Amherst over the summer

Hey guys,

This is way overdue. My apologies :(

Buuuut, to make it up to you I will tell you about all of the wonderfully awesome things that happened to me while I was at amherst over the summer.

I was teaching middle school kids during July. It was great. Once you accept the fact that 12-14 year olds are assholes, it gets much better. They have surprising moments of maturity and intellectual depth that I don’t quite remember having at 13. I was impressed. One of my favorite kids, Azham, is a rising 7^th grader and, quite frankly, just a delight. Let me paint you this picture: he’s tiny, looks like he’s 9 or 10, and is extremely polite. He wears his pants very high on his waist, and says things like, “Miss Megan, I sure made a good friend today. His name is Robert,” and “Miss Megan, there are all kinds of shape shifters, but my favorite are werewolves,” on a regular basis. Needless to say, he brought much joy to my workdays. I also really liked this one kid Julianna, who came up to me in Val when we took them to campus as a field trip and said, “Miss Megan. Guess what I did? I put hot sauce on my ice cream.” I see much potential in this generation. So. Much. Potential. George was one of the bests. In class we were talking about social justice, and the teacher asked the kids to give examples of things that are unfair in the world. George is very opinionated and pro-communism. Among his long list of injustices in the world (along with things like hunger, poverty, racism, etc.) was the following: “Oh, and capitalism—it’s a disease!”

On a more random note, I played Uno and flip cup for the first time. I also did SULA (lots of fun). I’ve been to Puffer’s Pond at least twice now. I tried the Tibetan restaurant in Northampton and had Tibetan tea (which is literally melted butter- it wasn't very pleasant, unfortunately). And I’ve learned how to cook eggplants. As you can tell, it’s a summer of firsts.

So the summer school ended at the beginning of August. Now I'm working at the Natural History Museum. It's fun. on the first day, this lady brought her infant and started breast feeding it in the museum, and I thought to myself "is that allowed in museums?" Interesting times. Sometimes 6 year olds school me on my dinosaur knowledge, and then I feel inadequate. But other than that, it's great.

Also, last week I went to New York for a few days. Lots of fun. I went to a comedy club, where I duped the waiter into giving me alcohol (albeit, I actually wanted a virgin drink but never specified, so I guess I wasn't really duping anyone, was I?). I ate a lot of food. It was fun. Also, when the bus dropped me off in NY the first cab I hopped into had an incompetent cab driver who told me, "Yeah, I don't really know where you're trying to go. You're gonna have to get another cab." Great introduction to the city!

Snag <3

Home and Sushi

I came home from Amherst and Wildwood this week and I’m chilling with my family for a while before I go abroad. My brother is doing guitar camp and my sister is doing field hockey camp so were hosting some of the Dutch coaches this week. Yoep and Yori love Jersey Shore and told us how to make real doughnuts or ‘oli balls’. They wanted to put raisins in them. Not so cool. I’m doing getmyshittogether camp, which is going pretty well now that I have my visa. Although, I lost a sudoku race to my mother the other day which is really embarrassing. I think I may be loosing my competitive edge. I feel bad for my brother though because we found out that he is allergic to a lot of things including peanuts and potatoes; the staples of the Sanches family diet. This does mean though that we’re cooking a lot of interesting things and also that we got sweet potato sushi on Monday. I could eat only that for the rest of my life.

Last night I went down to New Jersey for a Britney Spears and Nicki Minaj concert with my friend from home and I got to see Amina, Emily and Becca for a bit. It was amazing and Nicki sang Bad Chick. The guy next to me became one of my favorite people because he knew all the words to every song and was really into it despite people in our section giving him looks. I used a lot of the ugly side of my driving skills on the way there. Trick: make eye contact to guilt trip other drivers. The way back was much nicer especially because Julia and I sang Selena Gomez for a good chunk of it. I woke up this morning to a well-presented chew toy steak in my bed. Maybe if Mikey had opposable thumbs he would make me breakfast more often but really it’s the thought that counts. It just goes to show that the ancient Puerto-Rican saying is true. A week that begins with sweet potato sushi does indeed end in happiness.

Hi From D.C.

Hi there Ladies of Sparkle Motion!

This blog is sick! It's so nice to hear from you all. T-bag and I are in D.C. tearing it up playing a little advanced Summer League. We also attended Wildwood this past weekend which was ballin'. Beach ultimate is so much fun. SO MUCH BIDDING! Plus, we got to see the ever-lovely and bad-ass alums of Sparkle Motion which is always a treat and play with some super awesome AOD lads from years past (and Will and Ezra).

This summer has been great. I'm interning for the National Women's Law Center which has been rad, fighting the fight, and broing out hard-core in D.C. This week is actually my last here which is kinda sad, but I am excited to go home. Then I am off to the vineyard with the fam.

I hope you all are coercing people to throw with you so we can ball out upon our return.

Love,
Mel G.