Canada/Ontario

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As you all easily deciphered from the title of this update, I spent the last few weeks leading Sprout trips to Maine, Toronto, and the Poconos. The first trip I went on was to Maine and it was quite memorable to say the least. If I had to give the trip a word for the week, inquisitive would finish a close second to irritation. This group of 7 men and 2 women joined forces to annoy us leaders to an unimaginable extent. Questions, questions, questions. I swear I felt like Alex Trebek after spending 30 minutes in the van. It’s as though all the clients feared losing points for not speaking in the form of a question. “What time are we eating lunch? Where are we eating dinner? What year is this van? What roads do we take to get to Maine? What is on the menu for dinner? Where were you born? Why? Why are hamburgers so good? Is there a pool at the hotel? How deep is it? What number spf sunscreen did you bring? How many brothers and sisters do you have? Are there boats in Maine? Are there trains in Maine? How much does a candy bar cost in Wisconsin?” This amount of inquiries would come from only 1 or 2 of the clients in under a minute (literally). Once one of them got into an interrogation rhythm, it sparked all the others to test my trivia knowledge and patience at the same time. We definitely had some unique personalities on this vacation (and a few of them shared the same body). There was one client who spoke to himself. This is somewhat common amongst some participants, but not like this guy. He was extremely loud and spoke very clearly as he turned his head and reminded himself (and everyone within 50 meters) of the Bar Mitzvah he had to attend on July 3rd. Not only did this voice in his head that he frequently conferred with remind him of important dates, but apparently it also scolded him. One day when getting out of the van, he farted rather loudly. He immediately turned his head and screamed, “David, if you do that again, you will be spending the rest of the day in the van. I mean it David. You think it’s funny? I’m not joking around.” Accompanying David and (well… the other David), was a guy who had a little trouble showing any expression. He looked and sounded a bit like a constipated, disgruntled army drill sergeant that had an obsession with trains. When he came to my door claiming something was wrong with his toilet but it was ok because he already told the hotel staff, I didn’t think it was an emergency. I asked if I should come and check on it and he said, “I do believe that it is alright sir. No big problem sir.” Having done enough Sprout trips to know better than to rely on this type of information, I decided to check it out. When I opened the room door, the river of water and umm…. debris was already rushing towards me. I kicked off my shoes and squished my way through the soaked carpet and sprinted to the toilet to turn off the water. It wasn’t until I reached the toilet did I realize that one of the squishes wasn’t just the wet carpet. You know that ‘oh shit’ feeling when you are walking through someone’s yard and you are in denial about what is now seeping in between your toes? Yea… not a fun was a guy who had a little trouble showing any expression. He looked and sounded a bit like a constipated, disgruntled army drill sergeant that had an obsession with trains. When he came to my door claiming something was wrong with his toilet but it was ok because he already told the hotel staff, I didn’t think it was an emergency. I asked if I should come and check on it and he said, “I do believe that it is alright sir. No big problem sir.” Having done enough Sprout trips to know better than to rely on this type of information, I decided to check it out. When I opened the room door, the river of water and umm…. debris was already rushing towards me. I kicked off my shoes and squished my way through the soaked carpet and sprinted to the toilet to turn off the water. It wasn’t until I reached the toilet did I realize that one of the squishes wasn’t just the wet carpet. You know that ‘oh shit’ feeling when you are walking through someone’s yard and you are in denial about what is now seeping in between your toes? Yea… not a fun was a guy who had a little trouble showing any expression. He looked and sounded a bit like a constipated, disgruntled army drill sergeant that had an obsession with trains. When he came to my door claiming something was wrong with his toilet but it was ok because he already told the hotel staff, I didn’t think it was an emergency. I asked if I should come and check on it and he said, “I do believe that it is alright sir. No big problem sir.” Having done enough Sprout trips to know better than to rely on this type of information, I decided to check it out. When I opened the room door, the river of water and umm…. debris was already rushing towards me. I kicked off my shoes and squished my way through the soaked carpet and sprinted to the toilet to turn off the water. It wasn’t until I reached the toilet did I realize that one of the squishes wasn’t just the wet carpet. You know that ‘oh shit’ feeling when you are walking through someone’s yard and you are in denial about what is now seeping in between your toes? Yea… not a fun feeling. Anyways, the room was flooded and I spent the next hour scrubbing my feet while my co-leaders helped the guys move. It was also on this trip to Maine that I first experimented with water sports. Let me tell you, golden showers just don’t do it for me but I forgot to tell the client who I was helping shower. It was just my arms though and well… I just don’t wanna talk about it anymore.


Canada/Ontario - Canada