ahhhhhh :)

Tuesday was technically my first day of school. It was wonderful, we played some bonding games where we all had an excuse to touch each other. There was this one game where some people were blindfolded, and we were stripping because it was so hot, and...yeah. Good times.

I'm in Christine's advisory and it's marvelous! It consists of Landon, Zach, Connor, Zeb, me, and Joey. (Her name is Johana, she's the German exchange student who's staying for six months). Everyone is either funny, nice, or rather attractive (I'm such a hormonal teenager haha) so I'm very pleased with my advisory. :)

So Wednesday morning we left and had a three hour car ride, which was a pleasant surprise considering we were informed of a four hour ride. The mornings and nights were below 40 and the afternoons were above 70, but there were a few brief moments in the day when we weren't fretting over the temperature. Sleeping in that tent was freezing, the guys lucked out with ones made out of metal and plywood so they were actually warm. But oh well, we toughed it out, because that's how chicks do it.

As I knew would happen, I am a Caring person. There are these things called Facilitation teams, and I know them a little bit more than I did last week. Apparently there's a facilitator who runs the meeting, a speaker's list who writes down who has their hand raised so the facilitator can call on the next person, a note taker (too obvious for explanations), and a time keeper. There might be a moderator, but I'm not sure. Each facilitation team is about four or five people. The ideal team has at least one person from each corner (Action, Caring, Structure, and Meaning). Since there were a few students who didn't go on the retreat some kids aren't in a team yet. That means mine's missing one person, but I like it. I have Cody, Nick, Noah, and myself. Cody's a redheaded redneck, one of the people who lives on a farm and tells lots of hay stories. Nick is really interesting, in a completely awesome way. Both of them are nice and extremely funny. Then there's Noah, who's alright. I can't complain. He just happens to brag with all his drug and sex stories, trying to impress the upperclassmen (he's a frosh). Coincidentally, all of my team is from York except for me. Marilyn said something like "3 Yorkies and a Bunker" and Flora asked "Is that a joke?" "Where's the punch line?" haha

Something that really boosted my self esteem was when the senior leaders (Landon, who technically should be a senior, Tim, Connor, Cody, and Zach) were picking their team: playground style. They were going around in a circle and started with Action because that's who they were closest to, and then instead of going in any logical order Connor skipped over the next group to Caring and chose me by pointing and saying "I pick Sara". (In elementary school not only was I picked last, sometimes the others would act like I was invisible and not pick me at all, even in gym class when the teacher was there. It felt so great to sever that part of my life.) But there were two Sara's, (we both spell our name the same, have red hair, and don't eat meat haha) and she wasn't looking. She thought he meant her, so she sat down right next to me and we were both confused as to who Connor was motioning to. After everyone had been picked we asked him for clarification. Cody said he wanted me, too, so Connor gave me up to him. Somehow I ended up on three teams. haha it felt so great to be wanted! Especially because I thought Connor didn't like me. He's another redneck, go figure.

Then white water rafting! It was awesome!! I was in a raft with all adults and new kids (except for Rhiannon) including Will (Cody's little redheaded brother), Nate, Jamie, me, an alumna, Flora and our awesome guide. That was when I first realized Nate was new, for some reason I was under the impression he wasn't because the other kids knew who he was. But it turns out he had taken some classes there but he was no officially a freshman. He's a Caring person like myself and has a wicked throwing arm that all the guys marvel over. He was the only person who was walking around in shorts and a t-shirt at night while we were all bundled up in our winter coats. I really like him, even if he should live in Antarctica.

All in all I had a great time, learned a lot about most of the kids, and even made a few friends. I'm so glad I'm not as shy as I used to be. Next week is health week, more on that when it happens.

kajergodfhg I love The New School, I'm actually looking forward to Monday. I don't know what's gotten into me.