my week in newport

hey friends....
so, it's been quite a week. it wasn't hard to get used to driving to work down the pacific coast highway with the ocean right there the entire way! although it was kinda strange to pass by bentley and ferrari car dealerships on the way to work. definitely not something i'm used to! this place reeks of money. the other day, i was canoeing with some fifth graders, and they were talking about how the houses they live in were a couple million dollars. but the strange thing is that they weren't saying it in a bragging kind of way...it's like that was normal to them and each other. so that certainly isn't something i'm used to! needless to say, it was quite a different feel being in the newport beach/huntington beach area than up in the mountains. but i loved the fact that i was able to just go and enjoy the beach after work. it was absolutely beautiful!

i was doing day camp this week because the kids were on spring break. we spent a lot of time at the beach...we disected squid...talked about sea stars and whales and cool stuff like that. but it was quite a frustrating time. we had no clue what we were doing. we weren't prepared for it and hadn't received any traning on it, and they were completely different classes than we teach up at the mountain. there were times that i just felt embarassed because it seemed as though we were just throwing this thing together, which isn't a way to run an organization. i don't know how they function this way. but we pulled it off...and i think the kids had a good time. i just think it could have been done with more excellence. and we're all glad that the week is over.

so tomorrow morning i'm heading back to catalina island. i'm going camping with a group of people i've actually never met before, which should be fun. my friend kelly has a friend out here, and he asked me to come along. then...i'm going to be staying out on the island for next week and the following week to work at the camp there. i'm looking forward to it. i like the variety of it.

alright...well, i love you all...and those of you back in illinois...enjoy the snow for me. i'm struggling over here because i got sun burned this week. :)