Wednesday, August 20, 2008

"Tropical Storm" is the new "Snow Day"

I can't even lie that Tropical Storm Fay was awesome. I had two days off and didn't even lose power. Yeah, it was amazing. But let's begin from the beginning, the first day of school on Friday. It went well, as good as can be expected, I suppose. I'm really quite excited about this year and it's so different to actually know the kids, rather than having to learn them all again.


Friday night we had a celebratory Happy Hour at Monte's for Mellie's first day/every one's first day. The night was fun but ended early for me, and I was cool with it. The shoes I wore gave me this evil blister of DEATH and I just couldn't bear to wear them any longer.


Saturday, T and I drove to Boca to visit Annie. Her place is really cute, and she cooked us a great lunch, and then we spent the day walking around this shopping area. It was great to see her and spend some time in her territory. Plus, I got some pear Jelly Bellies, one of the greatest substances on earth.


Saturday night, though, the party continued. The English Department party was at Mark's house and now I'm considering marrying him because his house is AMAZING. I'm just saying that he made his money BEFORE he started to teach, or he comes from money, 'cause that house was unreal and unattainable on my salary, I can tell you that. Anyway, the party was good times and we watched the Olympics so my life was awesome.


Sunday morning, Tiffany and I went on a secret spy mission and snuck into building G, where the pool and fitness center are. It was a long and arduous journey, but we were rewarded in the end with this...



Yes, ladies and gents, that's our pool. We even went in and stuck our fingers in the water. It was awesome, I can't lie. I can't wait for a secret late night pool party. Aww yeah!

Monday was a chill day. I did some cleaning and then played with iTunes until Andrew rescued me with the first of two Hurricane Parties. I went to Dianna's house and ate dinner (yum!) and played my first ever game of Guitar Hero. I'm kind of over it, I can't lie. I can't imagine people playing for hours and hours on end. I'd rather read a book, thankyouverymuch. Then one of the boys upstairs called me, and I headed up to hang with him and his previously unknown to me but extremely hot room mate. Win! Plus, I met my new best friend who promised to take me to Nicaragua next time he goes. Wooty woo! Good times. I enjoyed myself thoroughly.

Tuesday I got my Guitar Hero wish and finally finished Their Eyes Were Watching God and I'm excited to teach it this year! I=NERD of life. Then T and I went to this magical place called The Mart to shop. It's the place where people who work for stores go to buy the items for their store, so you can get tons and tons of crap for cheap. Plus, the set up (and prevalence of Asians, for some reason) reminded me of being in Korea and I felt very at home there. It was great. The rest of the afternoon was spent with Tiffany and Dee playing Wii, and me dozing on and off, wishing I had a book. Again, nerd of life.

School today was fine, although I wasn't thrilled to be there. The kids were fine, though, and only two more days until the weekend! Fay is the best thing ever!!

Okay, back to Olympics action/reading my book.

Much love!

Labels: , , , , ,

Monday, August 11, 2008

All My Exes Live in Texas

Well, maybe not. But I can say I've been there, now! My week in Texas was great. The Grapevine campus of Fellowship was HUGE and beautiful. They were actually setting up for a wedding when we arrived.


Allaso Ranch itself was also HUGE and beautiful. It was also dusty. I think I brought home an entire beach's worth of sand in my bag, along with a great deal of kitchen water and food sludge. You see, I worked in the kitchen all week. I was happy to do it, though, because that's what I signed up for. I really find a peace and even a joy in doing menial tasks and turning by brain off. I'm certain that I could have solved world hunger had I just sliced one more pound of roast beef. Mostly, though, I just washed dishes. Or rather, rinsed dishes and loaded them through the dishwasher. My upper body strength has improved from all the lifting and shoving! I got the kitchen workout, I guess.


The kids at camp were great, and everyone I met was very nice. I really liked Texas--it was so spacious and the stars were bright like they are at home. It was just so comforting to be in a place where they have space to just... be. I miss that.

My favorite story of camp was this little boy who went to the med station with a cut on his head. When they asked him what had happened, he started bawling while he was trying to tell the story. Apparently what happened was, this kid saw a frog and the frog asked the boy to bring him some water. So the little boy got the water and brought it to the frog, who proceeded to "trick" him and make him dizzy, and he hit his head. Twice. The medical staff proceeded to make a "Wanted" sign for this tricky creature, and eventually caught him (or a poor frog very like him) and kept him in "jail" for a day.


I can't make this stuff up, people! Can you just see this little kid, crying because a frog tricked him, CERTAIN that that's what happened? Oh man. How cute is that? I'm obsessed with that story.


Another camp discovery was that ketchup and salad dressing are the grossest smells ever, and any meal invovling cheese will be a b!^@# to clean up. You live, you learn.


Okay, so here are some pictures. This is the whole Miami crew, minus our camper Jorge. Lauren, Dianna, Jeff, me, and Jonathan are in back, Meagan and Andrew in front. Representin' the 305.

Leaving camp and heading to the airport. Bye bye Allaso!

The kitchen crew. We control your food... You must be nice!

Stuck in a warmer! I'm baking! Actually, the warmer MAY have been cooler than the hot Texas weather.



Me and my best friend all week, a clean plate.



There are more pictures, so if you want to see the whole album on Facebook, click here.

This camp was amazing, I can't imagine having the opportunity to go as a kid. There was an amazing water park, complete with two slides and a lazy river. The slides, by the way, were awesome. There's also a zipline, which I totally went on. It was super fun. There's a lake that's slowly being filled, mountain biking trails, a high ropes course, horseback riding, anything you could ever want in a camp. And then each day the kids have a Bible study, and each night they have Camp at Night, a huge rally where they play games and sing songs, shout, and create a maelstrom of sound.

Summer's offically over now, though, great as it was. We had our first meeting at school today, and the kids start on Friday. I already can't wait until next summer...

Much love.

Labels: , , , ,