Welcome Week 2011!

We celebrated the new year by basking in the excellent weather at the outdoor BBQ yesterday!

     Well, it's that time of year, folks!  Here at CMU we are in the middle of Welcome Week, when the campus transforms into an endless party to meet all the new students and get psyched about the year.  Some highlights:

1.  Go-lympics, which pitted the different residences against each other to win the Gerbrandt Goblet (a name which has my personal support, based on our illustrious president, Gerald Gerbrandt).  In order to do so we had to participate in challenges like careening through a tiny hula hoop in a potato sack during the sack race, and attempting to pulverize our opponents in a massive game of tug o' war. 

2.  Orientation, which lasted for three and a half hours, and included a massively detailed discussion on academic integrity and several very informative skits detailing community guidelines.  We look forward to this morning every year....

In this photo, Rianna Isaak represents a very strong scent which is just too strong for the onlookers on the left.  Moral: it makes sense not to use scents!

3.  Friends!  I have missed my friends SO MUCH since I left in April.  Several evenings have already been spent on long walks and just chilling in this place we call home.  Last night we definitely pulled out the Monty Python.  I had to work allllll the way until after the move in day, but this was made up by the fact that I covertly moved in a day early so I could spend an evening chilling with buddies before the dorms opened (which was probably not allowed.  ooooppps!)

4.  Coffee House.  The usual performance madness, now run by Clare Schellenberg and Coby Friesen, our Arts and Entertainment Directors.  We chilled, drank sweet free coffee and listened to music, poety, and drama.  Our ever-present hosts, Clare and Coby, were New Yorkers who just thought everyone was "faaanntasic!"

Two of the most developed Coffee House personalities I have ever seen.

     Welcome to CMU 2011.   Friends both new and old, crazyness, pranks, studies, challenges, weather (!), unplanned events, fellowship groups, sports, worship, and more are in store for us this year.  Time to GO!