The next morning we found out exactly what the dress code was for the dining room. People dressed up for breakfast. Boys younger than 13 years of age were walking around in tuxes, girls were wearing what I would've considered a sunday dress if I'd been living in North Carolina, and adults were all dressed up rather than down. Many of the people in the dining hall were speaking English however and they didn't act like shicky mickey's, they spoke to everyone, including us, the slightly dissheveled-looking bunch. After having several people walk by us saying, "Good morning!", instead of, "Buonjiorno!", we asked a woman if they were a church group. She told us that yes they were a church group, called the United Church of Christ, and they were holding a gathering at the hotel for that week. She told us that they hold this gathering every year, and that the people who came were from all over. Later, I found this to be quite true whenever I got to talk to the children who were in this church group.
After breakfast I immediately conducted beach therapy. My beach therapy consisted of working for half the day on the beach, and then playing during the hottest hours in the water and in the sand. The first part of the day I worked in the lounge chair, looking quite the shicky mickey with the laptop out and my schoolbooks open next to me. I kept thinking this as I glanced around at the empty beach-side, and at how if I had been walking and had seen someone typing on their laptop on the beach instead of playing then I would've tisked at them (in my brain of course) and at their poor values. After I'd thought this thought I'd sigh and go back to working on a study guide, or I'd sigh and go back to working on a blog, or I'd sigh and continue on in my Spanish book. After lunch I was completely ready to put everything aside so I could properly enjoy the beach.
I ran for the water! This time when I ran for it it had people in there playing and swimming (church had gotten out and the beach became swarmed shortly after lunch). Unlike the previous day, I didn't want to stay in the water very long. This day the water was rough in comparison to the previous day where the water had had little wave to it at all. For a while I played in the water, body surfing and catching as many waves as I could. I started getting tired though and after getting knocked over by a wave I decided I needed to head in fairly soon. I caught a different wave in and got laughed at by a young girl who was playing in the shallows. She came up to me and asked, "How old are you?" As I adjusted my swimsuit I replied that I was 16, the girl giggled, started doggy paddling in the air, and said, "You were doing this!" She was referring to my ability to get up after catching a wave, in other words: every time I do it I'm crawling and I look quite funny. The little girl made me laugh and made me decide to stick close to the group of kids so I could hear them playing in the water and occasionally watch. I decided I'd make another drip sand castle.
As I was working on this castle a young boy with brown hair and bright shining eyes walked up to me and said in a squeaky but confident voice, "Whatcha doin?" I told him that I was building a sand castle. I was surprised when he asked if he could help. What surprised me more was how long he stayed with me. James, as I later found out from all the people who came by to see what we were doing, thoroughly enjoyed making a huge sand castle. He and I spent hours working on a sand castle that ended up looking like an anchor. The bottom part of the anchor was my wall that James asked me to add to protect the section he was building from the sea. As we working on building this structure we talked. I told him about how the closer you get to the sea the less you have to dig to get to water (I demonstrated shortly afterwards), and about how you have to pat gently to keep from crushing your own work, and how you can let wet sand drizzle through your fingers and create little mud towers (these are drip castles). I also asked him many questions like: why he didn't like to get in the water, if all the people who knew him were his family, if he went to the beach often, where his family was, etc.. He told me he didn't like getting into the water because "it's too dirty", that he had no idea how the people knew him "they just do", how his family did go to the beach often, and he showed me were his Momma was sitting-conveniently right next to my grandparents. Talking to James and working with him made me so happy. What made me even happier was showing him new things, like how to make his castle stronger, or how to dig a tunnel, or how to play in the water without going too far in (jump over the next coming wave before it touches your toes), or how to reach water without running back and forth between the ocean and the castle, etc.. The list could go on a while because James and I worked on that castle for at least 3 hours. Our final touch to the castle were a series of tunnels. By the time we'd completed our castle all of the other kids on the beach had started building one of their own. As we had worked a boy or a girl would run up, take a look at our castle and what we were doing, and then they'd run off to add on to there's. A group of boys down the beach had dug a huge hole and were building a castle that was just about up to my knee in height, and a group of girls was starting something new behind us. James and I, tired of working on our castle, decided to go help the girls.We found out that the girls wanted to dig a series of tunnels. James was the only boy allowed into the group. As we got started digging (me showing the girls how it's best to rotate a clawed hand when digging an underground tunnel) a boy came up and asked if he could join. The brown haired girl spoke up and told him that none of the boys were invited because they'd refused to let them help. As the boy walked away she turned to the rest of the group and said, "Plus he's my brother." Two of the girls there were from England, while another younger one was from Minnesota. She told me that she and James were both from Minnesota, and that she was going to have to go sing in the choir. She eventually left, as did one of the English girls named Michele (completely different reasons- Michele had just taken a shower and shouldn't have been playing in the sand), leaving James, the brown-haired English girl, and me alone to talk and to dig connecting tunnels. As we worked James' mother came up behind me and asked if I didn't mind watching James for a minute while she went inside to take care of his brother. My answer was that I didn't mind in the slightest. I enjoyed having James around, and when his mom came back I was sad to see him go. After he left though I did get to have a wonderful conversation with the English girl.
She turned out to be 11 years old, and quite intelligent. We swapped stories of what life was like back home, about difficulties in our schools (she had issues with bullies for being smart, and her sister had issues with bullies for having red hair), about our religion (mine-nothing to tell, and hers quite interesting), about traveling, about our favorite things (pizza and talking were among her tops), and we in general had a good time talking to each other. She made me laugh more than once, and I made her laugh more than once. Later I told Ahmee about pieces of the conversation I'd had with her and I made sure to tell Ahmee about the time when she saw her dad coming towards us. She'd said, "Oh, my dad's the one with the big nose! See.... there! Oh he's coming this way!" (I'd told her that I couldn't see very well because I didn't have my glasses on and she'd told me this). After her father had said a few things to her about how they had a short bit before they had to head in she caught my eye. As he walked away she took her pointer finger, touched it to her nose, and started making pinochio-like gestures. As her father walked away I was cackling! After I stopped I said, still laughing slightly, "Your father must REALLY appreciate that!"
Such a wonderful time.
At about 6 I went inside with Ahmee and Poppy and enjoyed telling them all about my adventures on the beach as I got ready for dinner. After showering and putting on my dressy clothes (and mascara) we went to dinner in the dining hall where we ate, drank, and chatted till about 10. As we ate the three girls I'd met on the beach walked past us on their way downstairs to the talent show (they'd invited me but it was going to be far too late for me). On their way down we said hello to each other and waved. As the night went on I continuously thought about how I'd inherited a love for kids of all ages from my Momma, who'd inherited it from Ahmee and Poppy (both of whom coo and smile and play with babies every time they get the chance). I enjoyed thinking about this and about the day all throughout supper. Afterwards however, I went to the computer where I was preoccupied with something quite different.
After the computer I went down to bed, completely exhausted from the days events.
No comments:
Post a Comment