TEENAGERS

Teenagers are crazy. They are awesome, but they are loud, quiet, social, anti-social, hungry, tired, happy, moody, nervous, excited, and everything else all at once. That, combined with me being all of those things all at once, is CRAZY.

Today, we woke up early, prayed (my blood sugar level plummeted or something during services and it was almost a catastrophe but Andrew saved me), prepared, and waited for the kids to come. They did! And they brought all of their parents with them. I was stationed in the luggage room for three hours and the parents got very defensive as soon as they saw the measuring tape because they swore that they searched high and low for a suitcase that met the 10x20x26 requirements. It still went pretty smoothly overall.

Then we did ice breakers for an hour or two, and that was pretty crazy. A lot of the kids came knowing each other, so they wanted to catch up and continue jokes from before and stuff like that. Other kids were just meeting everyone for the first time. Other kids had met via video chat and were meeting each other face to face for the first time, which can be even more awkward than starting with a blank slate. Anyway, we got through the packing of the bus and loading suitcases, we ate dinner, we listened to rules, we hung out, we got tired.

Tali and I checked all 23 girls into their beds tonight, we sang Bashem Hashem, a beautiful song about four angels protecting all four sides of the body, plus the spirit of God above you (it sounds way cooler in Hebrew), and chatted a little bit. The night concluded with a staff meeting where we went over our concerns and predictions about the kids, plus a little fun. Now I am all packed and ready to head to Pittsburgh!!!!