Thoughts

Los Angeles Week 5, Wednesday

Wednesday rolled around yesterday and signified that it was the middle of the week.  It’s strange to think that in such a short amount of time your experience at SSP is already half over.  With the sad epiphany however, always also comes water day, one of my favorite parts of SSP.

                Before heading off to the beach we stopped by a vacant lot to help beautify the community, in hopes to attract some more business to the area.  With a lot of patience, sweat, and encouraging honks from passing cars, we were all able to help clear basically half a forest of weeds.  As the work day drew to a close and lunch time grew nearer it was really amazing to see what a difference could be made in such a short amount of time with an entire group of people working together.  

                Now that the it was time to leave the lot we moved on to our lunches at the nearby South Park.  It was lovely being able to relax in the shade of the trees around and just lounge on the grass as we all ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches after a few hours in the sweltering heat.  Everyone passing by gave us slightly curious looks and a cop actually drove through the park to say hi to everyone.  That was pretty exciting.  

                When everyone finished their last bits of lunch, we all started to pack up to head over to visit some community gardens.  The gardens were very sweet, filled with peppers and onions and huge mint plants.  The councilors I have to admit were a little more interested in the plants and gardening than we all were.  We were so close to leaving for the beach you could almost smell it.  

                All of us funneled out of the garden and into our councilors cars, and let me tell you, I was stoked.  The beach is one of my favorite places (besides SSP of course) and being able to be there with my best friend, as well as all the new friends I’ve made this week, made me extremely excited.  

                It was even better than I could’ve hoped.  The sand was warm, the waves were nice and the sun was out.  As soon as we unloaded all of our stuff, a mass of campers took off and ran towards the water.  The water was considerably warmer than the beaches in NorCal, where I’m from.  I spent a majority of my time just swimming out in the water, bobbing with the waves as they rolled in, and after that, my stress, and the rest of the day just sort of melted away.