And with coming back home, not only d my summer camp adventures come to a close, so does my actually summer. With school beginning in a day, I suppose it’s time to summarize what I spent the majority of my summer doing.

Summer Camps

Two of them, to be exact. Perhaps you’ll find it interesting to know that these were actually my first ever sleep-away camp experiences. Actually, I think they were my first regular camps as well. My first camp experience was GSP back in my home state for 5 weeks, whereas my second camp experience, NSLC, was in San Francisco/Berkeley for 11 days. Both camps had their positives and their negatives and were two entirely different experiences.

So since I post daily, I have reflections for each day I spent at the two respective summer camps. Thus, finding out how I felt and what my reactions were shouldn’t be difficult. I will attach the links to read about the days I spent at camp, but I would also just like to briefly summarize, in a paragraph or so, my experience with each campus.

The first camp was the one based in my home state, GSP. Since it was for such a long amount of time, I was incredibly worried about it going in. Several of my friends had gone through this experience and had told me that I was in for the best experience of my life! Sadly, that was not true. While I did have an awesome time and I met some amazing people, it was not what I had expected. The classes disappointed me, and the entire program wasn’t what I expected. Perhaps I was too homesick, but I found myself shying away from social events and thus I only made a few very close friends. They say your experience is what you make it, thus the blame is on me. However, I was probably the only one excite to leave. After 5 weeks, everyone around me was crying on closing day; I was the only one giddy to be leaving. While I’m glad that I participated, and I learned several things from the experience, it juts did not live up to my expectations. NSLC was the second program I attended and GSP couldn’t compare to it at all. Right from the very beginning, I knew I was in for a much different experience. Where at GSP the negatives outweighed the positives, it was the opposite for NSLC. I felt as if the people were nicer and more diverse, there were no cliques/groups, the activities were more entertaining, we actually studied in our classes, the food was better (HUGE plus!), as was the location. I suppose the biggest difference between the two was that while GSP was free, we had to pay for NSLC and that is probably why the advantages to the second program were much more. However, that shouldn’t be of relevance, because I as a person was the same at both programs, and I acted the same. So going back to “The experience is what you make of it”, this experience was so much better! If that isn’t convincing enough, perhaps this will be. Spending 5 weeks with everyone, I shed not a single tear at the programs closing; spending 11 days with my NSLC group, I was bawling days before we had to leave. And considering I rarely cry, that should be an indication of how I felt about each program. Nonetheless, I am grateful for having had the opportunity to experience both! They have changed me as a person for the better and I am glad for that. If anyone has the opportunity to attend either, I sincerely recommend either one!

• Governor's Scholars Program
• National Student Leadership Conference

                

Today was a heavy day on campus as we said our last goodbyes. Up and ready by 715 to attend the closing ceremony, everything just happened so quickly. One moment we were smiling and laughing, the next we were ripped apart from each other ((ok. maybe that’s a little harsh)) But that is certainly what it felt like. After one last breakfast with our TA groups, this time with Aaron!, we hugged out last goodbyes and cried our last tears. This process I had to endure on several occasions for my shuttle to the airport was the last.
                
                                                                   

That being said, airport travel is not pleasant. Shuttle at 12 -> flight supposedly at 6 -> delayed, and so was the one before it -> transferred to an earlier flight leaving at 3 for LAX from SFO ((I’m lucky I still had some NSLC people with me on the flight to keep me company!)) -> next came the 6 torturous hours of waiting for my flight at 11 -> said flight was only 3 hrs but it was during the night and there was a time zone shift by 3 hours. Needless to say, I’m exhausted.

                                               

{It was obvious I had fun with the front view camera for a majority of the time}

I was however able to entertain myself with some Frankenstein reading, some snapchatting/asrtsy selfie taking ((I succumbed to the pressure. They made me get one)), and watching Netflix on the go. Not the most productive 6 hours, but hey what can I say? Actually scratch that, it was productive -- I found Benedict Cumberbatch! (Or more likely, his doppelganger) I was also lucky in that I got to sit next to 2 really awesome guys, and one of them was also a writer and we talked about history and what not, and he told me he was currently working on two scripts: an actin-thriller and a sci-fi. Good luck to him! He also suggested I start watching Game of Thrones. which I've actually been meaning to do anyway!

Anyways, it was a bittersweet end, and although I miss it, boy did it feel good once again be home.

                

Today was absolutely heartbreaking as we had to deal with the fact that we would be leaving tomorrow. We had our final leadership session with mike during which we discussed risks we’d taken and what we had discovered, and how that made us a better leader. At one point, people had started crying as we were talking about anything and everything so he just turned some music on and told us to hug it out. Then the crying fest ensued as people jumped over people to hug them and cry into their shoulders. While I was shaken up, tears had not yet spilled from my eyes. That is, until we had reconvened and the TA’s gathered up front. When the tears started spilling from Aaron’s eyes, that’s when I lost it. I find it so interesting that here I was, crying after 11 days, when I shed not a single tear at GSP and was in fact elated to leave. I had no idea I would be one this close with so many people and be this torn up about leaving.

Next we had our final presentations which consisted of each of the classes presenting their final projects. News writing did slide shows with the articles, photography showcased their pictures, broadcast played a news video they had produced and film and scriptwriting debuted their movies. Those movies, I have to say, we’re absolutely fantastic! Everybody did a phenomenal job on their projects, but those movies had us laughing so hard!

After one final TA Meeting ( tear:/) where we passed around “yearbooks” for each of us to sign, we ended the night with a bang at our Correspondent’s Ball! It was dancing to the max, nonstop, until 11! Now, tired, we are ready to crash and wake up super early for our closing ceremony. I’m just glad they are letting us wear casual clothes tomorrow! My shuttle leaves for SFO at 12, and my flight departs at 6….wooo for long airport sitting!

                                                                                                                                    

How am I going to leave these guys?!

Now, I was going to post a video of our Team Emosewa gettin’ down. Or as Erica would put it, #twerkteam, but alas, tumblr will not recognize my video file. So, here are some random pictures! Also, shout out to Aaron for being the most awesome TA, hands down!

                                   

{because we are too kool to spell it forwards}

Today was a blur as we began wrapping things up. Only one more day, tear :( Articles finished in newswriting, check. We were supposed to meet in TA Groups to work on the talent show for tonight but that got cancelled so I was able to sneak away to my room, Skype call the parents, and finish my AP Environmental Science work, woop woop! After a communication workshop on Ethics in the Media (which was by far the best and most interesting workshop of all), we went straight to TA Groups to hammer out our dance which we hadn’t even started planning. In 25 minutes, we had a quality dance to a mash-up of an Indian song, Gasolina, and Disturbia, that was ready to be performed.

                    

Mine and Erica’s “game-on” faces.

We killed it! It was so much fun, especially after a long day, to be able to just go up there and have fun. And, everybody else’s acts were great too! There was an original song, a version of the Bachelorette, and a game of Mafia featuring students impersonating all of the TA’s.
Tomorrow is our last full day and I am not sure I am ready to leave here yet. On the one hand, I can’t wait to be home. However, on the other, I am also not ready to leave behind all these amazing people that I’ve met here. Why can’t we just go to school here, with all of these people, but just be able to somehow magically go home at night and sleep in our own beds?!

This is what we had been waiting for all week long! What better than an excuse to dance and sing like crazy people for 2 hours?! However, there was just the fact that we had to earn our karaoke by going to morning classes -.-

First up, we had a newsroom simulation in which we were divided into 6 teams and we would all be coming up with a news broadcast/show to report on the story at hand. In this case, we were reporting on an imaginary oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. There were a multitude of things we had to keep up at the same time: we had to go out to the “conferences” that old us more information, we needed people filming and people editing, we needed people writing the stories, we needed to create social media sites and keep them updated, etc. Anyway, needles to say, it was an incredibly hectic experience. We got it all done - it may not be perfect, but hey, we didn’t kill each other from the stress in the process. However, if I wasn’t sure that I didn’t want to be a journalist before, this activity today confirmed my beliefs! Anyway, go check us out at NSLC Observer!

Leaving the activity, sure the stress had gotten to me and I felt really drained, I wasn’t upset or anything. So, I figured I would call back home, and that’s when the problems started. First, reception sucked and I was trying to get my laundry while on the phone, but mom couldn’t hear and finding a good spot was stressful, and then she started questioning me about all the summer work I haven’t had time to do and the fact I will be tested on them the first day of school (a day and a 1/2 after I get back from SF) and all of a sudden, the stress just got to be too much. I think it was just a combination of sleep deprivation, exhaustion, emotions, and stress. Finally after I calmed down, Nora and I went to lunch where we talked a little and then she worked on her editing and I read quietly for a good hour. It was wonderful - I needed some “me” time.

The next activity though didn’t help my already on-edge emotions. We went to a screening of the documentary Open Heart by the San Francisco Film Society and while the movie itself was beautifully shot and incredibly inspiring, it was far too emotionally draining. It took on the subject of following 8 Rwandan children in critical medical condition as they travel to the Salam Center in Sudan to receive cardiac surgery. The Salam Center is run by the Italian NGO EMERGENCY, which initiated the free clinic in Sudan. Open Heart was actually nominated for an Oscar. While the film was touching, I was crying within the first 5 minutes, and it only got worse as the movie kept going. Afterwards, we spoke with a representative of EMERGENCY and we skype-called one of the producers. Sad but inspiring film - I only recommend it if you have a tissue box nearby!

Today was busy, and it seemed as if we are trying to pack in as much as possible. During our dinner break, Mallika and I went to go get our hair wrapped and had an awesome talk with the guy who did them. He told us to call him Twig and he had really cool stories from when he would spend his summers following around bands as they toured. And I must say, the man knows how to wrap hair! Mallika even has bells on the end of hers!

                                     

Lastly, we had a quick leadership session with Mike where we discussed morals and values by playing a game in which we are placed in a situation where there has been a nuclear bomb, 11 people remain, and we must choose the 6 that remain, based on the criteria and details about them available to us. Needless to say, chaos ensued. But afterwards, we got to dance and sing our stress away! Karaoke night was a blast and now we are all worn out, far beyond our limits. We’re lucky tomorrow is a later day and we get to sleep in woo!

                  

Hopefully the Henna on the back is visible. I just wanted to show it off it - I absolutely love the design! It symbolizes “The Earth Has Weight” (Asase Ye Duru) meaning that it represents the importance of the Earth in sustaining life

No alarm clock needed for todays morning wake-up; sadly, I believe my body is adjusting to this no sleep schedule -.- In news writing, after finishing our first articles and publishing them here, we were told to walk outside around campus and interview people for a potential new story. Although we only talked to a few people, there was an incredibly sweet man on the corner of one of the streets that was handing out flowers, for free! He gave each one us a rose to take home - he said he was in it for the smiles on people’s faces. There need to be more people like him everywhere - he instantly became our friend.

                  

The second encounter of the day with the opportunity to make new friends was an activity we had to participate in called Dyadic Encounter. This was when each one of us was paired up with a member of another TA group, and we were told to ask each other a series of 26 questions and discuss our answers. The questions progressively got harder and ranged from topics such as “I’m happiest when…” to “I feel anxious when…” and so on. At first, I think it was natural to feel a little reserved and hesitant - this was a new person you just met and here you were supposed to reveal your personal thoughts and feelings with them. However, as the activity progressed farther on, my partner and I started getting the hang of it, we started relating more to each, and we ultimately felt  comfortable in sharing our personal opinions and thoughts with each other. I believe that the purpose of the activity was to demonstrate to all of us that meeting new people and making new friends isn’t meant to be difficult and shouldn’t hold us back from forming meaningful relationships. The girl I was paired up with, I had seen her around campus and had actually been intimidated by the idea of talking to her because she seemed so cool. That’s one personal thing I struggle: self-confidence. But, when we started talking, we realized we actually got along quite nicely and felt almost the same about almost all of the topics we discussed. She has also moved to three different countries and is European, just like I am! Speaking for myself, I believe this activity was proactive in that it demonstrated to us that with a little effort and faith in your abilities, a person can do well and overcome personal hurdles that hinder progress and growth.

The rest of the day was fun - our TA group took a trip into town and we first stopped to get ice cream in this shop called Cream, where you build your own ice cream sandwich. First you choose 2 cookies (making them different is even more fun!) and then you choose your ice cream filling. They even warm your cookies for you! It’s super messy, and super fun:) Afterwards, we hit up a local t-shirt shop called T-shirt Orgy, a name worthy of the city it is located in.

                                         

Next and final stop: AT&T Park to watch the SF Giants vs. the Brewers! This was my first ever baseball game and I was worried I was going to hate it. But, I was lucky enough to sit next to Carly who explained everything to me and before I knew it, I knew everything that was going on and was cheering and boo-ing with the best of them. I understand how innings work, strikes and outs, relieve pitchers, and so many other things I never thought I would understand. Much less enjoy learning about! I’ve never been a sports fan but baseball, I think I could get into it. Carly put it perfectly - “with any other sport, if you look away to chat, you miss so many things, but with baseball, that just doesn’t happen.” And it’s true that the game at first was disappointing, but towards the end, when they were neck in neck, I was on the edge of my seat. Although the Giants didn’t win, they played hard, and I had a great experience at my first ever baseball game.

                                                                                              

 

                    

Today was strange in the fact that most of our classes and activities were centered around relationships on campus and as a community as a whole, instead of actual Journalism. Our class did finish our articles this morning and go interview the PR representative for UCB Football/Golf, and also see the newly renovated stadium, but after that, everything changed.

Our first activity did not include Mike Walsh, although we are pretty sure he organized it. We were told to walk into a room and pick up a nametag with either Schroeder, Charlie Brown, Snoopy, or Woodstock, and then to find the rest of our group. The floor was divided with tape into 4 unequal parts. Once everyone was settled in and we were about to start, myself and a fellow news writing student were pulled aside and told that we would not be participating. instead, our role in the simulation was to act as reporters and report on the activity, how people were reacting, what was being said, etc. However, every story we wanted to “publish” had to have the approval of the editor in chief. The goal of the entire activity was to create an ideal utopian society, however it was clear from the beginning that Snoopy and Woodstock got the smaller taped-off squares and the worse supplies, whereas Schroeder and Charlie Brown started off with more land, more supplies, and a heck of a lot more money. There were 10 rules which needed to be followed, including the fact that TA’s were cops and cop decisions were final and team members must stay within their designated squares. It was also clear that even though Snoopy/Woodstock were smaller, they were clearly overcrowded. As the activity continued further, mayhem broke lose. Cops were not distributing punishment equally, people were being sent to “jail”, people were choosing jail because the conditions in jail were much better than in Snoopy/Woodstock, Schroeder/Charlie were given free money whereas money was taken away from the other two, etc. In the end, the corruption got so bad that the jail group formed a rebellion and attempted to overthrow the government. The societal stratification was evident when we were finished and on to discussing the activity. The entire purpose was to get us to realize that this “ideal society” is in fact a replica, or a very close one, of the society we live in and endorse today but sometimes we are so caught up in ourselves and in our own bubbles that we fail to notice those in need of assistance. What no one thought to do was simply remove the tape barriers in between the groups and work together, that way they would have more supplies and their community could have prospered. Instead, they chose not to associate with the “lower class” and not aid them because they had to worry about themselves. The goal was to learn how to break down the mental barriers that separate us from functioning as a proper society ad learn how to not accept labels as the entire, if any, truth.

This idea of a perfect community bled into our next activity which was Mission Impossible, a glorified scavenger hunt. The hunt itself was incredibly entertaining and had us performing wacky things in order to be able to receive our next clues. But, as of recently, all of the TA’s have been complaining of disrespectful behavior from the students, even during the simulation. The activity was fun as a whole, had us running around, and bonding as a class, but towards the end, when we were all ready to meet with our TA, he approached us with a serious face. He told our class that we had done great and had been amazing, however, other groups had struggled and had not had such a productive evening. Thus, we would be having a spur-of-the-moment leadership class with Mike to talk about correct behavior - it was incredibly intimidating. Even though Aaron, our TA, had told us that we had done nothing wrong, we were still panicked. According to Aaron, this had been a long time coming. In short, many of the kids on campus have been giving attitude or talking back to TA’s, questioning their every decision, etc. and they had finally had enough. Personally, the choice to act so disrespectfully baffles me. Here we are, paying for this amazing experience, and some people are choosing to throw all of that away. Our group came to a consensus that even though we feel close to our TA’s, they still have a job to do and we should remain cautious about how we act and what we say to and around them. As a whole, I feel our group is great in that respect, so I feel as if it is not us that is causing problems. However, we do, as a community, need to work together to be able to promote a more comfortable environment where everyone is not only physically, but also emotionally safe.

So, for now, our community is not perfect, but we are taking the knowledge of these mistakes and we’re working to get as close to perfect as we can!

Today was another day which we spent on the move. First stop, the San Francisco Chronicle.

                                                     

There, we sat in on a real news meeting during which they talked about the success of the previous paper, discussed errors they made or things they didn’t discuss, compared the online ratings to the printed ratings, and also planned out what tomorrow’s issue would contain. It was exciting to see the fast paced tempo at which they worked! Afterwards, we talked to some reporters and they told us to come back in a couple years and be interns. Our next stop was Fisherman’s Wharf and Ghirardelli Square for lunch, shopping, and sight seeing. And picture taking, of course!

                                                        

First we sat down at this adorable Hollywood Cafe and not only did they have amazing food, they also sat you down and told you what the “star celebrities” ate for breakfast and suggested you have it too! All their walls were lined with pictures of celebrities!

                                                                            
     
{Even if I’m not a big fan of chocolate, this was still pretty awesome}
                                                        
{And just for the heck of it, here are some pigeons pecking away at bread}

Our next stop was The Disney Museum! I swear, seeing Disney’s entire life mapped out over the span of time, from his beginning, to his rise, and ultimately his fall, I only have one thing to say: Walt Disney was a genius. His animations will forever remain animated and a big part of our culture.

                                                                                                                                               

Now, I have even more respect for Walt Disney

If that was the field trip part of our day, the fear came in the later half. After dinner (which was long and afforded us the opportunity to go to Urban Outfitters and get a sweater for $10!) we had another one of Mike’s leadership lessons, this time on what makes us uncomfortable. He challenged us to step out of our comfort zones by walking down a makeshift runway that was set up, in the middle of the room, doing an original dance/walk, while everyone watched and cheered on. It was definitely affective in getting our fear levels to rise, however it was also fun in that everyone had to do it and there was awesome music playing, and we could be as silly and lame or ridiculous as we wanted to because no one would judge us. I’m not entirely sure I got the bigger purpose of the activity, besides getting us to let loose and not be as afraid of our fears, but I suppose he’ll explain more next meeting! So glad to not be leaving campus tomorrow - those bus rides give me wicked headaches!