The Instant Gram.

Has anyone ever thought about picking apart the word "Instagram"? Like, how did they come up with that? Just a thought. Anyway...

In case you don't know about it yet, Saint Mike's started this cool new Instagram account this semester called @knightlifevt. It started with my housemate Alex, and has been circulating around to students with a new person taking over it every week. It's a great way to see what daily life is like for our students at #smcvt!

This week is my turn. I hope you'll join me as I work to finish up my senior seminar project (due on WEDNESDAY...yikes!) and partake in all the Saint Mike's-y goodness before I head home for Easter break on Thursday.

Follow me @knightlifevt and in any other normal week @laurenkopchik , and remember to like/comment or email me (lkopchik@mail.smcvt.edu) if you have questions about Saint Mike's!

Birta, ISJ, and So Many Feels

Hello friends, I'm sorry that this update is so long overdue.

As you can imagine, so much has happened since I last made a post here. In fact, going back and looking at my old posts seems quite surreal, as Morocco is so different for me now. Since moving out of my host family's house, I've been having a completely different experience. It's not better or worse, just different, and I feel like I was another person writing those old posts.

But I don't want to get ahead of myself. I left off in my last post saying that I was getting ready to leave for my village stay, so I'll start there.

A long time ago, there once was an old woman who gave birth to seven children at once. Unfortunately, the babies were not in good health. All seven of them died soon after they were born. Their mother, overcome with grief, held seven burials, with each baby buried in a different place. This is how Sbaa Rouadi ("Seven Cemeteries") began.

I know it's not the happiest of myths, but hey, that's how it apparently got its name. Anyway, the Sbaa Rouadi commune (located in a rural area just outside of Fez) consists of seven villages. One of them is Birta, where my MOJ classmates and I stayed for a week way back in March (how time flies!).

So Birta is part of this commune--a commune is a territorial public with its own legal personality and financial autonomy. Basically, the residents of Birta rely on themselves to sustain their livelihood. Everything is shared among the village, and every person pitches in somehow. Pretty cool, right?

We were welcomed into this small village immediately. All of our host families put us to work in the fields, the kitchens, and the school center, and had us tending to animals. You can't get a more immersive experience than this!

(The center, by the way, is called the Association of Development and Solidarity, and was founded by 5 village women in 2008. The main founder, Sebah, had realized the lack of public spaces for women in this traditional village, and she wanted to create a comfortable place where women could develop their own self-sustaining practices and skills. Basically, she's a hero and a role model to women everywhere.)

My fellow classmate, Susan, and I spent the week living with an AMAZING host family. We had five sisters. Three of them--Faiza, Amina, and Sumia--are around our age, and then we had two adorable little sisters, 9-year-old Wiam and 5-year-old Zenib. Our father, Abderrahim (who we called Baba), is a sweet and soft-spoken man with a smile as big as his heart. Mama Khadija has a beautiful smile and a comforting sense of tranquility about her that made me happy just to be in her presence.

I can't even begin to describe how amazing this week was, and how much it changed my life. Although we could hardly communicate with each other through words, I felt immediately accepted as a member of the family. Whether it was playing jump-rope with Wiam and the village kids, herding sheep (which I actually became quite good at!), cooking in the kitchen or weeding out the fields, I felt as though my contribution mattered and more importantly, I felt loved. Both Amina and Mama Khadija cried the day we left, and Sumia walked us to the end of the road and gave us huge hugs before we met with our group. I so badly wanted to go back and visit them again during ISJ. Then again, there were a lot of things I wanted to do and thought I'd have the time for during ISJ...(we'll get to that in a moment.)

Wiam loves to sing and dance, and is overall a beautiful soul. 

I think we spoiled Zenib a bit--she constantly wanted to be carried everywhere, but I didn't mind. How could anyone resist that face?!

Amina and Susan in the back of our mule cart (the "car") on our way to the fields.

Baba has a great smile, but he was a bit shy here. One of our funniest moments was when I told him (in VERY broken Arabic) that the olive oil in Birta tastes much better than the stuff we have in the US, after he was noticing how much of it I ate. He thought it was hilarious and repeated the story to everyone else when they came to sit at the table, and we all had a good laugh. The next morning at breakfast, they gave me my own plate of olive oil!

Our family taught us a game that's sort of a harder (but more fun) version of tic-tac-toe. We stayed up late every night playing because we got completely addicted. Baba loved it whenever we won--definitely not a sore loser!

One of my favorite neighborhood kids, Simohammed. He followed us everywhere! Some of his favorite shenanigans involved jumping onto the back of our mule cart, tree-climbing, calling out to me in animal noises, and playing with my camera (thanks for all of the blurry photos of the ground, Simo...).

I met Houda on my first day in the village and instantly fell in love with that smiling face. I spent some time playing with her and taking pictures, but I didn't want to be out for too long on my first day with my host family so I left shortly after. A few days later I saw her on the playground and she came running straight toward me and gave me a big hug and kissed my face. She was attached to me for the rest of the day!

Amina (L) and Sumia received their certificates from the center the week we were there. They are both embroidery professionals and their work is incredible! 

From left: Myself, Faiza, Sumia, Susan, Mama Khadija and Wiam in front. This was after a long round of picture-taking...we gave up on trying to get Zenib to sit still!

Sumia was the one to pick us up on our first day and drop us off on our last day. My Birta village sisters are beautiful and incredible young women, and I will never forget them!

So that was Birta, although I could go on forever. Anyway, after we got back we had a few more weeks of school and living with our host families. We also had the Northern Excursion, which was just an overnight trip to Ceuta, a Spanish enclave, pretty much only because we needed to get our passports stamped again so that they wouldn't expire for the rest of our time here. It was a great mini-vacation, and I was glad to be able to dip my toes in the Mediterranean--definitely the most beautiful water I've ever seen. Ceuta was gorgeous, and everyone is pretty mad at me for forgetting my camera on that trip, but it was pretty freeing to just take everything in without being bogged down. I guess that means y'all have to come with me next time! ;)

Shortly after that excursion, it was time to pack our bags and say goodbye to our host families. It was time for the final stretch: ISJ. It stands for Independent Study in Journalism, and it's what this whole semester has been leading up to and preparing us for. During ISJ period, we have 5 weeks to pursue a story of our choice, traveling anywhere our research leads. I'm working with my classmate and good friend Rachel on a story about illegitimate children. She's a photojournalist and I'm writing, and we've been spending the past few weeks going back and forth between Rabat and Casablanca gathering information from NGOs and trying to find a single mother with undocumented children who would be willing to speak with us and let us spend time with her and her kids to take photos. As it's a very taboo subject here, it's taken a lot to find women to open up, and we've run into countless roadblocks along the way. However, Rachel and I are very stubborn people, and although we've thought about giving up in search of another story, we found that we were far too committed to this already. Things began looking up a bit yesterday, so here's to hoping our instincts were right and our hard work doesn't go to waste!

Even though ISJ has been super frustrating, a incredibly heavy and emotional at times due to the content of our strory, it's been an amazing experience so far. Since we don't have school during ISJ, we're really living the life of freelance journalists. It's not a school assignment, it's the real world, and the potential this project has for publication is not only a stressor but a motivator as well.

I've also never felt more like an adult or more independent in my life. It's pretty cool that the first apartment I've ever rented is in Rabat. I'm living on my own (well, with roommates, but you know) in AFRICA. If I can do it here, I can do it anywhere! It's a little weird living outside of the medina, but it's nice to get to know a new area of Rabat (it's easy to forget how huge it is when you live in the medina, which really isn't that big). I also miss my host family, but since I'm still living in the same city (I'm not a Casablanca fan and it's easy enough to commute) I can still visit them when I'm free. I went home for lunch yesterday and they were so happy to see me--it was a wonderful reunion!

Of course there have been slip-ups, but I'm alive and well and learning every single day. I'm pretty proud of how far Rachel and I have gotten with our project, and that I've been able to handle budgeting my stipend and balancing work with fun (even though sometimes it feels like too much work--I just realized I've spent most of my Saturday in front of a computer...what are weekends?).

Sometimes I wonder where I'd be if I had chosen to go to South Africa or London, the other top options I was looking into for studying abroad. I can't really imagine it. In moments when I'm incredibly stressed out or wishing that I could just go to Spain (my program doesn't allow us to leave the country while we're in session) I often think of my friends who have a lot of time off and are able to travel and experience other places and I get a bit jealous. But then I think of the type of experience I'm getting here, and I realize I can't really compare. This is a journalism experience first, and a study abroad experience second. And I'm honestly so grateful for that. Even if I don't end up as a journalist one day, it's something I can check off my list of Cool Things I've Done (along with dance atop a camel in the middle of the Merzouga desert).

Yes, that actually was a thing that happened. Photo by Elise Campbell.

A week or two ago, I was walking through the medina with my host brother when we ran into a group of American students he had met earlier that month, because his cousins were hosting them. They were also SIT students, but they were in a program that had started them in Vietnam and brought them to several other countries before ending somewhere in South America, I think Bolivia. They only had a few weeks in Morocco, and they were really excited to meet me and hear some of my stories. They said that even though they were glad they got to see so many different places, they were pretty sad that they didn't get to "know" any one place in particular very well. My conversation with them once more made me grateful, and I realized I definitely chose the right program for me. Thinking back over these past few months, I can't even imagine going somewhere and not getting to know my host family (families, after Birta!) the way that I did, or not having the time to befriend the locals. From the people I hang out with on a regular basis who consider me one of their best friends to the man at my favorite snack shop in the medina who gets excited for me whenever I use a new word in Arabic, I feel that I've made deep connections here. I've found a second home in Morocco and I couldn't be any happier.

Which means I've also gotten very attached to this place and these people, and I'm dreading the day I have to leave them. Today while Rachel and I were furiously typing emails and trying to figure out our next steps, I was complaining about the stress (forgive me, I hadn't had any coffee yet). She simply looked at me and said, "we're going to miss this in three weeks." I felt like something hit me then. What am I going to do when I have to say goodbye?

The only thing I can do for now is enjoy the time I have left. I've made some amazing memories and I have three more weeks to make as many more of them as possible. And, hopefully ("inshallah," as we say here), it's not really goodbye, but more of a 'til next time kind of thing.

I'm off to go binge on snacks from my favorite non-medina snack man and make a game plan for tomorrow's journalism shenanigans. Happy Easter to those who celebrate it. To my family--Christos Vos Kres! As much as I love the food here, you can bet I'll be missing the paska and the nutbread tomorrow.

Shine on,

Lauren

My SMC Family

So, it's kind of insane that fall has come and gone.
And now I'm home.
And I won't be returning to Saint Mike's until August.

Yeah, I'm freaking out a little.

I'll return to those thoughts in my next few posts, but for now I wanted to take this semester-in-review and focus on some of the crazy, awesome, fun, ridiculous happenings that went on while living in #TH103.

Since this could easily turn into another novel, I figured I'd let the pictures do the talking this time.

However, you'll find that the general theme of these photos revolves less around academics (which, trust me, is a VERY important part of college, but certainly not the entire experience) and more around family. Because my SMC friends are not only friends: they are my home away from home. They are an extension of my family. I started thinking about this much more when this happened:

My mom sent me a Christmas package, and inside were a number of little gifts for not only me, but all three of my housemates. This was her way of saying that she understands when I'm with her for Thanksgiving break but then I talk about "going home to Saint Mike's." These girls started out as friends, but they're no longer friends. They're family.

My housemates and I did pretty much everything together this semester. Here, we're dressed up as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Halloween. Yeah, we're those kinds of girls. Be jealous.

My housemates and I, plus our friends Emma and Merrill, on the day we all moved in. L to R: Emma, Cara, Merrill, myself, Alex, and Cait.

Liz (L) and Sheila (R) have been part of my SMC family since day one. Even before that for Sheila, who lives in my town and went to high school with me!

  

Not that I condone climbing furniture or anything, but if you're running out of places to owl or you need a quiet spot to read, don't rule out the top of your fridge. Cait and Cara had quite the blast with that!

Cara was my roommate this semester. She's an MJD major just like me, so it was pretty cool to have someone to come home to who could share ideas and relate to some of the stuff I was working on--she was even my editor for one of my Defender articles! Whether we were working, acting like 2-year-olds and having finger painting fights at the Art Hop, or getting dressed up for no reason on the weekends, we made some great memories this semester before we part ways for studying abroad this spring.

Nate is another one of my MJD buddies, and we spent a lot of time together this semester with two of the same classes and a group project. We're pretty darn hilarious (or at least we think we are), and we can be pretty crazy sometimes...he even got me to dye a strip of my hair blonde this semester!

Some more MJD family. Juliana, Lauren ("Mazzy") Mazzoleni, and Lauren Carter got me through my 8am Magazine Writing class with lots of laughs. In fact, the two Laurens and I collectively became known as "the Lauren Corner" in that class because we always sat together. When our professor (the fabulous Allison Cleary) asked a question and called on "Lauren" for a response, all three of us would answer!

My blogging family. Juliana, Boates, myself, and Mazzy. Not pictured: countless incredible others, such as Lisa Ritter, Alex Byrne, Alex Brenock, and Merrill Poor, just to name a few...and our fearless leader Christian, who held a Christmas party for us!

Alex was one of my housemates this semester, and I can't tell you the number of times we told each other we wished we had gotten closer sooner. As a fellow blogger and my friend Cait's sophomore year roommate, I was always acquainted with Alex, and we were basically brought together this year because we were both going into our townhouse with Cait. She is now one of my best friends, and we're scarily similar. We did everything together this semester!

Those are my most recent photos from this semester, but it's hardly an accurate representation of the true size and depth of my SMC family. For instance, I've yet to upload photos from our Secret Santa celebration, but that's something I do every year with my core group of friends from freshman year, including my old roommate Maya and three of my go-to guys, Shawn, Danny and Cori. There are the lovely ladies I go to Sloane with every Tuesday, the people I met through group projects, or my entire Reporting for Media class, which got very close as we helped each other revise our final projects. There are the numerous faculty members who I've come to view almost as parental figures in their wisdom. I even had an alumni mentor this semester who did everything from share his personal story to review my resume to make sure I was presenting my best self to possible employees. 

These are all SMC family members, and they are what makes the difference for me. I've been saying since Day 1 that the best thing about Saint Mike's is the people, and I'm still a firm believer in that.

Now, we're all going off in different directions: Sheila, Lauren and Liz to England; Alex, Mazzy and Merrill to Ireland; Juliana to South Africa; Maya and Emma to Spain; Mary to South Korea; Greta to Denmark; Cait to Ecuador; Cara to Costa Rica; my friend Jesse to the Navy; and myself to Morocco. I imagine this is what senior year feels like, except to a lesser extent because we're all coming back. I can't even bear to think about graduation day, but I know it'll be here faster than I think.

I'm really proud of my family and the things we're all accomplishing. These are the people who push me to be my best, and they know what I'm capable of before I even realize my potential. I can't imagine an entire semester without them, but I know they'll be with me in spirit every step of the way. It's great that we're going to have so many different experiences. Then, when we come back, we won't be able to stop talking!

I know I said I wouldn't write a lot, but I lied. Sorry. 

Moral of the story: tell your family (no matter who that means to you) you love them. Not because it's the season to do so, but simply because you do.

Happy Holidays,

Lauren

SMC: Round 3

Welcome back to school, everyone!

After a wonderful, crazy, busy, and (kind of) relaxing summer, it's finally time to get back to classes. As many of you know, I spent my summer here at Saint Mike's working in Admissions and giving tours. I had a great time, but to tell you the truth, I'm really happy to be getting back to business--it was WAY too quiet and empty on this campus, especially during my last few weeks!

I was actually able to go home and visit family and friends for a week right before school started up again, which was awesome. However, that means I missed the New Student Orientation and all of the fun activities for our new students. So, to the class of 2017, I'd like to officially say congratulations and WELCOME HOME! It's been a pleasure meeting some of you, and I absolutely cannot wait to get to know you all even more (if anyone reading this sees me around campus, don't hesitate to say hi--but be forewarned, I'll probably hug you).

By the title of this post, you may realize that this means I am now a junior--oh, that word is frightening. I feel like I just got here. I've done so much with my time, and yet there is still so much I want to do. I know it's a little early to start getting nostalgic, but first-years, take some advice: Time goes by very quickly. Enjoy the time that you have here, and definitely take up all of the opportunities you can. You only have four years--don't waste them!

Anyway, I have been through my first week of classes now, as well as my first week living the townhouse life. Yep, that's right--I'm living in a townhouse this semester, and it's pretty awesome. Not only am I living in a very spacious home with three of my closest friends (including fellow blogger Alex Brenock), but I am also conviently located in the 100s townhouses, which are right next to Bergeron (AKA Home of the Journalism Nerds). Basically, I can roll out of bed and be in my classrooms in a matter of seconds.





I was so excited, I tweeted about it (Shameless plug: Follow me on Twitter!).

Here are some of the highlights from my first week in pictures (there aren't many, but then again I don't have my fancy Photo-J camera anymore :/ ):

After moving in, I went to Lake Champlain with a bunch of friends--one of my favorite back-to-school traditions.

We've already had friends over for several gatherings at the house. The living room is so cozy!

My housemates and I have decided to make a weekly thing out of buying flowers from the SMC organic farmstand. This way, we can decorate our house while supporting an awesome MOVE program! Small decorative details have really made our house become a home in just a matter of days.

I can't believe I'm already halfway through Week 2 of this semester. I don't want to count, but I can't help it...everything is just moving too fast! I don't want the semester to end any time soon, even though Morocco awaits me this spring. I'm still excited, but I'm also still nervous--and counting down the days doesn't help! My sense of time is completely thrown off--if I'm not worried about how fast it's going, I'm convinced that I have all the time in the world. There's no in-between lately.

I think this is also why I had a rocky first week when it comes to academics. Don't worry, it's really hard to make irreversible mistakes your first week of classes, but keep in mind what I am about to tell you: Time is not infinite. If you have free time and there isn't much going on, start your homework. Don't say "later." Because later, you will want to go visit a friend, or check out the new Quad Commons, or have family dinner with your housemates, or watch a lot of Boy Meets World. It's hard to transition back into school mode after being in summer mode for months, but staying on top of your work will result in much less stress (and much more sleep) during Week 2 and for the rest of the semester. If you start out behind, it's a lot easier to remain behind. As for me--I'm definitely catching up now!

I will probably be posting within the next few days to tell you more about my classes and goals for the semester. Until then, study hard!

-Lauren

MOVE Trip 2013: CRST Reservation, South Dakota

As most of you know, I've been avoiding this post for a while. I'm not totally sure why--I think it's just that I still don't know how to put this experience into words strong enough for anyone who wasn't there to understand the meaning. But that's the incredible thing about extended service trips with MOVE in the first place: nobody can ever fully understand it except for the people who were there with you at the time. That goes for every trip, every year. Even groups that go to the same place year after year do not have the same experience as the last group.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, MOVE is Saint Michael's College's volunteer program, and it stands for Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts. MOVE has tons of programs that run on a regular basis throughout the year, from weekly events throughout the local community to extended service trips both domestically and internationally. Last year, as a first-year student, I went to Beaumont, Texas over my winter break and spent a week at the Big Thicket National Preserve, where my group learned about biodiversity and environmental protection and helped plant trees and take care of the preserve. For my second MOVE trip, which I got home from about three weeks ago now, I did something drastically different. I joined ten others from Saint Mike's for a trip out to South Dakota and into the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, to the town of La Plant. We volunteered to work with a non-profit group called Simply Smiles, and spent the week staying in their community center. Our group was a "guinea pig group" for MOVE, as last year was the first time MOVE ever went out to the reservation and it was a group made up entirely of student leaders who had led other MOVE trips in the past. This year was the first time this trip was open to all students to apply for. Luckily, we were pretty much the best group in the history of MOVE trips (please don't let the bias in this sentence make you be skeptical about the rest of this post...)

Here we are arriving in South Dakota, prepared for the Big Red Bus to take us to the reservation! None of these photos are mine--as I said before, I barely took any pictures. This was taken by Josh Dufresne, a Simply Smiles staff member. The rest of the photos are by Carlos Sian, a member of the MOVE group...although I'm sure some were from the kids playing with his camera!

The reservation belongs to the Lakota people, whose roots trace back through generations to this land. As my group entered the reservation, the Simply Smiles staff reminded us that we were no longer in South Dakota or "in America" as we knew it. We were guests in someone else's place, and had to be respectful of that. Simply Smiles had been welcomed into the La Plant community a few years ago, and they were given the community center to work out of. They had been honored to gain the trust and respect of the people in the community, and paid it back with an equal amount of trust and respect. The reason for Simply Smiles' presence on the reservation is because it is an area of extreme poverty, with little infrastructure to help people survive. La Plant is a very isolated area, and people often have to fend for themselves.

The Community Center, looking on from the back entrance.

Some of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen were in South Dakota...and I live in Vermont, so I know sunsets!

Simply Smiles is "dedicated to building bright futures while improving the daily lives of impoverished children." It sounds like a general mission statement, but what it means is that it's taking on a lot of work and tackling several issues at once. That's why it's important to move slowly but steadily, and to make sure things are done correctly. The organization has had some success with their ongoing program in Oaxaca, Mexico, where they began. The CRST project is the first domestic project taken on by Simply Smiles, and they're the only outside group with a presence on the reservation.

So that's a lot of talking, but it's good to have some context before I launch into the whole story. We did a lot throughout our week on the reservation, but the best and most important thing we did by far was make connections. Despite everything else--the hardships, the poverty, the lack of resources or anything material--the best thing we could do for this community is show the people there that they are not alone. We ran a summer camp for the children in the community and spent time playing with them, laughing with them, and just getting to know them. The philosophy of Simply Smiles is that if we made one person smile each day, we were succeeding. Because when faced with so much struggle, it's difficult to smile.

Not only did we spend time with the kids, but we also got to know many adults and elders within La Plant as well. We helped Simply Smiles host a few community gatherings throughout the week, including bingo night, waffle breakfasts, and bison buger barbecues. As we sat down to eat with the elders, they would tell us about life in La Plant or teach us about Lakota culture. One of the highlights of the week was when Steve, a prominent member of the community, led a drumming ceremony for our group and told us about the meaning behind each of the songs they played. It was really great to see some of the younger boys learning how to use the drum, showing pride in their heritage and carrying on some magnificent traditions around our bonfire. We were all really happy to be included in the community, and to have been greeted with such a warm welcome.

 

 

During the mornings, when we were not holding summer camp, we'd work on projects that needed to be done around the community center or within the town. We helped finish renovating the kitchen of the community center, a project that had been started by previous volunteer groups, and some of us helped start a community garden.

Measuring and cutting wood for the kitchen.

I wasn't involved in this project as I was helping out in the kitchen, but many hours (and memories!) were put into the garden.

Some of the more artistic people in the group worked hard all week on the sign for the garden!

Sometimes we had projects that had not been expected by anyone, including getting vehicles unstuck from the mud.

One major goal for Simply Smiles on the reservation is to help provide adequate housing for everyone in the community. The climate in South Dakota allows for extreme weather, with incredibly hot temperatures in the later summer months and winter temperatures that can reach negative 50 degrees. The wind is incredibly strong when it rolls over the plains--I've never experienced anything like it. I can't imagine what that wind is like in the winter. And many people on the reservation live in homes that simply cannot protect them enough from this weather.

When it rains, the dry ground becomes what the locals call "gumbo": heavy, clumpy mud that sticks to your shoes. This kind of soil isn't very productive for agriculture...or walking...

So, as part of our project for the week, we helped set up for what would be the first Simply Smiles-facilitated home construction project on the CRST reservation. These affordably-priced homes were designed by the people living on the reservation, who know better than anyone else the exact issues to consider when building them. The community members also help build the homes, and by involving everyone in each project, people begin to come together and support each other.

 Although our week was too short for us to see the construction for the new home begin, it was really great to know that we were helping to prepare the area where it would be built. This included helping our friend Steve move everything out of his current home and begin taking it down so that the new house could be built in its place. I've been following Simply Smiles on Facebook, and the foundation has been completed. I can't wait to see pictures of the whole thing when it's done. It is one big step in a series of thousands of smaller steps to help build up this community, both literally and figuratively.

It took all of us for a project of this size! This is another photo by Josh.

How many volunteers does it take to move a doghouse?

I could spend hours talking about this one week of my life. I could go into much further detail about these incredible kids; the older community members who I had the pleasure of meeting; the amazing resilience of this one small community; Simply Smiles as a group; my wonderful MOVE group who have become great friends and are possibly the only ones who wouldn't mind listening to my constant rambling; and my ups and downs throughout the week that the rest of my group, and probably the community itself, felt as a whole. I could tell you about how I loved and hated everything about this place at the same time, and try to explain how something like that feels. I could tell you about each of the people behind the many friendship bracelets covering my wrists; or the fact that not a day goes by when that one week doesn't occupy my thoughts and free time; or that I do not just want to go back but feel the intense need to. I could try to describe all of the mixed feelings about that week to the best of my ability, despite the fact that there are things I still don't understand and probably never will. I could even apologize for the long post or the dramatic language, but I won't, because I truly believe that this trip deserves more attention than anything I've ever done. There are a lot of things I will keep to myself, simply because I don't know how to put them into words.

All I will say is that if you're still reading, and if any of this has struck a chord with you, then this trip is for you. You might buy Simply Smiles coffee or send a donation, but if that doesn't sit right with you and you feel that you need to do more, this trip is definitely for you. What Simply Smiles needs in order to work, and what this community needs, is people who care. People who will set their lives aside for a week at a time, people who will forget about their own wants or needs (including the need to know or understand everything and the luxury of indoor plumbing), people who don't mind getting their hands dirty or being challenged with something every step of the way. If you want to volunteer to do something that truly takes all of you, and that you don't do for the "rewarding" feeling afterward but simply because it's something that needs to be done, then volunteer with Simply Smiles.

If you go to Saint Mike's, you can apply for next year's MOVE group: when the semester begins again, pay attention to application due dates. Although all of the trips are equally awesome, definitely consider CRST Reservation, South Dakota as one of your picks. It's truly a dedication, but it's entirely worth it. If you've never been on a MOVE trip, all I can say is GO. I guarantee that whatever your qualms or reservations about it are, none of them are comparable to your reasons for going. Once you go on one, you'll want to go on all of them. They will change how you see the world.

If you didn't click on the links throughout the post, I would strongly advise going back through and exploring. They will describe some things I mentioned more clearly than I did. And if you're interested, check out the Simply Smiles blog to hear from more of the volunteer groups. My group wrote three while we were there; check them out:

First Saint Mike's MOVE Blog

MOVE's Wednesday Blog

Last SMC MOVE Blog

Whatever you do, give it everything you've got.

-Lauren

MACKLEMORE, P-Day and Finals Week!

Hey everyone!

So in case you haven't already seen any posts from our other fabulous bloggers (and also because I'm STILL so obsessed that I really need an outlet to discuss it), I'm going to tell you a little bit about last weekend's happenings.

Every year, the last weekend before finals is a huge, campus-wide celebration. The weekend kicks off with our Spring Concert, followed by the school talent show the next day, and then P-Day which is always the Saturday before the last week of classes and beginning of finals. P-Day stands for "Preparation Day", and it's sort of like the last hoo-rah before the real stress starts. There's tons of free local food (including Ben and Jerry's!), inflatables (such as a bouncy house) out on the 300s field, free henna tattoos and photo booth pictures, and lots of home-made t-shirts and school spirit!

The Student Association works really hard every year to make this an unforgettably amazing weekend, and thanks to this year's fearless leaders, Eric Jaukurri and (my future housemate!) Caitlin Shea-Vantine, it has been one of my best Saint Michael's experiences to date. The reason being summed up in one word...MACKLEMORE.

That's right, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were our Spring Concert this year. How incredible is that? I still can't believe it happened--and that I was in the FRONT ROW. I'm so glad that Sheila bugged me to get on line early, because we beat the 3,000 people who attended to the front of the stage. And she got some awesome pictures because of it!

My phone died, so these pictures were taken by Sheila.

He was wearing an audience member's vest during "Thrift Shop"!

Here I am before the show with Wanz (the guy who sings in Thrift Shop), Liz and Sheila on the right. Wanz was really nice and funny, and he likes hugs!

So it was pretty much the best night ever...it was just so cool because Macklemore was obviously grateful to have such an enthusiastic crowd. He said more than once that we were his best audience in the past few shows, and I think it was really easy to tell that his music means so much to us. The Burlington area in general is pretty big into Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, especially since they came to Higher Ground this past fall.

But the thing that really made us happy to have Macklemore as our spring concert is that he definitely understood our sense of community here at SMC--and really took it to heart. Before arriving in Vermont, a few students got in contact with Macklemore's tour manager/fiancee. They told her about a student, Sam Brigham, who had just been unexpectedly diagnosed with leukemia and was upset that he'd miss the concert. Obviously he was already going through such a hard time, and Macklemore's music was helping him get through it. Macklemore was touched by Sam's story, so he went to visit him in the hospital. I don't know Sam personally, but when I heard about this story I could just imagine how much it meant to him and his friends. At Saint Mike's, everyone really supports each other, and it's obvious that this amazing group of people understood and respected that, and wanted to show their own support. Sam's story reached internet fame immediately after the concert, so Macklemore made a blog post addressing his thoughts and reasons for the importance of this visit.

I could talk about Macklemore all day, but I'll leave it at that. Just know that he's wonderful. And if you don't know any of his songs (or anything besides "Thrift Shop"), he's definitely worth getting to know. He has a lot of fun and silly stuff, but he also sends a really important message out to his listeners. "Same Love" addresses civil rights for same-sex couples and the need for hip hop to shed its common stereotypes. He also raps about sobriety, and the personal importance of staying off of drugs. His song "Starting Over" is about how he's become a role model for so many people, and his relapse left him disappointed with himself and afraid that his fans will be let down--but, as he says in the song, "If I can be an example of getting sober, then I can be an example of starting over." Writing songs about social issues, rather than perpetuating them, makes Macklemore stand out from a lot of other modern artists.

Check out a cool multimedia from the Defender about the set-up for the concert.

Okay, NOW I'm done talking about Macklemore. On to P-Day!

Well, it was pretty awesome. I took 841 photos by the end of the day. That's right. Eight-hundred-forty-one. I'm crazy. But I was also shooting P-Day for my Photojournalism final project, so I was just being thorough. And having a lot of fun.

P-Day is just one of those things where you had to be there. So, I'll let the pictures do the talking:


I took this right before the trike race, which is a tradition that kicks off every P-Day at 11AM.

During the race (after just about everyone ditched the trikes and it became full-scale running), the Student Association was splashing water on everyone!

One of the stations in the food tent was a local place called Ali Baba's. I had falafels...yum!

Students get a free P-Day bracelet, and guests can buy one for $20. This allows access to everything for the entire day!

Lauren Kilmister '15 rocks her own SMC P-Day shirt.

 

The student band Business 2 Consumer.

My friends Shawn (left) and Danny racing each other.

Lauren Mazzoleni steadies herself in the bouncy house while Lauren and Cara jump in the background.

Then there was this mind reader/sword swallower/fire eater dude. Not a big deal or anything...

The day ended with a late-night breakfast in Alliot!

So, that was P-Day! Now if you're starting to think that Saint Mike's is just one giant freak show...well, I guess you're kind of right. But we DO get our work done! After all, it takes a lot of work to have this much fun as a reward. So, our blissful weekend of madness was over by Sunday morning, when it was back to the papers, projects, and studying. The last few days of classes went pretty smoothly, and now everyone is preparing for finals. I'm off to make a(nother) website for Global Comm. But I will definitely need to get outside at some point--it's a beautiful sunny day!

Enjoy your weekend and the great weather!

Lauren