Summer Job, vol. X: the First Night Off edition

I have been officially off-duty since 6 pm! HURRAH!

The first two full days has been absolutely insane. I can't even describe it. My time is literally delineated by the hour here. Here was my schedule yesterday:
Breakfast from 730-830
Morning check-in from 845-9
Class from 910-1020
Class from 1050-12
Lunch from 12-1
Dorm group from 115-145
Free time from 2-315
Meeting with Resident Directors from 315-415
Free time from 415-530
Dinner from 530-630
Evening check-in from 7-715 (last night included a fire drill)
Main Event staff from 730-11 (last night was a Boston hip-hop group; it was GREAT!)
On-duty in dorms from 11-12

Today's schedule was almost even crazier, even though I have the night off:
Breakfast by 830
Class from 910-1020
Class from 1050-12
Lunch from 12-1
Dorm group from 115-145 (which went badly and ruined my day; teenaged girls are mean, plus we went through the activity missing one girl and my co-RA didn't notice on the attendance and I didn't notice until I got back to my room...GRRRRR!)
Free from 2-315
Duty in the gym from 315-415
Improv activity group from 430-530
Staff meeting from 545-615
Dinner till 7

Fewf.

I am:
tired
overwhelmed
frazzled
trying to stay upbeat
excited, mostly, about my classes
scared of 17 year old girls that are beautiful and foreign
amazed it's only the 2nd day.

Summer Job, vol. IX: the Dogs are Barking edition

Good lord, my body hurts.

Things I did today:
Went to Walgreen's to fill the backpack for my afternoon position as "Staff Morale" person (more on that later);
Worked as part of a human conveyor belt to empty a room literally full of blankets and fill another room with said blankets four stories up (I love my job);
Met and greeted families as they unloaded what seemed like YEARS' worth of luggage;
Spent three hours lugging aforementioned luggage from street to campus;
Walked someone's grandmother to campus from the car, carrying a suitcase in one hand and a Klondike bar in the other;
Ate a lunch on my 10-minute break I had packed at breakfast;
Spent three hours roaming campus as the "Staff Morale" person, and by "Staff Morale" person, I mean Snack Person, also known as Candy Woman;
Met and greeted 22 high school senior girls who are living in my building for three weeks;
Tried to engage 22 high school senior girls in name and get-to-know-you games before dinner;
Led 22 high school senior girls around a campus tour;
Tried to engage 22 high school senior girls in name and get-to-know-you games after dinner, while also introducing rules;
Somehow managed to get online before 11 PM.

Summer Job, vol. VIII: the Impending Doom edition

The kids arrive tomorrow. DUN DUN DUN!

This morning and part of the afternoon were spent cleaning up the campus and organizing the offices in preparation for what will apparently be an insane day. I did big and important things like set up a water station, pick up trash on the Quad, finalize our dorm decorations (our dorm group is a "time warp," with each building a different decade--we're the 70s, and each student's dorm door bears either a record, a platform boot, or an Afro; our door is decorated with lava lamps), and alphabetize trip permission forms. It was a glamorous day.

We spent the early afternoon and evening on a "trip," as part of the training for how we spend our weekends here. We took over a park overlooking ALL of New Haven and had a cook-out, which was so camp of us, I could hardly stand it.

I took some time this evening to do some final prep on my classes, since I know I won't have time to concentrate on them tomorrow and Monday is the first day I teach!

I can't believe I was celebrating birthdays less than a week ago. Time has certainly shifted while I've been here. I have best friends and boyfriends for a day and then it feels like I never see them again. At the same time, I keep expecting to feel particularly connected to people here, but I'm not positive that will happen. There certainly hasn't been time this week to feel at all like what we're talking about is meaningful.

Still, I'm proud of myself for how calm I've been and how prepared I feel, at this moment. At this point, that's about all I could really hope for.

Summer Job, vol. VII: the Talent Show edition

Honestly. I don't know where the days go. It's so, so, so strange to not be connected online all day long and to have the first time I do get online be at 11 PM.

Quickly (and I know I'm spoiling you with these daily updates--I'm JUST NOT SURE how much longer I'll be able to do this), today was virtually our last day of training. We have duties and activities and supervision that we must do during the students' free time in the afternoons, so we were informed of those and given a tour of the duties sites and then spent the afternoon dealing with issues of difference and diversity, as they've come up here in the past.

It was cloudy most of the day and then, as the afternoon waned, the sun finally broke out and it was perfect weather. My co and I spent a bit of time preparing dorm tags for the girls, and, literally, within the hour, it was dark and purple out as a thunderstorm arrived. I hadn't been in one in so long!

The evening was training for Main Events, which happen here every evening, and the night culminated with a Staff Talent Show, at which I read this. I wasn't sure what the tone of the evening was going to be or how people would respond to it, but I got several appreciative and genuinely emotional comments, which was lovely.

The show, in general, was apparently the best they've had in years. I actually felt myself getting emotional a couple times during the evening, thinking about a) how intense the rest of the summer will be, b) what good hands these kids will be in, and c) what my summer experiences were like when I was of camp age.

My heart seemed to grow a little bit, and it's only the fourth day.

Summer Job, vol. VI: the Kicking into Gear edition

First of all, a moment of silence for Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett....
Crazy.

Secondly, I should count how many times I start my blog posts with "I'm exhausted." This was a very long day, focusing on the role we have as RAs, living with and spending living group time with the 22 girls we will be living with. 22. That's a lot.

At this point, I don't even really remember anything that happened today, except that we heard all about the bad things that can happen to students while they're here (there are a lot), and we did some role play of dealing with difficult situations with students (trickier than you might expect).

Our evening was spent with our dorm group and working on our residential curriculum. My co-RA and I planned some good, fun, probing activities for our first week of living group time (we get a 1/2 hour each day with them and an hour at the end of the week with the whole dorm group), and then we actually went to the curriculum workroom to do some prep work on our lesson plans. I didn't stop working until about 10 PM. There are only so many hours in the day. It's kind of insane. (But I did just watch the dance clips from last nights SYTYCD--GO EVAN AND RANDI!)

So, I must sign off now and go to bed. Tomorrow, we hear all about the OTHER duties we have on-campus (besides teaching two classes and a workshop, planning living group activities, and dealing with kids in the dorms). At some point, we also have to find time to decorate the dorm. Luckily, I'm living with an artistic co-RA. I told her my artistic skill is limited to writing names.

Summer Job, vol. V: the Is It Raining? edition

I survived my first dorm shower in 7 years today, after sleeping only 6 hours last night (still haven't settled into my sleeping rhythm here). Actually, it was pretty painless, considering the water pressure wasn't terrible and the water was warm. I'm pretty sure I can start sleeping a tiny bit later, since it doesn't take me long to get ready and breakfast is pretty quick.

We spent the morning with our curriculum groups, getting questions answered and playing some student-centered learning games. After lunch, we had the unpleasant but oh-so-camp-like task of sorting over 200 boxes of supplies by course number in the rain. It's amazing how one forgets one is getting soaked after a while. Good thing it wasn't freezing out too, or I would have been miserable.

I got to tour my classrooms today too, both of which are associated with the Yale School of Drama, which is ridiculously exciting. I texted S and SE at one point, "Sometimes I am in the Yale School of Drama Paint Shop." Who knew I'd ever end up there? It was a lot of walking around in the rain and a lot of trying to remember logistics.

Thankfully, I had some of the afternoon and most of the evening free. I had a 1/2 hour meeting with DR, who also happens to be my curriculum advisor. Luckily, we've already established a good working relationship, so I wholeheartedly trust him to get me through these next crazy few weeks.

The saying about this place is that a day feels both like a minute and a week. I can't believe this is only my third night here but I also can't believe that it's already after 10 PM.

Summer Job, vol. IV: the Happy Birthday edition

After sleeping for MAYBE three hours last night (a combination of a loud street, open windows, and being in a new place), I was mildly miserable about the day. We sat through about 9 hours of lectures today, getting generally oriented and hearing a lot about rules, security, health practices, and professional expectations. One day I'll get into the logistics of what my six weeks is going to be like. The gist is that I'll be teaching in the mornings, have early afternoons off, have duties in the afternoon around campus and in the evenings in the dorms, and every other night off. Plus, one full day of the weekend on-duty and one off.

One of the early activities we did today was get to know those around us and share fun facts about ourselves, then announce them to the whole group (120 on staff). I spoke for my group and self-promotingly announced it was my birthday. Before we broke for the afternoon, two administrative staff members busted into the lecture hall and sang The Beatles' "Happy Birthday" to me, then the whole group sang the Birthday song. I was SO TICKLED. It was hilarious, especially because it meant all evening, people I didn't know came up to me and said, "Happy Birthday...what's your name again?" Now, I guess they all know. Plus, whenever anyone asks how old I am, and I say "26," they unfailingly go..."OHHH!" (Like, "damn, that's old.")

After our final activity of the evening, I was able to come back to the dorm and read all my emails and FB messages, which were all lovely! Then, I got ready to head out to a bar with a bunch of staff members. One person bought me my solitary birthday drink; I danced for about an hour and a half and then happily came back here to pass out.

Tomorrow is another long day.