It's Over!

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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!

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...