Hello there! After a week or so, another report from our adventurous summer “trip” to United States. Last couple of days were pretty crazy: the swimming season at outdoor pools in Virginia and Maryland has finally begun. It meant lots of travelling between two pools for us.

Reason quite simple: not enough lifeguards :-). On one hand, we weren’t that much happy about that since it meant packing/unpacking our stuff over and over again… but in the end, it was lot of fun. And also, more working hours, ergo more benjamins…

And so we got first working experience – it all started last Saturday (May 28th). Our very first day was quite interesting; and incredibly busy. We got more than 200 people and believe me, it was really crazy. We didn’t have time to go to toilets or get snacks… but somehow, we survived it and thanks to our great team, we even managed to enjoy it. And of course, no incident thanks to our diligent work :-).

The opening weekend for us was a little bit strange as well – we spent it somewhere else than we originally should. As I mentioned earlier, I and my brother will be working during summer at DeerTree pool. But due to the short-staffed situation, we were moved temporarily to KeyLanding, which is not that far away. Here are the panorama-pictures of the pools:

Key Landing

Deer Tree

They’re not that much different. Well, the shape is exactly the same, but the size is half as big as Deer Tree’s. Plus DeerTree has a diving board, which is a huge advantage :-). So the pools are the same, but what differs quite a bit is the surroundings and environment. Whereas DeerTree has a beautiful area around the pool with shops and everything else within 3-minute walking distance, Key Landing has (almost) nothing and the surrounding houses are a part of a ghetto, where you really don’t feel that safe when walking at night.

No surprise we were quite happy when our supervisor told us we’re moving back and staying at DeerTree for good. Yesterday was finally our first working day at DeerTree; and man, the day was simply perfect.

We slept in, had the most delicious cereal breakfast by Quaker Oats, watched a movie, prepared snacks for our shifts and headed to the pool (we open at 12:00, so really no rush in the mornings). I spent first two hours cleaning the pool with vacuum pump – and as there is 12ft deep-end, it meant diving in which I enjoy the most :-).

Then another hour or so in the pump room with supervisor, making sure everything is working correctly and water-chemistry is in order with local regulations. On the whole, today was very laid-back and mellow day, mainly thanks to the weather – warm, but quite windy. This combination keeps residents at home. Maybe it was a little bit too boring, but at least we got enough time to clean the pool perfectly for upcoming inspection, and also got some time for practicing on the diving board :-).

I pretty much mastered the frontflip with straight legs, now it’s time to move to backflips and inverted flips. We will have the whole summer for that, and I can’t wait… Good thing is that water is much “safer” than snow, so hopefully I won’t tear my ACL as in December 2009.

Few upcoming days are gonna be quite busy as school holidays are about to begin; and on top of that, we’re now on 6 working days/week schedule… so really no time for travelling or fooling around. But you would be surprised how enjoyable working at the pool can be. Most of the time, I wouldn’t really call it a work :-). The best thing about it is the fact that you are dealing with people all day long. Not only your team members/other lifeguards, but mainly residents that come to the pool. When you stay at one place for some time, you get to know them. Some are quite, but mostly they are just nice and easy-to-talk-to. They start calling you by your name, invite your for a beer or fishing, buy pizza for you or offer a guided tour around the city. Since we were moving back and forth, the community at DeerTree is still rather unfamiliar to us, but I’m pretty sure this will change quite soon!

Other random tidbits and thoughts collected throughout the week:

• TacoBell is just awesome! So far, our choice number one as far as fast food restaurants are concerned. Cheap and (relatively) healthy mexican food, tasty beefy burritos for 1$ cannot be matched with anything else :-)
• Everything is either same or cheaper than in Czech. And I am not talking about gas, but food, clothes and other pretty basic stuff. Shopping in huge supermarket is one of my favorite activities – especially picking cereal boxes from tens of different brands and tastes. And blueberry bagels are my most desired little cravings.
• It was f**cking hot in here last couple of days. Kids even got off school early, so that they can go to pool and cool down a bit. We were of course very happy because of that :-D.
• Time flies pretty fast. It’s been 10 over days since we arrived. I love it here, nothing to really worry about – just people at the pool. No e-mails, no assignments, no deadlines… just chill, game and sports. We will see how this will change during summer.

All of the pictures we have taken are to be found in Baltimore collection at Flickr. We will keep updating it :-)

So we are in US, hooray!

Our travel plans from Prague to Washington went well after all. It was a long and exhausting trip, but I enjoyed it and can’t wait to be flying over the Atlantic ocean and drinking (lots of) wine once again :-).

There was one small incident though, and it really made me. As you can guess – it was caused by my little brother. He – for some unexplainable reasons – manage to screw up visa paperwork. We are are gonna be working here as students, so we were applying for non-immigrant J1 visas. The process of getting them is quite tedious, but thanks to many on-line resources and specialized agencies, it’s mission possible :-). After many applications filled, letters sent etc., we received the most important document (named J1) that we’re travelling with and that allows us to work legally in US. The next step was to pass the interview at the US embassy in Prague, where among other things J1 gets approved and signed by one of the consuls.

All went well, except that my brother gave them A COPY instead of the original. They verified it, which I find quite strange, but anyway… Funny thing is that he did not find out about it until very late night before departure. And so the worrying began :-). I probably don’t need to tell you how scared we both were (and how badly I wanted to punch him really hard in the nose :-). Just the image of him being sent home by immigration officers and me staring helplessly… it would ruin the whole summer. But screw that, we’re here now, everything is perfect and I’m pretty sure that something like this will never happen again in my brother’s life, never ever :-).

After our arrival do International Dulles Airport, we grab a shuttle van and went to our employer’s office to finish the remaining paperwork. We are applying for social-security number in next few days, which was the main reason for us to go there… It was nice to meet people we only “knew” via e-mail, they all seem quite happy and are funny as hell. Everything went well, and almost everything is done for now.

In the evening we were moved to Chateau, place we’re staying for 2 nights. Then we’re gonna move once again, this time to our final destination for the whole summer. It should be DeerTree complex for us, where is the pool we will be guarding as well. I am really excited, and can’t wait to put my bright red LifeGuard shorts and tee on :-)

So that’s it for our first day, I plan to keep up these posts coming (with pictures, videos etc.). But right now, I‘m starving so I’m gonna enjoy the rest of breakfast (on the picture below – all-american double foot-long sub), and drink tons of Dr. Pepper, which is the most awesome coke on planet Earth :-)

Už to jsou 3 roky, co si pravidelně — každý týden — ukládám 1 fotku do speciálního alba na Flickru.

A to s jedním jediným cílem – zachytit ty NEJ události a okamžiky, ke kterým v průběhu roku dojde.

Ono se to nezdá, ale když si takto zrekapitulujete uplynulých 52 týdnů, nestíháte se divit, jak rychle ten čas letí.

Ta 3-minutová videa si s oblibou pouštím několikrát do roka. A je opravdu zajímavé sledovat, jak se člověk mění a jak se mění i prostředí okolo něj. Taky mi pomáhají s připomínáním toho, že v životě bychom se měli řídit tímto mottem:

Do you live like today is the last day of your life?
~ Lance Armstrong (maybe :-)

Aneb carpe diem, jak říká můj milovaný bratr :-)

Pro úplnost zmíním ještě popis projektu na Flickr skupině:

Once a week post a photo of something you are most grateful for. This gives us a chance to reflect on the good things we have learned from or that have made us better in our everyday lives or things we just enjoy! I think everyone needs to be more grateful for what they have now days instead of always thinking about what we want! This is one of the things we can do to be more gracious people. It will be like a photo gratitude journal.

A závěrem – pokud jste předchozí Blessings projekty neviděli a máte chvilku volného času, mrkněte na rok 2009 a rok 2008.