Sean's European Excursion 2003

Update #14: It's Another John Deere

noreply@blogger.com (Road Scholar Sean) — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 03:36:00 +0000

It has been over two weeks since my last update, and for that I apologize. It has been a busy couple of weeks and, reading over my last update, much less poetic. I have just returned from two days of removing splinters (mostly from children’s dirty feet), building fires, and blowing my nose—an event otherwise known as camping with a cold. Sunday night I went with a handful of other counselors to set up the campsite (about 30 minutes away) for the arrival of the children Monday morning. Alas, I need to back up…

August 1st is Swiss National Day, an event much like our Fourth of July in the good old US of A. For us at CDE, that means the highlight of our time here as we get to go out on the lake in a privately chartered boat and watch the fireworks surrounded by the Swiss alps and the twinkling lights of the canton of Ticino. What’s more, this year marks the 200th anniversary of Ticino’s admission into the “Confederation Helvetica”, or the Swiss confederation. Basically it’s like celebrating your state’s admission into the Union. All that really means is the party was supposed to be bigger and better than ever. The only downside would be the 48 children we had to bring with us. All in all, it turned out to be an enjoyable evening. The fireworks were not all THAT impressive, but it was really nice being out on the lake and I got some cool pictures, which of course are now online (http://www.theroadscholars.com/see03/Day39/ ). If you ever plan a trip to Switzerland, I highly recommend trying to catch some part of the August 1st festivities as there is a very fun energy level and as I’m sure you’ve realized, the Swiss know how to party (as long as you’re done by 10). Unfortunately, as the night progressed, I began to notice that I was not feeling so hot. Sure enough, Saturday morning I woke up with a cold.

I had to work two full days Saturday and Sunday, so by the time Sunday evening rolled around, I was not really feeling like setting up a campsite. That meant that by the time we were done setting things up, instead of hanging out with the other counselors and enjoying the luxury of no kids (i.e. drinking around the campfire), I took some Tylenol PM and went to bed.

Monday morning I woke up to a phone call from my mom, which was quite lovely (one day I will figure out how people know which days I can sleep in, they always pick those to call me early in the AM). Really and truly though it worked out quite nicely. Since I was able to sleep in a bit, it gave me plenty of time to chat, which I wouldn’t have had on a regular day. Plus, it was kind of interesting talking on a cell phone from inside a tent. And then, the children arrived.

Now, aside from being ill, camping really is kind of fun. It pretty much consists of eating, swimming in the watering hole 15 minutes away (pictures are online), eating some more, and then making smores around the campfire. The great thing that I think I’ve mentioned before is that there is no schedule, lots of free time for the kids, and plenty of nature to keep them occupied, which reduces our job to babysitting rather than entertaining.

The watering hole is really kind of cool. The village where the campsite is located is called Camignola and is adorable. Check out the pictures, both from this session and last session to see what I mean (http://www.theroadscholars.com/see03/Day14/) . In order to get to the watering hole, we have to hike about 15 minutes through this village, which consists of quaint cottages, grazing cows, and eventually, a river. The river has some natural wide points that people have dammed up with rocks to create a very nice swimming hole. The surrounding rocks provide some excellent opportunities to jump into the freezing cold water (it is a river that flows down from the mountains, so it is QUITE refreshing). Last session was rather uneventful, but this time when we arrived at the narrow part of the river we found a tractor with a power shovel scooping out dirt to create another damn down river from where we typically swim. This was no problem as our watering hole was still in tact, so we just walked right past. On the way out, however, the shovel dug out quite a bit of earth and created a very narrow walkway along the edge of the mountain. As our group was processing to the main road past the shovel, the path gave way and swallowed one of our boys, we’ll call him Aria since that is his name.

I was at the back of the line and remarking how the water at this point downstream was really murky with mud from the dirt the power shovel was stirring up. Jokingly I said to Dominque, one of the other counselors, “if anyone falls in now, I am NOT going in after them”. Somebody remind me to keep my mouth shut from now on. About 15 seconds after making this comment a counselor from the front of the line runs back to us and says “one of the boys just fell in”. She said it so calmly that I didn’t get it at first. “Is the camper still in the water?” I asked, fearing I would have to make a very reluctant jump into the murky water ten feet below. Instead of waiting for an answer, I pushed myself ahead of our kids to investigate for myself. Sure enough, there was Aria, standing knee high in muddy water ten feet below us, covered with dirt and looking more than a little shaken up. Thank God he wasn’t drowning or I would have been pissed.

So now I have two problems:

1) Aria just fell in the water.

2) Our path out is now very narrow (about a foot) and very unstable, as Aria so beautifully demonstrated for us.

First things first: Aria was trying to climb back up the way he came, but given the circumstances, that didn’t seem like a very good idea. There was a way out about fifteen feet ahead that required him to wade through a bit of muddy water and climb up onto the soft dirt the tractor was sitting on. I told him to start walking but he was extremely reluctant. Meanwhile, I started to bring the kids across our “land bridge” one at a time, grabbing their hands as they walked over the danger zone in case I had to catch another fall. While in the process of doing this, the shovel operator noticed our plight and swung the bucket part of his earthmover in the direction of Aria. He set it down about six inches from him (which scared the hell out of the kids and most of the counselors) and shouted what I think was “get in” in Italian. Whatever it was, Aria got into the shovel and was carried to safety. Dominique managed to get a picture, so I’ll try and get it scanned ASAP. I finished bringing the kids across and we proceeded back to camp to give Aria a shower. I’m just glad the other kids didn’t want a ride too.

We had some more excitement today when Yana, one of our better swimmers, was jumping off the rocks (she’s in the blue bathing suit in the pictures and looks like she’s flying) and hit one of them when she entered the water. I was at my little lifeguard perch when she called up to me and told me she hit her leg and it hurt really bad. Great. I think she’ll be OK, Meghan thinks it is only badly bruised after looking at it tonight, but that didn’t stop us from having to carry Yana everywhere for the rest of the day.

So let’s see, to recap my experiences the last few days:

- Blew my nose A LOT

- Removed splinters

- Watched a child carried to safety in a John Deere tractor claw

- Treated a sprained/bruised foot

I am feeling much better now though, thank you for asking, and after a brief spell of loneliness, my friend Johnnie Walker is back with me. And on that note, I bid you all happy travels.

-S

Update #13: Communication Is Key

noreply@blogger.com (Road Scholar Sean) — Wed, 23 Jul 2003 09:00:00 +0000

There is something strangely poetic about sitting in a McDonald’s in Basel, Switzerland, right on the German border, staring out the window at the passing trains, sipping my cappuccino purchased with Swiss Francs (beer at Burger King and cappuccinos at McDonald’s—what a country), listening to conversations around me in German, with Sitting On The Dock of the Bay on the radio.

Unlike most Americans, I came to Europe not expecting English to be much of a common denominator. Languages intrigue me. How various regions of the world develop ways of communicating with one another that are so different one person cannot understand another perplexes me. And yet, with all the languages I have been exposed to, the songs I hear on the radio are predominantly American and/or in English. I am constantly amazed at how prevalent English is everywhere I go, not only in music, but with the people I meet (except in France).

That didn’t stop me from being a bit intimidated embarking on this trip by myself. When you cannot communicate with people, it really limits your options, and puts a lot of pressure on finding your way without getting lost. It took me about seven hours to arrive at my destination in Karlsruhe. Traffic was so bad that people turned their cars off, got out, and were socializing on the freeway. I finally arrived and reunited with Sarah, a friend with whom I used to work at Cal Poly, and her friend, Lina.

Lina and Sarah were awesome. Not only did Sarah put me up in her flat, but Lina was my contact during my drive as Sarah had not yet returned from her holiday in Konstantz, along the Swiss border. Both are fluent in German and so we were able to tour obscure locales such as the ritzy resort town of Baden-Baden. I will discuss more of the detail of my destinations when I get the pictures online, but Baden-Baden is one of the few cities (one of two, I believe) in Germany that was spared in the wars. Not having to rebuild had its advantages, and Baden-Baden is now the home of natural mineral hot springs and high-roller tourists.

The theme of this trip is communication, and I have some important lessons to share with everyone—some of which I already knew but ignored.

Always carry a calling card that works in whatever country you will be in. When I arrived in Germany, I quickly discovered after a 20-minute conversation with my mom that, although incoming calls are free, when in Germany, your Swiss account incurs roaming charges. I quickly depleted my remaining credits and lost the ability to make phone calls from my cell phone.
Always carry plenty of cash—preferably money that works in the country you are in. When I got to Basel and before I crossed the border into Germany, I stopped at the train station to convert some of my Swiss Francs to Euros (Switzerland is one of two countries I know of that has yet to switch to the Euro). I should have converted more, because I discovered that contrary to the commercials, Visa is NOT everywhere I need to be and my cash went faster than I anticipated. I was carrying over four hundred U.S. dollars and Swiss Francs, but according to the Germans I was broke.
Write down important phone numbers and keep them with you. All of my critical contact information was stored in my phone, which for reasons that are more technical than need be discussed here, stopped working as I prepared to depart Strasbourg. This ended up making me broke, lost, and out of touch until I crossed the Swiss border; not a good combination.
Buy a map. Even if you don’t know where to get one or you think you don’t need one, always carry a map.

Getting lost WITH someone is kind of a thrill. There is something strangely exhilarating about not knowing exactly where one is going. Approaching intersections and asking each other “OK, which way?” was the theme of our Monday afternoon. At the end of the day it was a different story. Since it was raining, we decided to utilize my car and drive 45 minutes over the border to France. I will admit that before this weekend my feelings about the French were technically unfounded, as I had not actually experienced any of the things that people usually complain about. I can now make those complaints.

When you enter France, all bets on communication are off. Signage is poor, the language is pure, and the French just don’t seem to be very warm and fuzzy to tourists. Already behind schedule, I dropped Sarah off at the Strasbourg train station (which was a challenge to find due to the aforementioned lack of signage), said goodbye, and set out once again on the road. Finding the autobahn was not a problem, but once I found it, I was counting on seeing city names I recognized and heading in that direction. That did not happen. The only city I recognized that was listed on the signs was Karlsruhe, and I knew that was the wrong direction, so I went the other way. After about fifteen minutes the freeway ended and I was at a roundabout in a suddenly rural area surrounded by fields. The last thing I wanted was to be heading

further into France, so I decided to turn around and head for the truck stop I passed about ten minutes back.

Suddenly all the arrogance of the day’s success and good times faded away into one ugly lump in the pit of my stomach. I walked into the truck stop and grabbed an atlas off the shelf. The lump grew as I realized, I didn’t know where I was. There was no “you are here” dot on this map. I was lost in a world of French speaking assholes. At the end of my rope, I walked up to a truck driver finishing a pastry at the snack counter. As an American who has traveled through quite a bit of the United States and worked for a moving company, if there is one thing I’ve learned it’s that truck drivers know the roads. This one said he spoke a little English and in ten minutes he plotted a route for me (+1 for the French speaking assholes). A35 was now my lucky number—that was the name of the highway I needed to follow. Since I was already stopped, I thought about calling campus to update them, but once again VISA was not accepted, so I anxiously hit the road.

The directions proved to be outstanding. Each time one of my target cities appeared on the freeway signs I sang a little victory song culminated with “wooooo!” I never thought I’d be so excited to enter a foreign country, but Switzerland was a welcome site for very sore eyes. As soon as I crossed the border I tried my phone again and this time it worked. We were back in business, at least for incoming calls. I fueled, restrated, and within about 30 minutes both Sarah and Meghan called me. I updated them on my status and relaxed a little. I still need a Swisscom card, but we’ll cross that bridge another day.

As I sped through the French countryside heading for Switzerland (which really was quite a beautiful drive with the sunset, despite my anxiety level), I began to reflect on a great many things. Foremost on my mind was what a great weekend I had. Two things worked to my advantage during this adventure: the freedom of a car, and the expertise of “locals”. Sarah and Lina were awesome, and without their German speaking abilities and knowledge of great places like Baden-Baden and the stories behind the landmarks of Strasbourg I never would have been able to experience all I did.

But it’s more than sightseeing that makes trips like this memorable. It’s always great to see friends you haven’t seen in awhile and you all know how much I love being “hooked up” in foreign cities, domestic or

international! Sarah is one of those people that we could have been almost anywhere and it would have been fun. I still can’t wait to watch the video that we took of our adventure in France, aimlessly driving around. And I will always remember leaning out the window watching the thunderstorm in Karlsruhe, Germany, with the trains going by, the church bells ringing, and the German girls singing “It’s Raining Men” and “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” as they walked in the rain down the middle of the street below.

Driving home to Lugano, it was a combination of these thoughts and the American music on the radio that kept me company and reassured me. It’s amazing how the language of music transcends almost all boundaries. From the jazz festival in Lugano to Otis Redding in Basel to my compilation CD I brought in the car—music seems to be the one thing I have in common even with the French. There’s still a language barrier, but hearing familiar songs brought me one step closer to being more comfortable with it.

I have tons of pictures from the weekend and stories to go with most of them. I hope to have them up in the next few days. In the meantime, session 1 with the kids is coming to an end. Friday we get a new batch and start over again. After this past weekend though, I am greatly looking forward to my post-camp travel plans.

Safe in Lugano, I remain,

-S

Update #9: Camping, Pooping, and Drinking

noreply@blogger.com (Road Scholar Sean) — Fri, 11 Jul 2003 03:13:00 +0000

My liver hates me. It has to. In the past week I have had enough wine to float the Titanic.

It started (I think) over the weekend. An impromptu staff party erupted in my room and before you knew it, eight of us had finished off a case of wine(that’s twelve bottles). Try discreetly throwing away twelve bottles of wine into a dumpster sometime.

That was somewhere around Saturday-ish. Monday through Wednesday I was camping with about half the kids and five other counselors. I haven’t been camping since I was in the Boy Scouts, so the last three days were a lot of fun. We rode to the campsite in a chartered Mercedes Benz bus (seriously, this country is great), which should give you a rough idea of the type of kids we are dealing with here at CDE (Can Drink Everything). Life here is normally very structured for the kids, with very little free play. Camping was all about free time. The kids had a blast going to the watering hole, jumping off rocks, swimming in the freezing cold water, eating, hiking, eating, riding the funicular, eating, and just playing on their own. The head counselor, Dan, wouldn’t stop feeding us. We ate better while camping than we do when we’re on campus. Pasta, wine, spicy mustard chicken, salmon, wine, garlic bread, sausage, wine, eggs, hamburgers, wine—we wanted for nothing. After we introduced the kids to marshmallows and campfires,
we put them to bed in their tents and introduced ourselves to more wine. I don’t want it to sound like a drunken frat party though; the kids were always in very good hands.

In other news, last Friday we had a soccer match between the CDE Counselors and the MSP (Middle School Program) counselors. Alex, our star player, unfortunately sprained his ankle pretty bad and had to be taken to the emergency room. He’ll be off his feet for another nine days (I believe there is a picture of gimpy on dorm duty around day 13, stealthily perched on the landing watching for escaping boys).

And speaking of boys…I suppose it was bound to happen. In Boston I got peed on at the Dave Matthews Band concert. In Switzerland, one of my dorm boys craps himself. Alex was on duty—this was before the ankle sprain—helping the boys with showers (unfortunately for him). Next thing you know, Ibrahim is walking out of his room holding an underwear full of shit an arms length in front of him. Alex, in his charming Brazilian accent, asks in confusion “why do you do this?!”. Ibrahim apparently just couldn’t hold it. I suppose these things happen, which is not what I was thinking when I walked into the dorm and found Alex holding a load of shit in front of him yelling at me to “get me a bag Sean PLEASE”. Alex was going to have the soiled undergarment cleaned. I looked at him very matter-of-factly and said “no”. We disposed of everything—permanently.

And some happier news…

Somehow the director of Can Drink Everything (did I mention we have wine and cheese at our staff meetings?) discovered TheRoadScholars.com. She approached me the other day and told me how wonderful some of the pictures were and that Tasis is always looking for new brochure pictures. Additionally, she would like to forward the link to the parents so they can see their kids at camp. The school has offered to reimburse me for any expenses I incur. I’m debating whether or not to give them the digital camera receipt…ha ha ha. There was one small problem, however. Betsy, the director, didn’t think it was appropriate for everyone to see pictures of drunken counselors celebrating with shot glasses and glazed expressions (I think the kicker was the photo I labeled “orgasms”, since that was the name of the shot). I have decided that it may work to my advantage to comply, as we have already established these parents have money and with the school on my side, maybe I won’t come home after all. The bottom line is that there is now a secure section on the web site affectionately dubbed the “Counselor’s Lounge”. If you would like to view these pictures, you will need the following information:

User Name: cde
Password: counselor

Just don’t tell Betsy.

My navigation skills have been improving around Lugano. The paddle boating excursion went fine last week. We did get…misguided, but it was not my fault, I was simply following Neal when we missed our turn. We knew exactly where we needed to be, but with one-way streets and hills, we just didn’t know how to get there. I did, however, manage to drop off a bunch of people at a club that night and drive back to campus all by myself. My confidence was not exactly bolstered when I was getting conflicting directions from the intoxicated clubbers in the back seat. I was even more nervous when, as they were getting out of the van, they handed me the half empty bottle of cheap wine they’d been drinking and asked me to “do something with this”. Oh great, this will be wonderful to explain: “no officer, I don’t speak English, I haven’t been drinking, and I have no idea where I’m going”. I made it back fine though, in the dark, by myself, and I only had to turn around once (which after paddle boating I was quite used to).

I know there is lots more to tell, but I don’t want to intimidate you all with too long of an email. Plus, we have to save something to talk about for when I come home! Ciao for now.

-S

Update #5: I Found The Pool

noreply@blogger.com (Road Scholar Sean) — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 02:43:00 +0000

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!

Update #4: I Got Some Sleep!

noreply@blogger.com (Road Scholar Sean) — Wed, 25 Jun 2003 18:43:00 +0000

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!

Update #3: 30 Hours Later...

noreply@blogger.com (Road Scholar Sean) — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 17:19:00 +0000

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.

Update #2: Stuck In The Terminal

noreply@blogger.com (Road Scholar Sean) — Mon, 23 Jun 2003 21:21:00 +0000

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.

Update #1: Stuck Out Of The Terminal

noreply@blogger.com (Road Scholar Sean) — Mon, 23 Jun 2003 16:06:00 +0000

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).

Pre Departure Update

noreply@blogger.com (Road Scholar Sean) — Sat, 21 Jun 2003 03:29:00 +0000

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...

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>From Meghan Gamble

NOTES FROM SEAN:

ANNA IS MEGHAN'S ROOMMATE IN BOSTON.

MEGHAN IS THE SCHOOL NURSE AT THE CAMP.

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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…..

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End of Meghan's Update

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