Training Week!

Sorry for the late post!

Two weeks ago, we had training with the student staff, which was awesome. Bonnie and I made door decorations for them. They were bees, so cute! I don't have pics right now, but I will take some soon. We did a lot of ice breakers. A lot. I'm not really into ice breakers, but what we did wasn't so bad. Now I have some great ideas for ice breakers!

Our Rising Star Assistants (RSAs) are so amazing! They came up with a great theme for the Rising Star students...SCADventure! Each week represents a different type of adventure theme! Our first week was Survival Week. We did a SCADvenger Hunt, had a craft night, Jeff showed us how to make laundry detergent, they played Zombie Tag (a smaller version of Humans vs. Zombies), and Murder in the Dark. It was a great week!

Here are a few shots I got from Murder in the Dark. It was dark, which means my photos are black and white and grainy. I call it artistic.








We also had our first beach day, which was awesome! I love the beach here! The water is so warm! Here are a few shots I got:




Other events for the week:

I was able to sit in on a few interviews the department was conducting, which was an amazing experience. Some advice when you are doing a phone interview: know the student population and have examples of experiences, not generalizations.

I got to take a student to the clinic who was having a minor allergic reaction to something. She's fine now, but it was an experience I have never had before. Lots of learning happening!

The rain. Holy cow. It poured tonight. If you saw my facebook, you have some idea of what happened. Basically, we went to dinner and it started to rain. We tried to wait it out, but it just got worse. There was LOUD thunder, crazy lightning, and a rediculous amount of rain. All Bonnie and I could do was run for it. Well, I don't run. I also don't walk barefoot outside, which would have made my whole experience much better. We had to make our way up 55 stairs (Bonnie counted) and across a bridge to get back to the residence hall. Oh yea, practically everything was flooded. As I was making my way up the stairs, slowly (as it is I am a slow stair walker, but add gallons of water to that and it's bad news), water started to get in my eyes. So now I can't see and I'm trying not to fall down the stairs. Good times. I made my way across the bridge and safely back to my room, which had a mini lake in front of my door that worked it's way to the inside of my room. Good times. I was drenched, but I have to admit, it was kind of fun. It wasn't cold, which made getting wet much more pleasant.

That's about all for the past few weeks! Danny comes this week (2 Year Anniversary!!!), so it might be another week and a half before I write again.

I hope everyone has a great fourth of July this weekend!!

Scavenger Hunt!

Day two, we were prepared. We knew we were going on a scavenger hunt around Savannah so we wore sensible shoes and more comfortable, breathable, professional attire.

We did a photo scavenger hunt and we had riddles for each place. Luckily, we had a map of the route we needed to take. Here is what we found:

1. These books can really hold up a ceiling.
The SCAD Bookstore, Ex Libris, was our first stop. They have these amazing columns that are from floor to ceiling stacked books:


2. They can make you a meal that you can't refuse.
We weren't sure about this one at first, but we thought it was Corleone's because of The Godfather:


3. If you need a new "grill," go here. They're fast.
We got this one wrong. We thought it was The Rail, a sports bar, but it was a jeweler that makes grills for your mouth same-day. We never saw the jeweler because we were on the opposite side of the road.


4. This place makes pizza into an art.
Obviously, Vinnie Van Go Go's pizza:


5. Marilyn just cannot keep that dress down.
We found Marilyn outside a restaurant and we took pictures with her:



6. This mother is known for her use of butter.
Duh, Paula Deen's restaurant! We still have not eaten here, but I know we will!


7. A little bit of Paris in Savannah.
The Paris Market:


8. This emporium specializes in small cakes made in cups.
We actually had cupcakes here, they were amazing!! It is a supper cute place to hang out and read a book as well:


9. Just past the bank is where think mints grew up.
The girl scout building! We actually couldn't find the building on this trip, but we passed the main headquarters on our first day during our trek to get ID Cards. In lieu of photographing the building, we photographed actual girl scouts! They are everywhere!


10. This square had a running man sitting on a bench, but now it just has flowers.
This is where the Forrest Gump bench used to sit. Unfortunately, it kept getting stolen, so they had to remove it.

The first day!

Day one was interesting...

SCAD is housed in over 70 buildings all over Savannah. On Monday morning we had to go to HR, which is in a building that is about a 20-30 minute walk, or more, from our living areas. We decided to drive. As we are filling out paperwork, the admin comes in and tells Bonnie that her car is being towed. Apparently we parked in a parking lot for a different building, but that happened to be right across from HR. Good times. So, Bonnie runs outside to try and catch them before they get her car on the truck. Unfortunately, they already had it loaded. Bonnie would have had to give the woman loading her car $80 cash to take it down. Thinking that was a sketchy situation, Bonnie opted to let her take it. Plus, who carries about $80 cash?? So, in order to get to our next destination, ID Cards, we had to walk. Mind you, it's our first day, we are all dressed in slacks and nice shirts, our hair is down, we look nice. Well, a 3o minute walk in the humidity will make you look less nice.

We got our ID Cards and had to walk about another 1o minutes back to O-House, where the Res Life Offices are. I realize that a 20 minute walk and a 10 minute walk seem like nothing, and i would agree. However, when is it like 85 degree outside with 90% humidity, it's a bloody long walk!

I just realized that I never introduced you to my fellow interns! Here is a picture of them:

On the left we have Kara, in the middle is Bonnie, and to the right is Kelli.

Kara and Kelli and overseeing the Summer Seminars program. These are week-long programs for high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

Bonnie and I are overseeing the Rising Star summer program. This is a 5-week program in which incoming high school seniors take college-level courses.

After lunch, we went to admissions for a mini-presentation about the programs we are coordinating. The admissions building was so amazing! I took some pictures :)

The mascot of SCAD is a bee:

That pretty much concluded our first day!

In case you were wondering, Bonnie got her car back later that day.

My Digs

I am a little behind on posting, so you will get about 3 new posts in the next hour or so!

The following are photos of my room, a very typical residence hall room. I live in Turner House, which was built in 2005 and is one of the newest residence halls at SCAD. I get my own room with an attached bathroom, none of the housing at SCAD has communal bathrooms, which is nice. Since these rooms are triples, I have three beds, 3 dressers, and 3 drafting tables. Two of the beds are bunked to save space. They also gave me a mini fridge and microwave, which is pretty nice. Once the students arrive, I will be able to eat in the dinning halls and not rely on microwavable mac and cheese to get me through the day!

SCAD Catalog:

My bed:

My drafting table:

My vanity area:

My food and stereo area:

The view from my room, the bridge to South Carolina:

Getting to Savannah!

It's been a crazy couple of days!!

I'm currently sitting in an air conditioned Starbucks in downtown Savannah and it's amazing! I love this city! I feel like I am in a completely different world from Southern California.

I left California at 11am Friday morning flying on Delta, an airline I have never flown with before. Before I boarded the plan I took my Dramamine and was prepared to sleep the whole way! Well, that didn't happen. What was cool about the Delta flight was that each seat had a TV! Even better than that, they had HGTV. In case you didn't know, I've been obsessed with HGTV for like 3 weeks. So, I didn't sleep. Instead, I watched HGTV the entire way to Atlanta. The other reason I couldn't sleep was the child sitting behind me who insisted on kicking and/or hitting the back of me seat the entire way (Thank you to his Mom who did absolutely nothing about it. Great parenting). Other fail factors included the awful turbulence and the child in front of me who kept throwing her bottle at me. Awesome.

As we were approaching Atlanta, our Captain announced that we were going to have to circle for a few minutes because of the weather. I was okay with this because my connecting flight to Savannah was about an hour after we were to land in Atlanta. A few minutes late wasn't going to kill me. Well after about 10 minutes the Captain announced that we didn't have enough fuel to circle any longer and we were going to go to Alabama to refuel. Awesome. We were in Alabama for about 45 minutes, long enough for me to miss my flight to Savannah.

When we got to Atlanta, I checked the departing flights and as it turned out, my flight to Savannah had been canceled, so it didn't matter that I had missed it. At this point, I was in terminal E. The next flight to Savannah was at 9:35pm, leaving out of terminal D. So I hopped on the tram thing and went to terminal D. When I finally got to the counter, the woman who helped me said she could put me on stand-by for the flight, but there were already like 50 people on stand-by for this flight. I told her to put me on stand-by for the 10:45pm flight to Savannah instead. Well, that flight was leaving from terminal B. So, back to the tram I went and went to terminal B. I went to the gate for the 10:45pm flight and waited. They flashed the list of stand-by passengers and their ranking...I was number 43. Awesome. Knowing I was not going to make this flight, I proceeded to the Delta help desk. I stood in that line for about 45 minutes. When I got to the counter I knew I was going to have to get on a flight in the morning. I told the Delta agent to put me on any flight that was a guaranteed seat. I did not want to be on stand-by. He put me on the 8:25am flight and I had a seat!

I was offered a voucher to pay only $50 for a hotel room, but I didn't think it was worth it. By the time I would have left the airport and got to the hotel, I would have had to turn around and come back. So, I stayed the night in the Atlanta Airport. It really wasn't so bad. I read a book on my Nook, listen to music, and worked on my Capstone! I was pretty productive.

When I got on my flight the next morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find out the Delta agent had given me a First Class seat! Mind you, it was only a 45 min. flight, but it was an awesome 45 minutes. When I arrived in Savannah, which is a gorgeous airport, I was a little worried about my luggage. Since my original flight was canceled, I wasn't sure where my luggage was. Thankfully, it was sitting in a holding room at the Delta office.

So, I know this sounds like an awful experience, but it really wasn't that bad. There wasn't anything I could do. I had to make the best of the situation, and I did. The most important thing is that I made it here! I don't have any pictures to share yet, but I am hoping to take a few today.

. : Kate : .
(or Julia to some of you)