The Scientist

The lyrics to this song were just too appropriate for us not to sing it at the Camp Royall 2010 staff talent show. Nobody said it was easy...it's such a shame for us to par-ar-art.

I will upload the other songs that we did soon. Thanks, Jean!

Now for another day of cleaning up camp. :) :(

Goodbyes

I am in arts and crafts right now...attempting to prolong a Thursday night that has already technically turned into a Friday (the last day of camp and beautiful campers at Camp Royall). Before I graduated Elon a few months ago, I did something similar by staying up all night in the ceramics studio painting an intricate, silver eyeball on my cap, just for kicks and giggles. I literally stayed in the art building until four thirty in the morning that night and since it's already two o'clock here now, I will continue to take on random arts and crafts projects because I am too happy and too stuck in the motion of camp frenzy and excitement to go to sleep and accept the fact that it will all be over way too soon. Yep, it's called denial, kiddos.

Nichole, mainly, sorry for the lack of updates. My twelve hour work days don't leave me much time for what many consider frivolous blogging. However, my neglect of this blog does keep me awake at night sometimes and if I had internet access in the cabins, maybe it would get updated more often. I promise to share more about life happenings as soon as I, what, start school full-time again? Haha...YES! Actually, even though I will be really busy soon (as will you, Nitch) I will have lots of exciting things to share here. But, before I promise to update my blog more, I promise to see you in D.C., baby!

Iceland

Okay. Update. This just in. Instead of moving to D.C., I'm going to move to Iceland. The End.

Inspired by Iceland Video from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.

Homesick

I am having a blast during my vacation week from camp. I drove up to Maryland to spend the week with my best friend, Rachael (Yep, that's us at our senior prom).

Anyway*, Rachael, Christian and I have been frantically apartment-hunting since Friday with lots of potentials, but no luck yet. We've been on site to some places to check the safety of areas out in person and have been emailing people like crazy and I think I've visited craigslist way more often than I've visited facebook this week (seriously).

Anyway, for a much-needed change of pace, I got to go all the way to downtown D.C. by myself like a big girl today (I officially have a smartrip card!). I arrived at the steps of the Natural History Museum to meet up with Kenny, Corey, Jailee, Louiza and Andy (who are friends from camp that decided to spend their vacation week house-sitting near D.C.). While Rachael was at work, I shopped around D.C. with my campy friends pretending that I wasn't about to be homeless in exactly a month...I bought coconut ice cream from a hot dog car and selfishly purchased the cutest dress from H&M (a clothing store that everyone in the world has been to but me). Also, whilst at Urban Outfitters, I got to witness a real-life shoplifter get arrested. It was actually super depressing and sad because the woman was crying and looked like any other person. The situation was simply all-around uncomfortable and humiliating. Urban Outfitters is really, really, really expensive though.

Anyway, on my crowded, but solitary, metro ride back to College Park, I began thinking more and more about my new and different life scheduled for the fall. What will grad school really be like? Will I get good grades? How stressed out will I be? What kind of people will I meet? What about boys (just kidding)? What kind of part-time job will I get to slave away at? Will I make enough money for rent? What about for food? Will I be happy? The latter is worrying me most. I know that I will be happy, but I don't know if I'll every be as happy as I was these past two years. I know I've always complained about Elon, but ever since I stepped foot into the ceramics room and got to working with Mike, I've had some kind or sense of inner calm.

I know that sounds silly. It really does. But I COMPLETELY mean it. The daily struggle and triumph that I experienced working on my ceramics and sculpture made me feel so special and unique. I would tire physically at the wheel, wedging the clay, feeling it in my arms, shoulders and, even, abdomen. I'd get weird looks walking around campus because I'd be so mentally involved, constantly thinking about art, that I wouldn't even bother to clean the dried clay off of my pants, hands and even face. Needless to say, I absolutely LOVED every painstaking minute of working on my thesis. I loved even more discussing the things of life with faculty and peers. My happiest days were at the end of April, installing the senior art show. I hadn't eaten for two days, hadn't slept for the same amount, but I was all giggly and bubbly. I didn't want to be anywhere else. All I wanted to do was stay in the art building.

What I am trying to say is that today on the metro, it hit me. It hit me hard. I am not going back to Elon this fall (which I am okay with). Rather, I am not going back to the ceramics room. I won't get to see Mike's face every day. I won't have clay under my fingernails. I won't get to walk around the maze of Artswest, passing friends in the hall. I won't get to judge the bad art in the bathrooms. There are other things that I won't get to do, but mainly I am jealous that I don't get to make more art full-time. I hope that at the Corcoran I will have enough studio time to explore more with my art. I hope that I find the faculty and students as fun as I found my cohort of art kids. I'm not worried. It's more that the Corcoran experience I am about to embark on is being held and judged against my Art/Honors experience. Mainly, though, as much as I don't want this summer and camp to end, I can not wait another day to get my fingers back in some clay and my brain wrapped around someone else's art.

Love,

Monica

*I like this word.

Gulf

I LOVE Jack Conte.

Anyway, it's my day off. Just hanging 'round camp. Had a weird allergic reaction to something yesterday evening and woke up at four this morning with it again. Don't know what's going on with my body. I didn't do anything differently yesterday. Maybe I'm allergic to constant routine. Alas, went running this morning to clear my head. It worked. Head is so clear I'm bored. What should I do today?

Yum

I'll talk about him down the line...he LOVES legos!

I finally got some Indian food today. I absolutely love Indian buffets and their characteristically crappy interior decorations. I also love random Bollywood television stations and waiters that keep topping off your glass of water whose water level has only dropped a centimeter since the last time it was topped off/you quickly took a sip.

Did I mention that I also love and adore my camper this week? Today's day off from work made me realize that I might have had more fun spending the day with him, even if it meant working!

In other news, I just got my camper information folder for next week and it is for a little boy that I had last summer. You might remember him from this post and this post. The boy in this picture is also coming to camp next week. I wonder if either of them will believe that I am me (due to the drastic change in hairstyle).

Love,

Monica

The Beach

I went to Wilmington, NC with some friends (Elisabeth, Louiza, Corey, Kenny, Mark, Jordan Sk) yesterday (pictures sooooon-ish). We left camp around 9 and got there around 11-something. Got some wine, some sandwich parts and after finding parking, finally made our way to the sandy shores for some pleasure-filled picnic-ing. I also ate seaweed whilst on the beach for irony. It was seaweed that I had payed for, but the best part was that while I was eating, seaweed from the beach (free seaweed) was blowing around me and my feet. Both versions pretty much smelled the same.

In the water we screamed a lot because we kept running into schools of fish and seeing large shadowy shapes with flippers, flappers and fins. A couple people got bit by things or stepped on crabs and what not. We played lots of water games that involved lifting people up out of the water and throwing them. My back got burnt by the sun, I collected lots of seashells and may mail them out to people. We caught baby fish and made sand castles and played frisbee. We moved people's things out of the way when the tide started to come in. We went to the dockside restaurant...I got a delicious veggie burger and even more delicious sweet potato fries. Then we went back to Mark's and tried on his old halloween costume, took pictures and played catch-phrase until the batteries died. Oh, we also made our own delicious desserts by combining varieties of ice cream with coffee and creme brulee creamer. Tasted good.

Then drove home, got back to camp at midnight, hung out in the staff lounge with Jordan Si, Jean and Elisabeth...ended up staying in the staff lounge until 4 a.m. because it started raining really crazily and heavily and couldn't make it back to the cabins.

Woke up (i'm writing in fragments now, by the by) did laundry/am doing laundry and just finished watching/listening to this:

Wish me luck...new camper today. Let week 2 begin!!!!

Love,

Monica