thatnight.net

The girls that I’m responsible for are very American, very upper-middle class, and very blonde. While my primary concern when I accepted my job here was to coach lacrosse, and not to supervise a group of teenage girls, I’ve finally gotten to know them. Although I’m sure that at home they are advised to sit like ladies, chew with their mouths closed, and behave properly around company, they’ve all become very comfortable with the rustic atmosphere and finally removed the earbuds of their iPods from their heads. I’m already quite fond of them.

Besides my girls, though, are numerous other groups of children that aren’t white or blonde or upper-middle class. Just as we have an immense amount of international staff, the ratio of international children is extremely impressive.

I met two little ones from Spain today. The boy was 10, and his sister, 9. They both had huge bright, brown eyes and could speak both Spanish and English so fluently that it would be impossible to tell which one they spoke first. While I tried talking with them in the random, broken Spanish that I remembered from high school, they smiled and nodded and I’m sure were thinking, “chica Americana loca.”

3 Comments

This week’s weather conditions have been less than ideal. It hasn’t stopped raining for the last four days.

Actually, that’s a lie. Occasionally, and lasting for less than three minutes, the black storm clouds will grab lunch and the sun will make a small and extremely hot appearance to hold down the sky. You know how sometimes, while swimming, you’ll hit an especially warm patch of water? It’s like that. In the air.

We haven’t seen the worst of it in my area (probably due to the infinite grassy fields), but from what I hear, the rain has flooded the nearby Wal-Mart and sent the cars parked outside afloat. Makes perfect sense, right? Let’s chance the weather and ruin our $22,000 vehicles for $3.29 toilet paper.

My main job here, besides instructing lacrosse, is to be directly responsible for a group of seven 14-year-old girls. That job description generally entails that 1.) I sleep well enough that I have enough energy to make 30+ kids enthusiastic about a sport that, frankly, I’m tiring of, and 2.) I sleep lightly enough to be able to catch seven 14-year-old girls before they can sneak out of bed to the beach and fondle seven 14-year-old boys.

Yesterday however, luckily for me, both mountain bike instructors happened to accidentally have off on the same day and they needed me to fill in. Do they call off the day’s sports because of torrential downpours? Nope. Are the kids who take the mountain bike courses generally pretty good bikers? Absolutely.

I was on the tail end of a group of kids for around four hours, during which time we biked about a mile into the woods, over and down muddy hills, and into several insect nests. My entire body was so completely caked in mud that by the time I finally made it to a shower, I stood there for fifteen minutes, too exhausted to peel the soaking clothes from my skin. The two rather large German boys who instruct this class will do well never to let this happen to me again.

I’m so sick of being wet that the novelty of living on the waterfront has somewhat lost its draw.

4 Comments

List of Characters

Hannah : the sensible Scottish* girl
Martin : the curious German* kid
Dom : the outgoing English* boy
Rachel : the apprehensive white girl
Meg : the dreadlock-haired Australian* hippie
Store owner
Cop

*Accents to be exaggerated accordingly.

Act I: 9:00pm, Chesapeake City

Meg: (driving car) “Dude, we need to find someplace to go.”
Hannah: (pointing) “Is that a random disco on the dock down there?”
Meg: “Word!”
Rachel: “They’re going to card us.”
Dom: “We’re international. We’ll get by. And you look 21.”

Act II: 10:15pm, Outdoor Nightclub

Rachel: (among a crowd of dancers) “Dom, will you please stop dancing like that?”
Dom: (shouting above music and dancing wildly) “I’m English! I’ll do what I want!”

Act III: 11:00pm, Boardwalk

Dom: “Four dollars for a beer?! I just bought three at the pub down the street for two!”
Store owner: “Four dollars, sir. We also make excellent custard. (Dom stares unbelievingly at club owner) You know, custard, it’s like ice cream but…”
Dom: “I know what custard is! I’m from England! Not Mars!”
Meg: “We need to bounce, yo, but I’m not going back to camp yet. Let’s go to Ocean City and crash on the beach. Rach, you want to drive my car?”
Rachel: “Yeah, but that’s, like, three hours from here.”
Meg: “Nuh uh, man! It’s, like, an hour. Tops.”

Act IV: Three hours later, Annapolis, Maryland

Rachel: “This is a pretty town.”
Meg: “We’ve been driving for three hours, man. We need to get directions. Rachel, flash the lights at that cop.”
Rachel: “I’m not going to flash that cop.”
(Dom snickers)
Meg: “Dude, flash the cop.”
Rachel: “You can’t just flash a cop!”
Meg: (screaming out of car window) “HEY! HEY COP! HOW DO YOU GET TO OCEAN CITY?!”
Cop: (pulling aside car) Ocean city? (scratches chin, pointing) You need to go about 110 miles that way.”
All: “‘…”

Act V: 3:30am, Random Highway

Martin: “Can we not just go to Philadelphia and walk around for, uh, hour?”
Hannah: “It’s almost four o’clock in the morning Martin. Would you enjoy getting mugged?”
Martin: “Cities are bad in this country during evening?”
Meg: “Who’s up for camp, man?”

1 Comment

I am alive and I am well. I will say that I completely underestimated this job. I continue to think of things to write about, and continue to write about them, but having to share five computers with 500 staff has not allowed for generous online time.

The bay is absolutely incredible. At times, when I’m a homesick, emotional mess I can sit overlooking the water and the land and the cities across the water and the land, and remember why I came in the first place – to make myself less of an emotional mess. And to save for a MacBook.

The staff here is from everywhere. Soccer coaches from England. Dance instructors from Spain. Sailing teachers from Australia. It seems as if everyone has taken well to eachother.

I have never moved so much in my life. When I finally hit my bed at night I feel as if I’ve been up and running for two weeks. Overall, I feel better. It’s amazing how much being active makes everything… better.

So although I will continue to write, it may be less often that I can publish it here. It’s definitely an experience, and I have two months to go.

3 Comments

I’m leaving late tomorrow night (early Sunday morning?) for the rest of the summer. Even though the reality of moving to another state (and far, far away from the city) to pursue a job hasn’t quite hit me yet, there are so many questions running through my head that I’m almost positive I won’t get any rest before the drive.

Did I pack the right things? What about my co-workers? Are they going to be athletic and intense or preppy and laid-back? Do I even fit into either of those categories?

And what about the job itself? I’ve coached in Pittsburgh, but lacrosse is a thousand times bigger on the East Coast. I feel like I’m going overseas and teaching a course in Japanese linguistics after taking a single semester of Japan 101.

And what if I hate being paid to live on the beautiful coast and receiving complete compensation for room and board while doing something that I absolutely love and then having it on my résumé so that paired with my 3.8 G.P.A. I won’t have to worry as much about getting into a Masters program?

That was incredibly obnoxious. Admittedly, I’m incredibly excited.

What I plan to do when I’m not on duty:

• Train for college cross country team next semester.
• Not buy anything; save every single penny for a new laptop (God, I want a MacBook) and next year’s rent.
• Write. A lot. All the time.

So, from here on out, I’ll keep updating with a sort of Rich-esque travel journal. Over the next three months I will be in no less than five states and take no less than one thousand pictures. Sunday starts day one.

14 Comments

My sister’s tiny 6th grade class graduated from elementary school today. And although the class was tiny, the auditorium (slash cafeteria slash gym slash anything else they can label the room when an occasion arises) was also tiny. The chairs inside of the auditorium were tiny. The budget was tiny; the entire assembly was highlighted by the D.A.R.E. awards and therefore each of these tiny children in this tiny auditorium were sporting a floor-legnth black t-shirt which will serve absolutely no purpose for them except taking up space in the back of their dresser drawer because it’s what they wore to their 6th grade graduation.

What else was tiny? The boys were tiny. Standing between two girls, one would virtually disappear. I understand that girls hit puberty first, but the difference was massive. When my sister was awarded with highest honors from the D.A.R.E. program, and was presented with a stuffed lion wearing an identical shirt in a size which would have probably better suited a 6th grade kid, the poor boy next to her couldn’t even hold his second-place lion at a similar level.

What wasn’t tiny about the ceremony? Well, for one, my sister. Not only does she tower over me, but also over anyone present in the same vicinity as her at any given time. What was bigger than my sister? My sister’s hair. And bigger than that? The smile she had after graduating.

And yes, the whole idea of a graduation is that “the little ones are growing up.” But it was more mind-boggling for me to think that she still has three more years before high school. As I stood in the back of the auditorium slash cafeteria slash gym, I realized how old I was. And although I have so much to look forward to, and so much to look back on, my little sister is entering a totally different universe that I’ve already ventured into and left. Her potential is limitless.

4 Comments

Buy Frosty from Wendy’s (chocolate is preferred, although vanilla may be substituted). Add french fries. Serve cold.

2 Comments

I’ve finally been able to move a couple things around on this website. Even though a few posts and some content went missing, it’s probably more of a blessing than anything. I needed a clean slate since I won’t have as much time to work on the mechanical stuff after I leave next Monday.

I’ve been trying to spend as much time as I can with everyone since I won’t see them for three months. Of course I’m sorry to be leaving, but I’m so excited to be traveling someplace new and having such an incredible summer job that it’s all kind of bittersweet. As long as I can laugh at least half as much as I’ve been doing here, I’m sure I’ll be in good shape.

7 Comments

As Dan’s family sorted through basement boxes, his mom spent a few hours rummaging through baby pictures and passing them onto me when she came across the especially good ones.

As we got to his old sports teams’ photos, we came across a certain soccer one with a pretty big group of boys. Dan pointed out that not only was he in the group picture, but two other boys who he’s still very close with were also.

Unfortunately, I was not living around here at the time when most of my current friends were growing up together. I love finding stuff like this.

Comments Off