Hot Mess

As I wrap up my first week working at the leadership conference for the second year in a row, I have one thing to say. It was a hot mess. Way too many last minute plans, organization, and lack of communication made things turn sour, but for the most part, I kept positive and fought through it. What makes it even worse that there's people working over us that has never worked for the program in the past so they had no idea what to expect and the help of the fellow coworkers who have worked. And from the way they facilitate, you question if they were trained properly for their positions. Despite the troubles from not having enough rooms from the students, early arrival of the parents from inaccurate information on the website, and the linens not coming in time for the students, we were able to pull through successfully.

Throughout the remainder of the week, we had way too many switch not only classrooms, but dorm rooms because of angry parents calling wanting specific children to be together, small incidents of things getting stolen? or missing?, homesickness, fighting, and scholars making their suitemates feel uncomfortable. I was in this program last year, but the difference was that I worked with elementary school kids and they were not as bad as the middle school ones. I feel like the middle school kids are entering puberty and everything is changing for them and this is the time where they figure out themselves and their body going through so many changes.

We also encountered some crazy things happening such as a parent coming in to give her daughter some Advil because she had an headache? Really?, a boy peeing on his suitemates stuff for who knows what? Another child who brought in over $1,000 worth of items and lost his bag which contained these items for his mother to come in and get mad at us. Really? But to later find the bag in the spot the teacher mentioned for him to check. Really? Many students overslept meaning that they missed breakfast. It is not our responsibility to wake them up, but if we have to, we do. I had to physically go into the suites to knock on a child's door to wake him up. What a pain. In order to do that, I have to call the RA to use the master key and blah blah blah. It was too much. What really blew me away were many students who switched from overnight to day scholars just because there was no Wifi or a TV in the dorms. Some students even had their angry parents call demanding a room change to be with their brother/sister or their close friend.We are not here at camp to glue ourselves to our electronic devices and surround ourselves with the same people. We are here to make new friends, learn how to interact with other people, and to have fun. If the parent is so concerned about their child's safety, them just maybe they should not enroll them into an overnight camp. 

The struggle is real

While sitting around waiting to start my job, I realized that these past few years, we all go through something tragic in our lives whether its something physical or emotional, we find ways to conquer them and learn to get by when things were tough. Just recently, since I have been back from Japan, being broke sucks especially living in a city. I become so tempted to go and buy things, but know I can't since there is no money availiable meaning there's no money to go out too. Despite the issues, I go out and still have a good time riding my bike around the city, but let me list you a couple of things that I had to go through these past years to get by:

• In the 7th grade, I grew my love for the Sims 2, but lacking funds, the only way for me to buy these games were with my lunch money. I spent months saving the small $1.50 lunch money I had along with receiving gift cards here and there from friendly church members, and stealing money from time to time, I was able to buy not only the Base game, but also all of the expansion packs by the end of my 7th grade year. Unfortunately, my computer crashes after the summer of 7th grade and I was unable to play the game again. Karma is a bitch. 
• By my 11th grade year, I became bored of taking the train to school and began to take the bus. Although longer wait time, I did not mind. But also during this time, I lost my wallet meaning the student pass I had in there was gone for the month. Fortunately, I was able to obtain a new pass and had to take the bus to all of my locations. As of why? Well the bus is cheaper than the train and as long as you take the bus within. A two hour range, your transfer to one bus to another for free. The situation was indeed a struggle yet, I learned more about the bus system and what routes I can take from where which came along in the future. 
• Now that my main transportation is a bike, no longer need to worry about money to take a train, but sometimes your friends want to go places where a bike is unreachable. To save money, I ride my bike to the farthest station I can ride then take the metro to the unreachable stop. May seem like a ton of work, but with a little bit of planning and timing, it can be done.
• Ran out of soap and stopped by the travel section in Walmart to buy my soap. #thestruggleisreal
• Most recently, my negative balance on my metro card and not having enough money to put on the card to take out for my trip. #oops. Called my sister to travel to metro stop to put money on the card.

These are only a few of the struggles I had to go through, but sometimes you have to cut corners to make ends meet. 

Back from JAPAN

Almost 2 weeks ago, I was in Japan for 2 weeks on a cultural exchange trip with my school. I had an amazing time. It was my first time abroad and I spent a good amount of time traveling around Japan from Yokohama to Nara to Tokyo, to Yugawara  and to other locations as well. I had the opportunity to stay with a host family where they have 3 cute girls just like my family. I had a great time getting to know them and they were so sweet to me. Also, I had the chance to meet students from my school who are currently studying in Japan and other students as well. I had an amazing time in Japan. The trip was organized very well and I commend the Study Abroad advisors from my school and the school in Yokohama for putting this wonderful trip together. I had a great time with the people I traveled with and I hope to one day go back and venture on my own.