junior program summer site : conversations : second session



	Ben from Massachusetts (7/20) Ben, a Pioneer, is starting his second session at Explo. After being busy winning the "Pinewood Derby" and making movies in "Lights, Camera, Action," he's thrilled to try more of the options that he didn't have time for last session. What was first session like for you? First session was really fun. It was amazing. The trips and the main events were my favorite parts. My favorite trip would have to be Canobie Lake. And what was your favorite main event? I don't really have a favorite main event. They're all really good. That's good to hear. Tell me a bit about Canobie Lake. Canobie Lake was amazing. We went on this ride called the “Extreme Frisbee,” where you sit on this disc, and the disc spins while you go back and forth. It's so awesome. What were your first session classes? I was in “Lights, Camera, Action” and “Pinewood Derby.” They were really cool. My workshops were “Paper Arts” and “Team Challenge.” They were all really, really fun. What was your favorite moment during those classes? Probably when I won the race in “Pinewood Derby.” My car came in first place. It was awesome. We had a lot of heats. Heats are when you race three cars at one time to move up the brackets. We had tons of those. It was really fun, and then my car came in first place. It was awesome. So with one session down, what are you looking forward to in the next three weeks? Probably the thing that I'm looking forward to most is my model rocketry workshop. I think it'll be a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it. I also really liked the “boot camp” activity, so I'm looking forward to having that again. It was really fun. We pretended to be in boot camp and we did sprints and races and sometimes the teachers and us would do 20 push-ups. I got a really good workout. Is there anything you didn't get to do last session that you really want to try now? Yeah. But we're always doing new things here. I've tried so many new things that I can't even remember them. I've been having such a good time at Explo. It's been amazing. Probably one of my most favorite things about Explo is the dances, like the “Numa” and the “Cupid Shuffle.” I'd never heard of either of those songs ever before. I'd never heard of a lot of the songs they play here, but I really like them now. Explo has been introducing me to so many new things. What has it been like being a first-year residential student? At first I was a bit homesick, but I got over it really quickly. After that, it was all fantastic. My RA's [residential advisors], Adam and Dave, were really awesome, too.The thing about the Res experience that's so special is that you get to have these people on your hall that you get to know for the whole entire session. There's just something really special about it. What were the other students on your hall like? Well, one of the other boys on my hall was one of my favorite friends -- his name was Billy. I made another friend, my friend Henry, who's from Tokyo. He's really awesome. I met a lot of people from different places, like my roommate Antoine was from France, all sorts of people, like New Yorkers. It was pretty cool. If Explo was a type of dessert, what would it be and why? That's a hard question. . . well, one of my favorite desserts is cake, and then there are cookies, and then there are brownies. So maybe Explo would be a brownie cupcake with cookie-dough, because Explo is my favorite place in the whole entire world next to home, and those are my favorite desserts. more conversations > first session \| second session