Stonehill Four, Stonehill Five...

Session One was done. Wednesday was a day for some rest and relaxation.

Despite it being my one day off that week, Wyatt and I awoke early (9am) to make our way to Back Bay Bagel. We each had a gift certificate there, so we sat in peace devouring our bagels and juice.

Back on campus, we retreated to my room for the USA World Cup game on my big screen. We sat in dread until the first minute of extra time when the USA team scored a goal that sent them to the next round and saved them from elimination! We went nuts!

Wyatt left soon after and I spent the afternoon left with nothing to do...

...so naturally I indulged my passions: clean clothing and Bruce Springsteen. As the purple knee-socks spun in the dryer cycle, I laid on my bed watching the new Bruce concert DVD that had come in the mail for me. Eventually, my rest turned into a full-on nap. I really needed it.

I woke up around 3:30pm and showered and dressed for our 4pm "meeting". Every year on our day-off, the PM team organizes a trip to do something fun. Last year, we stayed on campus and did karaoke. This year, we met to find that we were going to Starland Recreation Center. It about 30 minutes away and has mini-golf, go-carts, laser tag, etc.

A few of us piled into my car as we hopped on Route 3 to find the place. Once there, we got right in line for the laser tag. I showed off my stealthy moved honed from years playing NERF around the house...by myself. What got me was they didn't keep score!!?? Are you kidding me?!

Go-carts and I normally don't mix very well; I almost seem to crash them or have some time of incident that almost gets me banned. However, I climbed into this one, looking around at the unsuspecting tween workers who have no idea of my history.

Thankfully, no incidents this time. Afterward, we hit up the batting cages and even some mini-golf.
We capped the evening off with a sno-cone and soon we were back on campus getting ready for Round 2. Nicole and I hung name-tags up, we went over the grid, and soon I retreated to my bed for an attempt at some sleep.

Here we go again...

Stonehill Two, Stonehill Three...

The night of tossing and turning had come to an end. It was Monday morning. Showtime.

I awoke from my room in the Sem early. Like 5:45am early. Showered, dressed in head-to-toe in purple, and drove to the Commons for breakfast with the other PMs. It always seems that it is at this point that it really hits me. Music is playing (cue the "Bulletproof"), everyone in the room is filled with nervous energy, and it all culminates when the Director of Student Activities, Jim Hermelbracht, greets us with a hearty "Good Morning!!"

After our breakfast of eggs and bacon, we are off to our assigned locations. I was stationed at Boland Hall. Along with a few other PM's, we helped check incoming students into where they'd be staying that night.

9:30am came very quickly as the masses assembled at the Sports Complex for the Opening Ceremony. It is at this time that the PM's run in and do the famed "Stonehill Cheer" that are the inspirations for the titles of the posts. Nicole and I donned tiaras and a hat shaped like a baseball respectively. For the record, the whistle was a total bust.

After we all ran out, we stood around the Sports Complex with our signs and it was showtime. We met our groups and proceeded to spend some time with them, bring them to various presentations, and eat a boxed lunch on the quad. The time eventually winds around to dinner and everyone begins to prepare for PlayFair that night.

Inevitably, this is the conversation between a PM and an accepted student:

Student: What's PlayFair?
PM: Hmm...I can't really explain it.
Student: Why can't you tell us?
PM: It's hard to explain. It's kinda like a giant icebreaker. But fun! And active!
Student: (skeptical look)

PlayFair is best described as a three-ring circus that acts as a giant, non-awkward icebreaker. It is very active and you meet almost all the students at that session in about 2 hours. PM's usually have just as much fun as the students do. We usually work up a heavy sweat by the time the students get to it.

We all line up on the football field in two lines clapping, chanting, and just all around being loud. The students then must run through us like the starting lineups for a basketball team.

After PlayFair, the skeptical looks turn to big smiles and exclaimations of "Wow, that actually was pretty cool."

When it is done, everyone goes to the Commons for some activities like Bingo and a dance. Yet again, the PM's seem to be the center of attention as each evening winds to a close with the playing of Don't Stop Believing and Piano Man. The seniors prepared ourselves for the sadness that would accompany these songs come Thursday night, during our last orientation. For now though, the mood was light and as we went to bed it became hard to believe it was only Monday still.

Tuesday came quite early. Though sad to say, it was almost like sleeping in. I awoke around 7am and met our group for breakfast. Tuesday is a lot less tiring of a day for the PM's as the incoming students are in meetings and presentations for much of the shortened day and we simply walk them from place to place for much of it.

After lunch, we have our last group time. This is always a fun one because after about 30 hours together, the students really open up and feel comfortable with each other. We usually play some games, reflect on orientation, and have some time to check out the bookstore!

At 3pm, the PM's line the steps to Donahue Hall as the students walk up the hill for the closing ceremony. Liz, our Orientation Coordinator, gives a little speech and each group presents a series of "We Are" statements that best sums up their group's characteristics. It was a pretty cool end.
And with that, session one was done! The team retreated to the Commons to sprawl across the floor and go over what went right/wrong with the session. We moved it along quite quickly however, because, per tradition, we are treated to dinner at TownSpa, a local pizza joint.

Coming back to campus, some of the team went to hang out in a common room while others went to the Quad for some Capture the Flag. I tried the latter and got bored, so I headed in fairly quickly to see the rest of the team. My plans to get to bed early were easily forgotten as the midnight hour passed. After almost dozing off on the O'Hara Common Room floor, I summoned my strength and retreated to my room. But not before grabbing my comfy mattress-topper from my room!

Session 1 down, 1 more to go. But not before our day off and a much needed surprise...

To Be Continued.

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!

Summer Kickoff

Hey folks,

I'm currently holding down the fort at Stonehill working as a summer tour guide. I started the Monday after school got out after a brief respite in Washington D.C.

For the first two weeks, it was pretty quiet. Only a handful of kids were on campus. Oddly, enough two of those people lived int he same room: my roommate Tom and I. So there was little to do except make our weekly jaunts to Owen O'Leary's and get up at 7:30 for work. There is also no meal plan in the summer, so that means we are cooking for ourselves (ugh).

I went home for Memorial Day weekend on Friday. We had a lot going on that weekend, so I was able to see a lot of family. On Saturday, my family drove over to New York for my cousin-to-be Ashley's bridal shower. She and my cousin Eddie drove up from D.C. (just a few short weeks after getting a visit from yours truly). While the ladies went off to do whatever it is they do at those things, the guys picked up six feet of subs and sat out on the back deck.

It was great to see everybody in one place once again. Usually when I come home for a weekend, I'm rushing around trying to make sure I see as much family as I can. That day, we had family come up from Connecticut, New York, and Gettysburg, PA. Later on, as the weather got hotter, Ed and I took a dip in the pool.

The next day, my aunt and uncle had a little picnic. My cousin Dave, his wife, and kids came down for the weekend. It was my first official cookout of the summer! I got my little cousin Jackson a "bubble gun" and, as you can see, we were both very entertained... On Monday the cookouts continued as my family and I woke up early to catch our town's Memorial Day parade. Once back home, I fired up the grill for the first time this summer and ate some more cheeseburgers!

I had to get back on the road soon after, because...wait for it...we planned another BBQ at school. Memorial Day weekend was when we moved into our summer housing. So it was the time that all my friends that are doing SURE (Stonehill's Undergraduate Research) and, of course, my roommate Brian. We grilled up some more burgers, had some hot dogs and salad too. But again, since it was move-in day, I had to still move some stuff from my old house into my new one.

Once everything was all set in our new room Owen O'Leary's awaited!

That's it for now.

Take care!