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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