Sarah

Hey Hawkeyes!

This week has been so busy! It has also been a lot of fun. I get more and more excited every day as we get closer to the On Iowa! program to actually start!

Tuesday was our final day of training for the program. It was also my favorite day. We played icebreakers and practiced answering hard questions as we cheered on our fellow Code Red members. We learned that the word “princess” should probably not slip out when talking to parents (very funny moment from one of the more serious guys on the squad). We also discussed more of the schedule and logistics for Saturday and Sunday. It was a long day of training, but by the end you feel so close to your squad leaving them is really sad.

I absolutely love the energy, positivity, and ideas each of these people bring to the group.

One of my favorite games to play was one I actually learned in my honors primetime workshop my first year. Pixies (tickly fingers and giggling) beat giants (arms raised over head with growling), giants beat wizards (waving your finger like a wand), and wizards beat pixies. It’s a team game where each team decides what magical creature they will be and then they come to the line. When the leader says “Go!” or “Who are you?”, each side does their respective motion. The winning side must try to tag the losing side before the losing side makes it to their “home base” (tree, wall, backpack). If the losing side is tagged, they must join the winning side. So it’s like Team Rock Paper Scissors with a tag element and some fun actions.

Who doesn’t like dancing?! It really helps get the energy back up and get everyone moving around. Everyone gets really into it!

Yesterday was the first day of the major move-in days. I love helping people move in. It’s so fun to talk to new students about their majors, activities on campus, and what they’re most excited about. I talked to a pre-med student, an art major, a psychology major, and a math major among many others. It also feels so great to be appreciated. I had a lot of parents tell me how easy move-in was for them. Some of them had moved multiple kids to college and they said that moving into Iowa was by far the best. We try really hard to make it easy and fast.

I would also like to point out that that is my first picture with Herky and I would really like another one! I’m so excited to help with move-in again today! I also get to help with OnIowa! check-in so I’m looking forward to that as well.

Last night was also the East Side Spirit Night. It was a great time for students to get to know each other while doing school spirit activities like spray painting a hat, painting a picture frame, and tie-dying shirts. They also played some games which turn out to be a lot more fun when you have a lot of people playing.

This is a great icebreaker and turns into fun chaos when you have a group this big. A lot of Code Red came and spent time doing activities and talking with new students.

It was great getting to interact with some of the students we’ll be meeting with tomorrow in our small groups before going to Kick-Off at Kinnick.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2014 at 9:00 am and is filed under Campus Life, Events, General, Photos, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.