SLAM!

"You will have seven minutes to present your project with your group to us on Friday night," James tells us the first night. I can feel my heart drop. This feels a lot like school. You know, that place I thought I had escaped for three months? Even worse, it's a group project. If there's one teaching theory I know, it's the group project formula. Put an overachiever with two okay workers and one slacker stir twice and watch what happens. In theory, the overachiever sets the bar high and inspires the others to achiever their potential. Quickly, I came to my senses. It was a camp full of nerds. Chances are more likely that we'll beat each other over the head with a club trying to out-perform one another.

Our first assignment for the night was to a) come up with a name, b) come up with a Life Sciences invention, c) assign two shoppers to get supplies on Wednesday, one leader and one notetaker and d) put it together and present it Friday night for our (at the time) three counselors: Jon, Devin Doughnuts and Dr. James.

I guess Dani summed our counselors up best tonight after bowling: "James, you're like our dad. You tell us when to go to bed and what to do. Set the rules and stuff. And Devin's like our mom, she takes care of us. And you, Jon, you're like our big brother."

To which Jon replied, "I don't want to be the big brother, 'cause I deserve some respect. Can I be the crazy uncle?"

I've never been to any other camp before. Not bible camp or Girl Scout Camp or any other kind of camp. But I guess I didn't expect our councelors to be so enthusastic. I expected college kids who would rather be hanging out with their friends but really needed the college credit, so here they were. W-R-O-N-G. James just got his doctorette. That is WAY more dedication than even I want to think about. At least in one sitting anyway. When we got to Venture Out for some experiential education, they were probably more stoked to be there than we were. In retrospect, because in all likelihood they planned at least part of it. After playing something with a blob, we split into two groups: ninjas and giraffes by closing our eyes and making what sounds the two groups make. I'm pretty sure all the giraffes ran around saying, "Giraffe?" or "Not a ninja!"

We did several team building excerises, but none of them included climbing the scary tower that over shadowed us. Which was good, because one of the common threads of topic when getting to know everyone was, "Tell me again whose idea it was to send a bunch of nerds to a wall climbing place? Don't they realize we lack upper body strength?" We had to get a marble (our goal) through our tubes (steps taked to achieve the goal) to the bucket (the finish line), get everyone across the river, and have three groups finish three puzzles (when we all work together, everyone wins). Showers ("This is how it's going to be all week," James told us, and a chorus of groans went up), pizza, cards, games and in rooms by eleven thirty ensued. My head seemed to barely touch the pillow before I was waking up to go eat breakfast.

Just so you know, the Plaza 900 is uh-mazing. Every sugared cereal, bacon, biscuits, omelettes, juices, milks, butters, jellies, and fruits you can imagine. I made myself a handsome waffle with an MU insigna in the middle. Monday was a blur of walking, first to Brady Commons to get our student I.D.'s (Will I ever take a picture in which I don't look stoned?), then on a campus tour (Summer Welcome '07 is also going on. Adam pointed out two BSSHS kids.), and finally to a discussion in the Life Sciences building. The most comfortable chairs and some of the most interesting discussion about ethics in science (stem cells, abortion, cloning, animal testing, you name it, we talked about it). The garden path outside was shaped like a double helix. I know, you're jealous.

Then we split into three groups: lazers, deer, and biotechnology. Biotechnology consisted of a forty-five minute lecture and two lab activities. Then the Dept. of Law tried to steal us away and we toured the arena. The most expensive suite is 40K a year. You have to own it for at least seven years, as well as make a very generous contibution to some part of MU. Everyone was eager to get their AP scores and most of dinner was spent dicussing our cities and different friends. Then it was off to bowling where they gave us tokens. I challenged Adam to air hockey and lost, 5-7. Andrew and Jake entertained us all in DDR.

The day ended with a trivia game, meeting in our groups and Texas Hold 'Em. It ended when John had two aces and two were laid on the table. Three people went all in and lost. We're trying to get an okay to go watch movies in the pool at the Rec center. Devin says we're going to Cold Stone tomorrow. Twofer Tuesday! Cookie says that's all there is.