Sean's European Excursion 2003 (SEE03)

There have been a lot of updates lately, which will probably be the exception, not the rule ordinarily. This one is not so much a commentary on life but serves more to describe some of the images you’ll be seeing from Day 3…and I know you’ll be interested in some of them!

I found the pool. Not only is the pool…unique, but it hasn’t been cleaned since last summer. So for nearly a year the cover has been on, creating a greenhouse for all kinds of fungi, algae, and God knows what else to grow. The pictures you’ll see reflect this. Amazingly, the pool has since been drained AND cleaned. We are expecting it to be half filled by tomorrow. No diving.

Today was Alex’s birthday. Alex is from San Paolo, Brazil and he is now 18. We started the celebration last night at a local watering hole, the Bella Vista. The party continued this morning at our meeting with a card, balloons, a cake and, of course, a song. The girls were very busy last night! Alex was quite delighted at everything (as you’ll see), and he was especially amused at Dan (the lead CDE counselor, from Tokyo, U.S., Lugano…the list goes on but he lives here now) for joining the girls in leaving their lip prints on the card. This too you’ll see.

I got some great pictures from breakfast. Betsy is in charge of our particular summer program, CDE. All the other people in the pictures are counselors.

Belvedere is the main building we operate out of. My dorm building is Balmelli if I remember correctly. The decorated doors you see are the result of an excellent job by the arts and crafts people getting things ready for tomorrow.

It was a bit cooler today, but still very humid, although I just took a shower and right now it seems pleasant. We had some light thunderstorms earlier today which was kind of exciting. All is going well overall. The kids arrive tomorrow, which will be a very hectic, crazy day. The official plan is to pretty much wing it. For the most part I feel pretty confident, but occasionally I get the feeling like I’m in over my head. I think most of that will go away though once the kids arrive. Right now there is a lot of speculation and uncertainty about a lot of things, especially ESL. Right now I am assigned five students and we have no idea what their level of English is until they take the diagnostic test on Saturday. In the meantime, I’m trying to plan a lesson that will fill up an entire hour, but I don’t know what level to base it on!

Today I spent some time in the office helping them with some computer work. I get the feeling there will be lots of more that in my future, which is of course just fine with me.

We are going to the circus on Saturday, which should be interesting. I will write more about that and the upcoming schedule in the next installment, after the kids arrive. I want to let people know when my downtime is in the event anyone wants to call (although Meghan typically drags me to the bars during those times).

That’s all for now. Enjoy the pictures and keep in touch!

Hello from Switzerland! All right, first and foremost I got some sleep!

When I finally went to bed last night I had been up for over 50 hours (with those catnaps on the plane). I went out last night with a couple counselors and got to bed around midnight. Somehow I am alive and well this morning. I feel a little tired, but I think that’s due to the humidity more than anything. But let’s bring you up to speed.

I arrived at the Lugano train station around 2PM I think it was. My Friend Meghan and Dan, the head CDE counselor (CDE is my program, 6-10 year olds) picked me up and took me to campus. All I wanted to do was get my clothes off that I’d been wearing for two days and take a shower, shave, and put my contacts in. Dan and Meghan informed me as we arrived that we were late for a meeting. Great, just how I wanted to meet the people I’d be working with. I managed to get through about an hour or so and then we took a break—and I took a shower.

There are 16 CDE counselors that I have met so far. We are still missing one or two from what I’m told. I told Meghan last night that I feel like I’ve been here for a week already. I am not nearly as disoriented as I thought I would be. The other counselors are very nice and we are all getting along very well (so far). There’s a lot of humor in the group, which I think you have to have for this type of thing. The counselors represent the U.S., Canada, England, and a couple other countries. Most of them have traveled around a lot. We’ll point out more of that when we get some pictures and stories of individuals.

The weather here is icky right now. It’s about 95 with about 90% humidity. It was supposed to thunderstorm yesterday but didn’t…although it felt like it had all day. You know that weather where you take a shower and 45 minutes later you want another one. Hopefully it won’t be as bad as yesterday all the time, but I’m told it is humid here over the summer (too many lakes I guess).

As Meghan reported, we do overlook Lake Lugano and the campus is very Italian. In fact this whole damn city is Italian—nobody told me that’s what they speak. Let me just say it was an interesting experience trying to buy a water bottle yesterday at the train station. It’s a good thing Italian is close to Spanish.

I still need to take some pictures of the campus, but I’ve uploaded some pictures of my room and the train ride. The kids arrive Friday so we have one more day to prepare. Tonight we are going to visit the campsite we will be taking the kids to in two weeks and then we’re all going out to dinner. Tomorrow we have another meeting in the morning and then I need to finish preparing for my classes. I will find out what level my kids are English wise in a little while. Twice a day for an hour they are all mine. Yikes! Hopefully I will get a more advanced group.

That’s all for now, KIT!

I am hot, sticky, sweaty, exhausted, hungry, parched, and listening to Holiday Road by Lindsey Buckingham. For those not in the loop, that’s the theme song to the National Lampoon series, including National Lampoon’s European Vacation, which I was watching yesterday in the airport on my computer.

So let me bring you up to speed.

I made my flight from JFK to Zurich. Business class had a bidding war going on (several passengers were getting heated) and so I ended up in economy. Lovely. The ticket agent issued me a boarding pass for an aisle bulkhead seat. Wonderful! Before I even had a chance to sit down, a flight attendant asked me if I was assigned that seat. I showed her my boarding pass and she told me not to get comfortable, I was moving. Damn. A few minutes later they relocated me to another aisle seat, and no one was next to me. OK, not as good, but still cool. A few minutes later, the passenger whose seat I was in showed up. I was up again, only this time they simply moved me across the aisle, still an aisle seat, but now I have a neighbor. That was probably the most short-lived of my moves. Moments later they found another aisle seat with no one in the middle and I was off again. This time I just left my carry on items. This was getting old and I figured I’d find them later! Just when I was getting comfortable (I even put my seat belt on this time), the flight attendant came up and knelt beside me. I must have had a pretty worried expression on my face, because she immediately assured me this was a “good thing”. She apologized for making me move so much, thanked me for my patience, and told me drinks were on the house. Lovely! All was immediately forgiven.

When the drink cart came by, I ordered a screwdriver, she told me $5, I reminded her I was getting free drinks and she made it a double. I love these people. Two (mini) bottles of vodka and two (mini) bottles of wine later, I was feeling good and sleeping soundly. I must have dozed off for a couple hours because I missed the damn movie again. It was The Hours. I’ll have to rent it.

We landed in Zurich ahead of schedule, about 7:15 AM local time, and the flight attendants gave me a bottle of champagne to take with me (full size). I also had a lovely chat with one of them during the flight and she took down the web address of the camp so she can see if they have a campus in France for her kids to attend. I think Pam must have called the flight crew ahead of time and told them I was coming—prepare the liquor cabinet.

Customs was a breeze. I told them I was on holiday after graduating college. I bought a SIM card for my phone and we are now activated. Cellular service here is much better than in the U.S. I am using my Siemens phone from the U.S. with a prepaid Swisscom SIM card. Incoming calls for me are always free (although I forgot to confirm that with her), even when I run out of credit. When I do run out of airtime (from making calls), I can recharge my card by buying the equivalent of a phone card at any newsstand. So that means you all can reach me anytime. .

I don’t know yet about voicemail, my instruction manual is in German.

I have to get it translated, so you may or may not be able to leave me messages.

OK, so after I got the SIM card, I got a train ticket to Lugano and checked my luggage. Oh, word to the wise: when traveling, go to the restroom BEFORE you collect your baggage. It’s much easier than carting all your luggage with you into the bathroom.

This train thing is complicated. I’ve had to change trains twice and it took me about 30 minutes at the airport to figure out which one to get on. I kept asking people and the ones that spoke English didn’t have a clue where I needed to go. BART I can deal with, nice big color-coded maps, destinations listed in English, it’s very easy. This is ridiculous. None of the maps had Lugano on it. In fact, I couldn’t find Lugano on any of the routing sheets (I didn’t know I needed to transfer to the main Zurich train station). . Anyway, I’ll spare you the details. Just know that it was kind of confusing and stressful and everything here EXCEPT the train schedule is printed in three languages.

I called the camp and told them I’m on my way. Now I’m on the train and it’s beautiful. I’ve taken a couple of pictures but it’s hard to get good ones from the train. Right now we are traveling through a valley between two very large snow-capped green mountains. There are cute little houses spread out along the tracks. I don’t know how to describe them so I just took a picture instead. If I remember I’ll attach it to the email, otherwise check the web site.

Speaking of the web site, if you are receiving this message it means I have Internet access, so web site updates (including pictures) should not be far behind. I should be at camp within the hour. That brings you up to speed for now; I think I’ll resume watching National Lampoon’s European Vacation. Expect some pictures in a few days. I'm in my 30th hour of traveling, so I could really use a shower and shave--and a nap.

Have your people call my people and we’ll chat.

All right, starting to get tired. It’s now 2:30 EDT, I have settled in with vodka tonic near gate seven awaiting my 5:45PM flight. I actually started to do this fifteen minutes ago, but as I sat down and looked at my ticket to verify my departure time, I noticed the ticketing agent gave me a boarding pass for Mr. Jason Stephen. My confidence in the security of our air travel system is bolstered tenfold. I’m sure you all remember my experience in Chicago where my pocketknife—buried in my backpack and dulled and rusted from years of neglect—was confiscated while my traveling companion was allowed right through with hers dangling from her key chain. Oy vay.

Anyway, I spent the last seven hours killing time around the airport. I finally found a nice air-conditioned chair with my name on it down in the baggage claim area—it is really hard to find a seat if you are not at your gate inside the terminal. After trying three different seats, I finally found one with a working electrical outlet nearby that was secluded from pretty much everyone else. I watched John Wayne in The Sons of Katie Elder, made some phone calls, and then went back upstairs to sit in the massage chair at Brookstone. So only three hours and nine minutes left to wait. The good news is the flight has plenty of room on it. The bad news is that it may not be in business class. That would seriously piss me off, but not as much as waiting here for another twenty-four freaking’ hours. My next update should come from the train from Zurich to Lugano and, God willing, I’ll be at camp by noon tomorrow (Tuesday).

Until then, I really need a shower.

Why didn’t somebody tell me I should stay in the terminal? I’m sitting in a bagel shop in terminal 9 of JFK International Airport. It’s 9:06AM and I’m hot as hell. I arrived here a little over an hour ago after an uneventful trip from LAX. The flight was about five hours during the middle of the night no matter what time zone I was in. All I have to say is, thank God for business class. One moment I’m sitting back, waiting for Catch Me If You Can to start and the snack tray to come by, the next thing you know, we’re landing. OK, maybe I didn’t quite sleep THAT soundly, but still, it was better than coach.

The only drawback so far is that I’m a standby passenger. That means that I cannot check into my International departure terminal until four hours prior to my flight, which is unfortunately at 5:30PM. And rather than hanging out in the terminal I landed in, where I could have utilized the chairs, watched the planes, and plugged in my laptop to watch a movie, I left that terminal to go check out where I needed to be for my departure this afternoon. Therein lies the rub: since I can’t check in yet, I can’t access the terminal area and there is not a single place to sit in this place. So I’m chillin’ here…oooh, I just found a plug. Damn, broken. Oh well. It’s oppressively hot in here, so having finished my bagel and coffee, I think I am going to return to wandering aimlessly through the ticketing area. It wouldn’t be so bad if I weren’t in business casual hauling three bags of crap (my laptop, a carry on, and Mr. Pasley’s camcorder, which he graciously let me borrow).

Alright kids, we're quickly approaching the moment of truth. My friend Meghan, who is responsible for getting me into this whole Swiss summer camp thing, is already at the camp in Lugano. Below are excerpts from her email a few days ago describing what I will soon be experiencing.

In the meantime, my lifeguard training is complete, the Red Cross cards came in the mail, I have my passport, I'm almost packed, and I just need to finalize my airline accomodations! Incidentally, plans have changed and I am now going to be departing for JFK at 11:15PM on Sunday, the 22nd, arriving in New York at 7:36AM. I will have a ten hour layover in New York while waiting for my flight to Zurich (ZHR), so if anyone wants to come hang with me, please let me know...soon! That puts my scheduled arrival in Zurich at 7:35AM on the 24th. I will then take a three hour train ride to Lugano, which should put me on campus at my destination by noon Zurich time (+9 PDT) on Tuesday. I'm tired already, but if all goes as planned (i.e. there is room on the flights) I will be flying first class (thank you Aunt Pam!).

And now, from Switzerland...

=========================================

>From Meghan Gamble

NOTES FROM SEAN:

ANNA IS MEGHAN'S ROOMMATE IN BOSTON.

MEGHAN IS THE SCHOOL NURSE AT THE CAMP.

=========================================

To give you a slight idea…I am staying (only for the next few days, unfortunately) in a 17th century castle (its seriously not that big though I swear) that was remodeled about 10 years ago to it’s almost original state. The founder of the school, Mrs. Fleming lives there on and off throughout the year. I had breakfast this morning on a terra cotta tiled terrace overlooking Lake Lugano. And the entire campus is a mixture of Italian villas restored into dorm rooms, small apartments and classrooms. However (and NOT that I’m complaining) to get to my apartment (yes, apartment. Hang on , I’ll explain) from the main campus, I have to walk up 115 stairs!! Yes, I counted…twice. I did find a short cut but only by 11 steps..not much. And although the majority of the campus areas look like something out of an Italian fairy tale, my apartment looks like something out of “That 70’s show (again, I am not complaining, just making a statement). I was totally stoked to get my own fairly large room (enough for a coffee table and couch), separate kitchen and my own bathroom (which most of the employees don’t have)..ha ha! The reason I have my own apartment is because if a kid gets sick..guess who they’re rooming with…me. Perfect.

So what have I done so far?? Well, after I was on campus for about 20 minutes, I was invited to dinner at “Casa Fleming” ( the house I am currently staying in) with the founder of the schools. She’s 93 years old and I swear the woman has more energy than TWO of me… with coffee!! After dinner, Anna took me on a tour of the campus and surrounding areas. The campus is spread out among private homes..I’m hoping I don’t accidentally walk into one of them. Oh..get this..there’s a curfew. The city has a 10pm curfew and the locals really adhere to it. In fact, I’ve been told that if you make too much noise, people throw hot water out to the streets where you are! Nice neighbors, huh?? Anyways, after the tour we walked up to an off campus apartment and met a few of the staff and I had Swiss beer..ugh. The stuff is like water..no taste.

The next morning we had breakfast (overlooking the Lake..did I mention that??!!) and then started to do some actual work..at least until lunch. After lunch Anna told me that a few of the staff were going to “relax” at the water. I thought, sure..pool, lake..I can sleep! Great! Didn’t happen. After a 15 minute drive through the woods (it reminded me of Lake Tahoe in CA..only much smaller roads), we parked the van and started the hike…through more woods, dirt trails and crossing streams. Twenty minutes later on one of the guys (oh, yeah, by the way, I was the only girl and was able to keep up thank you very much!) stated, “Ok, the swimming hole is right over this bend so let’s drop all our stuff off here and go over”. Finally. I was dripping with dirt and sweat and couldn’t wait to get in the cold water. However, there was a slight catch. In order to get into the water, you had to jump….off a rock…30 feet below…into a streaming current. I felt like I was in a scene from “Lord of the Flies”. I was hot, but not THAT hot…no way in hell was I diving into some 300 sq. foot hole that was a 6 inch deep stream ten steps back. However, after sitting on the ledge for half an hour and watching 20 people jump in, and surviving it without getting a concussion (or worse..what can I say, I worked in a ER for two years. I know what happens) I said a prayer and dove in…feet first mind you. I’m not that brave. In fact, I went in twice!! I then decided I deserved a beer…so we went back to our camp and “fished” the beer out of the stream (hey, you have to keep it cold somehow!). Then the guys said..”OK, now we’ll do backflips”. Right. Have fun boys, I’m finishing my beer in the 6 inches of water. We left an hour later and got all prettied up for another dinner at Casa Fleming.

And I’ve only been here for 28 hours…..

=========================================

End of Meghan's Update

=========================================