Our "Communal" Home

Saturday, May 16, 2009
The Carolina Summer of Service has officially begun at 204 Blue Street in Marion, SC. My whole family drove me down to South Carolina yesterday morning to help me unpack and get comfortable. I thought I may have been the first one to arrive, but when I discovered that the back door was unlocked, and wandered inside to find Khadijah inside already unpacked and settling in. David Oberst, Alice, and John Luttrell arrived soon after and we all explored our new home together, finding an enormous and slightly creepy supply of Christmas decorations, numerous mirrors, strange pictures (Lucy Betty Blue Bloom being one of them...lol), and various other trinkets. I'm sure we'll find more fun stuff to play with during our nine weeks here. lol.

Alice, David, and I made our first venture into the great city of Marion during their annual Fox Trot Festival to see some of the carnival rides and fun foods that the people were enjoying. We are STARVING so we went looking for lunch and stumbled upon Richard's Restaurant, a greasy spoon diner that seemed like a local favorite. After grabbing our burgers, we came back to the house hoping to find the rest of our group, but we came back to find that NO ONE ELSE had arrived and we sat and ate impatiently. However, after a while all of us made it safely to the house and we excitedly introduced them to our new home. Charlotte, Khadijah, and I bunked up in the "pink room" while Alice and Lauren paired up in the "Tarheel room." John Deans, John Luttrell, and David Oberst stayed in the other bedroom, while Brandon and David Womble transformed the dining room into their own bedroom.

With everyone settled, dinnertime was approaching and we were all excited to see Minda when she arrived to take us to dinner. Pizza Hut was the location of choice and we made our first "communal" decision about which pizzas to order (we decided on one order of pepperoni, cheese, meat lovers, and veggie...btw). Next we made a stop to the local Piggly Wiggly to get some items for breakfast and lunch for this morning and afternoon. It also happened to be Lauren's birthday, so we picked up a couple of cakes and candles for her and enjoyed them once we got back to the house. The remainder of the evening was spent talking with Minda, eating cake, playing cards, Facebooking, playing the Wii, talking about random things, and eventually drifiting off to sleep. Everyone was tired from such a busy day and we were ready for a good night's sleep. :)


Sunday, May 17, 2009
Our offical BNDT Pre-Internship Retreat was today. Minda came over this morning after breakfast to discuss our expectations and goals for the summer. I thought it was a great opportunity for us to come together as a group to discuss how we were all anticipating how we wanted the summer to go and to also think about what personal goals I wanted to achieve during my nine weeks here. We also spent time as a group coming with a plan of how to we should organize the food/cooking/cleaning in the house. Some people had different ideas about if we should have "communal food" or just individual/"every-man-for-yourself food." In the end we decided on a few items that everyone will have access, while still allowing everyone to have their own private stash of specific things they like to eat or drink that's paid for by that individual. I think it will definitely be a challenge to come up with a good plan for running the house efficiently, fairly, and in a way that keeps everyone happy but I think that we are a phenomenal group of people who are extremely bright and creative so it shouldn't be much of a problem.

During our break before dinner, some of the girls had a great abs workout and even did a little cardio with the Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revolution. The rain prevented me from going out for a run but I feel like we had a really great workout.

Dinner tonight was on Minda again and this time we ate Mexican at Zapata's right off of Main Street. She gave us some last minute advice and information about our internships and then she was off! We are officially on our own in Marion, SC. This is going to be amazing! :)