Upward Bound is done, finished off with a splendid banquet. I actually got to sit back and enjoy last weekend instead of trying to resolve staff conflict or sort out some kind of intervention strategy for bad study habits or prep for another week. The Properts were away on vacation, so I got a dog and a house with a beautiful view, too. And a DVD player. Ah, happy.
I'm a little sad-faced about it though. Those were good students. I didn't get to know them nearly as well as I wanted to. I will miss them...
They are a pretty unique community, these Upward Bounders--they inhabit a place where they are allowed to be their normal teenage selves in an environment shaped by and infused with Christianity which welcomes them to come and build their own creative community without having to conform to Christian norms.
Basically, it rocks out. You can be part of the transforming work of Christ in community without all the nasty expectations of conformity that make the church boring and miserable.
Funny, Yesterday felt like the most relaxing day of the summer, and it was the most productive of them all. A day of discoveries:
-the awesomeness of Feta Cheese on Pollywogg Holler Pizza
-a clear, cold spring on the other side of the Genesee flowing with water that is so much better than Houghton-On-Tap
-Bittersweet Symphony Ice Cream at the Oramel Coffee shop
-An old, old cemetary on Cronk Hill
-Lattice Bridge
-Higgin's Hole, on my new favorite Creek in the Whole Wide World (that would be Higgin's Creek)
-Sour Green Apple Kool-Aid while chillin' with the Shaffners (finally! after a summer of hasty teatimes and IM conversations) on their front porch
-Philip Christensen is ridiculously awesome...and a putz!
-V for Vendetta is still an awesome movie.
-The habits of the woodland Shaffners in their native habitat can be quite...peculiar.
And all of that after church. I think I accomplished more living in that one day than all of last August. I like it here.
--edit--
banqueting picture: I like it here.
--edit again--
check out this guy, scroll down to "Feminism and Beer Ads"...especially if your name is Gustav.
