RA Fun!
Resident Assistant training week may have been one of the best weeks of my life. Activities usually run from 8:30 a.m. to 9 or 10 p.m., so there's no time to worry about anything else. (As an insomniac, I actually get my best sleep during RA training week.) Most activities are done within the area staff (the RAs of 2 or 3 nearby buildings), so as long as there are a few people (or even all of them) that you'd like to get to know better, it's a good time to bond with new friends. Finally, the Office of Housing and Residence Life and Greek Life's devotion to team-building means that much of what we do during that week is fun and games. When else will I be paid to play "Kiddie Wants a Corner" or "Streets and Alleys"? RA training week, you will be missed.
Some people use disposable plastic cups to drink alcoholic beverages...
RAs use them to build cup pyramids.
The object of this game, err team-building activity, was to fit all of us together so that only our feet would be touching a white towel which the coordinators folded into smaller and smaller sizes.
We thought that maybe if these two male RAs stood in the middle hugging each other, the rest of us could pile on top.
Other than the games, one of the funnest parts of RA training week is making the nametags for the doors of the rooms and suites in our buildings. Krystin was handy with the Ellison press.
Liz did a great job drawing the crayon boxes we used on our suite doors...
...while Zach stood by and supervised.
Later we met outside of Sherman to go to Quiznos.
And this security officer threatened us for loitering and creating a public nuisance.
Behind Closed Doors: The returning RAs act out policy violations and counseling situations so that the newbies can practice protocol. Stephen Britcher, Cassie Kornbau, and I were in a room where one of the scenarios was food poisoning. Out of concern that the new RAs should be fully prepared to deal with this situation in real life, Stephen concocted a mixture of cream of mushroom soup and toothpaste. At first, Cassie and I were like, "There's no way I'm putting that stuff in my mouth!" But since it was my birthday that day, I was in a daring mood and later tried it. The irony of my puking on my 21st birthday was not lost on Second Year Coordinator Scott Venters.
Yes, I spent my 21st birthday in RA training. But even that was great, because I'd never before had 80 people sing "Happy Birthday" to me at once. Thanks, guys!
While doing inventories, Zach discovered that he's too tall for the showers in the new apartments.
A note on perspective: This is what it looks like when I take a photo of someone over six feet tall.
We were here first!
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