Trips.

I have found that at school trips, regardless of how bad the food can be, people bond.

I'm a fan of that phenomenon.

Things I am not a fan of:

• Allergies
• Long long train rides
• Not speaking a language other than English
• People who take things from your duffel
• Pulling rocks out of the ground for "community service" when clearly it has nothing to do with the actual community and everything to do with manual labor.

I don't get why teachers and the like always equate community service with manual labor. There are plenty of better ways to actually serve a community, without literally getting your hands dirty. Like the PODER tutoring. That was just fun, and it made you feel happy about it later, and it wasn't bad for my sinuses.

I have a lot of personal objections to the CAS IB program (Creativity, Action, Service), which I will address at another time when I really have my facts straight. It seems I have another educational/bureaucratic nemesis. The College Board/ETS isn't the only one to be receiving letters...

Love always,
Clara