Stonehill Zero, Stonehill One...

Hey folks,

I'm currently back at work in the Admissions Office. I am rested, (relatively) healthy, and no longer wearing head-to-toe purple. That, my dear friends, can only mean one thing...

...Summer Orientation is over :(

Let me now try and recap the last week and a half that was in the next few posts:

We began last Thursday (17th) meeting in the Sem for a welcome back lunch and to exchange the binders we made for our Secret Peer Mentor (think Secret Santa with little gifts throughout the semester). The binder you make for them, they use throughout Orientation to carry all of the many schedules, rosters, and papers we need. After that we over we did some training for the rest of the day. We ate dinner with our partner and had to reach under the chair for the word that our group name was to include. This year my partner was Nicole, a rising sophomore.

Everyone on the Peer Mentor team get paired with another PM, usually finding out who they are in a dramatic fashion right before we leave for the summer. Together, these two partners make up an orientation group and lead about 25-30 new students throughout orientation. As for the names, they are based upon our overall orientation theme. This year's was "Forever Young". Therefore, each word had something to do with youth or childhood. We had the luck (some would say) to have chosen the word "Barbie". Sure enough, by the end of the dinner Nicole and I put our heads together and Barbie and Ken's Sassy Stonehill Superstars was born!
Our night ended it in the common room watching the Lakers take on the Celtics in Game 7. As the only Lakers fan in the place, I was jeered throughout the game. But, as usual, came out victorious! Later on, we played a giant game of hide and go seek in and around the Sem.

The next day was an early morning for us as we received presentations and updates from offices around campus such as Community Expectations, Health and Wellness, and Academic Services. Later that night, the fun began as we were each given $20 to spend on our groups. So the carpools to iParty and Wal-Mart began...
We rode with Diana and Bri, who bought a inflatable pony that each member of their group ended up signing. But the most inventive in the car had to be Lauren and Kate who needed props to make them look like a scientist. Naturally, they stopped at Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton and went to the nurses station! Nicole and I bought some plates to use as door tags and some cowbells and whistles that we could use for our big entrance...

Coming back to campus, we made some signs and enjoyed some late night take-out. The next day we were up early again. This time we were quizzed on everything Stonehill from what to do if you have a bad roommate to what options there are to stay healthy on campus. Before we knew it, training was over! Very soon, orientation would be all too real...

We had a day off on Sunday, Father's Day, so I woke up early to surprise my pops back in CT. My mother told him that they would go out for a nice lunch at one of our favorite restaurants: Rein's Deli. I met my dad at the table as he came to take his seat. He was pretty shocked, but he was really happy. We had some great reubens and sweet potato fries. Before we knew it however, I had to turnaround and make the trek back up to Stonehill for a 6pm meeting.

At the meeting, we went over the 20 page schedule for orientation called the Grid. After that was done, we made the final preparations for tomorrow and took our team picture.

You work up quite an appetite planning so a bunch of us went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for sustenance. If you followed my blog at all when I was in D.C., you know the most dangerous place in the world is between me and a Five Guys burger. I was in heaven.

All that eating can make a person pretty tired, so I tried (emphasis on tried) to fall asleep early. As I lay on my lumpy mattress, it became all too real: my last orientation was about to begin.

To Be Continued...

The Newest You Tube Sensation

Hey folks,

Really quick little post for you. Evan, a Stonehill Admissions Counselor, gave us a nice little project for a lazy Monday afternoon at work. His instructions: take the office's FlipCam and make a funny, yet informative video talking about Stonehill's Freshman Housing...



Dear World,

You're welcome.

Love,
Brian and Matt

A Day in the Bronx

Hey folks,

It's the middle of a relatively slow, yet shortened work week here at The Hill. Tomorrow is my last day before an extended break to train for freshman Orientation! Come Thursday, the other Peer Mentors and I will be back for a week and a half to meet the Class of 2014.

But before I go, let me fill you in on the happenings a pretty cool weekend.

I actually had to head home this weekend because my Dad got tickets to a Yankees game on Saturday. It is now a longstanding annual tradition with my family. We started back in 1998 and, oddly enough, my first-ever Yankee game was rained out. Since then, we go every year to at least one game. If we're lucky, we also try and go to other ballparks as well, including Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, and Camden Yards.

So my two uncles, my dad, and I left for the ballgame around 8:45am. We stopped at an amazing place for breakfast: Duchess. It has been a tradition for us since we started. Duchess is best described as a type of fast-food diner popular in Southern Connecticut. So armed with home fried and hash browns, we continued into the Empire State for our meeting with the most successful team in all of sports.

We made it to the Stadium around 11am or so. We had some time to kill so we mosied on in to the stadium's Hard Rock Cafe for some drinks. I was pretty impressed with it. It wasn't that crowded and the service was great! Maybe it was also the fact that staring me right in the face was a wall filled with Bob Dylan memorabilia, including his leather jacket and used setlist.

After spending some time there, we made our way to our seats and promptly ordered up some hot dogs before the game started. It turns out it was "Military Appreciation Day" at the Stadium, so a military plane flew overheard and several paratroopers jumped out and landed on the field. The first one landed and then introduced the others as they fell. It was pretty cool. (Alright, so it was at this point that I was going to paste the two videos I took of the paratroopers coming in to the Stadium. Unfortunately, my computer does not care about my blog much at all and they won't upload. If I get it to work soon, then I'll put 'em up.)

Once the game started, it was pretty much all Yankees. Derek Jeter led off the bottom of the first with a home run (his first of two in the game) and later on Jorge Posada crushed a fastball into right field for a grand slam. Javier Vasquez pitched pretty decently and got the victory as the Yanks beat the Houston Astros 9-5. Below is a picture of the old Yankee Stadium, which is located across the street from the new one. Last year when I went, it was still standing. Now it is a mere pile of dirt...

On the way back home through Connecticut we continued our tradition and stopped at the famed Duchess for dinner. It was delicious. They have great hot dogs and cheeseburgers. I opted for the bacon cheeseburger. It did not disappoint! Anybody heading down to Southern CT, I highly recommend it!
I made it back to the house later that night and I was exhausted. My mom made me some food and I ended up crashing on the leather chair watching HBO on Demand.

All is right with the world.

Take care everybody! Coming up...Orientation!

Futon Trouble...and Triumph!

Hey folks,

Finishing up an interesting weekend full of...nothing really. Most of our time this weekend was spent with my roommate Brian either reading or sitting on the futon mowing down Oreo sleeves. So I would have to say it was an incredibly successful weekend!

Anyways, just wanted to give you some insight into the perils of moving-in for the summer. But let me give you some background first:

Setting: Stonehill Commencement Weekend 2010. My second weekend on campus that summer was also the weekend of the college's graduation. The last Stonehill graduation I had been to was in 1998, in the pouring rain, when my cousin was a senior here. This year had considerably better weather though...

I awoke around 9:30am to a beautiful May day. After showering and getting dressed, I meandered over to the Quad for the 10am ceremony. I came just in time for the grads to process down Donahue hill and into their seats. I took special care to watch the actions of my friend Kevin, the senior class president, to see what I would need to do for next year.
After a great ceremony, I made my way around congratulating all my graduating friends and heading back to a quiet existence in Dunster. The afternoon after Commencement is always fraught with some stress. Many students haven't moved out entirely and a mad scramble ensues to get all of their belongings out the door, while trying to still make room in the family Toyota for Grandma. This year was no different. Shortly after the ceremony I got a knock on my door from James, who lived upstairs. He had a nice futon in his room that he didn't feel like hauling back to his house. He asked me if I wanted it and I jumped at it. Sure it was wobbly and used, but a futon's a futon, right?

We moved it down into our common room until we could move into summer housing and I proceeded to use it all week for reading. When Brian and I moved into our summer house, we moved it in with much difficulty. We lifted it gingerly up stairs, dodging sprinklers and making sure it was still all intact.
That first night, Brian decided to try it out in our new home. Brian plopped onto it and, sure enough, it collapsed! One side had sheared a screw right off and the other side was barely hanging on...almost three distinct pieces. Not to mention, we also had the giant mattress that went along with it. For an entire day, we had this scrap metal and large sack of feathers laying around our room as we stepped around every-which-way to avoid it. We needed a resolution.

Enter Target. After work we made our way over and found 100 feet of weight-bearing rope. We brought it back and went straight to work. After using 90 feet of rope and working up a pretty good sweat, we basically tied the thing together. The big test then became...would it hold us?


YES!! I can proudly say it is standing strong to this day...along with 90 feet of rope. It is a perfect companion to my new TV!
That's all I got for now. Take care!