Yayyyy! We made it!

Wow! We made it to Switzerland!

After the most chaotic day of travel I have ever had in all my years of travel, I actually made it to my destination, which is pretty impressive to me! I will write more about that when I have more time, but for now, let me tell you about the Swiss airport and Swissair.

When we got onto the Swiss airplane, they welcomed us and celebrated with us that we actually made it and we went to go find our seats. When I sat down in my seat, I just sat there laughing, but almost half crying because I could hardly believe that we made it.

The service was very good and we got great food even in economy! Sleeping was not so good for me, but I made it through the night OK. When the plane started descending, they handed out Swiss chocolates which was quite the treat because it’s very hard to get European chocolate in America unless you go to special stores.

Going through customs in the Zurich airport was the smoothest customs ever! It took us about five minutes and we didn’t have to get our checked bags and re check them! We just showed them our passports and moved right through. It was very nice.

We stopped for a moment to catch a breath and find out whete to go. It turned out that we had time before our next flight so we wnet to get some chocolate.

I have very good memories of swiss chocolate from when I was little. When my mom did her masters program she did it out of Lausanne Switzerland, right on lake Geneva. We lived in Lausanne for about two months when mom had to do in person parts of her program. Me, my siblings, and my dad had many adventures in and around lake Geneva.

We bought two chocolate items. One was a bar of raspberry chocolate and the other was a box of real looking fruits that we thought were chocolate. We were most exited about the fruits but when I bit into a strawberry it was not chocolate. I thought it was cake but we google translated the ingredients and found out that it was mascarpone, which is sugar. It was…. Interesting. It tasted ( no joke) like play-dough! I think most kids know the taste of play-Doh. Honestly, it smells so good! When you’re like five years old and making little play-dough pizza it is really hard not to just try a little bit!

Now as I write I am sitting and waiting to go to the next gate. The next flight will be like 45 minutes. Stay tuned for more updates on my Europe trip!

P.s Here is a funny joke about switzerland.

Border Agent: What is your favorite thing about Switzerland?

Traveler: I don’t know, but the flag is a big plus! 🇨🇭

Wasabi Plant Moment

At lunch I had a plate with carrots, sweet potatoes, onions, green onions, and micro greens. The micro greens were the last on my plate and I usually eat them plane. I started munching on a little pile of them and about 3 seconds in…. Ahhhh I was so surprised!! These were no micro greens!! It was like wasabi in a plant!! I was not polite enough to finish eating them because they were the second most unpleasant plant that I have ever eaten.

My Lunch. The green stuff is the Wasabi Plant like thing. ( It’s not really a wasabi plant)

2024-03-13

CBOBS: An Essay On Friendship

It has been really hard for me to figure out how to write about my crewmates. I don’t know how to explain that they were very mean but not mean. I wrote an essay for school about Friendship and how to have good friendships, and I think it will help provide some explanation and context for you reading about my crewmates.

Opening

“The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships” (Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Joseph Gillespie, 13 July 1849). Your friends are the ones there for you in hard times. They are the ones who make you laugh. Really good friends become like family, and they are the ones who keep you going. To have really good friends, you must work hard to maintain relationships.

Friendship Requires Effort

To be really good friends with someone, you have to put effort into building and maintaining your friendship. You must make time to build your relationship; you can’t ignore them because you are “busy.” You also have to be able to listen as well as speak because a good friend does not only talk about themselves. “Friendship is not always convenient. It always requires the giving of oneself.” (No specific author, Moment’s Pause, pg 146). “When we run short on friendship, it might be because we are not willing to devote our energies to it. We simply assume it will happen, but it doesn’t. We must be interested in other people, which requires time, effort, and concern.” (No specific author, Moments Pause, pg 143) Having close friends is key to staying mentally healthy; to do that, you have to care about the other person and show that.

Honesty Is Needed

Hiding things will become obvious and can really damage a friendship. It’s not good to constantly be annoyed at your friend; if something ticks you off, just talk about it. Talking about your life with honesty is also good. You can’t just pretend that everything is fine all the time because it never is for anyone! But don’t be overly honest. While being honest with your friends is good, keeping rude things to yourself is better. Don’t tell them if you don’t like their dinner or bathroom soap! Just let it slide because they can’t make everything perfect for you. If you need to talk you your friend, find the right time. It would be hard to have an honest conversation if you were on a roller coaster. Asking to make time to talk is a good idea. Being honest can be scary, but that is okay. You might worry that being honest will end the friendship. Don’t worry! Good friends will be okay with being authentic and honest. If your friends are not interested in being real with you, they might not be great people to be friends with.

Sometimes, You Need To Find New Friends

“Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great people make you believe that you, too, can become great.” (Mark Twain as quoted by Gay Zenola MacLaren, Morally We Roll Along, Pg 66) Being careful of who your friends are will be really beinficial to you. The people you hang out with will rub off on you and change how you act. Choosing friends who are kind, well-rounded people will help you become a kind, well-rounded person. Sometimes friends change into different people, and are no longer worth hanging out with them. It may feel hard to cut off ties with people who once were your friends, but if they bring you down and make you feel bad, they are definitely not worth your time and friendship.

Conclusion

Despite all the work needed to have good friendships, there is much gain and reward. Putting time into being honest and good friends is so much more fun than having a basic friendship. Having really good friends will make your life full of joy and meaning. Hopefully, you have many good friends and will keep them forever!

Soon after this post I will try to post my post about my crew mates. I hope reading this will help you understand them better. 🙂

2024-02-26

CBOBS: Daily Flow

My days at camp were very full, and each taught me several lessons. It might be hard to follow all the mentions I make in the following posts without knowing some context, so here are some outlines of camp life and what I did in the days.

Course Days

Day one: Start at the base near Baltimore, Maryland. Pack gear and get to know the crew. Drive to the launch site on the Potomac River. Learn how to set up camp. First dinner and first night.
Day two: Learn how to paddle the canoes and then paddle down to site two. First lunch stop, learn how to make a quick lunch out of very little. Go crazy in the river. Second Night.
Day Three: Paddle to site three. Play in the river. Build crew relationships and learn more about how to work well together.
Day Four: Paddle to site four, work on team-building games, and gain more experience.
Day Five: Paddle to site five, do the solo and some team-building exercises, and gain more experience in general.
Day Six: Paddle to the transfer site, take canoes out of the water, switch to backpacking gear, and drive to the Appalachian Trail. Hike the first mile uphill to the first site. Sleep under a tarp, not in a tent for the first time.
Day Seven: Backpack to the next site. Learn more about backpacking,
Day Eight: Backpack to rock climbing site, rock climb, sleep at site.
Day Nine: Hardest day of backpacking.
Day Ten: Last day on the Appalachian Trail!
Day Eleven: Leave the Appalachian trail and drive to Boston for public service at a community garden. Drive to our last campsite in a state park. Play on the playground and enjoy our last night sleeping in the wild.
Day Twelve: Drive back to base, clean gear, shower for the first time in forever, and fly home.

Gear

On the river, we slept in tents. Since I was the only girl camper, I got my own tent.
We used Canoes on the river with 2 people per canoe except for the “party canoe,” which had 3 people
In the canoes, we used “water-tight” buckets to store food and plastic bins, and a cooler to store gear and more food.
Each person had a large backpack for their personal stuff with a plastic bag inside to keep stuff dry. We gooseneck the bags to seal them, but most of the boys did loose goosenecks and ended up with wet stuff.
Each person got a sleeping mat that was rolled up and strapped to the bottom of the backpacks.
Each boat had: 2 people (with one exception), 2 backpacks, and tents, food buckets, or boxes.
While Backpacking, we had to carry everything on our backs, so we brought fewer clothes and gear.
Each person on their back had their personal clothes, 1-2 food bags, and a group gear item, e.g., a tent, rope, stove, pot, or other things.
We slept under tarps on our sleeping mats on top of plastic sheets. I personally did not like the tarps because I am very afraid of spiders, and I found a lot in my hair, on me, or trying to go in my sleeping bag.
For rock climbing, extra volunteers hiked up with the rock climbing gear for us and one other crew, so we did not have to carry that.
Some people were stronger than others, so some people carried more than others, which was very kind.

Daily Flow

6:30-7:am wake up
Get dressed. (some days, I wore the same outfit to bed because it was kinda useless trying to keep a set of clothes clean enough for sleeping. I told myself, “Embrace the dirt” because there was no way to keep dirt off me.)
Pack up a sleeping mat and backpack.
Either collapse tents or if you are the cook or leader for the day, go to respective jobs.
Eat breakfast: breakfast usually consists of grits, cereal, sandwiches, or eggs. Our favorite was the grits because we also got sausage with them, which was cooked in honey. The honey was pretty much the only sugar that we got, so we went crazy over it.
Clean up camp and move out: Whether we were on the water or on the trail, we always had camp sweeps and then moved on to the next place. Some days, we did have a game before we left, but not always.
On the river/trail: going down the river was nice because we moved fast, only had to paddle, and could go for a swim by floating alongside the boats. On the trail was hot and sweaty and hard work. We took breaks whenever people needed them and wished we were on the water again.
Lunch: Stoping for lunch was fun on the river and the trail. On the river, we would search for a place to land, and then the cooks would make lunch, and everyone else would go into the river or hang out on land. On the trail, lunch was the best part of the day because it was the longest break, and it had food involved. Everyone on the trip was between 12 and 14 (except for the instructors), and we ate a lot of food. So much so that our instructors had to get more food on the day we went from the river to the trail because we were always very hungry.
Lunches pt.2: lunches were salad wraps, PB and J’s, or sandwiches of some sort. We never cooked food for lunches because we did not have the time or the stove fuel.
Afternoon paddling or hiking: In the afternoon, we paddled or hiked to our next campsite and took breaks when necessary. Nothing super eventful took place every single day but there were certain adventures that happened.
Arriving at the campsite: Every day, when we finally arrived at our campsite, everyone wanted just to sit down and rest, but we had to set up camp. So, every day, we got camp set up, and then we had a little bit of freedom before dinner. Unless, of course, you were the cook, then you had a job to do.
Dinner: Dinner was the best meal of the day because it was filling and tasty and longer than the others.
After dinner: After dinner, we usually had hang-out time, but some days, we went straight to the group meeting.
Group Meeting: In the group meeting, we talked about our day and gave shout-outs to people who did good things, and we discussed issues and made rules. We talked about the next day and jobs and also did some icebreakers.
Sleep: Ahhhh, at last! Sleep! Actually, most nights, sleeping was hard for me. Either I was wet or worrying about bugs. The sleeping mats were also very thin, about the thickness of 1 and a half iPhones. And the width measured the width of my notebook times 3. I measured it. It was not comfortable, but it was not meant to be comfortable, and I had to tell myself, just like with the dirt, to embrace the discomfort because doing hard things like that can build character. For me, it did.

2024-02-24

Why Not Be Kind and Help?

On this very day, two years ago, the citizens of Ukraine woke up to find their lives changed completely. In only a few hours, every normality was gone. That morning, there was no breakfast, no getting ready for school, and no playing while waiting for the bus. There was only confusion, danger, and explosions. Two years ago, mothers had to flee with their children to foreign lands. Fathers had to leave their families to protect their country from the people coming to kill. People gave their lives up for their families, friends, colleagues, neighbors, their country, and for freedom. People lost their lives trying to escape from hell. Trying to get un-trapped.

For two years now, this has happened. Over and over. Normal humans like you and me die every day, some trying to give the sweet gift of freedom. Some just trying to survive another day.

The fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, best friends, wives, and husbands live each day wondering what will happen the next. What world will the next generation have to raise families in? What place will they grow old in? Will they even get to grow old?

If you know that people (Just like you and me) Are living that way and have been for a long time. How can there be any excuse or reason not to help them? Why have we not jumped up at the chance to aid them? Yes, there are lots of excuses to be made, lots of ways to get out of aiding the others in our species, but still, why wouldn’t we? Why have we (the world) stooped that low? Why do people refuse to be kind and refuse to help? I don’t have a straight answer to this except that I think we let ourselves forget. Therefore, there is nothing to be done except to remind ourselves over and over. So this is a reminder to you. Today, go and show outstanding kindness to someone, help a cause, and promote good. Even if you do not choose to help Ukraine today, choose to help someone.

Three Quotes for You

“No one has ever become poor by giving.”
-Anne Frank

“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.”
-John Bunyan

“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.”
-John Holmes

20 Days In Mariupol

Below is the trailer for a documentary called “20 Days in Mariupol”. It is a documentary about the start of the war in the port city of Mariupol, located in the east side of Ukraine, near the border with russia. Mariupol was one of the most dangerous cities at the start of the war. Now, it is a ghost town. The trailer is jolting because it sharply shows how real the first days were. It shows such strong emotions in people. I encourage you to watch the trailer and, if you can, watch the movie because it really shows how scary it was. It shows so why we are obliged to care.

Ways You Can Help

If you are interested in helping someone today, here are three recommendations.

Donating to a GoFundMe
Buy a meal for a homeless person.
Spread joy by giving compliments.

If you would like to help Ukraine today here are some recommendations.

Come Back Alive – This fund helps Ukrainian soldiers by financing hospitals, mending gear, and fighting disinformation.
Hospitallers – This is a volunteer organization of paramedics helping people in need on the front line.
Initiative E+ – Provides evacuation and assistance on the frontline for military and civilians.
Spread awareness about what is happening in Ukraine – This requires no donation of money. It only takes you telling people the truth about what is happening in Ukraine. Since we have the internet nowadays, false things can spread very quickly, and helping to spread truth helps fight lies.

Thank You For Helping

To all: You have helped others, you have been kind, you are a great person, and you deserve praise for what you have acomplished. But if you feel that since you have helped, you no longer need to help, then let me tell you, never stop helping. If you think about it, if every human was always kind and helped at every chance they had, then really, people would not need to want for anything because somebody would always have their back.

2024-02-052024-02-25

Expedition, Chesapeake Bay Outward Bound School (CBOBS)

Do You Want To Go Spend 12 Days Backpacking and Canoeing?

Six months ago, my mom asked me if I would like to go to an outward-bound camp. Outward Bound is an organization that makes rugged outdoor camps for teenagers and adults. All their camps are not easy and not meant to be easy, but they are still very fun.

It was only a week and a half before the camp started, but she said there was one more slot. I was going to be Canoeing and Backpacking for 12 days if I went. I had never been backpacking before, and it sounded really hard, but I felt like a little challenge would be nice. The only worry I had was the other people.

In most other camps that I have been to, I have been bullied for being homeschooled, gluten-free, or just for being a nerd. (By the way, I am totally a nerd and proud of it!) I can easily handle being bullied because when other people try to bring me down, I know they are just insecure, and I don’t take their comments to heart. But honestly, it is exhausting to be constantly brought down. I was worried about being stuck with 11 people for 12 days going through really hard physical challenges while also having no emotional support. To make sure this did not happen, my mom called outward bound and talked with the people about what kind of kids they attracted and how they handled bullying. They said that the kids that come to their programs are very nice, and they shut it down if there is any bad behavior. This made me much less worried. They also told her that the trip I was going to sign up for was going to be all boys. I decided that it wouldn’t be so bad so I said yes!

What I did Not Know

Looking back, if me back then had known what was going to happen, I probably would not have chosen to go, but I don’t at all regret going now. I think before, I was not as tough, and I would not have willingly chosen to do what I did. What ended up happening was the exact opposite of what I was told would not happen. I was with 11 boys for 12 days (the instructors ended up being all girls, but they’re more there to keep you alive than to become friends), and almost all the boys were perpetually mean. This resulted in a problem for me, but I was determined to fix it. And I did!

I did not change the boy’s behavior; I changed myself. I learned how to let insults and words flow around me without hitting me. I learned how to persevere through hours of hard work and come out okay. I learned how to pitch a tent by myself with one hand and how to make a perfect tarp with only one tree to tie to. (BTW, I was SO proud of that tarp setup! It was like perfect and just the right height, and I only used one tree!) The skills I gained over the 12 days have made me a better person and helped me through obstacles, big and small. I am so glad I did CBOBS, and I would do it again.

(In the following published posts, I will detail my adventures, so if you want to read more about my CBOBS adventure, follow along!) (Subscribe 🙂

Author: KariBella