Orientation Nation

Today, technically Day 2 on the OI campus, we had orientation -- just me and the 25 or so other "newbies" that happen to be here already. (There will be 35 more new Seasonal Staffers arriving next Monday, not to mention how many returning seasonal staffers some of whom are already here.) It was our second day of beautiful sunshineyness; I have been very appreciative, as I know those are not all that common around here this time of year.

Not much to report. Just getting used to living in my grimey dorm room, getting used to meeting new people, walking everywhere, etc. Getting used to feeling itchy a lot -- whether i'm being worried about the Lyme epidemic that can happen here or whether I'm just feeling itchy from dried sweat or dirt or grime.

And I haven't even started Work yet! That's tomorrow, 9am. I'm so curious how that will go.

The campus gets abandoned every winter, so they're just working on getting all the plumbing throughout campus working and heaters back on line, etc. So, as a housekeeper, we'll be de-dusting, de-moldifying, de-winterizing all the rooms, cabins, dorms. That's a lot. Workshops don't start till last few days of April. That's when the housekeeping duties will probably be the most timely and necessary.

Let me just say that I've been pleasantly surprised with how most people here are very "normal" about this whole deal. So many of us make the same jokes - about having to call home to tell our family that no, we've NOT joined a cult, etc. Most of us seem to want to disobey some of the rules about some of the cleaning supplies we're using for our rooms - I want to scrub and disinfect but we're supposed to use eco-friendly stuff. Me, I wanna bleach the place out! Most of the people I've encountered seem to be very similar to my belief systems on many things -- just generally not happy with the way the country is going, maybe not with how the world is going, wanting to do our part and wanting to help facilitate change, but definitely not totally banging the drum all the time.

That being said, even the most seemingly skeptical of the people I've met has been hypothesizing that the reason we're all SO tired, so exhausted even though we haven't even started working yet is that this place and the concentration of people here is "vibrating" at such a higher energy field that we're just feeling overwhelmed with all the positive energy.

Truth be told, I kind of agree, somewhat. Even if that does make me sound hippy-dippy.

Well, it's way past my newly instilled bedtime. I guess the outing to Walmart tonight might have gotten me kind of strung out and wired; I'm not tired at all right now.

More later, of course.

PS: When I arrived in my room the other day, there was a little note and a little vase with a little flower in it. The note had the following quote which I find to be quite appropo:
"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." - Mahatma Gandhi