Nerd Camp

It's Over!

2006-08-05T17:34:00.000-04:00

This morning we all woke up and finished packing, and by noon everyone had moved out. It was sort of hard saying goodbye to some of the RAs, since over the past six weeks I've made some pretty good friends and it will be weird not seeing them again for a long time, or ever. Fortunately a few of them live in Baltimore year round, so I'll be seeing them again before I go back to school and when I come back home for breaks. And at least one of the others has promised to visit me at school, so some of you might be meeting her soon. In the mean time, check out my hall's song we won at the auction!

I guess this is the end of this blog too. I might update from time to time if I get any really neat emails from kids or have any reunions with other RAs, but no more daily posts. Thanks to everyone who read, commented and/or emailed me, and I hope the end of everyone's summer is going great!

CIMRs: 0
Thought: I can honestly say this was the best job I've ever had. I'll miss it a lot, but there's always next summer...

The Final Countdown

2006-08-04T20:46:00.000-04:00

Today was the last day of session! We all ate one final breakfast with our halls (though there was a lot more yearbook signing than eating going on), and then the kids had a final hour and a half of class. The engineering class tested out the spaghetti bridges they've spent all week making, and let me tell you there were some pretty intricate designs. My girls' bridge was not one of them, and it unfortunately held the least weight of the four. But before you go all Larry Summers on me, you should know that the bridge they spent all week making got destroyed yesterday in a tragic table-moving accident and the one they tested today was actually made in less than two hours, so I was very proud of them anyway. The design that held the most weight was simple and elegant, and the kid who made it's hands were shaking as he added the weights because he was so nervous, which I though was really sweet. I also stopped by for one last visit to the neuroscience class, and the boys actually formed a line for me to sign their yearbooks! I was really flattered...Also, at the top right in the pink tank top you can see the coolest and best neuroscience teacher in the history of man. No lie.

After class was the closing ceremony, which was probably the last time all the RAs will ever be in the same place again. There was no cool neuroscience rap this time, though :( After the ceremony came five hours of rotating through scheduled presences, moving boxes from the site office to the CTY POD, packing my own stuff, and saying goodbye to tearful girls. The one that cried the most was actually My Favorite from this session, so having her clinging to me in tears was a pretty heartwrenching experience. Another one said "I want to go to MIT so I can go to the same school you did!" Awww... Ooh, and at one point a random Mom (not one of my girls') came over, pointed to my brass rat, and said "Class of '78, Course 5." How cool is that? We talked for a little bit and it was really interesting because she went there when not many women did, and she was one of the first classes to live in McCOrmick. That definitely made up for the three times a parent said "You're my daughter's RA? Really? I thought you were her roommate or something" after their kid ran over and hugged me.

After all the kids were gone, we got to read the evaluations they filled out about us last night. Unlike last time I did have one criticism on an evaluation, apparently I "could be slightly more flexible." This was from one of the girls whose case I was always on about punctuality, lights out, etc... though, so I don't take it too personally. I was surprised by how positive some of their comments were since I didn't really start trying to be super-RA until the end of session, but apparently they were pleased:

"Caroline is unusually responsible and knowledgeable."
"Caroline is très awesome. She's super duper friendly! Really, we love her."
"Caroline was AMAZING! Very friendly and like an older sister except better. I love her :)! She's the bestest. The 'supercalifragalisticexpialadocious' of RAs."
"I loved Caroline! She was an awesome RA and I wouldn't change a thing about her. Even other halls have said that she's the best female RA this session :)"
"I definitely, without a doubt in my mind, can say that Caroline is the PERFECT RA."

I also really liked the fact that under "Other Comments," Makeout Girl wrote "The RAs are too strict about PDA." I'd just like to say that I've never stopped any kids for holding hands or having their arms around each other, I only stop them when I'm concerned about the integrity of their airways.

To celebrate the end of both sessions, CTY paid for the whole staff to go to dinner at a nice restaurant. It was delicious, but also sad because some of the RAs left right after it was over. Happily most of us are staying until tomorrow though, and tonight we're going to watch a summer camp classic and party like it's intersession.

CIMRs: 0
Thought: I can't believe it's almost over...

Another Looooong Day

2006-08-04T00:30:00.000-04:00

Today seems like it was about a week long. It started out with my LAST BREAKFAST SCHEDULED PRESENCE EVER!!! (since tomorrow we go to breakfast as a hall), which if you can't tell made me really happy. After our morning staff meeting it was time for RA Day Away, meaning the administration covered our lunch scheduled presences so we could go do something fun to get ready for the last insane 24 hours. A group of us went to the ridiculously huge Arundel Mills Mall, where the only thing we could afford to buy was some deliciously greasy food from the food court. After that we just wandered around, window shopped, and spent twenty minutes arguing about which movie we should see (we ended up not seeing any). The best part was the last stop we made before heading back to our last full day with the kids.

After three hours of packing it was time for the last dance of the session, the Masquerade Ball. Recognize anything from the last last dance? Some RAs dressed up, others did not, but a good time was had by all. Sadly the kids did not display the same great taste in royalty as last session, but since my good friend won instead I was happy anyway. The last American Pie was sad, because unlike last session in two more days I won't be seeing any of the other awesome RAs anymore. But I'm trying not to think about that yet, otherwise I will cry. Also, the most ridiculous thing of the whole six weeks happened at this dance, but you're going to have to ask me about it in person if you want to know.

After the dance it took awhile for me to drag my sobbing girls back to the hall and get them into bed, and after I achieved success I had to go down to the office for a special staff meeting about tonight's ridiculousness. After that fun, it was time to move furniture! Why move furniture at 11:30 at night, you ask? Well, all the administrator's offices are in dorm rooms on the first floor that have had all their furniture moved into other, unoccupied rooms. Since the site is closing down at the end of the session we have to return all the rooms to their original state, so tonight all the RAs were put in teams in charge of adding/removing furniture as needed for one room. My team was sort of unlucky and got the health office, which hasn't really even begun to pack up yet. We did eventually get all the required furniture into the room, but about half of it is stacked in the corner...some freshmen are going to be confused when they arrive in the fall.

Since it's the last night they have us on extra late patrols to make sure the kids don't try any funny business. I'm on the 1:00-1:30 shift, so theoretically I can't go to sleep for another hour. However, I had this shift last session too and accidentally slept through it, and wouldn't you know it? No kids died! So I think I'll just lie on my bed and close my eyes and see what happens...

CIMRs: 0
Thought: This time tomorrow all my kids will be gone :\

Two More Days

2006-08-03T00:05:00.000-04:00

Today was a good last regular day of session. My first activity was the Dean of Residential Life's idea; the other three former-CTY-student-turned-RAs and I hosted a "discussion panel" on what being an RA is like after being a student, and how CTY prepared us for college. Lame, I know, but it turned into kids asking questions like "What was your first CTY PDA?" "Did the administration used to suck so much?" and several versions of "You go to MIT! How can I go to MIT too??" I love the fact that here going to MIT makes me one of the "cool" kids, since I doubt there are many other places where that's true.

My second activity was cookies, milk and a bedtime story for the hall that won me at the auction. It was a girl hall this time, and they were really sweet. They got all snuggled up with each other and their Oreos while I read them Cinderella, and for the rest of the day whenever one of them saw me they'd run over and give me a hug and thank me for the "best activity ever!" And since I got to eat cookies too, I can agree with that statement.

At hall meeting tonight we got serenaded by the RA we won in the auction, and I have no doubt that "Caroline's Hall" will soon be a smash hit on all the radio stations. I forgot to record it, but I'm going to see about getting her to do it again on camera so its brilliant chord structure and lyrics can be shared with the rest of humanity. If not I'm going to at least see about getting a copy of the lyrics...

The best part of today was that one of my girls made little "fortune cookies" for everyone on the hall. They were actually just little folded slips of notebook paper with messages written in them, but they brought about half the girls to tears when they read them. Here's mine:

"Caroline: The earth would most certainly crumple and vanish within this angel's presence. In life, you will be challenged but always and forever loved :)"

I'm not really sure if that "within" is supposed to be a "without," but either way: awww...

CIMRs: 0
Thought: I can't believe in 48 hours they'll be gone...

Adventures With Male Nerdlets

2006-08-01T23:45:00.000-04:00

Heat plan today! My girls weren’t just being whiners when they complained about the heat yesterday; the predicted high for almost every day this week is in the triple digits, and when combined with ridiculous Baltimore humidity that means it is face-meltingly hot outside. Since it’s so close to the end of session they just stuck all the kids in a movie with minimal supervision, and had the remaining RAs (myself included) get a head start on cleaning and packing up the RA supply room. This is basically an empty dorm room that is entirely filled with construction paper, scissors, pipecleaners, soccer balls, leis, clipboards, modge podge, hammers, felt, coloring books, glitter glue, board games, and about a million other random things that make nerd camp go round. It’s a good thing we started on it today, because we don’t go home on Saturday until everything is packed up and in storage.

Today was also the day that the hall that won me in the auction got me as their RA. This afternoon I visited them in class (they’re all in genetics), and they showed me the cool glow in the dark bacteria they made yesterday. I also ran their hall meeting and hung out on their hall with them until lights out, and since they’re a boy hall they were really excited about me being there. They were all quiet and attentive during hall meeting, and they got really excited when I did Highs and Lows with them (one said, “aww, our RA doesn’t do this because he doesn’t love us”). Several of them gave me being there as their high, and at one point when things were moving quickly one of them yelled out “Slow down! I want this to last longer!” The difference between them and my girls was very striking; when my girls give their highs and lows I usually have to push things along or each of them would spend ten minutes going into all the details of her exchange with some boy and how it made her feel, but most of these boys gave some version of “low: the heat, high: lab” and were done. Also, after they went to bed I listened at their doors for awhile before I left, and some of them were having very hilarious conversations about girls they liked and how they were going to ask them to dance on the last night. There’s nothing better than young nerd love (as long as it doesn’t result in young nerd making out that I have to witness)!

CIMRs: 0
Thought: Overheard tonight: “It’s like she’s an exposed electrical wire, she makes me want to explode!”

TGIM!

2006-07-31T23:48:00.000-04:00

Today was my day off! Highlights included sleeping in until 10:00, going to a cool Korean restaurant for lunch (and being given a fork along with the other two white RAs I was with, while the Chinese one was given chopsticks), grocery shopping at a Korean/Mexican market (it was just as weird as it sounds), watching Spirited Away, eating a delicious homemade Chinese dinner, and generally relaxing in the air conditioning and away from kids. When I got back I found a note slipped under my door:

Dear Caroline,

Hello! *wave arms* We missed you. Hope you're feeling better and you enjoyed your day off. It's really hot. And not in a good way. Please use your god-like powers to make it 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

Love,
(And then it was signed by the cool girls on the hall, not the ridiculous ones)

This note made me sort of sad, because I think my frustration with my bad girls has made me more apathetic towards my awesome ones. So for the remaining four days of camp I'm going to try my hardest to be the "hyper RA" I was last session for my girls who deserve it, and not worry about the ones who aren't going to have fun anyway.

CIMRs: 0.0
Thought: I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

Talented Youths

2006-07-30T22:45:00.000-04:00

Today was the talent show, which I was on the committee for. It started off great with the building we reserved being locked, the A/V guy we hired being AWOL (along with our ability to use the lights and the sound system), and several of the performers not showing up. Eventually the campus police let us into the building and turned on the lights, an RA donated his speakers as a makeshift soundsystem, the missing performers were rounded up, and we were able to start the show a mere 45 minutes late. Those of you who know my feelings about the importance of punctuality should appreciate the fact that I am still alive right now, because it was close for a while there. Like last session, most of the acts were piano/violin concertos from kids who have been taking private lessons since they were three, but there was also a few cool ones like a girl who recited pi and break danced (broke danced?) and another who solved a Rubik's cube and then used three of them to spell out "CTY." I spy a future MIT student...

After the talent show we got a special treat: an real live barbecue! Granted it was put on by the same people that make the cafeteria food so it was nothing we haven't already been eating for the past five weeks, but at least it was outside. For some reason your ten millionth hot dog just tastes better when it's eaten under a tree instead of in a big sweaty gym. Don't ask me why.

Happily today is Sunday, so at 7:00 we sent the little heathens off to study hall and had two glorious hours to play Apples to Apples sans whiney teenagers. And even more happily tomorrow is my day off, so I don't have to deal with boy drama or complaining until 7:30 Tuesday morning!

CIMRs: 0
Thought: I'm going to get in the double digits for hours of sleep tonight.

The Last Saturday!

2006-07-30T00:36:00.000-04:00

I knew it couldn't be long before a hall full of 16 year old girls was hit with a healthy dose of...BOY DRAMA! I still don't know exactly what precipitated today's events, all I know is that during the last ten hours I've had girls in tears, girls mad at other girls, girls mad at other boys, and about all I can take of whispering, giving "looks," and complicated "he said, she said..." stories. The end result is that the whirlwind romance of Makeout Girl and Makeout Boy has come to an end at the ripe old age of eight days, and several new boy/girl alliances have been formed. I think the dust has settled for now, and after the longest hall meeting ever my girls are at least all cool with each other, if not all the boys who were involved. I miss my twelve year olds...

Aside from being Gossip And Be A Bitch Day, today was also Casino/Carnival Day and Auction night. The Casino/Carnival was not as much fun as less session, because my girls were being ridiculous and the administration, in its infinite wisdom, decided that having the kids send compliments or hug-grams to other RAs is "sexual harassment" and having them get RA-tattoos/chant RA names/write RA raps is "hazing." Thus the extent of things we could pay kids to do was pretty limited, considering a person can only drink so many cups of water or use so many tissues. I did get a neat sign for my door and some nice pipecleaner bling, though. The auction afterwards was a real ego boost, since the item I was selling (cookies, milk and a bedtime story) sold for the highest amount and the hall that won "pick your RA for a day" wasted no time picking me. It's nice to know that even if my kids are apathetic, other kids think I'm cool.

Also in the coolness department, remember when I offered Teen Girl Squad!!! watching as an activity a few days ago? Earlier that morning I practiced hooking my laptop up to the TV to make sure there would be no unexpected surprises during the actual activity, and to test that I had done it properly I played the first movie from my videos folder, the 2004 EaST camPUS I3 video. One of the (cool) administrators happened to walk in as it was playing, and she thought it was just about the best thing ever. So tonight after lights out she made me bring my laptop down to the office and show it, and the 2005 video, to a bunch of the other admins and all the RAs that were in the room. I got several requests to come live with me and many promises of visits during IAP, but best of all now everyone is walking around singing the "Oh, East Campus" song. It's actually kind of surreal.

CIMRs: 2
Thought: Almost Monday, almost Monday, almost Monday...

Punk'd!

2006-07-28T23:16:00.000-04:00

Friiiiiiiiiiiidaaaaaay!!! My girls and I returned to the grocery store for RA Group Away Day, and then since they are too cool for anything else we just went back to the hall and had free time for the remaining two hours. For once their aloofness made me happy, since I used the time to take a wonderful nap. The girls spent pretty much the entire two hours getting ready for tonight's dance...Punk Rock Prom!

There was much less making out at this dance thanks to a nice long talk we had at hall meeting last night about appropriate behavior, which made the night much easier for me. Being sick sort of detracted from the fun, but on the plus side it helped give me sort of a sickly pallor and a voice like I've been smoking for 40 years, which really added to my costume. My girls actually asked me to come dance with them a few times, which was very exciting, hopefully they'll do it again next week when I'm more energetic and can have more fun with them. I still spent most of the time with the other RAs, and before anyone says anything I realize now that the "rock on" symbol does not involve having your thumb out, and as such I was actually telling people "I Love You" in sign language all night. Shut up.

Speaking of cool, check out this emo myspace-style picture one of my girls took of me. I think the lanyard really adds to the effect.

CIMRs: 1
Thought: I really don't want to get up for 8:30 scheduled presence tomorrow...

Blargh

2006-07-27T23:57:00.000-04:00

This morning I woke up waaay more congested than yesterday, so now I sound sort of like a dying frog when I talk. It's totally hot. Thanks to the miracle of modern medicine I actually don't feel too bad, but I'm really not looking forward to facing the last weekend of session without the ability to breath through my nose...

Today was "Orange," and it was pretty awesome. Some of the kids were miffed that what they thought was a special surprise activity was so mundane, but others got really into it. The first group just ate their oranges in the first five minutes and hung out the rest of the time, but the second actually spent the whole time meticulously removing every scrap of pith they could find. The end result was some incredibly orange oranges that were absolutely pith-free, making it hard to judge the winner. But we eventually were able to choose the orangest ofthem all, and award the lucky victor...a bag of oranges.

On a decidedly less awesome note, tonight I saw a parent hit his daughter. It was especially upsetting because she's the girl who lived on my hall last session and is making this session and its annoying girls so much better for me. This session she's a commuter so she gets dropped off every morning at breakfast and picked up after study hall at 9:00, at which time I was outside tonight because I was on night duty. I don't really know why he was upset with her because he was yelling at her in Chinese (maybe because she was a few minutes late?), but in the middle of it he just smacked her in the head and walked off. I really wanted to go get her and take her home with me forever and tell him he doesn't deserve to have a daughter as wonderful as her, but of course I can't do any of that... I'll find her tomorrow and talk to her, but from her lack of reaction I get the impression that this was not an isolated incident. Sometimes I hate people.

CIMRs: 0. Too drugged up to care.
Thought: Cultural relativity my ass, some things are just not cool.

The CTY Disease

2006-07-26T22:24:00.000-04:00

As a parting gift, the first session kids gave nasty colds to about half a dozen RAs, which they were then generous enough to share with about half the remaining RAs over the past two weeks. As of two days ago almost everyone was better and I was still feeling fine, so I thought I was lucky and had avoided getting sick. But alas, yesterday morning I woke up with the dreaded Sore Throat. It wasn't too bad so I was still optimistic, but today it was worse and joined by its partners in crime, Congestion and Cough! So far the health office is keeping me on my feet with what we RAs have affectionately nicknamed "Crack in a Bottle", but since it took everyone else who got it about a week to recover I'm not looking forward to the next few days, especially since the weekend (which is the most work-intensive part of the week) is coming up soon...

Considering the fact that all I really want to do is curl up in a ball and sleep for eighteen hours straight, today was surprisingly not that bad. The kids really got a kick out of Everything You Ever Wanted To Do With Blue Pipecleaners And More, one even begged for me to offer it again tomorrow. Teen Girl Squad!!! was fun too, once all the girls who thought we were actually going to form some sort of squad (and do what?) got over their disappointment. That activity actually contained the highlight of my day: When I was hooking up my laptop to the TV so we could watch on the big screen all the little nerds felt compelled to yell out directions about what cable went where and what settings to adjust, despite the fact that I was doing it fine on my own and hadn't asked for help. I was still in a drug-induced haze so I was just ignoring them, but then this one kid yelled out "Shut up! She goes to MIT, she knows what she's doing!" I don't care if it isn't true, it was still awesome.

CIMRs: 0. I'm lazy.
Thought: Go go gadget immune system!

Progress

2006-07-25T23:29:00.000-04:00

Thelma and Louise went to the office this morning, according to the dean it went well but Thelma still waltzed into hall meeting ten minutes late. Sigh...I think I'm about to give up on wanting them to like me and start actually disciplining them. Yuck.

In other news, there was a fight today! If you can call one kid punching another kid in the gut such that he fell over a fight, that is. Before you judge too harshly though, know that the reason for the punch was that the punchee said it was wrong to be gay and as such gay people are bad, while the puncher disagreed. Not that that justified it, but it's nice to know it was a punch for tolerance.

I've been getting a lot more...progressive with my activities lately. Some from this week include "Pickup Line Contest," "Teen Girl Squad!!!" "Everything you ever dreamed of doing with blue pipecleaners and more" and "Orange." For the last one I'm just going to give each kid an orange and tell them to take the hour to get as much of the pith off of it as possible. I'm looking forward to it.

CIMRs: 1
Thoughts: Next week I'm going to offer "Mundane Tasks," and have them do things like measure the dimensions of the quad in paperclips.

CIMR Down Now

2006-07-25T00:07:00.000-04:00

Some of you might be wondering what the point of filling out CIMRs is, so let me illustrate their purpose by recounting some events from the past week. There's a pair of roommates on my hall, let's call them Thelma and Louise, who are the only two of my girls I would actually consider "bad." Since they've been here I've filled out the following CIMRs on them:

1. Monday: Neither Thelma nor Louise were wearing their lanyards when they were on the hall, so they managed to lock themselves out while getting ready for bed despite being roommates. So at 10:40 I had to go all the way to the housing office to get their lockout key.

2. Wednesday: Yesterday Thelma and Louise came to breakfast at 8:30, when I was on duty outside the cafeteria. I told them breakfast ends at 8:30 and that I'd let them in this once, but to come earlier today. Today they arrived at 8:35, and when another RA told them that breakfast ended five minutes ago they said they didn't know.

3. Friday: At the dance, Thelma and Louise both took off their lanyards and hid them, and Louise was caught on numerous occasions by various RAs making out with a boy.

4. Today: Several of my girls have been late for lights out the past few days, so last night at hall meeting I reminded them that "lights out at 10:30" doesn't mean "start getting ready at 10:30" but "be ready and in your room at 10:30." I thought this was effective because all my girls were in their rooms with the doors closed at 10:28, but around midnight another RA came and got me to let me know Thelma and Louise were in the bathroom getting ready for bed (washing their faces, brushing their teeth, etc...). I had to go in and explain "lights out means be in bed and falling asleep," not "close your door and hang out with the lights off, then go to bed when you feel like it."

Additionally, they are always the last ones ready when we go somewhere as a hall, and often show up at class about .5 seconds before they would be officially late. You can imagine that these two are not my favorite girls. I turned in the fourth CIMR around 12:30 am this morning, and when I came down to the office this morning at 7:30 I found the following note in my box:

Caroline,

I'd like to see Thelma and Louise in my office tomorrow morning before class.

-The Residential Dean

In case it isn't obvious, this means they are in trouble. I haven't broke the news to them yet because it's not going to be fun, but I'm hoping this meeting will actually make them shape up and not just make them resent me and be more disobedient. I'll let you know how it goes...

The late night toilette of my two hoodlums was actually only the first in a series of events that prevented me from sleeping much last night. After they were all disciplined and in bed I followed suit, only to be awoken about half an hour later by another one of my girls. Because, and I am not kidding, she was coughing. My suggestion of waiting until morning to see if it improved did not go over well so I ended up having to page the nurse to come give her some cough syrup, which made me feel bad because it was a pretty silly thing to wake the nurse up for. But even that wouldn't have been too bad because I had second shift scheduled presence this morning and was planning on sleeping in until 8:00, but around 7:15 there was another knock on my door; a fourth girl wanted to know if it was too late to change her activities signup for today. Yes, it was too late; both for her to change her activities and for me to get a full six hours of sleep. Why must these new girls be so much work?

Even though I was running on way less sleep than I prefer, today was actually a pretty good day. Mostly because as I was drifting off during my morning scheduled presence the girl I had last session who is also here this session came over and gave me a big hug for no reason other than the fact that she's awesome. Also, one of my activities today was "Random Acts of Kindness," in which I had the kids make friendly signs and hang them up around campus. So all afternoon/evening I've been seeing happy pictures with sayings like "Have a great day!" "Smile, somebody loves you!" and "You're beautiful!" on them. I don't really know why, but these signs make me really happy. I hope they're still up tomorrow...

CIMRs: 1
Thought: Check out the totally awesome CTY Wiki I found!

Shiver Me Timbers!

2006-07-23T22:48:00.000-04:00

Today was Pirate Day! We all dressed up for the occasion, and a swashbuckling time was had by all. My girls actually weren't that into it because they didn't want to do the scavenger hunt or any of the other activities we had, but they're not really into anything so I wasn't that surprised.

I have two girls on my hall this session who are complete opposites. One is incredibly pessimistic, within about five minutes of meeting her I'd mentally nicknamed her "Eeyore" because everything she says is very depressing. Some examples:

Me: Hi! Welcome to the hall! Come with me and I'll introduce you to the other girls.
Her: They probably don't want to meet me.

Me: (at hall meeting) Time for highs and lows!
Her: I didn't have any highs.

Me: Wow, that's a really nice purse you made in activities. I especially like the glitter.
Her: It's just going to come off in a few days anyway.

Me: writes a note on my hand in pen
Her: You're just going to sweat it off later.

The other is the most optimistic person I've ever met. She always has something positive to say and tries to make the best out of every situation:

Girl A: My low was that I emailed my friend and asked her to call me tonight, but she didn't.
Her: She probably didn't have internet access today! I know my internet at home is pretty bad and doesn't work all the time. I'm sure she'll call you as soon as she gets your message!

Girl B: My low was that I'm kind of homesick but my parents don't want me to call home a lot because it's expensive.
Her: You can use my phone! I have a really good plan and it's practically free!

Girl C: I don't have anything to wear to the dance! Just this stupid skirt that looks really dumb.
Her: No way! That skirt is awesome, you're such a trendsetter! I bet all the kids will be wearing them at the next dance!

I'm glad that they're both on the same hall, because I think the only person who has enough energy and optimism to deal with the first girl is the second one. I think she has started to say less pessimistic things in the week she's been here, so hopefully through the continuing efforts of Optimistic Girl and myself she'll be a happier camper by the end of session.

CIMRs: 1
Thought: Only one weekend left...

Some Water, Some Pants, and Some Emails

2006-07-22T23:10:00.000-04:00

There was a fluke in the scheduled presence assignments for this morning and my name was left out of the first two shift rotations, so I didn't have to go on duty until 10:30! I slept in until 10:00, which was the latest I've slept since I've been here. It was amazing! I forgot how great it feels to get eight full hours of sleep in a night.

This afternoon's activity was water day. We basically gave all the RAs water guns, had massive bins of water balloons available to the kids, had a few water-related activities running, and let the kids run around and go nuts. It was really fun, and everyone was totally soaked by the end. Once my girls got over the shock that we wouldn't let them run around in their bikinis for the afternoon, they actually seemed to have a pretty good time, clothes and all. Unfortunately there are no pictures from it because no one wanted to ruin their camera, but there are a few pictures from right before we tested out the water guns the other day. Take note of how my brother RA's swim shorts are shorter than mine.

Between water day and the evening activity, my parents stopped by to drop of a delicious dinner and some cool accessories for Pirate Day tomorrow. Because they are awesome. It was amazing to have food that wasn't cold and soaked in grease, and now I'll look extra-swarthy for the festivities tomorrow!

Tonight's activity was Movie Night, which is a favorite among the RAs because it means we get to just sit in the back of the room, enjoy the air conditioning, and occasionally break up a couple that's a little too close. Unfortunately the movie I was assigned to was The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, but I sat behind my makeout girl and her little boyfriend from the dance last night so I was able to keep myself pretty well entertained anyway...

I've gotten some more sweet emails from my first session girls, some favorites are:

"I miss everyone soooo much. My mom had some pictures in her camera, and I looked at them, and it made me like feel like crying, because it was pictures of the rooms, the people, you, and also a picture of you during the closing ceremony. It was soooo sad......Luv you lots!!!!"

"o caroline, i miss everyone so much! there is no such thing as an exciting post-cty plan. and i don't have any evil replacement children, even if they're not as cool as we were. you have the next dance coming up! my love, who will do your makeup? what will you wear? they better vote you queen again, or i'll come after them with a stick. i love you!"

"You're best RA I've ever had. (And I've gone to CTY 3 years running now) I really hope your new girls warm up to you. If they don't realize what a great RA you are, then they must be blind...Besides his constant scowl, bad posture and sex hair, you and [your brother RA] were an adorable couple."

Sometimes I wish this camp was one six week long session instead of two three week ones, because then I would still have my original babies instead of these "evil replacement children"...

CIMRs: 1
Thought: Why, when I say "lights out in 5 seconds," do my girls continue to sit and chat in the hallway, and then act surprised when I get annoyed with them for not being in bed on time?

Ice Cream, Snogging, and Triangles

2006-07-21T23:17:00.000-04:00

Today is Friday, which means RA Group Away Day, which means free ice cream for Caroline, yay! It was especially delicious considering that it was in the upper nineties and ridiculously humid today, and I had to walk all the way to the ice cream parlor and back with my whiney girls. The "let's be more efficient" one was especially bad today since the care package she was expecting didn't arrive, and somehow this was my fault. Apparently it contains nineteen pounds (!) of food from her parents, since she simply cannot tolerate the slop we've been giving her.

Friday also means dance night! My girls spent on obscene amount of time getting ready, they started when we got back from our afternoon out at 5:00 and still I had to drag them out of their rooms and away from their eyeliner at 7:00. This was the finished product. I'll leave determining which are the sweet ones and which are the ones I don't like as an exercise for the reader.

The dance was somewhat more stressful than the dances last session, since my kids are older and therefore more difficult. One of them was caught making out with a boy by five different RAs on five separate occasions, so the boy's RA (my brother RA from last session) and I had to pull them aside and have a nice long talk about appropriate behavior. Also, midway through the dance I noticed that about half of them weren't wearing their lanyards, which led to me doing by far the meanest thing I've ever done as an RA. I found the missing lanyards stashed under one of their jackets in the corner and picked them up, then I waited for the next slow song. Once the five girls in question were nestled snuggly into the sweaty chests of their nerds of choice, I struck! I pulled them all off of their confused partners and ceremonially placed the lanyards around their necks. I also noticed that several of the boys were sans lanyard, so I made them go get theirs and put them on too. I then gave the whole group a nice talk about the importance of wearing your lanyard at all times, which unfortunately lasted the duration of the slow song and prevented any further canoodling-in-the-guise-of-dancing. I'm an evil genius!

Let me stress that although some of my girls make me want to strangle them, others are incredibly awesome. For instance, during "highs and lows" at hall meeting tonight the following conversation took place:

Girl A: My high was when we were at the grocery store and I found triangular Triscuits!
Girl B: They make triangular Triscuits?!
Girl A: Yeah! They do! And I bought a box!
Girl C: Wait, wait, what kind of triangles are they? Are they equilateral?
Girl B: Ooh, ooh, are they right triangles? I love right triangles!
Girl A: They're actually sort of scalene...
Girl D: Oh my gosh! I love scalene triangles! They're so delicious!

Where else but here would you find teenage girls talking about their favorite triangles?

CIMRs: 3
Thought: I myself prefer the delicate flavor of isosceles...

An Annoying Nerd and a Smitten Nerd

2006-07-21T00:15:00.000-04:00

This Saturday afternoon's activity is "Water Day," which means that this afternoon while the kids were in class the RAs got to test a bunch of water guns on each other! We had to make sure they were working, you know...

So there are only about two girls that I don't think I'm ever going to like, the rest have really grown on me. One of the two is really horrible; all the RAs already know her name and it is not because she's so cool. She came about five minutes late to hall meeting tonight and said in a very exasperated tone of voice, "Can we make this quick? Our hall meetings are not run efficiently and I have trouble getting ready for bed on time." I responded, "Well maybe we could be more efficient if everyone was here on time instead of five minutes late," to which she just huffed and went and sat in the corner. I'm usually not mean at all to students even if they're being really annoying, but that was really satisfying.

As we were each giving our highs and lows of the day during the course of our inefficiently-run hall meeting, one girl said her high was when she tripped and fell on the concrete during a class break and gashed her knee open. I was really confused and thought she must have mispoken so I asked for clarification, then she got all giggly and said "And then my cute TA walked me all the way to the health room and back!" This job is so fun!

CIMRs: 2
Thought: My air conditioner is broken, which makes me both sad and sweaty.

Flirtatious Nerds

2006-07-19T22:50:00.000-04:00

Okay, I'm starting to really like some of these girls. The two in engineering are incredibly sweet, I visited them in class today and they were so excited to see me and show me everything they're doing. I feel sort of bad for them, because (surprise!) their class is a ton of work. It's the only class here that has special permission to give the kids work over the weekends. How evil is that?

As for the others, I totally fell in love with two of them after they showed me a note they were passing during activities today. Apparently there was a very cute boy in the vicinity and they decided to work out a conversation with him on paper before trying it in person:

Us: Hi! What class are you in, handsome?
Him: Answer!
Us: Oh, we're in Neuro!
Him: Cool!
Us: What's your sexy name?
Him: Tom.
Us: We're M and D, and we've been stalking you!
Him: Oh.
Us: Play any sports? You look muscular.
Him: Answer.
Us: Cool. I swim and do karate. M figure skates. (note: they don't actually do those activities)
Him: Oh.
Us: So where ya from?
Him: Answer.
Us: Cool. I have an aunt there. Maybe I can visit you next time I go?
Him: Umm...okay...
Us: We'll meet your mom. Is she nice?
Him: I guess so.
Us: Is she a MILF?
Him: Hell yes! Just kidding...
Us: Sure...I mean you're a pretty sexy guy yourself.
Him: I have a girlfriend.
Us: Oh...[go in corner and cry]

Is that amazing or what?

CIMRs: 1
Thought: How can I get these two to talk to that guy for real?

Got to admit it's getting better

2006-07-19T00:13:00.000-04:00

I've started doing this thing at hall meetings where we go around the circle and each say the high and low point of our day, and I think it's going to help my girls and I bond more. They all like to talk about themselves, and since there are no boys around at hall meeting they don't mind including me in the conversation as well. Today it ended up taking half an hour to go around the circle because everyone wanted to talk so much about their days, and by the end of it I was definitely feeling a lot fonder towards my girls than I did initially. So I'm optimistic that our relationship will continue to improve over the next three weeks...

One of my girls from last session is here this session as well, and apparently she told the other old girls that my new ones didn't clap for me during the opening day skits because this morning I had a bunch of irate emails about it, including:

"I heard that your new hall didn't really clap that much for you at the opening ceremony. o.0 That's crazeee...they should be happy that they got you as their awesome RA!!!!! We all miss you tons and we hope to see you someday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe your new hall doesn't want to hang out with you...how is that possible??? Wow. Anyways...I miss you lots!!!!!"

"Carolineeeeee, I heard about your awful new girls ~~~~~~ we all weep for you, and we love you insanely! <333~everyone"

And another girl refered to them exclusively as "the evil replacement children" in her email. Things are getting better with the new ones, but I still miss the old ones like crazy!

On the subject of awesomeness from last session, the video of my interpretive dance at the talent show is finally available! Before viewing it be sure to brace yourself for its sheer ridiculousness, and only watch it if you promise it won't affect our friendship. Okay, go! While you're there, you might want to also check out my brother hall's talent show performance and a clearer version of the neuroscience rap from the last day.

CIMRs: 1
Thought: I'm the new Martha Graham.

Teenage Angst

2006-07-17T23:31:00.000-04:00

I'm starting to warm up to these girls a little bit, but it's still hard to get over the difference between a bunch of adoring twelve-year-olds and a group of sixteen-year-olds who are too cool for school (or CTY in this case). The engineering girls are nice; they actually asked me to eat lunch with them today and were excited when I agreed (maybe because there are only three girls in their whole class...). And the neuroscience girls aren't mean, they're just not interested in me, or anything without a penis, at all. And one of them wore a polo shirt with a popped collar today. For real.

At lunch I went over to talk with my girl in math for awhile and see how her day was going. She was sitting with the other girls from her class, and they were complaining that there were no cute boys in their class. When I got up to leave after a few minutes one of them asked me if the boys in my class were cute...and then I was sad.

After lunch I was on scheduled presence outside the cafeteria and this really tiny little boy came out and started talking with me. He was wearing three lanyards (some of the kids who come every year wear all their lanyards as a CTY pride thing) so I made some comment about how he must like this camp or he wouldn't keep coming back. He got sort of quiet, and then he said "CTY is the best part of my whole year, because I'm home schooled and I don't have any friends except for these three weeks." He then went into a whole big thing about he never wants to leave, and when he's too old for the program he's going to ask them if he can just volunteer in the office all summer. It was simultaneously the sweetest and most depressing conversation I've had with a student yet.

The most amusing part of my day was during activities period. We decided that instead of having regular activities today we'd have the RA groups rotate through each other and play icebreakers so the kids could meet people outside their halls. While we were playing two truths and a lie, this girl from another hall gave "I've been on birth control since I was twelve" as one of her truths. When all the other kids didn't believe her, she very seriously said "I have vaginal bleeding issues." It was incredibly weird, but also very hard not to burst out laughing.

I was feeling pretty bummed about my girls and their aloofness when I got back from activity period, and as if they knew I was missing them two of my girls from last session emailed me while I was out! They were both really sweet emails about missing me and the other girls, and one even asked for my address so she could write me letters. I miss them so much!

CIMRs: 1
Thought: Maybe if I taped a picture of Tom Cruise to my face my girls would actually pay attention to me...

The Second First Day

2006-07-16T23:02:00.000-04:00

My new kids are here and I am...apprehensive. Last session my girls were 12-14 and mostly first time CTYers, this session they're 14-16 and most have been here 3 or 4 times before. Basically, they're cooler than me and I don't know how I'm going to relate to them. To illustrate my concerns, here is a little compare and contrast list of what happened with my girls today versus what happened with my girls the first day of last session:

After Returning from Five Hours of Unloading Luggage

Last Session: My girls are all in one room hanging out and getting to know each other.
This Session: The girls are all in their rooms with the doors shut listening to their iPods.

"Fun Facts" Given During Initial Icebreaker

Last Session: "I'm from Korea and this is my first time in America." "One time I met Tom Cruise!" "I speak fluent Swedish."

This Session: "I just got my driver's license, but the guy took off 5 points because I drove too fast." "In my free time I like to work out at the country club." "Sometimes I forget I'm Asian, because I act so white."

Dinner Conversation

Last Session: "My favorite class is..." "My little sister..." "I like to read..."
This Session: "I can't eat this food. It isn't organic."

Girls' Response When I Walked Onstage for the Lanyard Skit

Last Session: Screaming, whistling and clapping
This Session: Silence

After the First Hall Meeting Ended

Last Session: The girls stayed in the room and hung out with me until lights out
This Session: One girl asked "Can we go now?" and when I said yes they all immediately went back to their rooms and closed their doors again

I don't mean to be totally pessimistic, and actually the two girls who are in Introduction to Engineering (the rest are in Neuroscience and one is Math) seem really sweet, but I get the feeling that these coming three weeks are going to be very different from the last three.

CIMRs: 1
Thought: When I told one of my girls I go to MIT, she responded "But you're not Asian!" What do you even say to that?

24 hours of freedom!

2006-07-15T23:15:00.000-04:00

Today was awesome! With the other RAs and a special guest star from school I ate lunch at a real restaurant, watched Rent, once more saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2 while eating peanut products, ordered delicious pizza, and played Apples to Apples. There were only two unsatisfactory parts of the day: the cleaning people threw out the new door decs I put up yesterday so I had to redo them all, and we had to have a ridiculously long and boring meeting at 10:00 pm when I just wanted to sleep. But the awesomeness of being a real person again for a few hours far outweighed those minor frustrations...Now it's time to rest up, because in ten hours we start moving the session two kids in!

CIMRs: N/A!
Thought: This time tomorrow I'm going to have new girls...aaah!

Call this session myelin...

2006-07-14T20:54:00.000-04:00

...'cuz it's a wrap! This morning we had the closing ceremony for session 1, the highlight of which was a neuroscience rap performed by some of the kids from my girls' class. Afterwards I got to meet a lot of their parents, which was pretty fun because they all had some variation of "my daughter loves you!" to say. The actual move out was pretty depressing, I got lots of teary hugs and really sweet goodbye letters that would have made even the most hardened RA lose it.

After all the kids were gone we were allowed to read the evaluations they filled out about us. I was pretty nervous to see what my girls wrote about me, but I didn't get a single negative comment! Some of my favorites were "Everyone in the hall loves Caroline and she is truly the best RA here," "Caroline is the best RA I've ever had," and, of course, "Caroline is perfect!" There was also a scantron section to rate your RA from "poor" to "excellent" for a big list of characteristics, and one of my girls made a new column of bubbles past "excellent" and filled them in instead! There's nothing like being unconditionally worshipped to make you feel better about losing eleven of the sweetest girls ever...

Without the kids here there's not much exciting to talk about, so here are some random pictures instead. I know it's sort of silly, but I already miss them. The hall is so quiet and empty now, and I don't know what to do with myself. I don't even want to think about my next group of girls yet since they can't possible be as awesome as the ones who just left...

CIMRs: 0
Thought: I have just over 24 hours of freedom with the other RAs, I don't know what we'll do but I'm sure it will be awesome!

The Last Full Day

2006-07-14T01:09:00.000-04:00

Today was the last full day of session, which means this morning we unveiled our secret surprise! Okay, maybe it's not that exciting since only five of us ended up doing it and you can hardly tell on me, but the kids thought it was cool and that's what counts!

To make the RAs happy and functional for the final ridiculous 24 hours they gave us off from 10:00 til 3:00. A group of us took the bus to the inner harbor and walked around for the afternoon. We ended up eating at an El Salvadorian restaurant, which was exciting because we were the only people there that spoke English. The food was delicious, and although I thought I ordered pineapple juice I ended up with a really good pina colada, so I was happy. We also went to a thrift store to go shopping for outfits for the final dance, and I ended up with the perfect dress for the occasion. I can't wait to wear it! Also, Baltimore is a good place to have my name.

Instead of regular activities today, the kids had two hours to clean up their rooms and pack all their stuff. Mine spent most of this time signing each other's yearbooks and getting ready for the dance, and they also drew me a picture of all the members of our hall and signed it so I could have a "yearbook" too. They all wrote really sweet things, like "I thought two years ago I had the best RA, but I've been proved wrong this year" and "Although the flowers I gave you will wilt and die, my love never will!" Awww...

After dinner was the last dance of the session, so in my awesome dress I set out with my hall for "A Starry Night" (we made up that theme so we could reuse the decorations from the last dance). Thanks to our secret surprise and our thrift store trip, I wasn't the only RA with a cool dress, cool hair, or just general coolness. Towards the end of the dance they announced the King and Queen RA (as voted upon by the kids), and guess who won! A bunch of the kids were disappointed that my brother RA wasn't the king, but since I've never been popular in my life I was super-excited! Too bad there were no crowns... The dance ended with playing American Pie, and by the end a bunch of the kids were in tears. It was pretty tough to watch them all hugging and crying knowing that after tomorrow they'll never see each other again. I don't even want to think about how hard the final goodbyes are going to be tomorrow...

CIMRs: 0. It doesn't really matter anymore.
Thought: This time tomorrow I'll be empty nesting...

The Last Regular Day of Session

2006-07-13T00:32:00.000-04:00

Exciting news! There is a video of me and my brother RA's interpretive dance from the talent show! One of the kids taped it on his camera; he doesn't have the right cable here but he promised that he'd email it to us as soon as he gets home. I saw it tonight for the first time and it's definitely more embarassing than I remembered, but I think I need to post it for the good of humanity.

On a less awesome note, this morning two of my girls were too sick to get out of bed. One had a fever of 101.5, the other was really congested and said it hurt every time she moved. They've been in and out of the health office all day and for now they're back on the hall, but they're still pretty pitiful looking. I feel really bad for them, the end of session is probably the worst time to get sick here. Hopefully a good night's sleep will help them get through the last full day tomorrow...

Today was the last activity period of the session (they use activity time tomorrow to pack), and the last activity I ran was "Ridiculous Dancing." Since a bunch of kids were really into my talent show dance I figured they would enjoy the opportunity to work on their own moves, and about 20 kids signed up so I guess I was right. We ended up running around to other activities and doing silly dances for them, which sounds stupid but if you're thirteen or sleep-deprived nineteen it's really fun!

Speaking of ridiculous, right before lights out some of my girls were complaining about the food here, and I joked that they shouldn't complain at all because I still have to eat it for three more weeks after they leave. Completely serious, one of them looked at me and said "Gosh, I'd hate to see what your bowels look like at the end of this summer!"

Tonight we got the list of kids living on our hall for next session, and it was really sad. I like the girls I have so much and have such a good relationship with them, I don't know how I'm going to do this all over again with eleven new girls...

CIMRs: 3!
Thought: I don't think I'd want to see my bowels ever, regardless of what I've been eating.

Freedom!

2006-07-12T01:18:00.000-04:00

Today was my day off! I slept in all the way to 9:00 (that's as late as my sleep schedule would allow), went out to a real restaurant for lunch, ate Reese's Pieces and swooned over Johnny Depp at Pirates of the Caribbean 2, went shopping, and kicked back to some Law and Order with pizza and a cold one. It was awesome! I'm totally ready to take on the last three crazy days of this session!

CIMRs: ha!
Thought: I can't wait to see my girls in the morning!

A Blah Day

2006-07-11T00:34:00.000-04:00

Not much exciting happened today. I went with a group of RAs to purchase supplies for the SECRET SURPRISE we're planning for the last day of session, but I can't talk about it or it would ruin the "secret" part.

One of my activities today only had three kids in it, which was a nice change of pace from the hordes of screaming children that are usually present. It was "jam session," an activity offered every day for kids to practice their instruments. There were two guitars and a flute, they were playing songs together and sounded really awesome and it was really hard for me to stay awake...

Other than that, meh. Tomorrow is my day off and that's all I can think about!

CIMRs: 0
Thought: Tomorrow I'm going to eat so much peanut butter...

Lazy Sunday

2006-07-10T00:23:00.000-04:00

Today was pretty mellow, especially compared to yesterday. For the afternoon activity the kids could pick between watching the World Cup Finals or a movie, so there wasn't much work for the RAs to do. I got put on scheduled presence in a hallway that no one was in, so I just lied down on the floor and took a glorious two-hour nap. I think working here is starting to really lower my standards...

The most exciting part of today was the return of Unicorn Girl from a few days ago. Apparently the idea really caught on with her hall, so they made unicorn horns for all the RAs to wear. I felt like a princess.

After the kids went to study hall the RAs ordered Chinese food and played Apples to Apples. Today was very exciting because, in honor of being a third of the way through with the summer, we broke out the first of two expansion packs I have. We had a ceremonial removal of the shrink wrap and then shuffled the new cards in with the old ones in order to make the excitement last as long as possible. We haven't seen all the new cards yet, but we have two weeks to get acquainted with them before the second pack gets opened. I can't wait!

Lastly, one of the RAs gave me a bunch of the pictures he's taken over the past two weeks. So now you can see how cool we looked in our ponchos on move-in day, the office I spend a lot of my time in, one of my really cute girls (I have no idea what my brother RA is doing), and some of the people I hang out with.

CIMRs: 1
Thought: This time next week I'll have new girls, ack!

The Longest Day Ever

2006-07-09T01:24:00.000-04:00

Today started with scheduled presence in the laundry room at 8:30 am, yay! The experience was made significantly better by a conversation I had with the girl who was excited I was leading her activity the other day, though. It went something like this:

Me: What class are you taking?
Her: Etymologies.
Me: Wow, that's the same class I took when I went here. That means your RA is Susy Q, right?
Her: nods
Me: She's pretty nice, you must like having her as your RA.
Her: She's okay, but you're my favorite!

Awwww...

Today's afternoon activity was Casino/Carnival Day. There were a bunch of stations the kids could go to to earn "money" for the auction tonight, but since each RA had been given a stack of discretionary funds and the kids were aware of this fact they basically spent the whole time running around doing things for the RAs. Some RAs paid groups of kids to do things like run around and yell "Bobby is the best! Bobby is the best!" I, however, was modest and settled for a simple tattoo, some nice face paint for my girls, and your basic rap song.

After a hurried dinner of questionable meat substance, it was time for the Talent Show/Auction! Usually these are two separate events, but since tomorrow is the World Cup finals they decided to combine the two into one night of ridiculousness. There were half hour blocks of talent acts broken up by fifteen minute intervals of halls bidding (with the money they earned this afternoon) on prizes like half an hour later lights out, an ice cream party with the RA of their choice, or an hour of internet time. My girls were really cute, whenever a prize like "switch RAs for a day" or "pie your RA in the face" came up they got really offended and refused to bid. We ended up winning a popcorn party hosted by one of the guy RAs, but only because my girls didn't have enough money for "Pick an RA for your RA to dance with at the last dance."

The talent show portion of the evening was really...varied. On one side of the spectrum there was kids in full recital wear performing concertos on violins and pianos, and on the other was a kid in blue jeans reciting 100 digits of pi. My girls sang "A Whole New World" from Aladdin, and although we couldn't muster up costumes there was some very nice interpretive dancing from my brother RA and me. We basically frolicked, pirouetted, and lept across the stage, then for a grand finale we held pinkies and re-created our heart from last night. It was really silly, but the kids loved it and that's what we were going for. Part of me wishes it had been recorded, but most of me is glad it wasn't...

While bidding on RAs and artistically twirling with faux beaus was fun, combining the auction and talent show into one evening had the unfortunate consequence of making the whole extravaganza go an hour over time. And for perhaps the first and last time in CTY history, Saturday curfew was moved back half an hour til 11:30. The kids were ecstatic, but since scheduled presence still starts bright and early tomorrow morning the RAs were somewhat less so. Oh well, in three days it's my day off and I can sleep for 24 hours.

I just realized that tomorrow is not Monday like I thought it was. Damn.

CIMRs: O!
Thought: I am finer than fine.

Daaaaaaaaaance!

2006-07-08T00:58:00.000-04:00

Today started off great with an hour and a half staff meeting about the cross-dressing policy. It was basically a lot of "Yes, that's a good point and we'll say we're taking it into consideration so you'll stop whining but really nothing is going to change." Blargh.

But my frustration was quickly replaced by utter incredulity when, as I was leaving lunch, a five year old from a JHU day camp came up to me and asked for my phone number. That was pretty much the weirdest thing ever.

After that ridiculousness, the kids got back from class and we had RA group away day again. We went with our brother hall to the grocery store, then we ordered Chinese and watched Mulan. Except for the nerve-wracking experience of coordinating payments from 26 people it was a pretty relaxing afternoon, especially since the Chinese takeout place gives free meals to RAs who order with their halls.

The big event of the day was the dance. It started off a bit chaotic when we arrived to find the hall we usually use had been double-booked and was already occupied by another function, but we were able to find another room at the last minute. The only problem was that the new room was a lot smaller than the usual one, and 339 sweaty teenage nerds really should be placed in as large a space as possible...

Other than the hygiene issues, the dance was really fun. Once more we got all dressed up (my girls dressed me, in case you were wondering), and my brother RA and I even posed as a heart for our kids (he's dressed as a pirate, and you can see the "ID badge" my girls made me quite nicely). During the dance I saw 45 minutes of The Pacifier while on scheduled presence in the movie room, felt really short while hanging out with the other RAs, and mostly just had an awesome time rockin' out with the kids. Several of my girls have boyfriends now, so I got a kick out of watching them slow dance together throughout the evening.

I had night duty tonight so I was up late patrolling the dorms, and I have scheduled presence at 8:30 am tomorrow (which is actually sleeping in for here) followed by Casino/Carnival Day and then the talent show, so it'll be a miracle if I'm still conscious tomorrow night. I still love being here, but I'm starting to look forward to my day off next week just because I have some major sleep debt to catch up on.

CIMRs: 1. I'm getting lazy.
Thought: How is it that I get less sleep here than I do at MIT?

Mutiny on the Bounty

2006-07-06T22:44:00.000-04:00

So I think the administration didn't realize the deeply held attachment to cross-dress day these kids have. Instead of having boys in skirts and girls in baggy clothes today, they had kids in warpaint with "Viva la Revolucion!" and "Fight the Man!" painted on themselves and a petition circulating amongst both the staff and the students to allow kids to wear whatever gender's clothing they choose. The most ridiculous part of the whole thing is that the people who are spearheading the protest are the people who are actually GLBT, the ones this policy is supposed to "help." I find it pretty absurd that this policy prevents offending hypothetical people at the expense of offending real ones. I don't think the battle of the cross-dressed sexes is over yet...

On a brighter note, as I walked into the room to start my first activity today I heard a girl say to her friend, "She's the one running this? Yay, she's so awesome!" Then during my second activity, "kindergarten games," the tiniest little Asian girl at the camp got called over during Red Rover. She looked a little nervous for a second, then she put her hand up to her forehead, stuck out a finger like a horn, and ran full force at the opposing line. When she actually broke through she responded to all the kids' shocked stares with a completely deadpan "Unicorn power, duh." And when my girls got back from their various activities they had a picture, a sign with my name on it, and some handpicked flowers for me between them. Even if the administration can be a pain, the kids still totally make this job worthwhile.

CIMRs: 0! I refuse to CIMR kids who are fighting for the right to wear clothes other than what society prescribes for their gender.
Thought: Fight the Man!

My First Bad Day

2006-07-06T01:31:00.000-04:00

So today was not the greatest day ever. For starters, I got a knock on my door from a teary girl around 1:00 this morning. She'd had a nightmare involving a murderer in our bathroom and was convinced we were all going to be killed in our sleep. After much persuading I got her to come to the bathroom with me to see for herself that there was no one there, but she was still pretty freaked out so I gave her my People Magazine "Babies of the Year" issue to take to bed because nothing is less scary than babies. I think it's a testament to my sleep-deprived state that the whole time I was exploring the bathroom with her I was thinking how funny it would be if there was actually a guy with a knife hiding in one of the stalls...

Then after lunch I had the following conversation with one of my girls:

Girl: Caroline, how do I go on a diet?
Me: Why do you want to go on a diet?
Girl: Because I'm fat!
Me: You're not fat at all! What are you talking about?!
Girl: Of course I'm fat! Look, I can do this! (pinches a little roll from around her tummy)
Me: Everyone can do that! Look, I can do it too! (demonstrates) Are you saying I'm fat?
Girl: (hesitates) But you're really pretty!

Ouch.

While the kids were at study hall there was a "TA/RA Soiree" at a local coffee shop, which would have been nicer had it not been pouring down rain for the fifteen minute walk there and held in a room that was air conditioned to below the freezing point.

But the kicker was a memo we got in our boxes about five minutes before hall meeting. It's a tradition at many CTY sites to have "dress days," and all the kids get really into them. For example, we had pajama day earlier in the week and it was a rousing success. Tomorrow was going to be cross-dress day, which has been a tradition at this site at least since I was a student here. The kids get really into it, and all of today you could see girls discreetly slipping boys skirts and tank tops in exchange for baggy shorts and baseball caps. I myself borrowed gym shorts, a soccer jersey and a baseball cap from one of the male RAs, who got a skirt and a pink sparkly shirt in return. But apparently as of 9:40 pm today, cross-dress day is not longer allowed on the CTY campus because it is insulting to those of different sexual orientations. Now I'm all for equal rights and tolerance, but this is ridiculous. They have added so many rules since I've been here for the sake of being PC and not being liable that sometimes I wonder if it's the same CTY that I loved so much as a student. Of the four gay/bisexual RAs not a single one had a problem with crossdressing day, in fact several of them had a problem with the fact that we can't do it "for their sake." This policy makes me mad on so many levels, but the most upsetting thing about it is that when I walked by one of my girl's doors after the meeting I heard her saying "This isn't fun like it used to be, I don't want to come back anymore." I hate the fact that the administration is so caught up in wanting this program to look perfect that the kids having fun, which should be our first priority, is not even a consideration.

CIMRs today: 2
Thought: isugfpiausgfpisauf!!1!

The Fourth of Nevermore

2006-07-04T23:25:00.000-04:00

Today was a rather disappointing Fourth of July. No cookout, no fireworks, no flag burnings, no nothing! Aside from the handful of kids who dressed all in black to celebrate the "Fourth of Nevermore" and the twenty minutes I spent trying to explain the holiday to my girl from Korea, today was no more remarkable than any other. However, there were some non-patriotic events worth noting, including but not limited to:

1. Having a squirrel come stand in front of me and stare at me for at least three minutes (no lie!) during my breakfast scheduled presence. It was actually kind of freaky.

2. Going to the grocery store to buy laundry detergent, but instead buying laundry detergent and a popsicle! Woo!

3. Visiting class and spending half an hour talking about what makes mad cows so mad.

4. Having my friend from scheduled presence spend at least fifteen minutes trying to convince me to date his RA (a different one than the one my girls are rooting for) because somehow this would help his chances with the girl on my hall he likes.

5. Having my girls decide to sing "A Whole New World" for the talent show and hearing my Korean girl practicing in the shower with her adorable accent. The downside is that they want me and my brother RA to act out the roles of Jasmine and Aladdin...

6. Playing "The Farmer in the Dell" with the other RAs on night duty

7. Using lots of past progessives.

CIMRs: 1. I think I'm just getting lazy.
Thought: I really don't want to wear a Jasmine costume in public.

And then there were nine...oh wait, there's still eleven

2006-07-03T22:41:00.000-04:00

Today started off totally ridiculous. During my breakfast scheduled presence I was approached first by the site director, who told me that my homesick girl's mother was on her way to get her and bring her home, and then five minutes later by a panicked group of my girls, who told me that one girl was sick and couldn't get out of bed. Fortunately by lunch the sick girl was back on her feet (she was just dehyrdrated, the health office fixed her up with some Gatorade and a nap) and the homesick girl had decided to stay, so nothing bad actually happened. But still, what a bad start to the week!

Also ridiculous was what happened to me at lunch today. I got to the cafeteria right before it closed, so I made up a tray of food, grabbed a drink, and headed out the door so I could eat it back in my room. Unfortunately, I didn't notice the puddle of water on the floor in front of me, so I had a totally spectacular feet-slip-out-from-under-me, tray-and-drink-fly-everywhere, land-really-hard-on-my-butt, get-pointed-and-laughed-at-by-nerdy-twelve-year-olds fall. I guess that ends my reign as one of the "cool" RAs.

AND as if enough awesome things hadn't already happened today, when all the kids were at study hall I went up to my room with the guy RA from my brother hall (which is allowed when the kids are at class) to get Apples to Apples and bring it to the lounge, and right as we were about to leave one of the girls came back to get something she forgot. Now we will never, ever be able to convince them that we are not an item.

But none of those things matter, because when my girls got back from study hall they slipped a handmade "postcard" under my door addressed to "Caroline; Best RA Street; Fantastic City, USA" that read:

Dear Caroline,
Thank you for being an understanding and patient RA. We all appreciate your peacemaking skills! We love you lots!

They all signed it and decorated with hearts (and two Jolly Ranchers stuck together). At the hall meeting they decided to all do an act together for the talent show this weekend, and afterwards they gave me a manicure. What more could anyone ask for?

CIMRs today: 2 (I thought this would be more interesting, but I guess I'm pretty consistent.)
Thought of the Day: What is a good use for 263 eggs? We bought 22 dozen for the Olympic Egg Relay expecting them all to get destroyed, but the kids only broke one. They sat out in the sun all day though, so they're probably not good to eat.

The Olympics!

2006-07-02T23:38:00.000-04:00

So after I went to bed last night I was awoken by shrieks of hysterical laughter from the sleepover room. I don't really care if the girls stay up past lights out on the weekends because I think sleepovers should involve as little actual sleep as possible, but I thought I should check out what they were up to and make sure everything was cool. I entered the room to find that they had cleared a circle in its center and filled it with an elaborate pattern of various types of candy. They explained that the Starbursts were them and the boys they liked, the Jolly Ranchers were the RAs, and the Tootsie Rolls were "all those other kids we don't know," and that they were working out all the possible situations that could arise at the next dance and how to handle each one such that they still ended up dancing with the boys they wanted. Amazing! Although it was a lot less adorable when I noticed the two Jolly Ranchers on top of each other off to the side and didn't even have to ask who they were...

Today's afternoon activity was The Olympics. The kids were divided into teams (my girls were Ghana) and went from station to station competing in relay races, balloon tosses, tug of wars, and other equally exciting events. I got lucky and was assigned to water duty, so instead of having to stand in the blistering heat and run a station all day I got to wander around and spritz the kids with water. It was really fun, since the kids acted like I was the ice cream man or something else awesome whenever they saw me and my water-spritzer approaching. My girls didn't win (damn South Korea!) but they had a great time, so I'm proud of them anyway. Apparently there was almost a blowout at the beginning when a team composed entirely of Korean and Chinese students was assigned to be Japan, but they were reassigned to Sweden and crisis was averted.

After the Olympics I had my first (dun dun dun...dramatic music) Crying Girl. My Favorite came to my room right before dinner to let me know that one of the girls was in her room crying. I went to investigate and found that not only was she in her room crying, but she was under her bed and in the fetal position crying. We had a nice long talk and everything seems to be back to normal now, I think all the kids were kind of strung-out from the exhaustion of the weekend and so emotions were running a little high, but after a good night's sleep they should be back to their regular mellow selves.

I had a ton of fun with my girls this weekend, but by the time study hall came around I was definitely ready for some "grownup time" (since apparently I'm a grownup now). I went with a group of RAs to a nice sushi restaurant, and we enjoyed two glorious hours of being in a room free of adolescents and eating food that wasn't pizza or mystery meat. It was incredibly relaxing, and we even took our lanyards off!

Also, today one of my girls asked me if you can have sex before you're sixteen. This job is amazing.

CIMRs today: 2
Thought of the day: I'm getting a brass rat tan. That must mean I'm really...something.

Success!

2006-07-01T23:18:00.000-04:00

The Game Show Marathon went great! There was almost a disaster at the beginning when a bunch of the rooms we had reserved were locked, but thanks to the friendly JHU security staff we were able to get those stations up and running only about five minutes late. I was hosting Family Feud, and it was awesome! At first I had the two teams as the "Smiths" and the "Joneses," but the kids insisted I change them to the "Kims" and the "Schwartzes" to more accurately reflect the CTY student demographic. Throughout the day kids I don't even remember have been coming up to me and saying "Hey, you hosted Family Feud! That was awesome!" The only part I didn't like was when the "Name a Boy Band" question was up, because the number three answer (from a survey we gave to all the RAs) was "Boyz 2 Men" and the vast majority of the kids were totally clueless as to who they were. This job makes me feel old...

Speaking of feeling old, my "friend" from dinner scheduled presence a few days ago was back today at breakfast. Turns out he wants to ask me advice about a girl in his class that he likes, a relief that was quickly counteracted by his comment that "I feel like such a loser because I have to talk to an adult about it." Since we did I become an adult?? Nobody told me!

Today's evening activity was Movie Night, which was pretty relaxing. I got to watch half of Pirates of the Caribbean, then go outside and watch young nerd love blossom awkwardly on the quad. I also got to yell at a few of the little nerdy lovebirds about staying in well-lit, supervised areas, which was fun.

You know what else is fun? Confiscating iPods! The kids aren't allowed to have them outside the dorms, and usually I just tell them to put it away until later, but today I had to tell the same kid three different times to put it away and so I finally got fed up and confiscated it. The kid actually got down on his knees and begged me not to take it, it was amazing! Talk about a power high! Not that I'm becoming a ruthless tyrant or anything...

After movie night the camp guidance counselor asked me to come talk to her. Apparently one of my girls had been to see her earlier about a homesickness issue. At first I had hurt feelings because the girl hadn't come to me, but it turns out she didn't want to tell me about it because she was afraid it would make me think I'm a bad RA! I almost melted right there I was so touched, and when I next saw the girl I gave her a hug and had to make sure I didn't cry because I still can't believe that she would worry about my feelings over her own. How did I get such sweet girls? Hopefully this doesn't mean my girls next session will be terrible.

During hall free time tonight a bunch of the girls wanted to tell my fortune using this playing card method that they learned. I think it was rigged, because (surprise!) it predicted I'm going to marry the RA from our brother hall. All the girls were falling all over themselves giggling and "awwwww"-ing about this, and every time I insisted that they were making our "relationship" up they just became more convinced it was true. It was pretty cute, even if it was sort of ridiculous. I'm glad I'm not the guy RA though, apparently at his hall meeting his boys asked him if we'd had sex yet. What do you even say to that?! He ended up giving them all a lecture on respect and appropriate language. I think I would have had a hard time not bursting out laughing if one of my kids asked me that, which is probably not the appropriate response.

Once more the girls are asleep in a giant heap and full of chips and cookies, and once more I could not be more in love!

CIMRs today: 2
Thought of the Day: I get to sleep in until 10:00 tomorrow! I love Sundays!

TGIF?

2006-07-01T00:09:00.000-04:00

So ordinarily Friday means the last day of work and the first day of glorious weekend freedom, but for us RAs here at CTY it pretty much means the exact opposite. Weekends mean no classes, which means we have the kids ALL DAY. From 7:30 am to 11:00 pm. Lucky for me my scheduled presence doesn't start until 8:15 tomorrow, so I get to sleep in all the way to 7:45, woo! It also means that instead of the regular weekday one hour activities, which can be pretty mellow, we have three and a half hour mega activities. The first big activity of this session is the Game Show Marathon tomorrow afternoon, which I'm helping to plan. I think we have everything taken care of, but I'm still really nervous that everything will go horribly wrong at the last second...

Besides possible impending game show catastrophe, Friday also means RA Group Away Day. Instead of regular weekday activities in the afternoon all the RAs do something special with their halls, which often involves leaving the JHU campus. My group and I went to the grocery store (their idea, not mine) and then to ice cream. The latter was especially fun, since the owner gives free ice cream to RAs who bring their halls to her shop! We went to both places with our "brother hall" (the boys' hall for the same classes my girls are in), which might not have been the best idea because those boys were hyper and now all the kids from both halls are convinced that the boys' RA and I are engaged (not true!).

The last thing Friday means is FRIDAY NIGHT DANCE!! This is another activity I helped plan, but since it just involved putting up some balloons and making a playlist it was a lot less stressful. My girls got all dressed up to go, and though they were sort of shy about dancing when they first got there, by the end of the night a fair number of them were holding boys at arms' length and awkwardly swaying to slow songs. The best part of the dance was when they played American Pie at the end, which is a CTY tradition that has been around as long as anyone can remember. There are lots of special dances and yells that go with it, and it was so exciting doing it again after seven years!

After the dance the girls had a "party" in one of their rooms, which basically meant they gorged themselves on all the chips and cookies they bought at the grocery store today (which in turn meant I had to take two of them to the health office for stomach aches later). I was in here catching up on CIMRs because I figured they'd want some alone time to talk about the dance, but after about five minutes one of them came to my room and demanded to know why I wasn't in there with them. Did I mention I have the best girls ever?

The best part of the day, and perhaps of my whole CTY experience so far, was when in the middle of the hall party one of the girls yelled out "Today was the most fun day of my entire life!" Maybe it's the sleep deprivation, but I almost started to cry because that made me so happy.

Now the girls are all asleep in a heap in one of their rooms (they're allowed to have sleepovers on weekends), they look sort of like a litter of puppies. Today was exhausting and tomorrow will be even more so, but there's absolutely nothing else I'd rather be doing!

CIMRs today: 3 (two on the same kid!)
Thought of the Day: Nerd dancing is awesome.

Delicious brains!

2006-06-29T23:22:00.000-04:00

I visited my neuroscience girls in class today because they were dissecting sheep brains and I was totally psyched about it. It was super awesome, and I was really proud of myself because I was actually able to answer the questions the kids were asking and help out the TA. And during the middle of the lab, a CNN camera crew showed up! Apparently they're doing a story on CTY and wanted some footage of the kids being smart, and thought sheep brains would be a good place to start. I'll let you know if I hear anything about when the story will air...

I didn't realize this before, but the girls are using the same introductory neuroscience text book that 9.01 uses. I told them that the author was my professor last year, and they thought I was just about the coolest person ever. A couple even asked if I could get his autograph for them! I love my little nerdlets.

So, when I'm on scheduled presence I like to make small talk with the kids as they walk by. At the end of one such mini-conversation with a male student leaving the cafeteria today, he asked "Will you be here tomorrow?" I said that I'd be in a different spot and he left, but then he came back five minutes later and asked if he could "keep me company" for the rest of my shift. He then sat down and started asking me all about my day and my week and my job, and actually stayed there for the remaining fifteen minutes. When my replacement arrived and I bid my new friend farewell, he said, "So, where will you be stationed for breakfast tomorrow?" Somehow I knew this would happen...

Sheep brains and young nerd love weren't the only thing that made today awesome. I think the camp has finally settled into a routine, and the kids have had two days of sun to run around outside and burn their excess energy. Best of all, my girls and I are starting to really bond. Today when I left my room door open to go to the bathroom, I came back to find they had left candy on my desk. And when I put a white board on my door for them to write down any questions or suggestions they had for me, they covered it with "Caroline is the coolest RA ever!" and "I love Caroline!" A few of them had been complaining about not getting any mail, so when they were at study hall I made them all "postcards" with little notes on them and left them on their doors. When they got back they were so excited, and all it took was some construction paper and markers. Talk about a gratifying job!

CIMRs today: 2
Thought of the day: I have the best girls at CTY!

Shenanigans

2006-06-28T23:46:00.000-04:00

Top ten reasons kids give for not wearing their lanyards:

10. I don't want to
9. It doesn't go with my outfit
8. My RA said I don't have to (this is complete BS, all the RAs are very strict on the lanyard policy)
7. This one time last year at a different camp they didn't make me wear it
6. "Wearing it" in my pocket should count
5. Ummm...I'm not actually with this program (spoken while surrounded by kids in CTY lanyards)
4. It gives me a rash
3. It could damage my trachea
2. It slows me down
1. It oppresses my individuality

The highlight of my day was a memo we got from the site director saying we shouldn't let kids throw balls around as they walk places, because it contained the following sentences:

"I have seen the throwing and catching skills of this group and to be perfectly honest, I am not impressed. Some have skills while others...don't."

Also, during tonight's hall meeting, I found out I am known to all the kids as "the hyper RA." Sweet.

CIMRs today: 2
Thought of the day: I hope no one finds out I ate a peanut butter cookie in my room.

It was the worst of times, it was the best of times

2006-06-27T21:10:00.000-04:00

Today started off like normal but quickly went downhill. This was our second day of rain, meaning our second day of indoor-only activities, meaning all of the kids have gone insane. I had "Silent Reading/Board Games" for both activity periods, but it quickly turned into "Horseplay Police/Mob Suppression." The other RAs and I ended up having to call in adult reinforcements to keep the kids under control, they were that nuts. The worst part about smart kids is that "because I say so" or "because it's the rule" won't fly as a reason for doing something, and after two nights of very little sleep it's pretty difficult to come up with a reason to put your lanyard on besides "BECAUSE I WILL WRING YOUR SCRAWNY LITTLE NECK IF YOU DON'T!!"

By dinner time we had a pretty nice recreation of the Stanford Prison Experiment going on. All the RAs were sitting around a table and scheming about the horrible things we had wanted to say to the kids during activities and how we were going to lay down the law during social time and hall meetings tonight. The phrase "I'm going to CIMR his/her ass" was used about fifty times in the whole discussion, which was pretty impressive since we only have half and hour for dinner.

After the kids left for study hall we had to report to an "RA social" to meet the RAs from JHU's pre-college program, which is starting in a few days. We were all pretty annoyed by this since we had wanted to take naps/showers/drugs during our few precious preteen-free hours, not meet a bunch of people who have way more free time than us and we will never interact with again. And when we got there and realized that it wasn't just a mill around and chat event, but an actual sit in a circle, introduce ourselves and play icebreakers event, we were all at the point the kids were during activities today. So as a small act of rebellion we all introduced ourselves as the CTY RA to our right, which among other things resulted in our 6'8" Nigerian RA introducing himself as "Stephanie," our tiny little porcelain doll RA being "Andrew," and me being "Mel." I know this doesn't sound that funny, but in our sleep-deprived and incredibly frustrated state it was pretty much the most amusing thing ever. We were all falling out of our chairs laughing while the pre-college RAs, who just arrived this afternoon and were still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about being here, just looked really confused. Needless to say, the mingling was not a huge success.

At about 8:20 a big group of us snuck out from the social and went up to one of the girl RA's rooms to play Apples to Apples. We only had half an hour before the the kids got back from study hall and and we were still high off our introduction prank, and I have to say that half hour was the most fun I've had in a long time. We were trying to play as fast as we could since we had limited time, and we were simultaneously screaming and hollering at each other about the judging and falling all over each other laughing. To see us you would have thought we were all incredibly drunk, but really we were just releasing all the stress of another twelve hours of getting attitude from twelve year olds, filling out CIMRs, planning activities and dances and game shows, visiting classes, and yelling about lanyards in one glorious half-hour time period.

I think we're going to get a talking to about our behavior during our residential staff meeting tomorrow, but I am unremorseful. In fact, I'm glad we did what we did, because when my girls got back on hall I was in a great mood and happy to see them instead of scowling and wanting to slap anyone under eighteen. Social time was fun, the hall meeting went great, and lights out went smoothly. Once again, I love my job!

CIMRs today: 3 (including my first two-pager!)
Thought of the day: I might go meet the other RAs later for a little late night Apples to Apples...

Addendum

2006-06-26T23:50:00.000-04:00

11:30 Go to patrol hall one last time before bed and realize I've locked myself out of my room. Shoeless, I go to the housing office (in the boys' dorm, ewww!) to get a lockout key, return, retrieve my keys, return the lockout key, and return again.
12:00 Bedtime. For real, this time.

I am a genius.

Busy, busy, busy

2006-06-26T21:02:00.000-04:00

In honor of the first full day of session I thought I'd give a breakdown of just what exactly a CTY RA does all day. To start with, here is the official CTY daily schedule:

7:30-8:30 Breakfast
8:45 Class handoffs to TAs
9-11:45/12:15 Class time (there are two different lunch shifts)
9:15 Residential Staff Meeting (RAs + SRAs + Residential Dean)
11:45-1:15 Lunch
12:40/1:10 Class handoffs to TAs
12:45/1:15-3:00 Class time
3:20 Students meet RAs for activity period 1
3:30-4:30 Activity period 1
4:30-5:30 Activity period 2
5:30-6:30 Dinner
6:45 Class handoff to TAs
7:00-9:00 Class time (study hall)
9-9:45 Social time
9:45 Hall meetings
10:30 Lights Out

In addition, each RA has several shifts of "scheduled presence" throughout the day, typically about 45 minutes during each meal time. This is to make sure no kids are going places they shouldn't, and that kids who are in appropriate places are wearing their lanyards and playing nice. The times and locations of everyone's scheduled presence rotates through each week.

Now here is the schedule of how I actually spent my day:

6:45 Wake up after six hours of sleep

7:00 Pound on doors and drag sleepy preadolescents out of bed

7:30 Drag sleepy preadolescents to breakfast

8:45 Hand off sleepy preadolescents to their TAs

9:15-10:30 Residential staff meeting. This is when we ask any questions we have and find out if there's any important information we need to know. For instance, apparently yesterday some of the male students found a bottle of vodka hidden in their ceiling, so today the maintenance crew will be coming through all the halls and checking for hidden ceiling booze.

10:30-11:45 Meet with the other RAs on the Friday dance committee to start planning the first dance. We decided the theme will be "Tropical Island Getaway" and we'll play lots of reggae and other theme music. We spent a long time filling out all the supply requisition forms and working on the playlist, since it's sort of hard to find songs that young nerds will be comfortable dancing to.

11:45-12:30 Lunch! Mmmm...cafeteria pizza.

12:30-1:15 Scheduled presence on the steps outside the gym (or "auxiliary dining facility," as JHU calls it). This was basically 45 minutes of me yelling at kids to put on their lanyards.

1:30-3:00 Meeting with the rest of the Game Show Marathon committee. We decided we will have 12 groups of 30 kids each rotating through 6 game shows (two stations of each): The Price is Right, Jeopardy, Family Feud (with data from surveys filled out by the RAs), Figure it Out, Whose Line is it Anyway? and Wheel of Fortune. We start prepping the games and assign RAs to various duties. I'm going to be the host of one of the Family Feud stations!

3:00 Girls get back from class. Things are a little confusing at this point because it has started to rain so the outdoor activities won't be possible, but we don't have the rain plan yet.

3:20 Rain plan is posted. Instead of the activities the kids signed up for last night, they can choose from one of about five indoor activities. Instead of Theater Games and Charades, I'm now running Internet Time and Board Games. This thrills me to no end.

3:30-4:30 Run internet time in the computer lab. But from the way the kids were acting, it seems they accidentally listed it as "free and unlimited crack cocaine time." I enact a 15 minute time limit per computer so everyone can have a turn, and instantly become the most hated person in all of existence.

4:30-5:30 Run board games. These kids were pretty tame, so I spent this hour sitting in the hallway watching another RA blow bubbles.

5:30-6:15 Dinner time! In between eating yet more lukewarm pizza, I yell at kids to wear their lanyards. I'm going to make myself a tshirt that says "Lanyard Police."

6:15-7:00 Scheduled presence in the basement of the boys' dorm. This is to make sure no one sneaks into the TV room down there when they should be at dinner. I didn't see one kid the whole time, so I took a nap in the hallway.

7:00-9:00 The kids are at study hall! This is the best part of the whole day! I hang out with a bunch of the other RAs and we have two whole preteen-free hours to do whatever we want! Today that consisted of playing board games and gossipping about our least favorite kids.

9:00 Girls return from study hall and hang out on hall for awhile. I start working on this blog entry, and am intermittently interrupted by girls with mail for me to send tomorrow, requests to fix broken things in their rooms, and stories about their first day. I love hearing the stories, but the rest I could do without...

9:55 Hall meeting. Apparently when I told the girls "hall meeting at 9:45" they interpreted it as "take showers and shave your legs at 9:45," so we ended up starting late. I read them the daily announcements and give them the activities sign up list, and they try to figure out which activities will have cute boys at them.

10:25 I do my lights out dance down the hall (since I still don't really have a song).

10:29 Lots of frantic preadolescents running around with toothbrushes and attempting to simultaneously change into their pajamas.

10:32 Lights out!

10:33 I pass out on the bed.

10:34 I go to the office to turn in my second CIMR and input my girls' activity choices into the computer (after waiting in line for 10 minutes, since there's only one computer).

10:50 Get back on hall, answer emails, finish this entry, and enjoy the first responsibility-free alone time I've had all day!

Starting tomorrow I'll also have scheduled presence during breakfast every day (tomorrow I've got the gym entrance at 7:30, woo!), and also sometimes I have it outside during the 9-9:45 free time. Other jobs I'll sometimes have include water duty (filling up big jugs of water and lugging them outside before activities start so the kids don't dehydrate) and night duty (patrolling the outside of the building at 11:00 to make sure all the light are off, and acting accordingly if any of them aren't). I also have to make two classroom visits a week for each class I have girls in, which is another reason having the last minute addition girl sort of stresses me out: I have to make six classroom visits every week, and they can't be during study hall. Lastly, any time a student does something inappropriate or I see something concerning, I have to fill out a CIMR (Concern/Incident/Medical Report, pronounced "simmer") form and turn it into the office ASAP. Each staff member is supposed to average 2-3 CIMRs a day, today I had two (a girl who sassed me about wearing her lanyard during internet time, and the girls who made the hall meeting late). It was a very hectic day, and from now on I have to find time for class visits too. Aarrrrrgh!

CIMRs Today: 2
Closing Thought: I love my job!

2006-06-25T22:43:00.000-04:00

Okay, the timer on this thing is somehow messed up. It's set to Eastern Standard Time, but I just posted at 10:18 and for some reason it says 8:38. It's not a big deal, I'm just confused...I wonder what time it will say this was posted (it's actually 10:41).

I'm a real RA now!

2006-06-25T20:38:00.000-04:00

My kids are here! I was considerably less excited about this fact when I was woken up by my phone ringing at 8:00 am this morning to tell me my first kid was here and I had to come get her. Our staff meeting wasn't until 9:00 and the kids weren't supposed to start arriving until 10:00, so I was looking forward to sleeping in a little for once...oh well.

After the staff meeting, I (and all the other RAs) spent 5 hours unloading cars and carrying luggage up to rooms in weather that alternated between short intense periods of really heavy rain and longer periods of really gross and humid heat. Woohoo! There was a pretty wide spectrum of families, some kids showed up by themselves from the airport with a backpack and a duffel bag, and others arrived with two generations of relatives and an SUV-full of bottled water, garment bags, instruments, sports equipment, and suitcases. The hardest part was the fact that about three-quarters of the families that came were non-native English speakers, and it was pretty difficult at times to give them directions and explain the check-in procedures. But there were no major disasters, unless you count all the times parents didn't believe I was an RA...

During my lunch break I went to check my mail box and found a little note addressed to me. At first I was really excited, but then I opened it up and read that they were adding an eleventh girl to my hall! Apparently they mistakenly had her down as a commuter when she was supposed to be living here, and I was the only RA with empty rooms on my hall. This doesn't sound like much of a tragedy, but I totally panicked. For one thing, I didn't have a door dec with her name on it for her. For another, her room is around the corner and down the hall from the rest of my girls, in a section of the hall I didn't even decorate at all. She's also the only girl without a roommate, and the only one not in the same classes as my other girls (she's in Mathematical Reasoning). So I was really worried about the fact that she and her family would go up to the hall and find that she had a blank door in a blank hallway, and think I'm a terrible RA. I did manage to decorate her door really quickly during my lunch, but she's still far away from everyone else and in an empty hallway. I'll try to decorate her walls tonight, and hopefully her being in a single and in a different class won't be too isolating...

Registration ended at 3:00, at which point parents are supposed to say goodbye and the RAs and students meet each other for the first time. I was really flustered from the new girl and all the luggage moving when I got to the hall, and then even more so when it seemed like none of my girls were in their rooms, but then I got to the last room in the hallway (besides the new girl's, that is) to find all my girls were in there sitting in a circle and talking like they'd known each other forever! I was so relieved, they were all participating in the conversation and getting along (even the new one!) and so happy! It looks like my fears about an annoying one or a clique were unfounded. After introductions and a few icebreakers, we played a rousing two hour game of Apples to Apples (which made me feel sort of old, since none of the girls knew who most of the famous people were). My favorite part was when in the middle of the game one of the girls raised her hand and asked if she could go to the bathroom, there was a moment of silence, and then everyone (including her) burst out laughing.

After bonding over board games we went to dinner together in the JHU "Auxiliary Dining Facility" (aka "gym") since the regular dining hall is being renovated. From there we went to the CTY opening ceremony, which was a lot of fun. All the RAs stood in the back of the auditorium, then the SRAs called us down one by one Price is Right style to run (or dance, in my case) down the aisle and introduce ourselves to all the kids (360 of them!). We then performed our wonderful skits about thrilling topics like "Lights Out at 10:30" and "Stay Within the CTY Boundaries." When I walked out onto the stage to start off our skit all my girls started cheering and clapping for me, and I was so touched it took me a second to remember I was supposed to be talking about lanyards. All in all, it was a very fun time. Unfortunately, as we were leaving the auditorium the skies opened up and it started raining the hardest it had all day. By the time we got back to our dorm everyone was totally soaked and muddy. And just as we were opening the door to go inside it stopped raining as suddenly as it started, just to spite us. Sigh.

At 9:00 pm we had our first official hall meeting. When I went to round all the girls up, they were already all in one room in their pajamas reading magazines and gossiping. The first thing they said when I came in the room was "can we have sleepovers??" I'm so happy they're all getting along so well! Too bad I had to spend most of the meeting going over all the boring administrative stuff instead of having girl talk with them...Hopefully all the future meetings will be more hanging out and less listing off rules and schedules.

I decided that I'm going to make up a "Lights Out Song" to run down the hallway singing every night at 10:30 instead of just knocking on everyone's doors and telling them to go to bed. I also want to make up some sort of signal for when it's time for hall meetings, too bad I didn't bring my trombone...Any ideas for either the song or an instrument/noisemaker I can make out of really basic art supplies?

What do you call a cow that researches brains?

2006-06-24T21:04:00.000-04:00

A moo-roscientist!

We started off today with a discussion of the rules governing PDAs amongst the little nerdlets. The highlight was definitely when the site director said, "There's nothing worse than dirty dancing when you're uncoordinated and awkward, but trust me you will see plenty of it." I feel this is one aspect of this summer that living in EC has prepared me for very nicely...

In the afternoon we signed up for what committees we'll be on for the session. We each have to be on the planning committee for one ongoing activity and one super special weekend activity. My ongoing activity is the Friday night dances (and awkward dancing therein) and my weekend activity is the "Game Show Marathon" we're having this Saturday afternoon. It will entail having the kids go from station to station participating in their favorite game shows, from "Jeopardy" to "The Price is Right" to "Family Feud," and competing for prizes. It looks like it will be a lot of work, but at least I'll get it out of the way early. We also had to sign up for our first week of daily activities. Each RA is responsible for holding two one-hour activities a day five days a week, so that's thirty activities per three week session! I had a pretty hard time coming up with enough for this week, I don't know what I'm going to do for the next two. Some of the activities I'll be running this week are charades, ridiculous pictionary (thanks, 5W!), bubble blowing, cloudwatching, and 60s music appreciation. Any ideas for the rest of the session would be really appreciated (as long as they're appropriate for 12-15 year olds)!

The last thing we did today was pick groups for the skits we have to perform for the kids at the opening ceremony tomorrow. Each skit is about some regulation, so it's basically a plot to teach the kids all the CTY rules while they think they're being entertained. My two groupmates and I will be performing a skit entitled "Lanyards Are My Everything" about the importance of always wearing your official CTY lanyard (with your ID and room key attached) and the dire consequences of swinging said lanyard. I don't want to give away too much of our inspired script, but lets just say it involves a CTY student named Charlie Brown and a Lanyard-Eating-Tree (since that's where the lanyards tend to end up when the kids swing them around). Hopefully the kids won't figure out that our skit title is also an acronym for something...

They gave us most of the night off to finish up our door decs and decorate our halls. I ended up putting each girl's name on a construction paper Erlenmeyer flask with little hole-punch "bubbles" in it, but I'm afraid they look a little more like dresses than glassware...

I also lined the hallway with a bunch of cheesey jokes about brains since I figured by the end of three weeks of neuroscience they'll be able to appreciate them. The biomedical science girls will just have to deal.

My last assignment was to make a spot with all the information the kids will need to know about being here (schedules, maps, daily activities, etc...). At first I was very ambitious and was going to make it some sort of crazy lab bench theme, but after it took two hours for me to cut out all the neuroscience jokes, back them with construction paper and put them on the walls, I ended up going with the lazy approach instead (if it looks a little funny it's because the wall is curved).

I'm really excited about the kids getting here tomorrow morning. We've spent the past 72 hours getting ready for them, and now I want them to be here to participate in my activities and laugh at my bad jokes! I'm a little nervous that I'll end up with a really annoying girl or a clique of mean girls on my hall, but I'm optimistic that the next six weeks are going to be really fun.

Anyways, I better wrap up because it's just about time for the SRA to inspect my hall. I hope my ambiguous door decs and bad puns pass muster!

On Scheduled Presence and Peanut-Eating

2006-06-23T22:33:00.000-04:00

I spent fifteen hours today at various meetings and workshops to learn all about my responsibilities as an RA, and I really only learned one thing: these kids are *never* to be left alone. They want to go to the bathroom in class, their TA has to walk them there. They want to get a drink during an activity, either find another RA to take them or take all your kids. Even when they think they're alone, they're not. For instance, they are allowed to walk "unattended" to meals and hang out during "unsupervised social time" on the lawn outside the dorms, or so they think. But in reality all the RAs have "scheduled presence" during these times, during which they are supposed to look like they are casually going for a walk or reading on a bench nearby but actually be carefully watching the kids and ready to spring into action should any kid wander past the official CTY boundaries or call another kid a name. I was totally oblivious to this aspect of the camp when I went here as a young nerd, I thought I was being very adult and independent but in reality I guess I was still being babysat. I guess as long as the kids don't realize that while they're here it won't cramp their style too much...

Wait, actually, I learned two things today. The second thing being that while CTY is here, JHU is a peanut-free campus. I didn't even know such a thing existed, but apparently there are enough kids with severe peanut allergies to merit this policy. So any staff that brought peanut products has to eat them all in the next 24 hours or throw them out once the kids get here. At one point one of the administrators actually said, "Peanut-eating, like drinking and smoking, is to be engaged in by staff strictly off campus." Wow.

But other than realizing that my first experience of independence was just a cruel sham and I can't publicly eat peanut butter for the next six weeks, today was pretty fun. All the other RAs and residential staff are really nice and everyone is really excited to be here, which makes me really excited about it too. And I think I'm going to need that excitement once the kids get here, since according to the RAs who have done this before once the actual camp starts you don't have any free time from when the kids get up at 7:30 to when they go to bed at 11:00. So we'll see how this whole blogging thing works out...

This afternoon I got the list of the ten girls who will be living on my hall for the first three weeks. The first thing I noticed was that they were all born in the nineties, which made me feel sort of old. But other than that, getting the list made me really eager to meet them and get started with the whole bonding and facilitating social interactions thing. The students live with their (same sex) classmates, and there are two classes of girls living on my hall: Introduction to Biomedical Science and Introduction to Neuroscience. I think they try to assign the classes to RAs with similar majors, but apparently it doesn't always work out because the male RA for the neuroscience class is an art major. Go figure. I'm really excited because this means I'll have some of the nerdiest nerds at nerd camp, which is exactly what I wanted. And maybe one day I'll be able to take a little credit for one of them growing up to be an MIT Course 9er! Well, assuming that's something to be proud of, that is.

Anyways, I have to come up with four activity plans and make "door decs" for all my girls before we start again tomorrow at 7:30, so I think that's it for blogging tonight. I think I'm going to go with a Mad Scientist theme when I decorate the hall, and if it works out maybe I'll post some pictures!

First Day!

2006-06-23T15:18:00.000-04:00

I moved into nerd camp today! The nerd campers don't get here until Sunday so I don't know if it can fairly be called "nerd camp" yet, but I'm here and I'm a nerd so I guess that counts for something...

Let me just say that today was really bloody hot. As in, the-instant-you-step-outside-you're-covered-in-a-fine-layer-of-sweat hot. I was wearing flip-flops with black bottoms and my foot sort of slipped out of one as I was walking, and when I slipped it back on all of half a second later I actually yelped because it was already so hot it burned, and I am a wuss. So I had fun moving all my stuff up three flights of stairs and then walking all the way acrosss campus three times (to the place where you register for internet access, then back to my room because I needed to know the little number written by my ethernet jack, then back to the internet place), then realizing that I forgot my little shower caddy thing with all my showering stuff in it in my bathroom in Frederick. I did manage a sort of hobo shower anyway...I just used the hand soap from the bathroom. Fortunately JHU is only about 45 minutes from my house, so my lovely mother is going to drive back tomorrow with proper showering supplies, and also a bag of socks. Because I am so cool, I managed to forget to pack those too.

JHU is definitely very different from MIT. There are trees and green space everywhere and all the buildings are very traditional looking with brick with gables and other fancy architectural things I don't know the names of. I feel like I'm walking around in a college brochure, everything is so picturesque. For example, here is the dorm I am living in. It is pretty much identical to all the other buildings on campus.

The dorm's insides are also pretty different than what I'm used to. I think I've been spoiled by living in EC, my room here seems really small but I think it's an average size single for most schools. I was going to post a picture of it, but there's no place in it where I can stand far enough back to get more than one piece of furniture in the frame. And in case you're wondering why I don't just stand in the door, it's because the door can only open about a foot before hitting the dresser. Thankfully it has air conditioning, but I don't know how I'm going to function having to walk all the way to the bathroom just to use the sink... It was especially awkward tonight; there's some other camp that ends tomorrow sharing the building with us, so when I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth I was met by a bunch of half-naked high school girls showering and otherwise getting ready for some dance-type activity. They seemed as surprised to see me as I was to see them, we just kind of sized each other up for a moment before I headed to the sink and we proceeded to ignore each other for the rest of my time there.

The only official CTY activity planned for today was a barbecue dinner so all the staff could meet each other and mingle a little. I met a few interesting people, including one girl who's already been an RA here for three summers. That means it must be fun, right? I guess I'll meet more people tomorrow when we start all the RA-training activities in earnest. And since by "in earnest" I mean "at 7:30 in the morning," I think it's about time for me to go to bed. If the hub of hairstyling and gossipping that has sprung up outside my door ever quiets down, that is...

(This was actually written around midnight on 6/22, I just didn't get internet access until today).