Non-Conventional Spring Break Part 1

So I will write various posts about spring break to emcompass its awesomeness. This journey started when I decided that this spring break I wanted to do something different. I had gone to Puerto Rico my two previous springs breaks at Georgetown and last year I was in London so I decided I needed an adventure. I was thinking at first going with some of my friends to some adventorous place but none of them were up to anything extremely exciting or they did not invite me so I decided to apply for Alternative Spring Break. This almost did not happen because I was so busy that week with the OCC and the March for Life that I only had 30 minutes to apply to a couple of them. I did not get accepted into any of them with a wait list in half of them but then I go accepted into one where I got rejected at first. So I decided to accept it but then the Snow Days started and I could not hand my information in so I took it as a possible sign that I should go somewhere else. However, nothing came up, except the option to stay in DC and work in the RHO, study, and visit the monuments and possibly NYC and I decided that maybe ASB is the way to go. So I handed in my forms and I accepted that I was going to go Immokalee Migrant Worker Justice (I had no idea where it was... only that it was somewhere in Florida... I also did not think to map quest it).

I had no idea what I was getting myself into because when people asked me where I was going I did not even know how to say the place I was going to so I just said Florida and then went on to explain how I was in fact not going to the beach and I was doing cultural immersion among migrant workers (in the back of my head I was saying to myself: "Maybe I should learn this name so people will not think I am actually going to the beach. If only I could tell them Kentucky they would have none of these questions"). So I did not know any of my fellow companions until a Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks before ASB where we would awkwardly commence our introductions in an ICC room and I would learn no one's name (I would expect the same from them... I do remember my random fact being that I always put avocado in my Sweet Green salad). Then we would have another meeting in the house of two of our leader's who happened to be roommates the Monday before the trip. As a result during that whole week I start edto recognize faces for our ASB but I would just look down because one is in that awkward phase where it might be the wrong person or they not recognize you and look at you weirdly (we all go through the torture of greetings on a daily basis at Georgetown where we do not know if the person remembers us ). It did not help that the only person I moderately knew was someone I knew from my freshman OA group and saw frequently when she worked as a cashier when I was a Lau 5 groupie and only saw this semester in a cruise party which was in her house and I went because my friend knew her (my costume worked because I was dressed for a Jersey Shore party... in my defense I managed to look trashy and unclassy without looking skanky).

So we get to Saturday where we need to meet at 7:00 A.M. in front of Leo's in the bitter cold. I had barely slept 4 hours (this would not change throughout the trip) because I had a girl's night in my house to get rid of our excess food before spring break. After that I had to do job applications, essays and emails (my priority are straight = sisters before responsibilities) so I ended up going to bed at 2. Then I walk with my stuff to the front of Leo's and see all the ASB people whom I did not even know how they were called and we would now be forced to spend the rest of my week with (this was only the second time all 17 of us where together). It was a bleak environment not only because we did not know each other because it was 7 AM in the freezing cold... conversation was sparse. We get in the vans and begin sleeping. I get in the five person van (so it gives us a lot more space because normally they are for 6 persons so we can put our seats back and the person in the back can lay across the entire back seat) for the entire day because our driver pulled the 10 hour drive on the first day without having a replacement with the same co-pilot throughout the entire day. I proceeded to sleep immediately and would form part of the competition for biggest napper for the trip (I would get third in the competition... only to be beaten by the other two nappers on the van). Then we would drive through Virginia... through North Carolina... through South Carolina... to Savannah, Georgia... only stopping periodically on awkward pit stops (for me because I only knew some people's names at that point).

It took me more than expected... I am barely halfway through the first day!

Immokalove to be continued!