Old. After far too long, we left for the city (read: New York City). We met up with some of Sam's friends, as well as another friend Arjun from our Appalachia trip my freshman year. We ended up going to about 6 or 7 different bars, eventually driving home around 2:30 AM! One bar in particular was amazing. There was a circle of Irish musicians playing folk Irish music. Then they started playing "Hard Sun" by Eddie Vedder. It was really good. I recognized it from the movie Into the Wild which I saw a few weeks ago at home. We invented hypothetical ice-breaker one-liners throughout the night. These included "Are those reusable shoes?" and "Are you a pig wrestler?" (these are inside jokes and not supposed to be understood or enjoyed by the reader). Oh, and I was the designated driver for the evening. Who says driving in NYC is hard? 

Holy crepe.

Sunday (9th, today): Got up and drove with Matt, Sam, and Conor (not to be confused with Connor with two n's) to Randall's Island for the Governor's Ball music festival. It was a mucking good time. 

The lineup. I saw Cherub, Haim, Portugal. The Man, Deerhunter, Beirut, The Lumineers, and The Avett Brothers. 

In Sam's words: "Supervising the young ladies of Governor's Ball"

The mucky mud (not too many people there early).

Muck.

Balloons. 

The Lumineers show. By far the best all day.

Lead singer Wesley Schultz. They did a song out in the crowd, very close to where we were standing. 

Cool shot with the sun shining behind them through the trees. 

So many people (compare with first few pictures).

The Avett Brothers.

Performing "Murder in the City"

So good.

So so good.