intermediate program summer site : conversations : second session



	matt from pennsylvania (8/8) It's Matt's second year at Explo and with only one full day left, he's sad to say goodbye but excited to start high school. This residential student and actor says that this summer he finally learned to sail -- while also becoming fascinated with Ultimate Frisbee! How are you liking your second year at Explo? It is a ton of fun. Today in “Cooking With Chemistry” we had a party. We made curry and cookies and fudge and talked about the chemistry of each of those foods. We made all kinds of things. What sort of chemistry goes into cookies and fudge and curry? It was sort of a culmination of things we’ve learned -- like the Maillard reaction, how sugar cooks, stuff like that. It was very cool. What other things have you done in “Cooking With Chemistry”? Let's see, we also learned about acids and bases, how they affect the volume and texture of cookies. It’s a lot of fun. Also, we get to listen to music when we cook. Sounds fun! What’s your other class? My other class is "Go-Kart Madness". My teachers are a ton of fun in that too. Very smart, very helpful, and our go-kart is going to be very cool. Tell me a little bit about your go-karts. There are four go-karts in our class. Ours is actually going to be in the showroom tonight during Off-Broadway Night, so if you want to see it you can. We’re going to finish it up at Chill Time today. It’s very cool. It’s about five and a half feet long with a sloped front. I think we’re going to make it so you can open it up and look under the hood because our steering and breaking systems are really cool. Specially designed. What made you want to take that class? I’ve always enjoyed engineering and building things. I like woodworking, too. What are your mini-courses? They are stage combat and sailing. Are you an actor? Is that why you took stage combat? Yeah, I’ve always been an actor. I took “Both Sides of the Footlights” last year. But stage combat is really fun. And then, yeah, sailing. We actually learn a lot though. And you got to get on the water for Cruise Night last night, even though it wasn’t to sail. How was that? Really fun. We got to do some dancing, the food was good, and we got to hang out with a lot of friends. Also, Boston looks very cool from the harbor. I took a bunch of pictures. Staff members were dressed up really cool. My RA went as Wolverine; someone went as the Joker. Did you dress up as anyone? Yeah, I did . . . he’s really big in Europe right now. His name is Matt . . . [laughs]. What trips have you gone on? My first weekend I went to Minute Man Park and kayaking. I actually thought learning about Lexington and Concord was pretty enjoyable. I’ve never been a big history buff, but I went and it was fun. Then we went kayaking on the Charles River, which was a lot of fun. A lot of fun . . . and a good workout. And then we went to Six Flags the next day. I loved that, and the lines weren’t that long. And then this last weekend, four days ago, I went on the overnight trip to New York. That was a lot of fun. I love New York. We got to walk around Times Square; we saw Wicked; we stayed in a hotel room. It was a lot of fun. We got to see tons of the city; I always love the city. The actors and actresses in Wicked were fantastic, What have been some of your favorite activities at Explo? I love all the activities here. And I love how they have normal activities like kickball or dodgeball and then crazier stuff like “Fight to the Near Death”, which was a combination of stage combat and Harry Potter duals. And I like the discussion sections too -- like “Guy Talk”, I really liked that one, and I know a lot of people really liked the LGBQA question and answer session, too. I guess Explo is a very eye-opening experience. You find things you won’t find anywhere else. That’s good to hear. What other things have been eye-opening for you? Well, Explo just has a lot of opportunities. You’ll meet people you’ll never meet anywhere else; you’ll meet different kinds of people; you’ll do different kinds of things. I mean, I learned to juggle here last year when I thought I was totally (well, I still am) un-coordinated, but I can juggle now! You always find new hobbies or interests that you’ve never explored before but you become really fascinated with -- like Ultimate Frisbee [holds up a Frisbee]. Nice! What would you say is your favorite part of the day at Explo? Hmm, I’m not sure. I think the way they have the day set up here is very, very well-done. You know, you have down time . . . but there’s, you know, thirty activities twice a day every day, so there’s always something to find that you enjoy. So, if you can believe it, there’s only a couple of days left at Explo. What do you think you’ll miss most? What do I think I’ll miss most? I think the staff and the friends I have here, definitely. How have you found it meeting people here? Meeting people here is always very easy. I mean, I came with one friend from home. I saw him talking with a bunch of people I didn’t know the other day and I just walked up and met Hadly, Sarah . . . Actually, I guess that was almost three weeks ago. It seems like it went by so quickly. I mean, I’ve met people doing tons of different things. I’ve met people playing curb-ball, in courses. It's kind of hard not to end up friends with everybody, even our instructors. What have you tried new at Explo this year? I’d never gone sailing before, I tried that last year and it didn’t go so well . . . but I did it again this year and succeeded! And I’ve never built any thing like our go-kart. I mean, I’ve built with Legos and stuff, but this was a new, big step. I’ve cooked new food, met new people, a lot of new things. I had never played Ultimate Frisbee before. I discovered that I really like that. Finish the sentence: Explo makes me want to . . . I have no idea how to answer that. Explo makes me want explore every opportunity the world offers me. At Explo, you learn more than just stuff in your courses. You learn about people; you learn about living on your own. It makes you feel a lot more independent and a lot more confidant, I’ve always been self-confident, but here I’ve realized I really want to go out and do things I’ve never done before. If Explo had a mascot what would it be? Something a little crazy, a little funny, and a little bit of something you wouldn’t find anywhere else . . . some sort of fictional animal I suppose. more conversations > first session \| second session