Well, I’m back. I returned from the pre-frosh trip in Minneapolis this afternoon tired, but fairly content. The trip was essentially summer camp with fewer rules, which definitely had some good points and some bad points. As a group, we bonded pretty well, and I feel like there are some friendly faces on campus now. That said, one definitely survives summer camp by exploiting its temporary nature (i.e. living out of suitcases), and it didn’t necessarily prepare me much for what’s ahead. There will still be a whole bunch of people here tomorrow, and I still will know very few of them. That said, I’ve found some people I can hang out with, and that is very important in and of itself.

Group dynamics aside, the trip was quite interesting on its own accord. We stayed in an urban retreat center in a “bad” part of Minneapolis and worked at a variety of non-profit service organizations. The twin cities are a very diverse community, and there were a lot of really neat programs to address important social issues and help those caught in the crossfire. One of my favorites was a place called In the Heart of the Beast. It was a puppet and mask theatre that put on shows dealing with various social issues. When I say puppets, I don’t mean little kids stuff, these were really elaborate performance art productions that combine skilled craftmanship, acting, and music. I thought it was really interesting to see the arts were playing an integral in community building.

New Student Week officially starts tomorrow, so I will finally meet my roommate and get some information about the weeks and months ahead. Hopefully I will be able to post my experiences on this blog fairly regurally, though who knows how much time I will have. With that I’m off to bed – it’s been a long day.