pretty day in Monaco and Nice!

June 22, 2013: Monaco
Last night was “gender wars” night. I realized that this is the first time I’ve worked teens with another staff, it’s very different. Meghna wants to stick to the schedule as much as possible, whereas I stick to the schedule for however long it keeps their interest and then figure out something else to do and let them do that. So, because we combined a scavenger hunt and ‘dress the contestant’ she told them they had an hour to finish. I’d done this scavenger hunt a few times before, and it might last 20 minutes, so I tried to convince her, but she went on with it. She was very confused when three groups were done… 20 minutes later. She wasn’t sure what to do with them for the remaining 40 minutes. I’d known this would happen, so already had ideas of what to do. Once they all got back, they wanted to play dodgeball as their ‘physical challenge’ of the night, so she took those that wanted to play up there, and I stayed behind with the remaining two. They didn’t really want to watch a movie, so I taught them to play Skip-Bo until some of the others started coming back. It was late, so we just hung out and chatted and ate snack.

This morning was nice. I slept in a bit, went to breakfast, got ready to go out and read for a while before they announced open tender. I went out with Meghna, Leah, Kristin, Cheryl (all of them Club HAL), and Tai (HAL cat). We found out how to get to Nice and took the train (only 7.40 for round trip ticket, about 20 minute ride!).

In Nice, we wandered around for a while, then went to sit on the beach. Tai and Leah went swimming because they’d brought swimsuits. After they dried off, we decided to head back to the train and Monaco so we could wander there for a while. Kristin, Meghna and I went to see the Casino (first time I’ve seen it in the day), and then walked back to do a little souvenir shopping before catching a tender back to shore. I was expecting a long line because the last crew tender was at 5, and it was 4:40, but we got on and left when the tender was only half full. I guess all the guests were staying out as late as possible, or else got back early.