And so it begins

Well, folks, it has begun. Yes, the first week of Alumni College is underway. The lack of posts from the past couple days clearly indicates that we RAs have been quite busy. There’s a SNu conference going on and we had to distribute linens to every single room in Gilliam, Davis, and Graham Lees. White the task. We spent Saturday finalizing preparations for the first batch of Alumns. We made beds, distributed towels and set up their little display that consists of a wine bottle, wine glass, flowers, box of chocolates, and other classy kitsch things.

First we all had to pass the Rob Fure room inspection which was no easy feat…I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one who was super nervous. Luckily that happened without too much disappointment on the part of Rob and Susie and we filed over in our little blue Special Programs Polo Shirts to the registration table. Registration was a funny experience because Rob, Susie, and Tracey (our three AC bosses, if you didn’t figure that out, we’ll refer to the three of them as RST) know pretty much EVERYONE. A program participant would walk up and RST would see the person, know who it was, have their nametag ready, and tell the RA’s their life story. RST seriously know everything about every one of these participants. The alumns have been coming to these programs year after year and they’ve all struck up quite intense friendships. It’s really interesting. Pretty cool, actually.

Our first real event (other than my campus tour that was kind of lame but fun) was a reception before dinner. There was an open bar with many kinds of exotic alcohol which was entertaining because there was also wine with dinner and tons of beer in the lounge (and wine in their rooms…apparently people don’t lose their affinity for alcohol after they leave W&L). we got to chat with a number of different people: an ’07 grad who is now a high school teacher in New Jersey who was anxious to talk to some other young people, a ’62 grad who was on the EC when he was here (fascinating guy), and a few others. The oldest person we have is a law school grad from the class of 1949! Pretty old. It’s a sprightly and really interesting bunch and I’m looking forward to getting to know them better as the week goes on. We already know a lot of them by name and hometown and they’ve already shared some great stories, so it should be a great week. Now off to lunch (oh yeah, the food is amazing. Last night’s dinner was unbelievably delicious and even breakfast was kind of exquisite….delish). More to say later.