So while we were exploring castles and ticks of Central Eastern Europe – Lucas and Max were presenting a unified Santa Barbara front in Camp Mondamin, in the deep woods of North Carolina, for 5 weeks. One super excited, one dragged his feet which is modus operandi so nothing new – at least verbally. How can a teenager actually agree on anything that his parents suggest? Not cool at all.

The most exciting part of camp for me are the letters that are coming back, I mean – a total treasure. It also shows how different they are. So here we go –

Lucas – the only letter

Hey dad, I am at camp. There are people here. I am sure you have seen the pictures. The people in my cabin are nice – one likes anime and is 2x weirder than me, the one above me is relatively normal and reads a lot, the one with dyed hair is very mature but only 15, and the curly haired one is kind of dumb. I have gone backpacking and swimming now. I have done other things but they are hard and are quite boring things. Sometimes I sit and write things. Other times, I listen to the radio that has a lot of static and only works if I put it near the window. I like hiking and looking at things. There are spiders! I have created a routine to clear my area of arachnids before I go to sleep. My cabin mates think it is unnecessary. I will be laughing when they are in the infirmary due to a brown recluse. My counselor is 18 years old and a hippie, he’s very calm and says “bro” and “chill” constantly. But he is cool because he doesn’t really care what I do. I have met tons of people. Some are good. Some aren’t, them I despise very much.

If you can’t tell this was all a joke, I am actually sending this from Little Rock, AK. (he kept joking that he will runaway and go to Sacramento before we dropped him off).

He writes to Dad only b/c Mia and I were in Prague – so why waste effort – pragmatic as always.

Max Letter 1

To: Mom – hi mom, don’t mind my hand writing, it is very hard to write in this pen. My first day was fine, I made friends with some seniors. My cabin mates are ok, we are sharing a cabin with other kids, they are also fine. I am mostly doing kanoeing, swimming and gym games, also sailing. We have to walk all the way to the bathroom to take a shower and its kind far. Love you –

To: Dad – Hey dad, as I sad to mom do not mind my writing. I tried sailing for you, we did pretty good I was confused at first but then I got the hang of it. I can’t remember all the names of everything. I will try again later, I promise. When we were trying out the sails, we saw that one of them capsized. Me and some of my friends went on a snipe and caught wind very easily. I will go on another sailing trip when I get better. Love you.

To: Mia – Mia, I know you have the chevron, its gonna take you a while to get the barrel but you can try. I will write when I get back. CU later.

Love you all, I will tell Lucas to write to you.

Max Letter 2

Dear Mom – happy birthday! I’m sorry if this letter doesn’t get to you ontime, it has been a while for the letters to send. I am in group 4 in swimming, I am going for the best. I almost died yesterday, I was in kayak trying to do my flips but I failed and was stuck underwater. Lucas is on a trip right now, I will tell him to write more. Sorry about spending all that money, I had to buy clothes. Just for laundry it took forever to do laundry. Love you, Max

Dear Dad – just went on an overnight sailing trip. Not fun at all – we didn’t sail at all, food was good, weather sucked it was raining everywhere. Thanks for thinking about my birthday, that’s right I do want an re car/drift car. Lucas is having fun I think. I felt sick for the first week but I’m feeling better. My bunkmates is kind of annoying, he keeps stealing my stuff as a joke but it’s not funny. Maybe we can get a snipe and go sailing-that would be fun. Love you – Max

He spent 80% of his money on Day 3.

Max Letter 3

Hey mom, camp is going great so far, I’ve made good friends with my cabinmates. I hope you got my other letter that should answer all your questions. I can’t really keep up with all the mail, sorry about the delivery time, I am trying. I have been having a lot of fun the first week was not fun though. I am about to go on a paddling overnight which will be fun, you should have received mail from Lucas. I went on a hike with him and that was fun. I can’t wait to see you. Love you. PS – the camp gave me a donut cake.

Dear dad – I am doing well at camp. I have made many friends even senior and aid friends. The camp made me a special donut cake. I made them sing opera. I think it would be a good idea to pick us up a little early. The camp just started to get better. When are you going to Prague with mom. I am really good at climbing and swimming here. Can’t wait to see you, love you.

No other comments from me, self-explanatory, dont’ you think?