Learning (to) Love

This is a post that I had started in August/ September 2015, shortly after I returned from camp (see below). I had begun to summarize my Asia trip at the bottom of the post, and then closed out of the draft window, opting to sleep, telling myself that I'd continue and finish it the next time. It is now July 2016, and the only update to this piece are the added pictures. Everything else to come later, in a separate post...

Before I start with what I've been wanting to write, let me tell you this: if you are considering broiling/ boiling vegetables with coconut oil, don't do it. Or if you really want to, use only a tiny bit of the oil, because it certainly is strong.

The last few months have been a true blessing, for lack of a brief description. However, since I rarely lack a brief description, here's a skeleton of what I feel fortunate enough to deem a blessing. I'll start backwards chronologically:

Camp Ronald McDonald. It's truly the best life decision I have ever made, and I can't wait to do it again. I went in with no clue whatsoever about what would go on and how. The first few days of staff training and development were almost dreadful, because I just wanted to be back in the land of technological and material distraction. But after the 139 campers arrived, I forgot about everything else in the world, and had no worry at all except for how I would co-run the arts and crafts and cooking activities, and which cabin I could snag a seat with during meals. It was great to contribute to a "normal kid" environment that simply lets kids be kids. I used to want to be a "normal kid," too, but never knew that magical places like this existed. The kids are the most intelligent, generous, and kindhearted individuals I've ever met; and the counselors, however jaded, sarcastic, and what-have-you that we are in the outside world, somehow overcome all of their personal issues to activate and provide the genuine love and care that everybody needs. It's truly fantastic also to witness the kids grow out of their shells and transition from stranger to friend to family in just a matter of days. The hardest thing, strangely, was trying to not be the kid-at-heart that I am with all the kids around; the second hardest was, rather than us saying goodbye to the kids, the kids saying goodbye to each other--and some of them saying goodbye to camp. Furthermore, camp was a simultaneously firm and gentle reminder that people are kinder than we judge and think. We have vast capacity to be truly good people, and we just need to put ourselves in the physical position and environment which activates that. The best case scenario would be that we can do that in any position and environment, for everyone around us.

I think everyone's cups were overflowing with love that week.

The cutest brothers and their crayon-art masterpieces.

My favorite cabin of campers :)

Everything that preceded Camp suddenly seemed so small, after such a grand experience. Nonetheless, I do remember Asia--though not vividly:

Our first stop was London for a 10-hour layover, and although I was hangry and irritable (for some reason, I remember that very distinctly), it was nice to walk through the same areas I once--or twice or thrice--perused in the summer of 2012. I wanted to pretend that I knew where everything was, but I'm pretty sure MC caught on to the pretense. 

When we finally got to Bangkok, we were extremely jetlagged, and after two nights of claiming we would "go out," we ended up never having done throughout our four-day stay there. Bangkok is so amazingly cheap and so incredibly crowded.