NODA - Hey look! It isn't fic duel!
*le gasp* Something about REAL LIFE?! NOWAI!!!
^^ Yeah, just had to. But since I've had some people asking about it, I felt like recording down my weekend. At least to an extent. Under a cut cuz it's rather long. ^^
This past weekend, I went to Fayetteville, Arkansas in order to go to a Nation Orientation Directors Association conference, or NODA, for short. It was hosted by the University of Arkansas, and it was really fun. We brought our whole team (and were the only ones to do so) of twenty-two people (since we've lost Idua to the Office of International Affairs (I miss him)), and we had some crazy plans for the conference. The theme of the conference was "Rock-n-Roll" so we created several chants/songs that were re-made versions of old rock songs. I'm gonna write 'em down cuz they were killer fun.
Buddy, you're a young man, hard man,
Goin' to UTD,
Gonna get a PhD someday,
You got orange on your face,
Goin' to outer space,
Showin' Comet pride all over the place!
We will, we will WHOOSH you!
We will, we will WHOOSH you!
Buddy, your an old man, rich man,
Usin' your diploma to take on the world someday,
You got green on your face,
And in your briefcase,
Spreadin' Comet pride all over the place!
We will, we will WHOOSH you!
We will, we will WHOOSH you!
We had We Are the Champions too, but it ended up getting cut and I don't remember. I have the paper somewhere, but I didn't like it much, so I shall refrain from writing it down.
"Hey O-team!"
"Hey what?"
"Who do you love?"
I love UTD,
So put some orange-n-green in your lifestyle, baby!
I love UTD,
So show some comet pride and WHOOSH with me!
"Hey U!"
"TD! WHOOSH!"
"Hey O-team!"
"Hey what?"
"Are you ready?"
"For what?"
"For the Comet-O!"
"Say WHAAAAAA?!"
With your hands up high and your feet down low,
That's the way we Comet-O!
Comet-O!
Comet-O!
Comet-O!
Comet-O!
UTD, WHOOSH!
And, my personal favorite.
Other, random person: "... comets..."
Team: GOODNESS GRACIOUS, GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!!!!!
We actually didn't get to use that last one until the very last day... but I'll get to that.
The first day, we left UTD around 9:30 am or so, and drove straight there to get to our hotel around 3. We all crashed and had free time until about 4:30 when we left to go to the hotel where the conference was, just in time for those of us in Case Study to meet up with our teams and get our assignment. It turns out that they tried to sign up our entire team, when there were only 10 of us or so actually doing it, so that was kinda strange, and it made us feel bad cuz we felt like we were letting down those teams. But I got to meet my team, Mykel Estes from UT Austin and Xavier Young from SFASU. Now, I'll admit that my first impression of both of them was that they were gay, and Allison says that Xavier broke her gay-dar, but Mykel I think may have a girlfriend... but w/e. I love 'em both to death. They were a lot of fun once we started loosening up around each other and all. We didn't get too much time to talk right then, but we traded info and headed off to meetings and dinner and such, and met up later to come up with a few ideas for each of us to implement later that night, when we actually had free time.
The banquet that night was fun, and we got to stand up and do our version of We Will Rock You, which lots of people loved, though we didn't end up winning the Roll Call award (which is what that was for). The U of A kids invited all of us to their campus to go to their Friday Night Live thing that was really just free food and DDR and some other stuff, and we ended up getting lost on their campus and walking around at night trying to find where the bus was so we could go back. I ended up a little cracky and sang La Vie Boheme VERY loudly... up until I forgot part of the words. :( But a couple of others joined in, so it was fun. ^^
My directional sense finally led us in the direction (I wasn't paying attention before) and when we finally got back to the hotel and Allison and I continued watching Gundam Wing (which we had started on the road there) and eventually we crashed and she went back to her apartment while I showered, changed, and slept - and was out cold when the other two in my room came in. I only remember waking up and being like "Oh, hi." ^^ Go figure, right?
But Saturday we had to get up at an ungodly hour in order to go do our Case Study presentations. Note how much time we've had to work together on it. Yes, a few hours, at best. :P But I was in charge of writing this e-mail for ours, so I had that done and was good to go. The presentation itself went really well, and Xavier, Mykel and I came up with a mascot for the "Paradise University" that we were supposed to be representing. "Go Peacocks!" *does hand motion* It was so much fun, and the judges were utterly amused by us. ^^ Not a turkey *holds up all five fingers on each hand*, but a peacock! *holds up four fingers on each hand* *waggles fingers* :D
We then split up and did our different things, and the presentations that I went to... well, only one was really interesting that day. I went to one about risk management, that was really just like "this is the way we do our orientations and freshman camp", and then there was one about parents that was just "this is what we do with ours... got any suggestions?" But the one between them was about how to work with LGBT students, and the presenter was amazing. She was a lot of fun, and we really enjoyed listening to her. She was very helpful, and she had some really good points about even little things that people can do to make LGBT students feel more comfortable. Like calling your boy/girlfriend your "partner" instead, or similar things. It was really cool. Sometime during these sessions, Elizabeth and I ended up having a breakfast thing in the cafe that was inside the hotel. It was a fun chance to get to know someone new, and I adore her. She's really cool.
Later that day, we had dinner at this place there called AQ Chicken, and I had this awesome bowl of chicken and dumplings. It wasn't quite like home (not fluffy dumplings, sadly) but it was enough to quell the craving I've had for a while. ^^
Before dinner, we had all been split into groups to do a song and skit presentation, and it was really fun cuz my group was all girls except for Mario, and we re-did The Brady Bunch song and became the NODA bunch. ^^ And I got to have a Christmas Tree Chinchilla... yeah, sounds crazy, but it was fun. And then, in between each of the skits, the MC had these fun little things, like a dance-off and such, and at one point he had an air guitar competion, and since no one from UTD was going up there - even though all of us had inflatable air guitars - I grabbed my own from the girl I had let borrow it, and dashed up ther to be the only girl. ^^ It was SOOO much fun cuz I ended up jumping off the stage and lots of people gasped. ^^ It was killer and I wanted to do it again. I got Elizabeth to take pictures afterward with me recreating it. :D
Then we had a disco-style dance, which just ended up being like any other dance, and most of us left about half-way through, though some did leave before and after. Suzy, one of my roommates, ended up staying later or going somewhere or something, but Kristi stayed with me, and we talked about a lot of things, and it was so much fun. I feel like I really know her pretty well now, and it was funny - to me, at least - to find one more connection to Scooter, a guy in one of my classes. It's like, a negative six degrees of separation... I know him through a bunch of other people, as well as having a class with him. Small world.
Eventually though, Suzy came back, and while we had to move away from some topics, we continued talking, and eventually went to bed at about 3 or so... only to get up at 6:45 in order to pack and get ready to go to the Case Study breakfast, where the judges talked to each group about the things they liked and didn't like. We ended up getting out early cuz Mykel had to go prepare his presentation for the first session of the morning, so it went really fast, and I ended up sitting around playing Digimon on my DS cuz Xavier went up to his room to relax or whatever.
So I hung out, and eventually other OTMs came and joined me, and then it was time for the first session of the morning, which ended up being about diversity, and was about talking with people who were different than you. It was really awesome too, as one of the presenters was a freshman and was amazing at speaking and being comfortable with crowds, and the other girl was a vibrant personality (who was born in Africa, grew up in England and Alabama, and when she told us that, I started to notice the way her accent was a mix of those three. It was crazy awesome.)
The next session was about international students, and, even though we don't do international orientation, there were a lot of OTMs in there... but it wasn't that good. Two of the international students that were answering questions were clones and were just not very informative, but the other three, one of their Orientation team and two grad students (one who works for the campus and another who's a second year Masters) were really interesting and informative, and we all thought that it would have been better without the two uninformative girls.
After all this, we finally had our breakfast/brunch thing (they served the most amazing bacon, omg), and they did all the awards and stuff. We ended up with one Case Study team that got a prize, and we tied with another school for most members at the convention (we had 24 counted, due to Idua and Val, our advisor), and we got an award for having the most spirit because we would use all the chants that I typed up at the slightest provocation. We did a "UTD! WHOOSH!", and the presenter of the awards asked the audience... well, here's what happened:
Presenter: "Hey, do you all know what the whoosh is?"
Audience: *makes vague negative sounds*
Presenter: "It's the sound a comet makes, cuz that's their mascot. UTD comets."
OTMs: "GOODNESS GRACIOUS, GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!" *everyone on the team dies laughing*
So we got our spirit award, and finally got to use the Great Balls of Fire line. It was epic.
After all this, we got back on the bus and finally hit the road home (after getting lost again... which we did on the way there). It's a long drive. I'm glad I don't go to the U of A, cuz I'd NEVER go home. Unless I flew. It's like 5 hours to DALLAS. x_x
And as soon as I got back, I got Allison and Mike back to their apartments, got my stuff back to my own, and openned the door to find that August-summer-Houston had moved it. OMG, most oppressive heat I have EVER felt since moving up here. Roommate-Allison and her boyfriend were cooking (he was shirtless, which I was like o.0), and they had the A/C on heat and everything closed (windows and such) and I was like OMG I can't STAND this. So I dropped off my stuff and ran my sunglasses (that were on my head) back to my car. That's when I ran in to Kirk and we ended up talking about video games and such for about an hour and a half or so, until he eventually had to leave. During the convo, Allison left the apartment, so I ended up turning off the heat and openning the windows and such. It was horrible. *rolls eyes* Just a few months... just a few months. And then I can control it all my self while I stay here over the summer. Thank GOD.
But then I crashed. And now it is the next day. And that was NODA. And I'm rambling, so I'm gonna go continue to unpack and clean up my room which is now down a step on the CHAOS! ladder. (I can see the FLOOR! *gasp*)
Oh, and I've spent the last week or so on
answer_key, and OMG, <3. I've gone through EVERYTHING (only skipped some stuff on the first few pages), and I've made this huge list of things for
cyanwitch to read (all copied into MS word... it's like 150 pages or something of just Hikaru no Go fanfic. Which is AMAZING.)
Oh! And adventure of the day! I was putting away a sock, and was leaned over my drawer, when, somehow, I pulled the controller to my PS2 on to my head. It hit me square in the middle of my head and the first thing I said was "Dear... cranium... god!" XD It was pretty epic... and I can still kinda feel where it happened, though it was about two hours ago or so. Oh well. Much fun. ^^
Alright, unpacking time. Whee!
^^ Yeah, just had to. But since I've had some people asking about it, I felt like recording down my weekend. At least to an extent. Under a cut cuz it's rather long. ^^
This past weekend, I went to Fayetteville, Arkansas in order to go to a Nation Orientation Directors Association conference, or NODA, for short. It was hosted by the University of Arkansas, and it was really fun. We brought our whole team (and were the only ones to do so) of twenty-two people (since we've lost Idua to the Office of International Affairs (I miss him)), and we had some crazy plans for the conference. The theme of the conference was "Rock-n-Roll" so we created several chants/songs that were re-made versions of old rock songs. I'm gonna write 'em down cuz they were killer fun.
Buddy, you're a young man, hard man,
Goin' to UTD,
Gonna get a PhD someday,
You got orange on your face,
Goin' to outer space,
Showin' Comet pride all over the place!
We will, we will WHOOSH you!
We will, we will WHOOSH you!
Buddy, your an old man, rich man,
Usin' your diploma to take on the world someday,
You got green on your face,
And in your briefcase,
Spreadin' Comet pride all over the place!
We will, we will WHOOSH you!
We will, we will WHOOSH you!
We had We Are the Champions too, but it ended up getting cut and I don't remember. I have the paper somewhere, but I didn't like it much, so I shall refrain from writing it down.
"Hey O-team!"
"Hey what?"
"Who do you love?"
I love UTD,
So put some orange-n-green in your lifestyle, baby!
I love UTD,
So show some comet pride and WHOOSH with me!
"Hey U!"
"TD! WHOOSH!"
"Hey O-team!"
"Hey what?"
"Are you ready?"
"For what?"
"For the Comet-O!"
"Say WHAAAAAA?!"
With your hands up high and your feet down low,
That's the way we Comet-O!
Comet-O!
Comet-O!
Comet-O!
Comet-O!
UTD, WHOOSH!
And, my personal favorite.
Other, random person: "... comets..."
Team: GOODNESS GRACIOUS, GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!!!!!
We actually didn't get to use that last one until the very last day... but I'll get to that.
The first day, we left UTD around 9:30 am or so, and drove straight there to get to our hotel around 3. We all crashed and had free time until about 4:30 when we left to go to the hotel where the conference was, just in time for those of us in Case Study to meet up with our teams and get our assignment. It turns out that they tried to sign up our entire team, when there were only 10 of us or so actually doing it, so that was kinda strange, and it made us feel bad cuz we felt like we were letting down those teams. But I got to meet my team, Mykel Estes from UT Austin and Xavier Young from SFASU. Now, I'll admit that my first impression of both of them was that they were gay, and Allison says that Xavier broke her gay-dar, but Mykel I think may have a girlfriend... but w/e. I love 'em both to death. They were a lot of fun once we started loosening up around each other and all. We didn't get too much time to talk right then, but we traded info and headed off to meetings and dinner and such, and met up later to come up with a few ideas for each of us to implement later that night, when we actually had free time.
The banquet that night was fun, and we got to stand up and do our version of We Will Rock You, which lots of people loved, though we didn't end up winning the Roll Call award (which is what that was for). The U of A kids invited all of us to their campus to go to their Friday Night Live thing that was really just free food and DDR and some other stuff, and we ended up getting lost on their campus and walking around at night trying to find where the bus was so we could go back. I ended up a little cracky and sang La Vie Boheme VERY loudly... up until I forgot part of the words. :( But a couple of others joined in, so it was fun. ^^
My directional sense finally led us in the direction (I wasn't paying attention before) and when we finally got back to the hotel and Allison and I continued watching Gundam Wing (which we had started on the road there) and eventually we crashed and she went back to her apartment while I showered, changed, and slept - and was out cold when the other two in my room came in. I only remember waking up and being like "Oh, hi." ^^ Go figure, right?
But Saturday we had to get up at an ungodly hour in order to go do our Case Study presentations. Note how much time we've had to work together on it. Yes, a few hours, at best. :P But I was in charge of writing this e-mail for ours, so I had that done and was good to go. The presentation itself went really well, and Xavier, Mykel and I came up with a mascot for the "Paradise University" that we were supposed to be representing. "Go Peacocks!" *does hand motion* It was so much fun, and the judges were utterly amused by us. ^^ Not a turkey *holds up all five fingers on each hand*, but a peacock! *holds up four fingers on each hand* *waggles fingers* :D
We then split up and did our different things, and the presentations that I went to... well, only one was really interesting that day. I went to one about risk management, that was really just like "this is the way we do our orientations and freshman camp", and then there was one about parents that was just "this is what we do with ours... got any suggestions?" But the one between them was about how to work with LGBT students, and the presenter was amazing. She was a lot of fun, and we really enjoyed listening to her. She was very helpful, and she had some really good points about even little things that people can do to make LGBT students feel more comfortable. Like calling your boy/girlfriend your "partner" instead, or similar things. It was really cool. Sometime during these sessions, Elizabeth and I ended up having a breakfast thing in the cafe that was inside the hotel. It was a fun chance to get to know someone new, and I adore her. She's really cool.
Later that day, we had dinner at this place there called AQ Chicken, and I had this awesome bowl of chicken and dumplings. It wasn't quite like home (not fluffy dumplings, sadly) but it was enough to quell the craving I've had for a while. ^^
Before dinner, we had all been split into groups to do a song and skit presentation, and it was really fun cuz my group was all girls except for Mario, and we re-did The Brady Bunch song and became the NODA bunch. ^^ And I got to have a Christmas Tree Chinchilla... yeah, sounds crazy, but it was fun. And then, in between each of the skits, the MC had these fun little things, like a dance-off and such, and at one point he had an air guitar competion, and since no one from UTD was going up there - even though all of us had inflatable air guitars - I grabbed my own from the girl I had let borrow it, and dashed up ther to be the only girl. ^^ It was SOOO much fun cuz I ended up jumping off the stage and lots of people gasped. ^^ It was killer and I wanted to do it again. I got Elizabeth to take pictures afterward with me recreating it. :D
Then we had a disco-style dance, which just ended up being like any other dance, and most of us left about half-way through, though some did leave before and after. Suzy, one of my roommates, ended up staying later or going somewhere or something, but Kristi stayed with me, and we talked about a lot of things, and it was so much fun. I feel like I really know her pretty well now, and it was funny - to me, at least - to find one more connection to Scooter, a guy in one of my classes. It's like, a negative six degrees of separation... I know him through a bunch of other people, as well as having a class with him. Small world.
Eventually though, Suzy came back, and while we had to move away from some topics, we continued talking, and eventually went to bed at about 3 or so... only to get up at 6:45 in order to pack and get ready to go to the Case Study breakfast, where the judges talked to each group about the things they liked and didn't like. We ended up getting out early cuz Mykel had to go prepare his presentation for the first session of the morning, so it went really fast, and I ended up sitting around playing Digimon on my DS cuz Xavier went up to his room to relax or whatever.
So I hung out, and eventually other OTMs came and joined me, and then it was time for the first session of the morning, which ended up being about diversity, and was about talking with people who were different than you. It was really awesome too, as one of the presenters was a freshman and was amazing at speaking and being comfortable with crowds, and the other girl was a vibrant personality (who was born in Africa, grew up in England and Alabama, and when she told us that, I started to notice the way her accent was a mix of those three. It was crazy awesome.)
The next session was about international students, and, even though we don't do international orientation, there were a lot of OTMs in there... but it wasn't that good. Two of the international students that were answering questions were clones and were just not very informative, but the other three, one of their Orientation team and two grad students (one who works for the campus and another who's a second year Masters) were really interesting and informative, and we all thought that it would have been better without the two uninformative girls.
After all this, we finally had our breakfast/brunch thing (they served the most amazing bacon, omg), and they did all the awards and stuff. We ended up with one Case Study team that got a prize, and we tied with another school for most members at the convention (we had 24 counted, due to Idua and Val, our advisor), and we got an award for having the most spirit because we would use all the chants that I typed up at the slightest provocation. We did a "UTD! WHOOSH!", and the presenter of the awards asked the audience... well, here's what happened:
Presenter: "Hey, do you all know what the whoosh is?"
Audience: *makes vague negative sounds*
Presenter: "It's the sound a comet makes, cuz that's their mascot. UTD comets."
OTMs: "GOODNESS GRACIOUS, GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!" *everyone on the team dies laughing*
So we got our spirit award, and finally got to use the Great Balls of Fire line. It was epic.
After all this, we got back on the bus and finally hit the road home (after getting lost again... which we did on the way there). It's a long drive. I'm glad I don't go to the U of A, cuz I'd NEVER go home. Unless I flew. It's like 5 hours to DALLAS. x_x
And as soon as I got back, I got Allison and Mike back to their apartments, got my stuff back to my own, and openned the door to find that August-summer-Houston had moved it. OMG, most oppressive heat I have EVER felt since moving up here. Roommate-Allison and her boyfriend were cooking (he was shirtless, which I was like o.0), and they had the A/C on heat and everything closed (windows and such) and I was like OMG I can't STAND this. So I dropped off my stuff and ran my sunglasses (that were on my head) back to my car. That's when I ran in to Kirk and we ended up talking about video games and such for about an hour and a half or so, until he eventually had to leave. During the convo, Allison left the apartment, so I ended up turning off the heat and openning the windows and such. It was horrible. *rolls eyes* Just a few months... just a few months. And then I can control it all my self while I stay here over the summer. Thank GOD.
But then I crashed. And now it is the next day. And that was NODA. And I'm rambling, so I'm gonna go continue to unpack and clean up my room which is now down a step on the CHAOS! ladder. (I can see the FLOOR! *gasp*)
Oh, and I've spent the last week or so on
answer_key, and OMG, <3. I've gone through EVERYTHING (only skipped some stuff on the first few pages), and I've made this huge list of things for
cyanwitch to read (all copied into MS word... it's like 150 pages or something of just Hikaru no Go fanfic. Which is AMAZING.)
Oh! And adventure of the day! I was putting away a sock, and was leaned over my drawer, when, somehow, I pulled the controller to my PS2 on to my head. It hit me square in the middle of my head and the first thing I said was "Dear... cranium... god!" XD It was pretty epic... and I can still kinda feel where it happened, though it was about two hours ago or so. Oh well. Much fun. ^^
Alright, unpacking time. Whee!