Sizzle and Survive!!! Part One - 6/10/09

I apologize ahead of time, this is a really long post and it is only half of my sizzle and survive weekend.
Can you show me show me how to sizzle sizzle? First you roll it roll it, then you tick it tick it, then you bounce it bounce it, then you SIZZLE SIZZLE!!

That is just one of the cheers that went along with the KY HOBY experience this year. It was a new cheer for us at KY HOBY, but the ambassadors loved it!! It was a ton of fun!

This year I was a Junior Facilitator for Group C2 Oh Yeah!!! I have to say that they were totally awesome group of students. For those that don't know, the students that attend HOBY have just finished their sophomore year of high school. I had 10 ambassadors who were amazing. Our groups started out and I was scared about what was to come. The ambassadors were loud, crazy, and I didn't see how they would mesh and be able to work together. With a little bit of a rough start on things, they ended up meshing really well and they became super close.

Here is what the weekend looked like. Wednesday afternoon I drove to Lexington for staff dinner and training. After training we hung up door signs and decorations and then we just hung out for the rest of the night.
Thursday was an early morning, but no where near as early as the rest would be!!! Ambassadors started showing up around 10:45 am and we were in full swing. I was in charge of the parent orientation with Dee. I sold Candy Grams that the parents could send to their kids while they were gone. This went a little bit longer than the orientation that the students were in, so I was about 15 minutes late to meeting with my group. :( I got there and they were loud and cracking jokes, and I was like oh no, what am I going to do, they are crazy and this will never work. Guess God got me for doubting Him, because they ended up working out great! After group time where we just did some get to know you's and decorated our tribal flag. Then we had a module about personal leadership that Hope taught and right after that we listened to Warren Rogers speak. After that we had dinner with our groups. After dinner we had another speaker, Jay McCord. Then we did the Myers Briggs. The ambassadors were split into their personality styles and then we each took a group. I lead the largest group, the ESFJs. The were all crazy and loud and even though I can be that way sometimes, I am never the way it is with 50 young teenagers in a room together. haha. After the Myers Briggs, we had a talent show and we had some amazing young singers and a couple other acts. To top it all off, Macy did the closing act singing a Hannah Montana song. It was so cute! After the talent show, we had another group time. I was starting to form bonds with my group and even though I still wasn't sure about them as a group, I was starting to like them.
Friday I had to do wake up calls at 6:30 am!! That meant me waking up at like 5:45 am so that I could take a shower before making sure all the ambassadors were up. Breakfast started at 7 am and from there, the day was a continuous roll of activity :D After breakfast, there was another module that Dan taught this time. Then we walked from Transy's campus to the Lexington Women's Club. Here we had a couple of speakers and then a college panel. This gave the students and opportunity to ask several colleges questions about their schools and admissions etc. After the talks at the women's club, we had lunch at a park before we got ready for the Amazing Race HOBY style!! This was so much fun. We had a map and cards of a bunch of places and stuff around lexington. The group had to figure out how to get to each place and find the answer etc, I was not able to help them, I was just there as a guide. Our groups last stop was this cute little coffee shop called Third Street Stuff. It was so awesome and me. They had a cute shop part with lots of hippie stuff that I loved and then the back was the cafe part and I had an amazing Cherry mocha drink! :D mmmMMmmm. The race was a lot of fun, but it was really stressful for me for the first hour or so. The students in my group did not want to listen to me, they didn't want to follow instructions, and they were so crazy. I did a lot of yelling and became really frustrated!! It all turned out well though and by the end of the race, I didn't have to yell and they were all working great together.
Well, sorry this is so long, but this is only half the weekend. Another post will come soon and hopefully I will put some pictures up then too.