im sorry, dont read this
june 24th- july 14th: sail caribbean
after flying all day june 24th (including 6 hours worth of layovers,) i arrived at the tortola airport in the british virgin islands at 10pm... and found that there was no camp representative to pick me up. after chillin with the island cab drivers for about 15 minutes, the van came and i was taken to hodges creek marina, where i was the last person on my boat (aigue marine) to arrive. the other 10 kids had been hanging out and getting to know each other all day, so it was borderline intimidating to show up late, but i managed to survive the first night. things started getting better right away, and surprisingly, everyone on the boat turned out to be incredibly funny. amy pretended for three days that she had a retainer stuck in her mouth, and kept calling an unsuspecting stranger "alexcshh". a mate named bryan puked in our lazaret, clogged our head, and spilled salmonella chicken juice in our fridge... or at least, those were the rumors. the boys played baseball with bottles of my "diabetic fruit juice" and dock fenders. three people licked a jellyfish. everyone participated in ruining my life by screaming "dear alex, i love you, sincerely jaime" every time breeze booster passed. carolyn asked if cheese melts. amy told morgan (the most gorgeous man i have ever seen) that she could "so see him sliding down that pole" when he mentioned he was a volunteer fireman. carter and andrew tried to spearfish bariccuda by jumping in the water in full snorkel gear with steak knives and paring forks duct taped to boathooks. there were constant gold bond fights and lotion squirting competitions. i got picked up by men on 7 foot stilts as a reggae band sang me an extended version of happy birthday. the dj (heavy beats, whose mother is his manager) at our dances kept yelling "sail cah-rah-bee-an too tousand ond fo, make some noiiiise!" and "all da ladies in da club screeeamm!" despite the fact that we were in a shack beach bar. he also asked if there was "anybody in da house from kentucky," a question that was greeted by total silence. at said dance, i got "redflagged" at the staff meeting for "dancing inappropriately." my captain, paul (who i had a huge crush on) was constantly telling us that "we dont have that in new hampshire" when we inquired about ordinary household items. however, apparently, new hampshirians do make homemade saunas in their backyards. who knew? i was given a special gift by a local construction worker in his mid 40s who waited for me outside the bathroom... a compilation CD entitled "the power of love," including artists such as Phil Collins, Luther Vandross, and Christopher Cross. my bathing suit stop broke under my lifevest while i was waterskiing. janie caught the boys making tuna quesidillas when they were on lunch duty, and had to explain to them how they should make something that everyone could enjoy. we stole dinghys in the middle of the night. we raised a pair of blue rubber clogs on the mast. we visited an abandonned mansion. i spent time on 10 islands, lounged on countless beaches, drank more virgin dacquiris and coladas then you could count, and made egg casserole . on the last night, we had the option of staying up all night on the docks. i chose to do so, and made alex do it with me against his will. throughout the course of the night, he fell in the marina, fell asleep standing up, and fell asleep cuddling with my open, full nalgene. he also mumbled and yelled incoherently on a regular basis. the next morning (the roosters started crowing at 330 am) i was on the second shift to the airport. by the time my first flight took off, i had been up for 25 hours, but i figured that id wait to sleep on the longer flight from san juan to newark. both flights came and went without sleep or anything that remotely resembled it. by the time i got to the newark airport, it had been 32 hours. i walked up to my gate... which was completely abandoned. even in my emotionally and physically fragile state, i remained calm and joined the long customer service line. when i realized it had been 10 minutes and i hadnt moved, i left the line to get change so i could call my parents from a pay phone. my mom told me that all the flights were cancelled because of weather over the east, and it was unlikely that id get home that night. THAT is when i panicked. 33 hours at this point, and i started sobbing uncontrollably in the middle of the airport. i continued to do so as i walked what seemed like miles to the courtesy phones, where i called the amtrak station and got train information from newark to harrisburg, pennsylvania, about 10 miles from my best friends family. a crazy sailor in a coast guard uniform asked if i was flying alone, and offered to let me use his cell phone. i told my mom about the train situation, and proceeded to get a cab from liberty international to penn station, three and half miles through downtown newark. any logic or reason was completely out the window at the point, but from what i could tell of those 3.5 miles, newark is the kind of disgusting the worst parts of new york city want to be. mind you, im still sobbing at this point. the kind of bawling where your whole body shakes and your face puffs up. i did not interact with a single person who knew how to handle a seventeen year old girl in the middle of a full force emotional breakdown. the closest i got was a large, overly made-up woman with cornrows who asked if my flight was cancelled and gave me a tissue. my cab driver was visibly uncomfortable, and kept telling me through a heavy accent that it would be alright. at penn station, i bought a $50 amtrak ticket to harrisburg. i got on the train with no way of contacting anyone to let them know id made it, or for that matter, what state i was in. after being confiscated and spending three weeks in the sail caribbean office, my cell phone was three steps beyond dead. on the train, a man across the aisle from me noticed my convulsions and offered to let me use his cell phone. normally i would have refused out of politeness, but the situation was desperate and i thanked him incoherently. he gave me his number to pass along to my mom in case she needed to contact me. she, in turn, gave it to the joongs, and the poor man received at least 5 long distance calls from worried friends and family over the course of the 4 hours train ride. he also let me use his tweed sport coat as a blanket to shield myself from the frigid air conditioning... im not sure if it was because i was noticeably cold, or because i was scantily clad straight off the islands. at one point, when he received a phone call from jamies dad and (mistakenly) thought i was sleeping, he chose to get up and find the conductor to answer a question instead of waking me up. (the thank you card is already in the mail.) i finally calmed down, but my body and mind were still incredibly stressed, and even though every inch of me was starting to ache from exhaustion, i couldnt fall asleep. when i finally got picked up from the station and got to jamies house, i went downstairs to find chip and alex were in her basement playing pool. alex left pretty soon after i showed up, but jamie, chip and i ended up watching zoolander and falling asleep in the basement at about 1 am... a grand total of 42 hours of uninterrupted consciousness. even though i could barely keep my eyes open the whole time, the wonderful unexpectedness of seeing jamie and chip made it one of the best 24 hours of my life. the best things can happen when you least expect them.
i know this is painfully long... i hope you didnt make it to this point.
hows your summer?
after flying all day june 24th (including 6 hours worth of layovers,) i arrived at the tortola airport in the british virgin islands at 10pm... and found that there was no camp representative to pick me up. after chillin with the island cab drivers for about 15 minutes, the van came and i was taken to hodges creek marina, where i was the last person on my boat (aigue marine) to arrive. the other 10 kids had been hanging out and getting to know each other all day, so it was borderline intimidating to show up late, but i managed to survive the first night. things started getting better right away, and surprisingly, everyone on the boat turned out to be incredibly funny. amy pretended for three days that she had a retainer stuck in her mouth, and kept calling an unsuspecting stranger "alexcshh". a mate named bryan puked in our lazaret, clogged our head, and spilled salmonella chicken juice in our fridge... or at least, those were the rumors. the boys played baseball with bottles of my "diabetic fruit juice" and dock fenders. three people licked a jellyfish. everyone participated in ruining my life by screaming "dear alex, i love you, sincerely jaime" every time breeze booster passed. carolyn asked if cheese melts. amy told morgan (the most gorgeous man i have ever seen) that she could "so see him sliding down that pole" when he mentioned he was a volunteer fireman. carter and andrew tried to spearfish bariccuda by jumping in the water in full snorkel gear with steak knives and paring forks duct taped to boathooks. there were constant gold bond fights and lotion squirting competitions. i got picked up by men on 7 foot stilts as a reggae band sang me an extended version of happy birthday. the dj (heavy beats, whose mother is his manager) at our dances kept yelling "sail cah-rah-bee-an too tousand ond fo, make some noiiiise!" and "all da ladies in da club screeeamm!" despite the fact that we were in a shack beach bar. he also asked if there was "anybody in da house from kentucky," a question that was greeted by total silence. at said dance, i got "redflagged" at the staff meeting for "dancing inappropriately." my captain, paul (who i had a huge crush on) was constantly telling us that "we dont have that in new hampshire" when we inquired about ordinary household items. however, apparently, new hampshirians do make homemade saunas in their backyards. who knew? i was given a special gift by a local construction worker in his mid 40s who waited for me outside the bathroom... a compilation CD entitled "the power of love," including artists such as Phil Collins, Luther Vandross, and Christopher Cross. my bathing suit stop broke under my lifevest while i was waterskiing. janie caught the boys making tuna quesidillas when they were on lunch duty, and had to explain to them how they should make something that everyone could enjoy. we stole dinghys in the middle of the night. we raised a pair of blue rubber clogs on the mast. we visited an abandonned mansion. i spent time on 10 islands, lounged on countless beaches, drank more virgin dacquiris and coladas then you could count, and made egg casserole . on the last night, we had the option of staying up all night on the docks. i chose to do so, and made alex do it with me against his will. throughout the course of the night, he fell in the marina, fell asleep standing up, and fell asleep cuddling with my open, full nalgene. he also mumbled and yelled incoherently on a regular basis. the next morning (the roosters started crowing at 330 am) i was on the second shift to the airport. by the time my first flight took off, i had been up for 25 hours, but i figured that id wait to sleep on the longer flight from san juan to newark. both flights came and went without sleep or anything that remotely resembled it. by the time i got to the newark airport, it had been 32 hours. i walked up to my gate... which was completely abandoned. even in my emotionally and physically fragile state, i remained calm and joined the long customer service line. when i realized it had been 10 minutes and i hadnt moved, i left the line to get change so i could call my parents from a pay phone. my mom told me that all the flights were cancelled because of weather over the east, and it was unlikely that id get home that night. THAT is when i panicked. 33 hours at this point, and i started sobbing uncontrollably in the middle of the airport. i continued to do so as i walked what seemed like miles to the courtesy phones, where i called the amtrak station and got train information from newark to harrisburg, pennsylvania, about 10 miles from my best friends family. a crazy sailor in a coast guard uniform asked if i was flying alone, and offered to let me use his cell phone. i told my mom about the train situation, and proceeded to get a cab from liberty international to penn station, three and half miles through downtown newark. any logic or reason was completely out the window at the point, but from what i could tell of those 3.5 miles, newark is the kind of disgusting the worst parts of new york city want to be. mind you, im still sobbing at this point. the kind of bawling where your whole body shakes and your face puffs up. i did not interact with a single person who knew how to handle a seventeen year old girl in the middle of a full force emotional breakdown. the closest i got was a large, overly made-up woman with cornrows who asked if my flight was cancelled and gave me a tissue. my cab driver was visibly uncomfortable, and kept telling me through a heavy accent that it would be alright. at penn station, i bought a $50 amtrak ticket to harrisburg. i got on the train with no way of contacting anyone to let them know id made it, or for that matter, what state i was in. after being confiscated and spending three weeks in the sail caribbean office, my cell phone was three steps beyond dead. on the train, a man across the aisle from me noticed my convulsions and offered to let me use his cell phone. normally i would have refused out of politeness, but the situation was desperate and i thanked him incoherently. he gave me his number to pass along to my mom in case she needed to contact me. she, in turn, gave it to the joongs, and the poor man received at least 5 long distance calls from worried friends and family over the course of the 4 hours train ride. he also let me use his tweed sport coat as a blanket to shield myself from the frigid air conditioning... im not sure if it was because i was noticeably cold, or because i was scantily clad straight off the islands. at one point, when he received a phone call from jamies dad and (mistakenly) thought i was sleeping, he chose to get up and find the conductor to answer a question instead of waking me up. (the thank you card is already in the mail.) i finally calmed down, but my body and mind were still incredibly stressed, and even though every inch of me was starting to ache from exhaustion, i couldnt fall asleep. when i finally got picked up from the station and got to jamies house, i went downstairs to find chip and alex were in her basement playing pool. alex left pretty soon after i showed up, but jamie, chip and i ended up watching zoolander and falling asleep in the basement at about 1 am... a grand total of 42 hours of uninterrupted consciousness. even though i could barely keep my eyes open the whole time, the wonderful unexpectedness of seeing jamie and chip made it one of the best 24 hours of my life. the best things can happen when you least expect them.
i know this is painfully long... i hope you didnt make it to this point.
hows your summer?