(no subject)
So uh. Conference report follows, for all those who don't care (aka everyone):
Day one was basically just traveling. Got up at 4 to be on the plane by 6:30. There was an empty seat next to Leron and I, so we took turns laying down and sleeping in it. Sleeping being here read as lay quietly and half-relax as best we could; neither of us actually slept.
The conference center itself was way the fuck out there, in the fucking forest. What. Yet somehow we were still in New York? Seriously, though, it was like a rainforest. The horizon on all sides was deciduous trees, and we saw deer and shit coming up. Um, chucked our stuff up in our rooms (like a fuckin three-mile hike just to get there, jesus) and went down to eat dinner (lunch was a granola bar on the plane. Can't remember what breakfast was). They had veggie burgers and pasta salad, so I was pretty set. And then we just kind of chilled out, talked to people, ended up going on a walk through the woods (SOFUCKINGBEAUTIFUL) and seeing fireflies (FUCKING FIREFLIES, YOU GUYS) and the sun setting. Also another deer, a frog, some squirrels. (New York my ass.)
We convened for a 'fire', which consisted of a reluctantly-smoldering log in a barbeque pit-thing, and go-around-y activities. And then bed (curfew was 11). My roomies (Vivi and Dani) were pretty cool, but I never got to know them very well, so they would stay up talking and I'd fall asleep in the corner. But uh, the first night they didn't know each other, either, so we all went to sleep early.
Second day was much more intense. Breakfast (promptly at 8 every day, and you couldn't come late) was pancakes (not vegan, I know, but that was as close as I was able to come), then an(other) introductory seminar. Not much new information, whatever. Break. Deconstructing Gender workshop, which was actually really interesting. I feel like I know a good amount about gender and the issues surrounding it, but we got some new ways to approach it and to present it to teachers, and related it to race and stuff. (Any of these workshops can be relayed in more detail if anybody wants. To the best of my ability, you know. My memory being what it is.) Lunch, which was some incredibly non-vegan thing, and so I had bread and lettuce. :/ Then I gave in and ate some ridiculously rich and amazing chocolate cake (so delicious oh my god), which had eggs and milk and butter and shit. :/ Fmlackofwillpower. Homeroom was just conferencing with our chapter liaison, Martha, and some other chapters (like Ohio and Nebraska or some shit). Break, then an Anti-Oppression workshop, lead by Kiwi (who was sort of hot for a 40-year-old), which wasn't very good (as were most of the workshops she led :/) but whatever. Break. Dinner. Break. In this time, I feel like I must have hung out with some various people, but so much for that. It wasn't until a little later that I started absorbing enough Leron-vibes to become sufficiently not-socially-retarded to actually interact properly. But. Everyone was really cool. And uh. Anyway, Creative Advocacy was next (it's 8 pm by now) and we split into groups and did various things. I ended up in the zine group, with no idea of what I wanted to contribute, so I made some shitty thing and just kind of sat there the rest of the time. orz Last of the day was some open time, during which we convened in the Friendship Room (I shit you not) to play Mafia and yell over the top of each other a lot. :3 My roomies, meanwhile, had gotten pretty buddy-buddy, and stayed up all night talking about school and such (respectively, they are second and fifth in their classes, goddamnit).
Third day we had a long Communications meeting after breakfast, which didn't get much done (much like the morning seminar the previous day, they just went over things we already knew and did workshops that weren't helpful), then lunch. (For breakfast, there was oatmeal, but for lunch I ended up eating some veggie rolls that I'm sure had something non-vegan because the other option was meat or fried rice, which I knew had eggs. :/ But enough about that. Going to stop talking about food, because it always goes into this masochistic self-loathing rant which I'm just not up for atm.) Homeroom, then Building a Jump-Start Team. This was really helpful just because we got an idea of what exactly was expected of us (essentially, 'here's a little grant money, organize your entire state. We're going to tell you how to do it, except we're really not'). I'm not sure whether or not I'm happy that no one else there was getting a clear picture of what the hell this has all been about. After another break, Leron went to Facilitatint Educator Trainings, and I went to Student Networking with Larry. That all was fine. We did some stupid activity (with Kiwi, of course!) about how to plan to contact people and arrange transportation. Even that in the vaguest sense. And then, um, dinner (I had some steamed carrots and some likely-not-vegan thing like a muffin or something) and talent show prep. Did I mention we were having a talent show? We were. Leron was going to do his 'Edith and Kate' card-thing, and then his roommates (with whom he spent every night talking and playing cards and stuff until three in the morning-!) joined in and it became a skit with him narrating. So I was Kate, because they needed a third. Fourth. Whatever. Anyway. Talent show, which was fucking amazing and kind of depressing (why can't I do any of that shit, huh?). Bedtime got pushed out an extra hour, which we spent throwing balloons at each other and yelling some more. :D
Last day was, again, spent mostly traveling. So fucking exhausting. Pretty much just consumed as much caffeine as we could and did closing activities and got on a bus. Spent the next eleven hours in various modes of transportation. Got home jetlagged and slightly delirious. Slept for nine hours, then laid around for a while without eating. :/ That puts us up to the present.
Day one was basically just traveling. Got up at 4 to be on the plane by 6:30. There was an empty seat next to Leron and I, so we took turns laying down and sleeping in it. Sleeping being here read as lay quietly and half-relax as best we could; neither of us actually slept.
The conference center itself was way the fuck out there, in the fucking forest. What. Yet somehow we were still in New York? Seriously, though, it was like a rainforest. The horizon on all sides was deciduous trees, and we saw deer and shit coming up. Um, chucked our stuff up in our rooms (like a fuckin three-mile hike just to get there, jesus) and went down to eat dinner (lunch was a granola bar on the plane. Can't remember what breakfast was). They had veggie burgers and pasta salad, so I was pretty set. And then we just kind of chilled out, talked to people, ended up going on a walk through the woods (SOFUCKINGBEAUTIFUL) and seeing fireflies (FUCKING FIREFLIES, YOU GUYS) and the sun setting. Also another deer, a frog, some squirrels. (New York my ass.)
We convened for a 'fire', which consisted of a reluctantly-smoldering log in a barbeque pit-thing, and go-around-y activities. And then bed (curfew was 11). My roomies (Vivi and Dani) were pretty cool, but I never got to know them very well, so they would stay up talking and I'd fall asleep in the corner. But uh, the first night they didn't know each other, either, so we all went to sleep early.
Second day was much more intense. Breakfast (promptly at 8 every day, and you couldn't come late) was pancakes (not vegan, I know, but that was as close as I was able to come), then an(other) introductory seminar. Not much new information, whatever. Break. Deconstructing Gender workshop, which was actually really interesting. I feel like I know a good amount about gender and the issues surrounding it, but we got some new ways to approach it and to present it to teachers, and related it to race and stuff. (Any of these workshops can be relayed in more detail if anybody wants. To the best of my ability, you know. My memory being what it is.) Lunch, which was some incredibly non-vegan thing, and so I had bread and lettuce. :/ Then I gave in and ate some ridiculously rich and amazing chocolate cake (so delicious oh my god), which had eggs and milk and butter and shit. :/ Fmlackofwillpower. Homeroom was just conferencing with our chapter liaison, Martha, and some other chapters (like Ohio and Nebraska or some shit). Break, then an Anti-Oppression workshop, lead by Kiwi (who was sort of hot for a 40-year-old), which wasn't very good (as were most of the workshops she led :/) but whatever. Break. Dinner. Break. In this time, I feel like I must have hung out with some various people, but so much for that. It wasn't until a little later that I started absorbing enough Leron-vibes to become sufficiently not-socially-retarded to actually interact properly. But. Everyone was really cool. And uh. Anyway, Creative Advocacy was next (it's 8 pm by now) and we split into groups and did various things. I ended up in the zine group, with no idea of what I wanted to contribute, so I made some shitty thing and just kind of sat there the rest of the time. orz Last of the day was some open time, during which we convened in the Friendship Room (I shit you not) to play Mafia and yell over the top of each other a lot. :3 My roomies, meanwhile, had gotten pretty buddy-buddy, and stayed up all night talking about school and such (respectively, they are second and fifth in their classes, goddamnit).
Third day we had a long Communications meeting after breakfast, which didn't get much done (much like the morning seminar the previous day, they just went over things we already knew and did workshops that weren't helpful), then lunch. (For breakfast, there was oatmeal, but for lunch I ended up eating some veggie rolls that I'm sure had something non-vegan because the other option was meat or fried rice, which I knew had eggs. :/ But enough about that. Going to stop talking about food, because it always goes into this masochistic self-loathing rant which I'm just not up for atm.) Homeroom, then Building a Jump-Start Team. This was really helpful just because we got an idea of what exactly was expected of us (essentially, 'here's a little grant money, organize your entire state. We're going to tell you how to do it, except we're really not'). I'm not sure whether or not I'm happy that no one else there was getting a clear picture of what the hell this has all been about. After another break, Leron went to Facilitatint Educator Trainings, and I went to Student Networking with Larry. That all was fine. We did some stupid activity (with Kiwi, of course!) about how to plan to contact people and arrange transportation. Even that in the vaguest sense. And then, um, dinner (I had some steamed carrots and some likely-not-vegan thing like a muffin or something) and talent show prep. Did I mention we were having a talent show? We were. Leron was going to do his 'Edith and Kate' card-thing, and then his roommates (with whom he spent every night talking and playing cards and stuff until three in the morning-!) joined in and it became a skit with him narrating. So I was Kate, because they needed a third. Fourth. Whatever. Anyway. Talent show, which was fucking amazing and kind of depressing (why can't I do any of that shit, huh?). Bedtime got pushed out an extra hour, which we spent throwing balloons at each other and yelling some more. :D
Last day was, again, spent mostly traveling. So fucking exhausting. Pretty much just consumed as much caffeine as we could and did closing activities and got on a bus. Spent the next eleven hours in various modes of transportation. Got home jetlagged and slightly delirious. Slept for nine hours, then laid around for a while without eating. :/ That puts us up to the present.