pre-semester retreat at Doyle's River Cabin

FRIDAY August 22

4:00pm: After a crazy hectic day of lugging heavy boxes of college-student-crap into our dorm rooms, getting accidentally locked out of Lakeview (I know I did at least a couple of times), nearly getting parking tickets in K-lot, and marveling over how beautiful is this new building we have the privilege of living in... we are finally ready to leave for our pre-semester retreat! Backpacks, sleeping bags and hiking boots ahoy, we take off in three cars.

5:30pm: We stop for the purposes of securing "provisions," namely, enough food to feed a dozen hungry college kids and one very hungry professor for five meals. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. In the parking lot of a Charlottesville "Giant", we split into teams of 2 or 3 and were handed a small piece of paper detailing our mission: one meal per team. My team of Jimmy, Elizabeth and I were in charge of Saturday lunch. A handbasketful of PB&J, apples, and bread later, we were all ready. Other meals included oatmeal, bananas and bagels as breakfast foods, ramen noodles, and this really amazing prosciutto/mozzarella roll thingy that we sliced up and munched on Friday night whilst making pita pizzas over an open fire. Camp food is great.

9:00pm: Campfire underway, pita pizzas as described above. Everyone was sitting around, laughing, talking, getting to know each other. We played a few games of cards and called it an early night. Due to a limited number of bunk beds, some people had to share- Elizabeth, Molly and Natalie decided that it was necessary for them to have an absolutely bug-free night, and so we helped shut them up in their "cage": mosquito netted boards completely sealing off their lower bunk from the "elements" outside. From what I hear, it was a very close night. (Anyone have pictures?)
We talked some more, all of us from our bunks, before going to bed; Carleton, from his bag under a tree outside, described hearing our laughter bubbling out of the cabin as the most beautiful sound ever. Which I think is pretty cool.

SATURDAY August 23

12:30pm: Woke up, breakfasted on some oatmeal and bananas, and set out on a hike for the day. Despite the drought, we came across some pretty waterfalls (again, anyone have pics?). There was some swimming, some head-soaking, and some waterfall-climbing. We met some people taking pictures of one of the falls, and in exchange for taking over the whole damn place with a bunch of laughing folks, we gave them some trail mix cookies (oatmeal, coconut, chocolate and cranberry...will post recipe soon!). We talked about Earth Abides while sitting around at that waterfall, too, which was definitely a cool experience. I think I would have liked CORE more, or all of my classes for that matter, if class discussions based on the readings were held on mossy rocks while listening to the gentle trickling of drought-drained waterfalls nearby.




5:00pm: After our epic hike ended, estimated about 8 miles, we trooped back to camp and got down to business: naptime. Everyone picked out a spot in the grass or the cabin and settled down to rest. Quiet time was nice, and everyone woke up at their own pace, talking quietly, playing cards again, and gathering some wood for the evening's campfire.

8:00pm: After a delicious dinner of ramen noodles and smoked sausage cooked over an open flame, we all sat around again and laughed and talked, this time even more comfortably than the night before. I think this retreat definitely made our hall closer than most of the floors in Lakeview. I can't imagine just getting to school the day before classes started and trying to get to know everyone amidst the chaos of classes, homework, clubs, and various weekend activities. At Doyle's River we were totally secluded, just the Earth Lodge, and we got to know each other very well right away as a result.

SUNDAY August 24:

9:00am: Woke up early and packed up camp. Time to get back to school! Classes start the next day. We head home, tired but happy, full of dried fruit and other camp delicacies, looking forward to a nice shower and to living around this cool group of people that make up our Lodge.

Sweet Home Chicago

Hello all lovely people!

So I'm finally writing now that I'm back home from quite an exciting summer in Richmond and able to process it now! This summer I had an internship with the Virgina Organizing Project, a non-partisan grassroots organization working to get people more involved in their communities. Our task this summer was to go door-to-door canvassing, give workshops, go to festivals, etc. to get people registered to vote and talk about health care reform in Richmond, Petersburg, Colonial Heights and Fredericksburg. What we really focused on though was the registration of ex-felons because in Virginia your right to vote, serve on a jury, be a notary public or hold public office are taken away if you are incarcerated. VA and Kentucky are the only two states left in the country that do not restore these rights automatically after completion of a sentence, which is highly controversial as it displaces 377,000 people in the state, of which 208,000 are African-American. Here's a Washington Post article on the situation in VA. The application process to restore your rights is grueling (including tons of paperwork) but the work we did with the applicants was truly gratifying. To them, they served their time, want to put their past behind them and would just like to be considered an equal voice in society like you or I. It made me also realize how we often take these rights for granted- especially young adults about voting/civic engagement- so, mmm yeah. ANYWAYS this was my amazing crew at WRIR before we went on the air for an interview...












Other major highlights from the summer include volunteering at the Virginia Democratic Convention in Hampton Roads and getting the chance to announce candidates and others before their speeches: my favorites including Tim Kaine, Mark Warner, Dick Cranwell and Brian Moran. It was actually really cool to meet Kaine because he was expediting the process for our applicants...saying anyone's app that was in before Aug. 1 would be able to vote in November! Woo! And now after that whirlwind of a summer I'm home having just gone to Lollapalooza in gorgeous Grant Park, Chicago. Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine and Kanye were the headliners and it was quite the way to welcome myself home! And next week I'm shipping off to New Orleans for a week of environmental justice work with the Back Porch Energy Initiative. I wrote a lot and shall stop...I really can't wait until we come together and hear everyone's stories! I know I've grown a lot this summer and look forward to see how everyone else reflects over their experiences.