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September 15, 2011 - Image 48

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 2011-09-15

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

teen 2 teen e,e

Maddi Gonte

Teen2Teen Staff

' • '
•-?-t

41

nyone who expe-
rienced Tamarack
Camps' Western Trip
this summer could tell you it
was a trip of a lifetime.
"Western was life-changing,"
said Arlyn Daniels of West
Bloomfield. "It helped me grow
as a person and become a bet-
ter person, too. It was the best
choice of my summer."
Twenty-five campers, accom-
panied by six amazing counsel-
ors, traveled the western United
States for five weeks. Together,
they grew accustomed to the
lack of bathing, making their
own meals and the crazy activi-
ties their counselors set up for
them.
They pushed themselves
harder than ever as they hiked
up particularly steep moun-
tains, through the beautiful
deserts in Utah and alongside
waterfalls and the plentiful
wildlife. They learned how to
set up tents, how to set up and
use a stove, and how to handle
bears, moose and mountain
lions.

--

However, perhaps the most
important things that Western
provided these campers with
were morals and values, such as
putting others before yourself,
working together, making
the best of everything, being
proud of their religion — and
appreciation.
"Western was a once-in-a-
lifetime opportunity': said Alexis
Darmon of Franklin. "I will
always cherish the friendships
I've made. Words cannot describe
how amazing the trip truly was:'
The campers learned to love
the old-fashioned country
songs forced on them by their
counselors. Soon enough, they
knew them by heart and were
singing them around a campfire
as a family. Complaints grew
less common, and instead they
embraced the new lifestyle.
Western was truly a trip that
provided all with experiences
they wouldn't have been able to
find anywhere else, and helped
reconnect them with their true
selves.

Maddi Gonte, 15, of Bloomfield

Hills is a sophomore at Birming-

ham Groves High School.

Left: Brittany Murray of Farmington Hills, Maddi Gonte of Bloomfield

Hills, Samantha Murray of Farmington Hills, Henry Moss of

Southfield and Nikki Wald of Farmington Hills.

„..

Dirty Wor'

, with

ow

Month-long archaeology program in Spain
gives teen real-life experience.

Estee Reed

Teen2Teen Staff

I

n July, while working in the dirt for
eight hours a day in 92-degree heat,
with dust in my eyes and dirt under
my fingernails, I had plenty of time to think
about my good fortune. No, I wasn't wishing
I were sitting in front of an industrial-pow-
ered fan or sipping lemonade at a poolside. I
truly enjoyed the time I spent in the dirt and
the summer heat, excavating the forum of a
third-century Roman city, Pollentia, located
in present-day Mallorca, Spain.
The "Google Gods" smiled upon me one
day while I was searching for summer
programs. I found a way to combine my
love of history with the opportunity to
spend a month working with real archae-
ologists. What I found was "ArchaeoSpain,"
a program that allows incoming high
school juniors and seniors an opportunity
to work on a real archaeology site.
When I arrived in Alcudia, the small
town near the site where I would be work-
ing every day, I met nine other high school

48

September 15 • 2011

students who soon would be my close
friends and coworkers for the next month.
Though we came from Michigan, California,
New York, Connecticut, Washington, D.C.,
and London, we bonded over the work and
the experiences we shared.
We spent our days pick-axing, shoveling,
dusting, sifting, cleaning and labeling. It
was hard, but fun and rewarding because
we were able to do everything the archae-
ologists were doing. Together, we learned
how to pick axe properly, how to label and
organize pottery pieces, and how to draw
pictures of our sites. In addition, by touring
other historical sites on the weekends, we
also learned about the history of Mallorca.
Daily, as we dusted and cleaned, slowly
removing levels of dirt, we found many
pottery shards and bone fragments, which
we would clean and label later in the day.
My supervisor, Tomeo, spent every day in
constant motion, assigning us tasks, tell-
ing us where he wanted us to work, mak-
ing sure we were working properly, and
then immediately going to go check on
someone else.

icipant

and supervisd
Juan-Jo i use

a tape me

to

mealtif

width

,f)eilin

of a stone.

t

One day, as I kneeled on the ground,
cleaning the small piles of dirt I had swept
together, I noticed something unusual
in one of them. It was covered in dirt,
just like every other pottery shard we
had found, but unlike the others, it was
perfectly circular. I rubbed some of the
dirt off and squinted at the object. As the
brown-red of dirt became the green-black
of rusted metal, I realized that I had found
something unusual.
"Tomeo," I called. "What is this?!"
He took the object and immediately
identified it as a Roman coin.

"Good job, Estee he said, putting the
coin in a plastic bag for safekeeping. "Keep
on digging." As he walked off, I realized
that even though finding a coin seemed
amazing to me, it was a daily occurrence
for archaeologists at a site like this. This
realization did not disappoint me, how-
ever, because I was still proud of my find,
and I was equally excited to have found
the ArchaeoSpain program itself. I I

Estee Reed, 17, of Bloomfield Hills Is a

senior at Frankel Jewish Academy in West

Bloomfield.

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