Как я провел этим летом
Today we went to Santa Monica to clean the beach in front of Marion Davies's beach-house which had been built for her by William Randolph Hearst. William Randolph Hearst did not actually build the beach-house himself but he had it built and then gave it to Marion Davies as a present. It was a long time ago. Today we were taken there by buses because the beach-house now belongs to the city of Santa Monica and the beach in front of it needs cleaning. Strangely, we were not paid by the city of Santa Monica to clean the beach. On the contrary, Sony Pictures Entertainment had to pay the city of Santa Monica for us to clean the beach. It's one of those weird things that make America great.
I had expected hard work, like maybe great tree trunks felled by a hurricane or perhaps some nasty industrial waste. But when we got there, it was the cleanest beach I had ever seen. I was teamed with a nice Italian guy called Federico and two nice British girls called Jane and Laura. There were two ladies who ran the 'Heal the Beach' campaign, and one of them lectured us on how important it is to keep the beach clean. Then we were given buckets and gloves and trash-grabbers which are like long sticks with a mechanism to operate the pincers on one end to pick up trash without bending down or dirtying your hands. There were also strainers for sieving the sand to find small bits of trash in it. We were also given special cards to keep track of the trash we found and keep score of the number of cigarette butts and cigar ends and plastic bottles and what not. I think one of the ladies was a student and was writing a thesis on the kinds of trash that ends up on a beach, and she needed the data for her research. We were told not to pick up condoms or anything that looked like it came out of a hospital, like needles or syringes, and not animal carcasses, either. Instead, we were told to report these things to the ladies so that they could call specially trained teams to dispose of them.
We went along the beach in teams, looking for trash. There was not much trash around, and it was hard to find. Perhaps Warner Brothers had been there before us or something. There were some bits of plastic and small pieces of paper and a few cigarette butts. I wanted to find a cigar end but didn't. We drank the water from our bottles and put the bottles in the trash. I hope it was not cheating. We did not see any animal carcasses. We walked around for about an hour and then returned to the beach-house and the two ladies like we had been told. Other teams also returned. Ushiroku-san brought a wine bottle, so his bucket was the heaviest. Everybody believed that he had raided a trash bin, of which there were many on the beach, but he said not. Everybody loves Ushiroku-san, so nobody was really mad at him.
The two ladies liked the trash that we had picked, so they told us to go and pick some more. This time we went in the other direction, and we thought other teams had also gone after us, but when we looked back, there was nobody there. Perhaps other teams did not want to pick any more trash. A little girl came up to me and put some mandarine peel in my bucket. I said thank you, and she ran back to her mother and brought some more peel. Her mother told her that we were convicts doing community service, and that she had to be a good girl if she did not want to spend her life picking trash on the beach. Then we found a place where somebody had had a picnic, and we got a lot of nice trash with some good heavy stuff like a flip-flop. Then we sat down on the sand and looked at the ocean and talked about how patronising the ladies who had lectured us really were. It was very relaxing. We did not want to go but we were worried that the others might get on the buses and go back to the studio without us.
When we got back to the beach-house, the other teams were taking a group photo, and we had to run to be in the photo too. We did not win the prize for getting the most trash, which I think was unfair because other teams could not have picked much trash the second time around unless they raided the trash bins. But the prize was beer cans with beer in them, and I do not like beer, so I did not mind. On the way back we got stuck in traffic and played at who could name the most varieties of trees. Then in the evening we had a poolside party with lots of drinks and roast beef to eat. Nobody fell into the pool. It was a very restful day.
I had expected hard work, like maybe great tree trunks felled by a hurricane or perhaps some nasty industrial waste. But when we got there, it was the cleanest beach I had ever seen. I was teamed with a nice Italian guy called Federico and two nice British girls called Jane and Laura. There were two ladies who ran the 'Heal the Beach' campaign, and one of them lectured us on how important it is to keep the beach clean. Then we were given buckets and gloves and trash-grabbers which are like long sticks with a mechanism to operate the pincers on one end to pick up trash without bending down or dirtying your hands. There were also strainers for sieving the sand to find small bits of trash in it. We were also given special cards to keep track of the trash we found and keep score of the number of cigarette butts and cigar ends and plastic bottles and what not. I think one of the ladies was a student and was writing a thesis on the kinds of trash that ends up on a beach, and she needed the data for her research. We were told not to pick up condoms or anything that looked like it came out of a hospital, like needles or syringes, and not animal carcasses, either. Instead, we were told to report these things to the ladies so that they could call specially trained teams to dispose of them.
We went along the beach in teams, looking for trash. There was not much trash around, and it was hard to find. Perhaps Warner Brothers had been there before us or something. There were some bits of plastic and small pieces of paper and a few cigarette butts. I wanted to find a cigar end but didn't. We drank the water from our bottles and put the bottles in the trash. I hope it was not cheating. We did not see any animal carcasses. We walked around for about an hour and then returned to the beach-house and the two ladies like we had been told. Other teams also returned. Ushiroku-san brought a wine bottle, so his bucket was the heaviest. Everybody believed that he had raided a trash bin, of which there were many on the beach, but he said not. Everybody loves Ushiroku-san, so nobody was really mad at him.
The two ladies liked the trash that we had picked, so they told us to go and pick some more. This time we went in the other direction, and we thought other teams had also gone after us, but when we looked back, there was nobody there. Perhaps other teams did not want to pick any more trash. A little girl came up to me and put some mandarine peel in my bucket. I said thank you, and she ran back to her mother and brought some more peel. Her mother told her that we were convicts doing community service, and that she had to be a good girl if she did not want to spend her life picking trash on the beach. Then we found a place where somebody had had a picnic, and we got a lot of nice trash with some good heavy stuff like a flip-flop. Then we sat down on the sand and looked at the ocean and talked about how patronising the ladies who had lectured us really were. It was very relaxing. We did not want to go but we were worried that the others might get on the buses and go back to the studio without us.
When we got back to the beach-house, the other teams were taking a group photo, and we had to run to be in the photo too. We did not win the prize for getting the most trash, which I think was unfair because other teams could not have picked much trash the second time around unless they raided the trash bins. But the prize was beer cans with beer in them, and I do not like beer, so I did not mind. On the way back we got stuck in traffic and played at who could name the most varieties of trees. Then in the evening we had a poolside party with lots of drinks and roast beef to eat. Nobody fell into the pool. It was a very restful day.