Third Time's the Charm

I have attempted to start this blog twice before this post, but each previous post didn't quite catch the tone I wanted to achieve with my blog. I wanted this blog to serve as both an intellectual and personal journal. After much thought and talk with friends over what form this blog should take, I finally feel confident in starting this blog one more time.

The summer is winding down. In three weeks, classes will start again. I am very much looking forward to being dropped in an intellectual maelstrom once again. Before I move into my apartment full time and my college friends begin arriving, I would like to take the time to stop and reflect on what I've learned during this busy, brilliant summer.

One of the greatest excitements of my summer was a two week trip to France and Belgium. In May, I took courses on European identity politics and medieval history at Shippensburg University for a week before traveling to Europe, staying in and around Belgium, and then Cathedral hopping through France. I don't know if I have ever learned so much in such a concentrated time. The entire trip had the effect of a cloister, or a labyrinth. I felt like I had shut myself off from the world for three weeks with a group of brilliant and insightful students and professors, and dedicated my time to studying a single subject in depth. Politics are fascinating. Art is beautiful. I now have a much greater appreciation for our history as a western culture. The New York Times has a great article that catches on something I learned in my travels from Cathedral to Cathedral. While in Belgium and France, I took my fathers old manual camera and used three rolls of film. The pictures themselves aren't of the highest quality because I am no great photographer, and because I am pretty sure that some of the film I used had expired. Nevertheless, if you wish to view them, you can see them here.

Two weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to find a job for a week as a counselor at an overnight camp. The camp was Julian Krinsky's junior camp located on Bryn Mawr's campus. Every day was filled with programming for the evening activities, playing various sports like soccer, frisbee and basketball with the kids, and keeping them busy at night with various activities such as going to the movies, trivia games, and the much loved casino night. (I was the roulette master. By the end of the night, some of the kids loved me, and some hated me. I pointed at the wheel to blame, but that didn't seem to help). Many of the campers, and most of the counselors, were international: people were from Australia, France, Portugal, Brazil, Peru, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. This camp was everything I needed: something to do during the day, a place to meet wonderful people, and a place to work with children again (it's unfortunately been so long since I've spent much time around elementary aged kids). My main regret was that I could only be there for a week.

The rest of my summer was filled with books read, time spent with friends (a trip to Bloomsburg, which was one of my best weeks, a day at the Met, Baltimore Aquarium, a week at the beach with Abby and her family, two RISK nights, and many, many pasta nights), and time with family. In the next few weeks I will be filling this blog with reflections on and quotations from books I've enjoyed (so in other words, books that I've read). This may not have been the most interesting post to read (sorry reader), but I'm just glad that after many false starts, I have finally gotten started. I feel that as soon as classes start again, I will keep up with this blog because I will have so much more to write about.

The summer months are such a strange phenomenon. No matter what I'm doing, there's always a sense of relaxation, free time, and exciting trips with friends. Even before I knew the song, Carbon Leaf seemed to have been singing in the back of my mind:

Building a fire
out in the garden
out in the summer sun
and the best is yet to come.