Santa Monica Beach

Recently, I volunteered to lead a student activity group to Santa Monica beach. I wasn't particularly looking forward to it. My weeks are so busy, that I am so exhausted on the weekends, and didn't feel like playing mother or babysitter to 60+ college students in Los Angeles, but it seemed that no one else was available to do it, and I really wanted those comp hours.

So this past Saturday morning, I was waking up at 6am to get ready and pack for the beach, to be at work at 7am, to get everything in order: waivers, lists, contact information, wristbands, and then check students in, manage our waitlist check-in and quell the general calamities.

Well, it ended up being a great day, and so much fun! I had no idea it would be that much fun. I thought I might end up with a few socially awkward students and need to make small talk all day, but not the case at all. First of all, we were able to get EVERYONE on the bus, which I was so thrilled about! We had a huge interest, and a lot of waitlisted students who showed up just in case, and we fit them perfectly to a T! The ride down there was nice, I spent a lot of it organizing the waivers and getting everyone checked in an accounted for, and then talked with some of the IPA's near me, and a Ukrainian student who told us about the Black Sea, where he would usually go for swimming.

When we arrived, I told the students that this bus was LEAVING at 4p, so they better plan to be here by 3:30 or 3:45, and if they weren't here, I would assume that they had met the loves of their lives on the beach and were on their way to get married and live in Santa Monica forever. I gave them directions to Venice, the promenade, the pier, and told them that I was parking myself at the beach all day, so they could find me there, and then told them to have a good day and we all disbursed. 

Well as it turned out, a lot of them also planned to sit at the beach and we had a great group that planted on the shore, and others came and went throughout the day. Someone rented a surfboard and they took turns passing it around. I brought beach toys, someone else brought a football and we taught the international students how to throw it. Some IPA's bought some sand toys and we built sandcastles. We talked, read, played games, went swimming, and overall it was just a really fun group.

It's been really fun being on the other side of studying abroad, I love being able to show these international students my home. For some of them, this was their first time at the beach EVER! (At least one of the students I spoke with from Iran.) And our IPA's are such a great group too, it's been such a win-win.

It was a longer ride back with the traffic, but those of us in the front seats played some trivia games on phones and were having so much fun, we were back before I realized it.

Of course, now I have my first sunburn of the season, and it has those awkward fingerprints of where I tried to reach with sunscreen and didn't quite make it... oops.