The Lancaster Summary

Well, here's the summary of the last three weeks of my life in Lancaster, PA teaching the gifted children. I really enjoyed the teaching aspect of it - it was fun and my TA this year was incredible. She was motivated, took initiative, and just pleasant to be around. I am hoping that we will keep in touch.

So, to recap the list that I started during the first week and never finished:

Mork (not his real name) is the designated womanizer (at least to me - and I can usually spot guys like this a mile away now). So, last summer he hit on one of the chem instructor's TAs. It apparently lasted longer than just the 3 weeks, but not long enough for this summer. So, the second or third night, we observe him talking to the TA of the SAME chem instructor as last summer. Last summer, the instructor had a problem with his TA getting to class on time in the mornings, and Mork and the TA were "caught" in the middle of something on a couch by a different chem instructor. So, we started taking bets on what would happen this year. So far, none of us are winning. We pretty much predicted this new TA fling wouldn't last - she's too young for him (19) and Catholic. So, we gave him snaps for trying ;)

My experience began with 2 incredibly delicious martinis at a place called Damon's here in town at the mall - WOW. SSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than the regular apple tinis I drink - YUM! I downed two in a row without even blinking! I did remember to drink water, but my friend, E (who came up this year as well) had to drive us back to the dorms. I was pretty happy :-D

I unfortunately did not really partake of milk and cookies this year. TOO busy. I'm still technically working for my online job, AND taking 3 onlines grad courses AND teaching up here. What the hell was I thinking???? So, I went one night, it was a pretty sorry excuse for milk and cookies, and left. Milk = alcohol, cookies = appetizers. So, I may go to Doc's later tonight to drink (one final round) OR I may wait until crab fest tomorrow night. Which, should be really interesting this year. I'm still anticipating someone who I thought was a friend and a nice guy (K) making a total and complete ass of himself falling over this girl who is here this year (C) and has a serious bf. Although, he hasn't been chasing after her lately, and he actually asked to sit down and eat with us tonight, and not with her and she was only about 10' away, so that was interesting as well. I'm a little pissy about that. He's been a butthead towards me since that evening with her and a couple of other people. I pretty much distanced myself after that night as soon as I saw what was going on. BOTH of them (and my friend E, who is married) were flirting. E doesn't know that she was flirting, or she doesn't consider it flirting, but she was. I guess when you are single, and my personality is such that I tend to sit back and watch people interact with each other, then you notice things more. Several people up here even asked me what was going on between E and K - I defended her, but I told her about it and she totally freaked out. I did it more to warn her about what can happen here. When you spend 3+ weeks in close quarters with the same people almost 24/7, things are noticed that would not be in a normal situation. You are trapped here, and people talk. I just didn't want it to get back to her OR have someone say something directly to her and she fly off the handle in public or in front of kids - that would have been bad......
So, tomorrow should be fun - since crab fest is BYOB and people get pretty trashed. Can't wait ;)

There is an increible beer up here called Strawberry wheat - it's a microbrew thing. I NEVER drink beer - except up here :) There will be lots of it available tomorrow - so it will be hard deciding WHAT to drink - lol

There is a strange creature living in my a/c unit in my room. It came out again last night and promptly scurried back into the a/c vents. So, we had another talk (since I couldn't get to a shoe fast enuf to squash it). I told it that if it wants to live, it should stay in the a/c unit and eat all the critters living in there. I'm only here a couple more days, and then it can have the room all to itself. I haven't seen it since, but the shoe is now closer to the a/c unit. Following up with bugs - we killed two centipedes (which are venomous and some people are allergic to them) in the bio lab - which also flooded this past week due to the freaky rain we've been getting. The weather has not been as good here as last year - it was actually humid yesterday - which SUCKED!! I come here to get away from the frigging heat and humidity in Florida - not experience it further north!! UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I DID get a pedicure (which has held up very nicely :) whilst up here. I did NOT get my massage :( However, upon return to Florida, I will make an appointment. I'm very glad I brought the Doan's back stuff with me - these beds are horrible and I haven't really slept well in three weeks. I can't WAIT to get back to my bed!!! I am even missing the dog hair on my PJ's and sheets right now ...sigh...

And, to make matters worse than the stinky beds and creatures of the a/c units, for the first 2-3 days in our dorm, we had no. hot. water. NOT joking. And it's not just "cold" water, it's freaking mountain springs cold water when it's below 0 outside!!!!! So, after much complaining to the staff here, they finally fixed it. This happened some last year too. It doesn't sound bad, but when you have hair as thick as mine that traps water like a sponge so it can then trickle down your back even when you are NOT directly in the water, it sucks.

I will say that it is beautiful up here. When I get back to Florida I will post pics - I can't do it from this machine. I will take some pics of the Adirondack chairs on the green and the campus. It's so small and peaceful here. They also have a farmer's market :) with an Amish gentleman who sells all kinds of different jams and jellies. AND a great deli that has magnificent cheese!!! I NEVER buy cheese - I bought 2 pounds of cheese - smoked gouda and a really cool English cheese that is soft and has blueberries mixed in. I know, it sounds weird and I turned up my nose at first, THEN he gave me a sample - WOW!!! It was great. So, we're walking over again tomorrow AM so I can finish picking up jams and jellies for friends (and more cheese for me - we already consumed the gouda on wine & cheese night :) and then we're making a brewery run to pick up beer - oh. yeah. baby.

So, that's it for the moment. I'm sure I will think of more things later - but I have to go for the last study hall session - WOOHOO!!!!!