I find it increasingly baffling how a summer that has been so amazing can change to the complete opposite almost over night. It has been seven days since the kids left and I find myself now counting down the remaining seven days to the day that I leave this place for Chicago. In principle not much has changed. The kids and American staff have gone, certainly, and a bunch of ex-camper families have come up for what's called Post-Camp. The soured heart of the problem is twofold, firstly I am now forced to occupy my spare and night time with people who's behaviour I find increasingly reprehensible. Secondly, the emphasis at Post-Camp is on working for tips, which can be fairly large so I'm told - the effect this has had on the staff is to turn those prone to brown nosing into overdrive.
With regards to the first point, problems have been simmering all summer. While the campers were here I had the Cabin as a retreat, but now I'm forced to live in the midst of the problem. To begin with things were quite affable, we got on well and there were no problems. Slowly, as these things happen, egos started to emerge and things began to unravel. On the one hand you have people like myself, quiet, unassuming, committed to doing the job and putting the campers first. On the other hand you have the staff who don't see this as a job but a vacation. Not only this, but for the most part they share some awful personal characteristics - they're all obnoxious, loud, vindictive, wholly selfish and completely un-interesting. This wouldn't be a problem if I could escape their poisonous company, but I can't because I'm forced to sleep in the same cabin as them. Oh, and another thing, they don't like sleeping, they like getting pissed every single night because they're boring and have no other way of sustaining their entertainment. Oh and another thing, they insist on invading everyone else's privacy by having sex - loudly, frequently and in the same room as the rest of us - until the early hours of the morning. By which I mean 5 AfriggingM. Not only that though, these aren't the same partners every night, these are different women (and I use that term loosely). Imagine my rage, my abhorrence, my absolute hatred of these people. Then imagine me having to listen to the pithy way in which they brush aside my concerns - "Ah well, anything can happen when twelve lads get together in a room!"
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK YYYYYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And breathe.
The second point. The brown-nosing. After a long summer of being an authority figure, a mentor, a friend etc. (basically all the psychologically rewarding bits), I'm finding it hard to adjust to the job I came to America to escape - i.e. waitoring (or, picking up other people's shit because they're rich). Luckily, I'm being paid a healthy rate for these extra days and I don't have to "depend" on whatever these people are prepared to give me based on how much I suck up. If you don't like the service I provide, then you can go swivel. I'm not a bad waitor, I'd go as far as to say I'm a pretty good waitor, so the implication that there's something I'm not doing, I find slightly offensive. On top of all this I have far more free time than I had before, and far from making me happier, these periods are dragging the days out, swelling my least favourite of all human conditions: boredom. All this equals an extremely frustrated Jom.
Ultimately I have two choices, suffer in silence or snitch, and seeing as I have to spend most of my time in the company of these people even though they're making my life a misery, I'm not really inclined to do the latter. Suffice it to say the Director will be hearing my views on the subject and it will be affecting whatever contract he decides to draw up for next year. Fortunately there are three others who share my misery so I'm not suffering in silence. Eight weeks of blissful work and satisfaction far outweighs the irritating mire I find myself in, so my intention to return next year still stands. But by God, there are going to be conditions.
3 comments:
Dear lord! How terrible. I remember a conversation with a friend in Uni where he said that, after a more mature environment in sixth form college, he felt that the jump to university had actually seen a drop in maturity levels of the students.
Sounds like a lot of these people couldn't give two hoots about the job in hand. I wonder whether they'd been to camp before, staying up all night and having a sneaky kiss and fondle, and are therefore reliving the experience multiplied by more adult elements, like alcohol and sex.
Come back soon!
You have my deepest sympathy- it sounds as if you're stuck with a right bunch of dreadfuls. It puts my own room mates into perspective, who, for all their night-time coughing, phone calls and turning-on-of-lights, seem the best people in comparison.
They have a policy in Huntley that if you're caught bringing a Man into the house, you are fired on the spot. I always thought this a bit extreme, but this was mainly because the girls I live with are (mostly) ladylike and demure. I think my view would change ratherly rapidly after 5am shenanigans.
(Mind you, I say "demure" but some of the stories they tell me would curdle milk. Plus there's the whole urinating-in-the-bathroom-whilst-I'm-brusing-my-teeth thing.)
You also have my symphathy in regards to the brown-nosing/ waitoring thing. It's always rubbish to step back from a job you've enjoyed into one you've been trying to avoid. Plus I have big issues with brown-nosing when it falls into the "whoever shouts loud enough gets what they want" category. Like chimps in a zoo.
Nevermind though, not too much longer before you can come home to visit all us lot, eh? A very cheering thought!
Poor Jom!
Well, in a way, it's good, because it's giving you a balanced experience of American culture - you've experienced something brilliant, and now you''re experiencing something more unsavoury. It's all good experience, I reckon, even if it really sucks! Can't BELIEVE they're bringing total strangers back to shag in a room full of people though - shocking!!!!
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