Welcome to Green 2!

After dinner on Wednesday (Oct. 13^th) all corps members gathered on the field. Our pod leaders had given us each an envelope. Once we were all on the field we were instructed to open our envelopes and discover the color the string that was waiting inside. Then, based off the color we had, we split into four groups in different corners of the field. These were our units! I am on the Green Unit. We met the Unit Leader and the Support Team Leaders (STLs) that work primarily with the Green Unit. We also played a couple of games and learned our call and response Unit Cheer: “Hey Green Unit” “Yeah” “Hey Green Unit” “Yeah” “Show me how to get down” “No way” “Show me how to get down” “Okay” Then all together “Boots on our feet, we hammer to the beat, turn the world around, and we get, get things done, get get, get things done!” Not really the most exciting cheer, but it works. By this point in this event, I was getting nervous. I knew that the team reveal was up coming. Each of the four units are made up of seven teams and your team is who you spend your year with, so it is definitely a plus to get a good team. I was bummed to be separated from my pod and nervous as I looked around at the many unfamiliar faces and other faces I knew and knew I did not want to be paired up with. Then came the moment of truth. The Unit Leader and STLs began to call our names and hand each person another envelope or a bag. I got a bag with a bottle of bubbles in it and then set out to find the others who had the same type of gift. This was my team. This was Green 2.

Now we had a task. Each bottle of bubbles had a word on the top of it. We went under a light to put a sentence in order and the scavenger hunt to find our team leader had begun. Our first clue brought us to our team’s kitchen, where we had to search high and low for twelve green glow-in-the-dark rubber mice. Each mouse had a word on the bottom of it that formed our next clue and brought us to our next clue located at our “muster stop” where we gather each morning. At the muster spot was a puzzle of the United States that we had to assemble and turn over to discover our next clue and be sent to the laundry room. In the laundry room there was a sign that said “Call Sharon” and then a phone number written out across the machines. I was the first one to whip out my phone so I dialed and put my phone on speaker. Sharon (who we at the time thought must have been our team leader, but was actually our TL’s sister) asked us a series of questions, the answers to which were a license plate number. Finally reaching a conclusion to our search, we headed out to the parking lot, found our van, and waited for our Team Leader, Abby, to arrive. I am so happy that Abby is my TL. She is wonderful, dedicated, sweet, and a great leader. Once we were all in the van, Abby started driving. We had no idea where we were going, but we put on some music and starting singing and dancing around in our seats. It became clear that this was a fun group of people. Abby took us to a frozen yogurt store and we gathered in the parking lot with our treats, going around and introducing ourselves before heading back to campus. All around it was a great evening and an exciting start to my time with my team. It was a little hard in the coming days to make the transition from pod to team, but I quickly came to love my team and I am very much looking forward to a year with this fun and exciting group of people. (Also, Brett is Hilarious.)

Two days later, on Friday night, we also switched rooms, to be rooming with people from our team. My new roommate is Maya. She is 18 years old and from Minnesota. She is a lot of fun and I am glad that we are living together.