Ahhh the fun little quirks

Debriefing by Eros:
Today was arts and crafts day for us in the dorms. We had to make door decorations, or "door decs" as the cool kids call them, for students in our clan. Yes, our groups are called clans, keep in mind it is not spelled with a "k" so it is ok. The clans are organized according to major. Amy is in charge of the Justice clan while I'm doing the Wildlife Biology clan. So we made cool little door decorations with the kids' names on them. We also made a clan poster with the names of all the kids in each of the majors. So basically today was a lot of coloring, cutting, and gluing. Our degrees being put to good use. I posted those pictures for your viewing pleasure. I'm still figuring out blogger so I wasn't able to put it in the text here. I'll figure that out later.

In addition to arts & crafts we had meetings. I've discovered that no matter what field you're in, meetings are rarely productive. There were some interesting things that we learned from this meeting though. For instance, when a native Alaskan is gesturing yes, they do not nod their head. Instead, they raise their eyebrows. Also, looking down at the floor while you are talking to them is a sign of respect, not disrespect.

So today we got to learn a little more about our co-workers...

One of the teachers lived for a number if years in a tree. Another one just had a baby whose name is Atreyu (from the Never Ending Story). And my favorite so far, one of the other RM's (resident mentors) parents are survivalists. That means that she has in her possession from them: 2 boxes of military rations, Costco-size boxes of ramen and water, various flashlights and matches, and finally because she was living on the 8th floor of her dorm last year she has a climbing harness and enough rope for her to rappel down 8 stories in case of an emergency.

An Alaska Joke From Amy:
A baby seal walks into a bar, looking exhausted. The bartender asks him what he'd like to drink, and the seal replies, "Hey, give me anything but a Canadian Club on the rocks."

Additional sidenotes by Amy:
Not only did I recently get my driver's license back, but now I have license to drive a diesel bus that holds sixteen kids. Sweeeet. Will post pix the first time we drive that bad boy.

The search for gigantic 24-hour sun-fed vegetables has begun. They should start rolling into the farmer's markets soon, but apparently the really big ones are found farther south near Anchorage (about a 6-hour drive). When I mentioned a conquest to find a "carrot as big as my arm" no one seemed to think this would be outrageous. There are also cabbages that could potentially fit a human inside. This is a cool state indeed.