Twas the night before my internship...

So tomorrow I end my winter break and head back to the ever friendly northern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia. I've dreaded a lot of things in my life, but this one has a particular unsettling feeling. It's a premonition that it's going to be a little rocky. But these feelings aren't coming out of no where. Let me tell you a little story of how it all started.

So last year I was in this program called Cornerstones. It was promoted as a first year experience which promoted hands on teaching and learning and small class sizes. Sounds ideal right? Well it wasn't. We took field trips to the woods to sketch what we saw. And one of my teachers told the class there was feces in tap water. There were no tests and almost all assignments were group projects. We also had reflection papers for literally every single thing that we did in that class. You showed up to class? Write a reflection paper on your experience. You read a one page article on global warming? Write a five page reflection. You took a field trip to a farm and took a hay ride? Write a reflective memoir. So you get the gist, it's basically like middle school but you pay thousands of dollars for it. And not middle school like the academic part, but middle school when everyone is trying to figure out who they are and going through puberty at the same time. So I guess you could say that Cornerstones was like going through puberty.

From the Mason website. None of this happened in real life.

What Cornerstones was really like. 

Anyway, I promptly dropped out of the program after my first year experience was over. I mean who wants to go through puberty more than two times? Cornerstones emails students information about the university. (Did you like the transition between thoughts?) This past semester I received another email from the bleeding hearts that are Cornerstones. It was about an internship. The internship is called the Study of the United States Institute. SUSI. I thought it was pronounced sushi, like the dish, but it's Susie, like the person. The email described SUSI as a program which allowed students from Bolivia, Peru and another country which I can't remember, maybe Paraguay, to come to George Mason and learn about leadership and community development and familiarize themselves with American government. A requirement was that interns and mentors be able to speak fluent spanish.

So maybe it was my latin blood that drew me to this internship. But I filled out the application, I interviewed and I received a position. A little less than a month ago, there was an orientation for this institute. I pictured the orientation going a little bit like this: Hello, this is what the institute aims to do, these are your responsibilities, these are the activities, this is the mission statement of our program, these are the logistics, and this is a schedule.

This is how the orientation went: Sorry I gave you the wrong room number, glad you found the place. The man in charge is running late. Here is a packet, read it in silence while we wait. (20 minutes later) Okay, he's not showing up, let's get started. Here's the schedule, read it in silence. (15 minutes later) Man shows up. "We are going to have to change everything, there need to be major changes, the funding has changed. Change the schedule now. Do we have a 90 person reservation for the last meal? How do you connect to the internet? Let's find an ethernet cord." (30 minutes later) This is main thing we need to discuss, it breaks my heart to have to say this, but it is a rule, I just wish it wasn't this way. You can't fall in love during this internship. Also no alcohol. Meeting over.

So I walked away from this orientation not knowing what the heck SUSI does. And also being told that I can't fall in love. I don't have an issue with that instruction. I do, however, have an issue with the fact that these people think that falling in love is something which undoubtedly happens and needs to be addressed. That's when I realized that this internship was going to be like puberty all over again.

So those are a few of the reasons why I'm dreading the beginning of this internship. Also, I lost the folder they gave me during orientation. Oops. And another also, the people let us know very last minute that we weren't going to be staying at the hotel on campus and that we had to find our own housing. So I am going to be doing a lot of house jumping.

I'm leaving tomorrow morning. There are a few things that I have done to prepare myself for the upcoming weeks.

Stress relief and quiet moments tea, necessary.

I've drank a lot of stress relief tea. And a lot of Cozy Chamomile in hopes my stress toward this internship will be relieved and that I may have quiet moments. Didn't know tea could do this, did ya?

Last supper...at home (not funny right?)

My mom prepared me my final home cooked meal for a while. It's ethnic. My latin blood got me into this, and it'll get me through this. Maybe something I should do tonight is pack. 

Can't wait for the awkwardness and general chaos that will begin tomorrow!