Hey hos! Long time, no update. Oops. Here ya go.
I have possibly the best summer job in the world. Not only do I work in that castle above (as well as other castles), I have the coolest co-workers and even get paid to go to the beach (albeit with 80 children). I work at the Summer Institute for the Gifted on the Bryn Mawr College campus in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, which is about 20 minutes from Philadelphia by train. My job title is "Housemaster" and I am, indeed, the "Master" of a "House" for 3 weeks. Well, girls' dormitory. Anyway. I supervise something like 65 girls from 8-16 years old, Residential Assistants and Counselors, working from 7:30am until 11pm and this was my second year running. It is absolutely crazy and this year was 100 times more stressful than last, but I love it. Basically, I deal with homesick kids, kids that don't listen to their counselors, lead off-campus trips and work in the office (delivering kids to and from classes, calling every parent ever, typing evaluations into Excel, etc.). I also get paid to watch things like this:
Back in the dormitory, my role is making sure the chillins' don't go completely batshit insane. This year throwing parties in the middle of the day during Rec Hour and such was The Cool Thing. They even sometimes made these cute little invitations for their counselor group.
Off-campus trips meant lots of sleeping on buses on the weekends. We have to catch up on our sleep somewhere! Sorry Jon!
As my job is a residential position and the kids are in class during the day, I spend my days in the office. Thus, I saw a lot of the boys' Housemaster, Jared and the Administrative Assistant, Julia. On one of our 2 days off (in 3 weeks, yes) we caught up on the all-important Grown Up Time.
Jared and I riding cows. We look equally special.
And I'll leave you with this, to sum up what supervising 70+ kids from some 8 countries and 16 US States leads one to do...
Okay, okay, it was already smashed before it made it to my forehead. Is this an American enough picture for you, oh non-American friends? I tried.