Circles, Laughs, and Icebreakers

The joy of sleeping in after several busy days is priceless. I truly enjoyed that joy today.

I had breakfast with the girls at the Sharpe Refectory, commonly known at the Ratty. Since it was brunch time, I decided to feast on a bowl of Trix cereal with skim milk, pesto pasta, and a slice of pizza. The meal was quite delicious, yet I wasn't a fan of the pizza. 

I met, Arial, dorming near Bailey. She is also from California, specifically Los Angeles. It was great talking to her and sharing the stress about having to apply to college soon. 

After the meal, the ILC Brownies took a few group photos with our new Brown hoodies at the Van Wickle Gates. To compete with the Cornell cohort's header for their blog site, we thought of something creative. You will be able to see the final product of our creativity very soon, so stay tuned.

Brownies checking in.

Waiting for the orientation to begin.

It was time for the orientation at the packed Salomon Hall. In the orientation, safety, Brown policies, and activities and events were covered. We were also instructed to save emergency phone numbers and download an application called Guidebook which lists all the events and activities that go on throughout the day and weeks. 

After, the leader fellows (RAs) of each floor of each building gathered their residents in different parts of the main green. My leader fellows, Kevin and Leshan, gathered my floor's residents in the center of the main green. The coolest thing about my floor's group is that we are the only coed floor in all of summer at Brown! 

What followed were icebreakers played in a huge circle. Kevin had a beach-ball which was tossed around in the circle. The person that got the ball would introduced themselves, list their pronouns (since we shouldn't assume one's sexual identity), and answer a question from the beach-ball. The game was so fun! Something that confused me were the pronouns for girls. Most males repeated that their pronouns are he, him, and his. Most females listed their pronouns as she, her, and hers. The "hers" kept messing with my brain. For some reason, it simply didn't seem correct.

Fun times with icebreakers.

Anyway, the next icebreaker was to have a person (e.g. person A) in the middle who would go up to another person (e.g. person B) and ask them either what person A's name is or the person standing to the right or left of person B. This game was also quite fun as it would go quickly and the person standing in the middle would constantly change. 

Next up, was "Where the Wild Wind Blows." In this game once again there would be a person in the middle who would say the phrase "the wild wind blows towards people...." After this the people with the specified interest or trait would run to take someone else's spot. The last person left without a spot would go in the middle. For example, if someone said "the wild wind blows towards people wearing blue," everyone wearing blue would leave their spot to take someone else's spot. This game was very entertaining!

The next two icebreakers were to know each other's names. One involved saying someone else's name and gesturing to them. Another involved saying your own name and someone else's name twice while clapping. It was a great way to learn each other's names, but I still couldn't know everyone. 

The last one was called Ninja. In this game, everyone started off in a circle and made one move to establish their posture. Then everyone would go one by one trying to touch another person's hands. If one's hand is touched, they are out.

All the icebreakers were so fun! They weren't lame like I expected them to be in the beginning. The icebreakers were the highlight of my day. I met so many new, cool people. Everyone was super friendly. I can say that I love my floor. 

We all went to have dinner together. I had cheese pasta, fried vegetables, and lots of ice cream! It was great talking to other students. I was able to finally meet my roommate, Alameda, and chat with her. She is from New York City and goes to a charter school. Something I found out is that she loves rowing, which is so cool! She is very nice and I am excited to be dorming with her for the next two weeks.

Leshan and Kevin took us on a tour to show us where our classes would be. My floor has a lot of students taking Leadership and Global Engagement and Leadership and Global development. There are only four students, including Krystal and I, who are taking Women and Leadership on my floor. 

With the end of the tour, we headed to the second to last activity of the day: the activities fair. Music was playing. There was free lemonade. All the clubs and activity groups active during the summer had the booths displaying their activities. It was great fun! 

Finally, we met in the basement lounge for my floor's meeting. We did a last icebreaker activity in which we had to introduce our name, age, and hometown, list our pronouns, and share a high and low of our day. My high was the icebreaker games and low was seeing flies in the shower that stubbornly clung to the walls. Kevin and Leshan then went over the safety procedures, community rules, prohibited objects, and everything related to our comfort and safety for our stay at Brown. 

Kevin and Leshan are very funny and friendly! I hung around after the meeting to chat with Leshan about his experience at Brown. When I asked him why he chose Brown, he said while he had the option between Brown and Yale, he chose Brown for its open curriculum. He went into Brown with the mindset of majoring in neuroscience, but it turns out that he loves computer science a lot more. He said he wouldn't have been able to transition between these interests in Yale as smoothly as he was able to do it at Brown. This made my decision even stronger to apply to Brown this fall. For now, the next two weeks are Brown are going to be incredible, I can feel it.