Once I got there though, things went pretty smoothly. We were directed where to park, and then led into the building where we had to get our little packets of information. After that we got in line to have our photos taken for our photo IDs. It went fast, too, because everything was very organized. Took no more than fifteen minutes tops. After that we were allowed to mingle and meet people before it was time for the orientation seminar to start. But I'll talk about meeting people afterwards, because that in itself is quite an odd story. And very ammusing, too. xD
So orientation was booooooooooooring. We just sat and listened. And listened. And listened. And listened somemore. We had to learn the backgrounds of all of the staff at Hallmark. Not my idea of an hour and a half's worth of fun. :.. I mean, sure in there was also school policy, and auditorium ettiquette (high school all over again!!! xD), but it was boring nonetheless. At least until we formed groups.
See, we were given boxes with letters on them, and that designated the groups. Within these groups you needed to pick a secretary to record the information, and one or two speakers to get up on stage in front of the entire class and summerize and relay the information back to the rest of the students. So we formed our groups, and I was all over being the speaker like dehydrated people on water. Honestly though, I couldn't follow this one group. There were two girls in it, and the one would read the information, and the other would act/sing/dance it out. Honestly, she belongs in theatre and not photography. Not only was she unafraid, she was damn good at it! If you know of "Whose Line is it Anyway", she is like a white, female Wayne Brady, I swear to god. So that was difficult to follow, but I did it. No worries, no fears, no butterflies. I have no issues getting up in front of a large group. I never have. *shrug* I don't know, I guess I just don't care. I like to be heard, so I can be a public speaker.
Anyways, after that was all said and done, we got to hear some of the demographics of the school. This year is the 33rd class of Hallmark. WHOO HOO TO THE CLASS OF 2008! We have stolen the record as well for the highest number of countries attending at once. The previous record was five. Our's is nine! Mind you though, we include the United States in that count.
Still, we have someone from Londan, Italy, Dominican Republic, China, and Germany that I remember. I think there is someone from Brazil too... OH! And Canada! I can't remember the other one though... lol xD Still, it's pretty cool to know that we have all these people coming in from foreign countries! I am so excited to meet them!Then, we pretty much have a ration of five women for every one man. Yeah, we ladies have created quite the estrogen ocean... xD Sorry guys! lol
The major age range is about 25-35/40. So a very relaxed setting language-wise has been established. But man was I shocked the first time I hear the staff swear! Let me tell you, all that high school knocked that language onto the backburners when it came to teachers!!! lol Anyways, the youngest person attending is 16, while the eldest is 57. So we have quite the broad age range.
After the orientation, we had an hour and a half lunch, in which I met more people. Once again, more on that later. lol
After lunch, we went back into the auditorium for our first guest speaker. Today we heard from Barbara Bordnick. She's a pretty famous photographer, and one riot of a woman. She did a lot in her lifetime, and is known as the "accidental photographer". I highly recommend checking her out, she's quite the inspiration. Click here to read more on Barbara, since I'm not going to try to summerize for you. Plus that site will show you her amazing photography. I totally bought her book and had it signed while I was there.
<3
Okay, so enough about that, onto meeting people!
The people I met all seem to be from more suburban or city lifestyles. And it's funny, because here I am trying to explain to them about how our good roads heave like old wooden floors in the winter from underwater streams (they didn't even really know what these were! >.< ) and that our potholes aren't something to be taken lightly because they're not just a little divet, they're about two inches deep... and these people are looking at me like I have three heads. Their eyes just kept getting bigger though as I explained about the dirt roads, seasonal roads, and cow path roads. They have NO idea what to make of the small town I come from, nor myself. I kid you not. And the other people who were from Rochester NY... yeah, they have NO IDEA where Galway is. NONE! Not even Sacandaga lake! It was kind of pathetic, and made me feel like a real stump-jumper. But that's okay, because I don't mind.
What was funnier though, was trying to explain snow to them. I was chatting with people from Delaware and Texas for this, so remember, they really don't get snow. I seriously thought they were going to void their bowels when I started talking about how on average we expected a minimum of a foot, foot and a half with a snow storm at home. And that Massachusetts might come close. In those areas, even the prediction of snow causes a snow emergency...
I think I'll be giving a lot of people rides in the winter, or teaching them to drive in the snow. lol xD It'll be interesting.
But yeah, a lot of them just don't realize how small a place I come from. So I think I'm going to show them some arial photos and whatnot tomorrow, just to give them a better idea. I mean, honestly, the one woman told me she came from a small place too, and when I asked where she said Huston! HUSTON TEXAS! I just about fell over laughing.
People crack me up.
But I did make friends, and that was good. So overall it wasn't a bad first day. ^^
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