Stuff and Nonsense (Brain Dump)

Although LBH is the co-director of this program, I'm here in no particular official capacity. I'm a cling-on. I'm grateful that BYU is different from other universities in a number of terrific ways, not the least of which is that it is willing to exponentiate its costs by sending a director's family along with him or her (they got a bargain with us -- some of these LDS families are huge!). It would be a real drag to be separated for months, and it must be said that I'm not cut out for single parenthood.

Despite really enjoying my cling-on status, I can't escape myself even on "vacation" and -- I'm a worker. Having no work to do will send me insane. The Lord has always blessed me in my paid work -- keeping me employed, offering me unusually great opportunities, providing a life rather than just a job -- and I really enjoy other forms of work, as well. Especially when I get to choose them. Which is what I've done here, in assigning myself the job of Camp Counselor. My motto is: If you've got issues, I'm your man. Any non-academic problem or difficulty is my domain. If they need a confidante, I'm a great choice. I've helped a couple students already and hope to be able to help many more. At (mostly) 19, they still need a Mommy. And if they don't need a Mommy, they need a friend or a mentor or an advisor or an Other Mommy -- you know, all the "it takes a village" adults who every parent counts on to guide and direct their child when they're not able. A Village Person -- that's me.

I've been surprised by some of our students -- mostly pleasantly. I haven't really known 19 year-old girls in... about 20 years. Nearly all the student employees at Broadcasting are guys and in their early to mid-20s. Our babysitters are girls but they're teenagers. There's been this 19 year-old girl vacuum in my life that I'd heretofore never really noticed. I like them all, and have been impressed by or have a soft spot in my heart for a few of them. Some seem to be working through indeterminate (to me) difficulties, which I can relate to and feel for. Others seem to be strong and independent-minded. All have a decade of struggle before them, and it makes me feel simultaneously sad and hopeful that they don't yet know it. They are more courageous than they think, and will need it more than they can guess. The twenties are agony.

(There's also a nice but semi-obnoxious sub-group of students who seem to have come for the sole purpose of shopping their way through Europe -- they sit on benches outside the museums and talk about fashion and drink designer water. "Donnez moi une break.")

Right now we're a couple days into a two week tour throughout France, Belgium and The Netherlands. Our bus driver, Peter, is Dutch and very amiable. He drives whoever pays him, of course, but he said he's been volunteering for the "Mormon jobs" for years because we're such a delightful people. He's quit drinking and smoking and swearing because of the example of other BYU groups. He likes that we're a fashionable but faithful people. His daughter is a pop star and he's played some of her songs for us -- she's very, very good!

A comment about paid toilets: I'm willing to pay (a lot!) for a well-kept, clean, private restroom, but I resent paying for a dirty bathroom with wet floors and no toilet seats. And when my children need to go, I shouldn't be charged twice just to assist (charged by the head to visit the head, if you will). Frogs!

Being homeless is a strange sensation. The girls have been amazing -- even better than I could have anticipated, and I knew they were total pro travelers, even Peter the bus driver commented that they're the best behaved children he's ever driven -- but it's really an odd exercise to be always on the move and know that nothing's permanent. The girls are rolling with the punches and I hope it lasts!

Everywhere we go, we meet Australians (or hear them, rather). The Australians are everywhere! I bet there were forty times in Paris that we passed someone and said to each other, "Australians!" The girls made friends with a little girl here in Amboise tonight and she's Australian. It must be that they never really had a recession like the rest of the world and are the only ones who can afford to travel. The Aussies are out and about, I can tell you that much. It just occurred to me that Mitch & Lisa are in Paris right now (came the day we left) and will meet up with us in ten days in London. Yep, everywhere.

Some of the students were talking about how much they wanted to live in the Renaissance or name-a-time-period. They like the buildings and the dresses. But I'm not 19. Always the realist, I said, "No way, man!" I'll take right now for being a woman over any time period in the history of the world. It's not perfect, but 2012 beats 1512 for womanhood any day of the year. Who's with me? No contest.

There's so much more to say. Sadly, this bourgeois life of leisure leaves me very tired and really rather lazy. (Also a brief but accurate summation of 16th Century nobility, no?)