You only live once

This totally relates to today, at our last orientation training workshop of the day! The CStaff and returning OLs simulated difficult situations that we may encounter during orientation sessions and each person had to tackle a situation!

(Source: borntomakeanimpact)

Congratulations to my friend Erin, finally marrying her man and becoming a KNIGHT! The sun was shining there was not a single cloud in the sky! Yes, not a single cloud! It was so amazing and as the pastor mentioned, it was God sent! For real, as he spoke, i thought about how many people prayed for today to be beautiful and BAM a beautiful day!

The wedding was just amazing! It was the first wedding I’ve ever witnessed and it was so simple and strong! A couple of my favourite parts of the wedding was the Unity Ceremony and the Washing of the Feet. To represent their unity, the bride and groom planted a shrub. As the roots of the shrub grow strong and deep, so will the bride and groom’s love for each other. The washing of the Feet was very heartfelt too, because it symbolizes closeness one has for another. <3

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i woke up this morning to find… MY SUNFLOWERS SPROUTING! :D

today was a LONG day. this morning… i did not want to get out of bed… and i wanted to sleep throughout the morning workshops. zzZz… they were very informational, but at a certain point i felt like INFORMATION OVERLOAD. Reslife, SFS, FERPA… but i survived!!! :D

and lunch came and we ate delicious sandwiches! i think that they were from sugar snaps or something snaps. 맛있다!

the afternoon went by faster than i expected and got me totally pumped for orientees to come rolling in! i really want to give a bus tour, or at least try it out! and answer parents questions! i’m quite afraid of when i need to facilitate conversations among my orientees, but it will be okay. (:

then we had dinner from the amazing tiny thai! SO GOOD. and then i went downtown with marie to use my free movie tickets on…

this is a beautiful movie, but i feel like the beginning scenes were cut awkwardly and made it choppy for me to follow. but once they reached india, it was AMAZING! i’m actually really scared of India and if i were a character in this movie, regardless of my age, i would be the lady who won’t eat anything i can’t pronounce.. i mean, i love Indian food, the curries, roti prata, but i’m afraid of germs. and i would hate having to walk down streets squishing between sweaty people! i do know india is a beautiful place. so one day i shall have the courage to rid my germophobia and visit the country that inspires many.

but for now, bed time. 5.5 hours of sleep tonight!

the past two days have been a blast! full of sunshine and now i’ve returned with a first time stinging sunburn! camp was AMAZING. first, we drove off in the morning, to north hero, vt - an island in lake champlain!

When we arrived, we settled into our cabins and went to the main cabin for more camp info stuff! then we learned about our O-Teams! My team is THE WILD ONES! because we were all in the same van on the drive over (coincidence? hehe) and this song played on the radio and was STUCK IN OUR HEADS.

And we had to create a way to introduce our team. So we decided to use the song..

 this song is actually really bad.. and so annoying… so we changed the lyrics!

ooh i heard you were a wild one, oooOOoooh… if we hung out it’d be real fun, show me how you hooooooooooo, 

i kinda forgot the rest.

i believe we had the best performance :D

After o-team stuff we were all formly introduced to Jessica P! she engaged us to think about social justice and diversity. the first part was about 14 people stuck on a roof surrounded by a flood and the rescue boat only had enough fuel for one ride and only ten people could fit in the boat. So out of the list of people, (ie. pregnant black woman, korean market owner, jehovah witness, 15 year old convicted twice for robbery, 300 lbs person…) who should we save?

After 5-10 minutes of each group deliberating upon the situation, Jessica explained how our judgements and white supremacy stuff came into play, which i could see affected the humanity of the situation. she talked about how we would imagine almost all the people listed as white, besides when their race was mentioned. which some of her generalization as above i don’t agree with. there was also a lot of jargon (ie. intersectionality - what??) but she was good at stirring our thoughts and bringing the importance and awareness of social justice and all our identities.

We also did the step in step out circle activity, which felt more intense this round the previous 3 i’ve done with reslife/next step. why?

We had a break and after, we continued onto an activity on sexual identities and the explanation of sexual vs gender identities. and then DINNER.

Food was simple, but great! i ate waaaaaaaaaaaay too much! and after food, we all chilled by the lake. played volleyball, clue, walked….

AND S’MORES!

The next day - DAY 4/TODAY - was very chill. we were introduced the the FISH philosophy, originating from a shop in the Seattle Market, and in summary is used to build great working environments. The main points of the FISH philosophy - play, be there, choose the right attitude, and there was one more that has slipped my mind. then we moved on to a serious topic of how to handle situations of disorderly conduct among orientees.

WARNING to all the incoming UVM first years: if you’re coming to orientation this summer and you choose break UVM policy, your place as a UVM student will be revoked.

After serious talk, we had LUNCH - another awesome meal! i love cucumbers and watermelon, and garden burgers and.. EVERYTHING!

a bunch of us ate outside and then we had free time!

I made a new friend! and she really wanted a dandelion headband. and i, for the first time ever, decided to make one for her! and it came out not bad at all! she also braided the front area of my hair, which i hope she teaches me!

as you can see, my hair was very greasy… at least half of us hadn’t showered for the past 24 hours.

But now i’m clean and sparkly! (:

Then I went to the waterfront and derrick showed me the skillz of a rock skipper! and i learned that i can use GIANT flat rocks! :3 just toss them at a low level ^^

The clouds were SO SO SO SO SO pretty!!!!!

And then we all shared warm and fuzzy activities and headed back to beautiful burlington! for dinner i went with some of the staff to vermont pub brewery for my first time! it was quite good! they have decent prices too, ranging from $7-20 for an entree, and $3-7 for appetizers and desserts. i forgot to take pictures.

Now i must make bulletin boards! WHEEEEEEEEE!

Today we started the morning traveling to the ropes course down Spear st! On the way I learned of at least 2 more park areas that UVM owns along the street! East Wood - remember to explore it next year!

At out destination, the ropes course, we played lots of games and better understood our group dynamics! All in all it was a good time. (:

On our way back a few of us spotted an adult owl (hoot!) and a baby owl (he was so fluffy!!!) - he’s somewhere in the picture below!

Also, i forgot to mention that yesterday, I recieved a free water bottle, specially designed with my name on it!

Tomorrow is CAMP DAY, for two days! wheee! i hope i get to go swimming!

FINALLY, I’m HERE! back at UVM officially and not hiding in my biffle’s room!

So I first walked through the door, amazed to find TWO BEDS and two sets of other furnitures in my room! you know what that means? yes, that’s right.. idk if i’m allowed to say. but a couple of you have been informed about my plan. ;)

Also, I really missed the view from a harris/millis window.. it’s so BIG

I took this tonight, cuz right after training session got out, i saw a beautiful night and the breeze coming through my window smelled like Boston…

I got to know a ton of people tonight! and TOMORROW - ROPES COURSE!