ABCs Day Two: Pre-Trip Education, Strategic Planning

Hello Again. Once again I will try my best to type as fast as I possibly can because the internet is finicky here in the hostel and need to cover events from the past 1 and1/2 days! Here we go.

Today we began with breakfast at 7AM in the morning. Like I mentioned before, every single meal at our conference is vegetarian, and each one I've had so far is phenomenal. You have to be here to see how Amazing the food is, but anything from fresh and organic teas to fruit to homemade croutons, I've never eaten so well in my life. The next hour we started off the morning with Group Building activities. Jarod in my "Majestic Egyptian Green Geese" team had so many ideas from Zoom Zoom Urc Urc to this strange but fun "shooting eye" game, but each one was hilarious. We did all the activities in Couch Park, which is this gorgeous little park that is right across from the hostel---I'm repetitive and keep on using the word "gorgeous" here. We played blanket drop with Samantha (a great game, that I definitely want to implement in one of the Collaborative Retreats), an amazing game of flash with Jill, Human Knot with Crystal, and "blanket flipping" game with Kelly. These are great ideas and overall just the perfect way to start a day.

Afterwards, we trooped over to a local movie theater to watch our issue-based film, the 11th hour. What a great surprise! The movie theater, like many of the buildings in the district we're staying in, is a historical and restored movie theater with deep red curtains and historical interior. But even more phenomenal was the movie we watched. Earlier some of roommates and I were predicting what movie they would be showing to us, ruling out the possibility of them showing Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth because of its popularity. Almost no one among us had ever seen the 11th Hour before coming to the Portland ABCs. I was so moved that at certain points in the movie I cried, and I wonder if there any others who did also. But the strongest connection for me, and what I think the movie did a really great job at doing, was portraying the idea that humans are not owners of the Earth, but biological organisms that constantly need to be in balance with the environment. With the analogies the movie made, especially in the opening in the movie when they describe the Earth as "sick," as an organism with a festering crust, I saw it as the perfect analogy as person who studies biology. My words cannot do justice to how the movie impacted me. I think it would have perhaps been the idea of balance, harmony, the beautiful way in which nature finds it's own way to generate energy to sustain our planets vast ecosystems. It was phrased beautifully by the people who spoke, and like I said, words cannot do justice.

We had strategic planning after an amazing lunch at the movie theater, which was an informative section, but even more, made me make it a goal to determine how national and weekend-trip programs are conducted at other universities. This is something for me to accomplish this week. Reading time and dinner followed, and we gathered in "Secret Garden" to do issue-based Four Corners. We broke up into smaller groups and had in-depth discussions about the articles we read and our role as environmental stewards. I have to say that never before have I said so much, or contributed so much to discussions. Each and everyone workshop we had today, from the movie debriefing to the strategic planning tothe larger group discussions about the society's role in sustaining the environment, I always felt the need to contribute, and I did, passionately. I'm surprised at myself, for person who usually likes to stay quiet because I don't feel I have something of value to say. However, I just can't imagine a better group of people to open up to and share and bounce ideas. It's also made me realize that two years of taking nothing but math and science courses has not at all impeded my ability to contribute, to be passionate about an idea, and to express it. For me, rediscovering this part of my self that I had thought I had lost means the world to me. Talking about the issues today reminded me of the thrills and goosebumps I always had when taking English class and Comparative Government in high school. I've found them once again through the Portland ABCs.