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Saturday, August 17, 2013

I'm Baaaaackkkkkk.

Hello hello hello!

After a long summer hiatus, I am back at Purdue, and therefore, back to my blog.  Let's play a quick minute of catch-up:

This summer I babysat 4 awesome kids, I visited my friend Caileigh at Mizzou, spent 4th of July weekend in Colorado with Christian, went to 6 Flags with the fam, went to a Maroon 5/Kelly Clarkson concert with Annie, hung out with my friends and family, and basically just watched the summer fly by before my eyes.  But guess what?  I'm back at Purdue (and have been for over a week), and there's already so much to recap.  Let's dive in.

Weds. Aug. 7:

Move in day!  I spent the entire night before running around and trying to find everything I needed to pack for school.  Little did I know that when I arrived at Purdue, I'd be missing several of the items I deemed necessities.  Oops.  Guess that's what I get for last minute packing.

We hit the road at 8 am with dad driving his car and me driving mine since I was going to keep it at school.  Somehow, we had managed to stuff a futon, a huge refrigerator, a TV, a microwave, a carpet, 2 sets of plastic drawers, 3 plastic bins, and other miscellaneous items in those 2 cars.  It was weird when we arrived because it was so quiet in Shreve!  Compared to last year where it was constantly filled with noise, it was silent.  But that would all change when the new students moved in on the weekend.

Jess, my roomie, arrived soon after us, so we all unpacked and unloaded our stuff and set up the room.  I have to say, I really like it!  There's so much room for activities! (Step Brothers reference).  We all went out to lunch and then to WalMart to pick up some of the stuff I forgot about.  Then, a little later, my parents left and I actually didn't cry like I did this time last year.  I think it's just a little bit easier this year.

Back in Shreve with Jess!


Thurs. Aug. 8/Fri. Aug. 9

Training days!  As Team Leaders (TLs) for our freshman orientation program, Boiler Gold Rush (BGR), we had to do a lot of training things to get prepared to meet our new students.  We woke up early and went to bed late every night, but it was a good time spending with my group and Supervisors. 

What did we do between training sessions? FOUNTAIN RUNS!

XOXO Shrevehart

Shey bay bay
My awesome opossum group: Keith, Lucas, me, and Shey

Sat. Aug 10/Sun. Aug. 11

Move-in days!  All the new students moved into Shreve these days, so it was our responsibility as TLs to help them move in.  If they lived on floors 1-4, we had to haul all their crap, including fridges, up the stairs.  If they lived on floors 5-8, we were able to take the elevator, thank goodness.  We worked from 8 am to 4 pm these days, and although everyone was in a constant state of exhaustion, it was really fun!  Everyone always had a positive attitude, and we also had different cheers for different items we had to move in.  (We saw a mini fridge in the trunk of the car?  "Don't drop that mini fridge, ayyy!  Don't drop that mini fridge.  Don't drop that mini fridge, ayyy!  Don't drop that mini fridge"  And if you weren't sure, this chant was to the tune of "Don't Drop That Thun Thun Thun.")  We also had to decorate the Shreve lobby with our hall team's theme, Kids At Heart in preparation for the new students' arrival.

Saturday night was the Block Party where we all went to Slayter Hill to hang out together.  Does anyone remember my post about this last year?  All the new students who moved in on Saturday, plus the TLs, gathered on Slayter Hill to listen to music and play games and just start to get to know each other.  In short: HUGE AWKWARD FEST.  There are so many people around and nobody knows each other, so nobody knows what the heck to do.  As TLs, we tried to engage the new students and dance with them and play games with them.  We went around introducing ourselves and being the protocol TL crazy.  I felt for those new students, because just a year ago, I was in the same awkward position they were.  But as a TL, you don't even have to be awkward because you actually have friends at school and you know what's going on.

Sunday night was when we got to meet our teams!  I was blessed with 14 awesome new students: Aaron, Justice, Brachston, Kathryn, Linh, Zeynep, Neil, Cody, Jesse, Abby, Danny, Olivia, Nick, and Rachel.  Everyone was really shy and quiet at first (which was totally understandable), so I had to kinda be crazy so they knew they could be comfortable here.  We played a few name/get to know you games and talked about the plan for the week.  At 5:30 we got dinner at the Boiler Bash, and then we went to Elliot Music Hall for the New Student Induction Opening Ceremonies.  We listened to Mitch Daniels, the president, speak, as well as a TL and our keynote speaker, Josh Shipp, who was really funny.  We also did shout outs, which, if you remember from last year, is a giant scripted cheer that the entire hall team does to earn points towards the interhall showdown!  I was in Shrevehart again, which is comprised of the halls Shreve and Earhart.  There is also WCW (Wiley, Cary Quad, and Windsor), HOT (Hilltop, Owen, Tarkington), McHarrison (McCutcheon and Harrison), and OhMT.  

Really awful picture, but our picture from Honduras was up on the big screen at Elliot!


Mon. Aug. 12

Breakfast was early at 6:30 am (ugh).  It was an early start to a busy day!  Some of us taught our new students the Common Bond Dance, which was a dance to the song "Good Time" by Owl City and Carly Rae Jepson.  By the end of the week, everyone knew the dance and we all did it in Elliot together!  

Then, the entire BGR ensemble paraded to our football stadium, Ross Ade, for a Boiler Up rally where we got to meet some of the athletic coaches and learn some cheers.  We also all got a free t-shirt and went onto the football field to create a giant block P.  Although everyone was confused the entire time and nobody knew where to stand, we somehow pulled it off and it looked pretty legit!

So I mean it kind of worked...

On da field



We had lunch and then went on a Traditions Walk where we went to all the places on campus that had a significant meaning, such as the Clapping Circles, the Hello Walk, the Neil Armstrong statue and the Purdue University arch, as well as some of the important fountains.  The students also got to "cross the tracks," where they all jump over the set of railroad tracks on campus, signifying their start of a relationship at Purdue.  After graduation, everyone jumps across the tracks in the opposite direction.  

Traditions walk!

Engineering fountain


We had shout out practice and then we went to Elliot for our session.  Today's session was FreeZone, which is really important to Purdue.  Basically, FreeZone is a mindset that you have where you don't judge people when you first meet them, and you recognize that everyone has a story that you should learn.  It's actually a really cool concept.  So, the students got to learn about FreeZone, watch the famous FreeZone skit, and we did a FreeZone REACTION, where we all sit in a circle and answer some prompted questions.

Dinner was next, and then we got to see the Mentalist, Christ Carter.  Oh. My. Gosh.  This guy was crazy.  He did a bunch of card tricks where he was able to know what card people picked from a deck based on how they reacted when he asked them different questions.  He also did this insane thing where he had people write information about themselves on a notecard and questions about their friends in the audience, and then blindfolded himself several times, including with duct tape.  However, he was able to pick people out of the audience based on the cards and answer the questions that they asked about their friends.  It was really funny because he embarrassed a lot of people!

UnionFest was afterwards, which was basically a giant party in the Union.  People could make crafts like waxed hands, dance in the room with a DJ (talk about a rager though), or sing karaoke.  There was a lot to do!

Tues. Aug 13

We got "late" breakfast at 7:30, then went on a Den Pop run afterwards since we had some free time.  For those of  you who don't know what a Den Pop is: the Discount Den is a little store on campus that sells different things like t-shirts and such.  However, they are also known for their Den Pops, which is just soda, but they have like every flavor.  There are different concocted recipes hanging on the wall that people have created, so the tradition is to make one of these concoctions for your 60 cent Den Pop.  It's also tradition that during BGR, the TL buys all their new students a Den Pop, so I did :)  Many of us got the BGR Den Pop, which is blue Powerade (B), Mountain Dew (G), and Red Cream Soda (R).  We had shoutout practice, went to a business fair (which is essentially where businesses around the Greater Lafayette area set up a table to let new students know about them, but the new students, and let's be honest, TLs, only like it for the awesome free stuff that gets handed out), and went to lunch.  Our Elliot session included wellness jeopardy and talks from the police and fire chiefs.  It was slightly boring, and many of us started falling asleep.  Oops.

Their first Den Pop!

At shoutout practice


Crazy TLs




After our REACTION, we had some free time.  What better way to spend free time than by going on a traditional FOUNTAIN RUN?!  I lead my group and Jess's group on the fountain run (from Engineering fountain, drink out of all 4 lion heads at the Lion fountain, jump in the John Purdue fountain, and then the Loeb fountain), and everyone had a lot of fun!  Fountain runs are a HUGE tradition at Purdue.  Who knows why...but it's a blast!

Their first fountain run!


After dinner, we had a program which was Late Night with Rec Sports.  The CoRec had a bunch of different activities for the new students to participate in.  I did some Zumba and tried my hand at learning to breakdance.  Yeahh....no.  Not pretty.  I also went to the Target Run event with Jess's group and won a $25 giftcard!  Huzzah!

Weds. Aug 14

Last day of BGR!  So exhausted at this point.  We had early breakfast again, which only half the group showed up for, but that was still a lot by anyone's standards.  I took some students on a mini tour of the HSSE library here, and showed them the creepy back room, so we had fun exploring.  There was also a scavenger hunt going on, so my group decided they wanted to be competitive and complete the 5 scavenger hunt clues around campus.  We actually found all 5 locations!  I was really proud of them for figuring it all out!  

The last scavenger hunt spot!

Awkward family photo


We then had the Academic Picnic where everyone separated into their individual schools and met with advisors and other students in their specific colleges.  There was another resource fair, and then we had an academic session in Elliot, where, again, I almost fell asleep.  After a REACTION and dinner and shoutout practice, we had the Send Off Ceremonies in Elliot.  The mayors of West LaFiesta (West Lafayette) and Lafayette spoke, we had our final shoutouts, and the Dating Doctor, David Coleman, spoke.  He's hilarious, and always a hit year after year.  The Supervisors did their tribute dances, which were really funny.  We also did a ton of dancing!  The balconies were shaking in Elliot when everyone did the Common Bond Dance together, and when everyone was dancing to "All The Way Turned Up."  It was crazy how much energy was in one room!  Absolutely amazing!  And then, the interhall showdown results were revealed: SHREVEHART WON FIRST PLACE!!!  There was so much screaming and cheering and I lost my voice and it was awesome!  Everyone was so excited!  We had our final REACTION after that, and I was just so happy because my whole group was in a good mood and was getting along and laughing together.  They all started calling me Momma Goat (because keynote speaker, Josh Shipp, thinks it's funny to end random sentences with "...and a goat"") and they were my little wombats (because I played this wombat mind game with them and refused to tell them the trick until the last day of BGR).  

@ Elliot on our last day :(


When I got back to Shreve, all the TLs were celebrating together for our success and for winning, and we had to tear down decorations.  At around 12:30, my group all signed my minion Boiler Beacon, and we had a wristband cutting ceremony because they no longer needed their wristbands to eat in the dining court.  We stood in a circle saying "Mmm chu, mmm chu, mmm chu" and saying "Cutty cutty, cutty cutty" when chopping their wristbands off.  (There's an ice breaker game we play in BGR called "Bunny Bunny" which we modeled this voodoo wristband cutting after).  Overall, it was just an amazing week!

The awesome buddy groups

My signed minion!

Before the wristband ceremony...

...and after!


Thurs. Aug. 15.

I slept late to get caught up on some sleep, and just caught up on other stuff today that I really needed to do.

Fri. Aug. 16.

I had to get up early again today because I had to take a credit exam for MA139.  If I pass this, I'll be done with math classes FOREVER!  Woot!

I then had my debut as a College of Education Ambassador!  I got my official polo and nametag (which I have been wanting since essentially the first day I set foot on Purdue's campus) and helped give tours of the Technology Resource Center (the College of Education's baby library) to all the new Education students.  It was pretty exciting!  I also got to see Laura and Kayla (friends from Honduras) and we went to Shreve's karaoke night!  It was good to catch up with them all.

College of Education Ambassadors, yo!


Okay, this post is extremely long-winded.  I know I wasn't able to get into much more than the surface level details, but there will be more stuff throughout the year.

SO HAPPY TO BE BACK!!

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