Meeting The Troops

So although I did have some fun yesterday at Glenmary, I'm tempted to only talk about today... because I already mentioned that I would discuss the rest of Sunday, I'll make my discussion of it brief, and then move on. Sunday was interesting... we got to Glenmary, and found out that our group (of 9) was going to be working there that week with three other schools, UGA, St. Joe's College of Maine, and Loyola University Chicago. We played a bit of soccer, got a tour of the three-building 'farm' and went to our first reflection, where the farm managers divided us into groups (not based upon schools). As a general side note, on the tour, we were given instructions to put away our cell phones and watches for the week, as well as get used to the idea that we were only allowed to shower once during the week, as Glenmary tried to get rid of these other distractions and allow us to live simply*. For me personally this was a huge plus, because I am very much interested in trying to live without significant amounts of technology (I know... I know... I'm currently writing a blog about my experiences... ironic ain't it?).
Anyway, we went to bed at... actually I don't know when, because we didn't have the time, and got up... approximately eight God-units (I'm not sure the conversion rate between those and hours, but I'd estimate on the scale of 1-1) later. My group (Team Dino (you'll know why later)) was scheduled to work on the staff-house floor, which we began to do right after breakfast. I'll be honest, initially I was a bit disappointed because it meant I didn't get to go off of the farm and meet anybody, but I suppose it'll be all right... most of the other groups are going off the farm somewhere into the community, so I'll probably get plenty of chances later in the week. However, this retiling job turned out to be a lot of fun, not only because I learned how to tile a floor, but also managed to meet and get to know the other people in my small group a little bit better. I was paired with three people from Georgia, one person from Loyola, on from St. Joe's, and one other girl from ND that I didn't know very well beforehand, and during the course of the day, pounding nails right next to each other, we had plenty of good conversations. During reflection tonight (I suppose I should explain, reflection is essentially a God-unit or so of time taken to discussing the day's activities and trying to make sure we were getting the most out of the experience (slightly more religious-based than most of the rest of our activities)), we focused on the experiences from today and how they helped us to get to know the other people we were living in community with a bit better. I came away from that with the realization that in the last 24 hours, I'd become better friends with many of those 38 other people there than I was with many of the people in some of my small classes at ND. The sense of community I felt about an hour ago was overwhelming. I've gotta go though, somebody's ringing the dinner bell!



* CAVEAT! **** Please only read the fine print if you noticed a possible discrepancy with my asterisked statement and are questioning my truthfulness (otherwise don't, cause it might disappoint you) ****

Just to clarify, all of these blog posts were written in retrospect as if I was there at the time, because I wasn't allowed access to a computer. Hopefully now that you've read this part, you aren't significantly less enthralled about the ability to read what I was thinking at the time... I tried my best to represent my actual thoughts as they were when I experienced the events I have described and will continue to do so.