Schedule: Unwrapped

So like I promised, I'm going to write a short summary to each time/activity so you can get a better glimpse into my day.
Here goes.

7:00 WAKE UP you lazy bum! (This one is self explanatory; gotta get my butt outta bed.)

7:30-8:30 Breakfast in O'Hill (My suite and I walk across the lawn to the cafeteria, AKA O'Hill [Observatory Hill] dining hall. It is good food compared to regular school cafeteria food, but to any other meals it's just plain alright. But that's to be expected.)

8:45-10:15 Morning Workshop Lab (We all split up into our separate genres and I hang with my Creative Nonfiction peeps. We work with our two TA's [teacher assistants] and do some exercises that help stretch us and better us in our writing and free writes. There's generally an activity/prompt that we work the whole class around.)

10:15-10:30 Break (15 minutes to breathe before something else starts up. This break is greatly appreciated.)

10:30-11:30 Writing Time (We sit and either pull out our pencils and notebooks or laptops and fingers and just plain write. Write write write, whatever comes to mind, something you need to work on for workshop. Just as long as you're writing. This is probably one of my favorite times out of the whole day.)

11:30-12:40 Lunch; Independent Writing Time (Again we make the short [but hot] trek across the lawn to O'Hill dining hall and indulge in its lovely lunches. If we get done early, we can go back to our suites and write some more as we wait for the next activity to roll around.)

12:45 Leave for Workshops (At around 12:35, we split into genres again on the lawn just out front of Tuttle [the house of dorms that we live in] and then leave on our journey to the Hall where we have our intensive afternoon workshops. It's long and hot the majority of the time, but it's worth it when you get to the doors of the Hall and air conditioning almost blasts you away.)

1-3:30 The Intensive Afternoon Workshop (This is my favorite part of the day. Our main Teacher (Julia McGill) shows up and bends and molds us even more by throwing prompts at us and challenging our writings in many different ways. For instance, I wrote an art critique in the format I would normally, kind of like an organized essay. We "workshopped" it [this means we went into small groups and read it out loud and got feedback on it, what we should change, what we should definitely keep, etc.] and Julia challenged me to put it in poem form, just to do something different. Now, I'm no poet and it's not one of my strengths, so at first I was like okay, I might try it, vaguely thinking about it. But then I actually did it and she liked it. We workshopped this poem and she wanted a printed copy to use as a model for how much different your piece can come out from what you originally planned. It was pretty awesome.
I also really like my Creative Nonfiction family. I'm so chill and used to them now, so I don't have to worry about if I cry in class because of what I wrote or write something that sounds incredibly stupid. They understand what's going on in my head and it's so cool (: )

3:30-4:15 Break (Another breather before the next activity. This break is also very nice.)

4:15-5:30 Electives (The day before, we sign up for electives which are afternoon activities ranging from Beardology to Ultimate Frisbee. They're pretty neat and I try to do them every chance I get, but sometimes I just need plain ol' writing time, which is also an option in place of an elective.)

5:30-7:00 Dinner; Independent Writing Time (When 5:30 rolls around, we know it's time to trudge back over to O'Hill for din din [or yum yums, as Erika Lewis, one of the head counselor people here likes to call it.] After la cena, we chill in our suites for a little bit before the next activity.)

7:00-9:00 Cultural/Social Events; Student Staff Meetings (Poetry slams, faculty and staff readings, student readings, plays, you name it. And at times, important announcements.)

9:00-9:45 Personal time for writing projects, etc. (Quiet time [generally] to work on something you need to get done for workshop or just time to roll around other ideas in your head; this time is dedicated to anything writing.)

9:45-10:45 Suite Time ("SUIIIIITE TIIIIIIME" as the suite next to us likes to yell. Our 120s suite gathers out in the main area on the couches and floor and hang out. Sometimes we play Apples to Apples, sometimes we watch "Freaks and Geeks," we talk about how our day/week has been, etc. This time is dedicated to suites doing things together with their suites.

10:45 Get ready for bed (Suite time is over and it's really time to wind down and think about sleeping.)

11:00 Over head light must be out (We don't necessarily have to be asleep when 11 rolls around, we just need the room's main light to be shut off. Sometimes I'll take showers at this time or continue on my writing projects until I'm tired and need to go to bed. Although sometimes when I'm in bed and preparing to go sleep, someone starts talking to me about...random things :P )

Whew! So that wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be. But anyway, enjoy! It is a packed day and I'm glad again that the weekend is here to let me relax a little bit. Last weekend, by the end of Sunday I was refreshed and ready to get back to it, so I hope it'll be the same after this weekend.
Gah! Only 5 more days left! What?! That is insane. I can't believe the 2nd week is already over. I'm really really glad I didn't do first session, because I was fully adapted to everything here by the time this past Friday rolled around.

Thanks friends and family for your support and encouragement (:
And thank you so much Mom and Dad, for backing me up in this decision. I'm not tired of writing yet, I'm actually enjoying just how much we're writing, which is constantly. I'm so eager and excited to finish out this next week with a bang. (:

Love out to you all, and I'll even add a cyber hug just for you!

~Vicki