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sherryillkI just had one of the most amusing days ever. There were some rough patches but for the most part, it was funny.
Okay, today after dinner, a part of the group, of which I am a part of, decided to go bowling because of the fact that we had planned to go today but didn't because they wouldn't be open until 5 PM, a fact that we had not been aware of.
So eight of us decided to go in one van and we get there and it was closed even though they were supposed to be open until 11 PM. We saw a note that said they were at MacDonalds and there was talk about going there (since it was down the street a bit and we could see the Golden Arches) and asking them why they were closed…
When we had gotten there, the building still had the lights on but after we banged the door a bit and yelled a bit, we decided to leave. That's when the lights turned off on us. It was eerie.
After that we didn't want to go back to the church so we decided to cruise around the town a bit… We ended up the movie theatre but we were way too early for all the movies except The Diary of a Mad Black Woman and there were people who didn't want to see it (Steve) so we left and ended up at Dairy Queen. There I had my very first Blizzard! I'm not the type to go to Dairy Queen so it was nice for me to finally enter one and get something from there.
I got the Mint Oreo Blizzard and it was sooo big even though I had a small and it was soooo sweet. My teeth are aching now…
And yes, I remember the whole thing yesterday about cutting down on the dairy… I am sooo gonna be sick tomorrow, it's not even funny.
So after that, since there was like nothing in Danville to do (other than going sign stealing or night swimming in the Dan River and bowling), we decided to just go to the Food Lion (I have NEVER heard of this chain but apparently it's pretty well spread around here since I saw a couple coming down here) to get breakfast foods since we were running out of fruit and cereal.
And we got lost.
We got so freaking lost, we ended up in North Carolina.
That's right, North Carolina. Another state. Yeah.
It was hilarious though. We were like "Where is it? Did we go this far last time? We must have." And then we crossed the border to North Carolina and realized we were soooo incredibly turned around. It was freaking hilarious. I had a blast even though it was kinda sad.
What else about today… Well, it was a half day and since it was raining for the entire day (well, it turned into snow later but it was just wet), we ended up with not much too do since all of us were like packed into the inside of the church. Kendra and Betty attempted the steps outside in the pouring rain (and it was really coming down) but even they had to come in. I felt kinda bad being indoors painting… It was sad. And we gave up like an hour and a half before we had to leave for lunch. I learned a new game from Bob though. It was fun, really.
We left early for lunch since there was really nothing to do and the lunch was sponsored by "Roots and Shoots" a club at Galileo High School, the place where we were eating. I was expecting cafeteria school food but they got us pizza which was nice. But we've had soooo much pizza already and we'll be having pizza on Friday too…
Still, the school was cool. It was made out of an old Sears Store and was actually a magnet school. It had like 100 people, really tiny but it was like a tech school and they had so much money to spend on things. They had 8 million dollars in grants and that is like sooo much more than what my poor high school had. And I don't mean "poor" as in sad; I mean dirt poor.
Still, they were a nice bunch. Half the group decided to go to Lynchburg to switch the cars (because of the expired temporary license plate) and they were basically the people who didn't want to go bowling. We who stayed and wanted to go bowling (or at least were receptive to it) got to see a tour of the school. The kids were sooo funny. We had a nice laugh when they asked "So how are the ghettos in New York?" It was serious brill.
We got to see the school (really tiny) and like classes had like five people in them. It was amazing. And still they could afford for each class to have a flat-screen plasma TV (*dies*). Seriously, they are rich. I wish HRV had that sort of cash handy.
After that we had wanted to go bowling but since it was closed, we decided to go down to the Y and work out. At least they did. I took my shower, washed my hair and read a book out in the lobby area. And I watched the Mariners vs. Giants game. Mariners won 4-1, yay! I have no idea how good the Giants were but they were at zero up to like the seventh or eight inning…
Anyway, it was during that time that it decided to start snowing. And it was coming down sooo hard and thick. But it wasn't sticking luckily. It's supposed to continue on through the night which absolutely sucks. It makes working outside hard and I'm part of the outside crew… Plus, EVERYTHING will be all muddy tomorrow. It'll be sad and bad. I hate to think about what's gonna happen tomorrow.
This week has gone by sooo quickly… I can't believe tomorrow is the second to last day. It really has been an experience. I wish I had more spring break time though… I caught up on my World Cult reading but I still have bio and my Jap art class to worry about… I need to do something today… I think. I don't want to…
Anyway after that we went to the library and it was so funny. We got to go online (goddamn Hotmail, didn't let me see my account) and like five minutes later, the person on the intercom tells us the library was closing in ten minutes and in five minutes the computers were gonna be turned off. We had a nice laugh about that.
After that was the dinner which was a bit of a disaster in my mind. I mean so many things bothered me about it… Apparently it's a weekly thing but it was at the church we're staying at (First Presbyterian) and it was all decked up. Bob was the MC and was pretty good. They had skits with kids – stupid. The bells with the adults – very boring. The young adults bell ringers – stupid but there were a couple cute guys there. The choir, eh, well they were okay but still nothing to talk about. And they had so much God related stuff. All throughout it, I was thinking, wow, they're brainwashing us. No wonder people come out of this place all screwed up if this is the sort of stuff they're teaching their kids. It was so hard not to scoff and make a face at everything. It was so religious that I just couldn't take it anymore. Gah, an atheist like me finds stuff like that annoying, you know? It just chafes.
We even had to sing the song the sing at the site everyday. This is how it goes:
This is the day
This is the day
That the Lord has made
That the Lord has made
We will rejoice
We will rejoice
And be glad in it
And be glad in it
This is the day that the Lord has made
We rejoice and be glad in it
This is the day
This is the day
That the Lord has made
It's sickening, isn't it? And then we do morning prayers. Gah!!! I am soooo not religious at all. I was like okay, for the week, I'll deal with it, I wouldn't mind saying Lord with the capital "L" and saying "amen." I mean, it's not like I believe in it so it's pretty much empty so who the hell cares.
(Sidenote: I almost was tempted to ask one of those church people which they would prefer, a person who doesn't believe in any God at all or a person who believes in a different god(s) because depending on how they answer would be kinda characteristic of their religion. Because if they accept divinity and a higher power, that's a different thing from accepting God as that divinity and as the higher power. It's really just do they hate people who believe in other gods or do they hate people who don't believe in their God, you know?)
But tonight it was just like overload, especially when that one woman was doing a skit dealing with the meaning of the Lord's Prayer and how it had God interjecting about how a person should be.
And those couple of lines from the Bible (from Matthew) made me kinda sick. It was like how community service is borne out of the desire to serve God. Gah…! How sickening. I wish I hadn't known about that. Here I thought I was doing good in helping people but really, I'm helping people and because of that, I'm helping God. I don't like that at all.
I know I'm being harsh about this religion thing but really, I am an atheist and I'm one of those who disbelieves in God. I mean I say I'm open, but really it's just a sliver of openness. I absolutely hate Christianity and I wish I didn't have to encounter it. It's not bad essentially, but I can't help but think of it as like a very widespread cult who has been known to do bad things.
Anyway, during the dinner, we were a bit rude and all left to go outside to talk about our plans. And then we went back and interrupted the proceedings because the whole program was still going on.
Steve was going on about how rude we were and the girl from Queens (don't remember her name, god, I'm so stupid but I am just blanking right now, I know everybody else's name and I knew hers so I don't know why I'm blanking right now – Linna, that's her name) chimed in and was sooo much louder and ruder than the rest of us. I just wanted to snap at her and say, "Why don't you shut the fuck up because you're disturbing everybody more than we are and are so much more ruder for saying these things." She was sooo annoying. She's loud, she' doesn't know when to quit, she's a little too hyper and go "awh" a little too much. It's the type of "awh" that Nanny Fran use to use from The Nanny. Every since we've remarked on how many times she says it, she says it even more. It's sooo annoying.
Anyway, that's pretty much the day. After dinner we smoozed with the kids from young adults group – they were nice. Mostly seniors and the rest high schoolers. Stella had a crush on one of them and I admit he was cute but I liked the other guy sitting next to him. He had much better hair. And apparently he was flirting a bit. I wasn't there so I wouldn't know. Oh, and he looked a bit like Buffy's boyfriend in college – the army guy? I don't remember his name…
Stella made them turtles, cranes and stars and they were sooo amazed at that sort of thing. It's amazing how white people are so easily amazed. Actually, it's kinda sad come to think of it. I mean come on. We are in the South though.
Okay, while my opinion of the people in the South has changed, I still think they're not quite right. I can't help it. They are fundamentally different from the rest of the country – especially the West Coast and New England. They can't help that.
We asked them if there was anything to here and they basically said bowling, night swimming, stop sign stealing, rope swing and movies. And that was it. So that's what we were left with.
And so I'm back to the beginning. I'm sleepy right now so I'm ending this post. But before I do, I wanted to comment on one thing. I've realized my speech patterns have changed a bit while I've been here… Different pronunciations, worsening of grammar… I've been saying "ain't" so much, it ain't funny.
Before, it's always been a conscious usage of "ain't" since I'm so aware that it's incorrect and bad but here it just comes out naturally. I don't think that's a good thing.
Like, I correct myself and sound normal while writing but that's only because it's been drilled into me that writing should be done right. But still, I find it kinda interesting to know that I have been effected here…
Okay, today after dinner, a part of the group, of which I am a part of, decided to go bowling because of the fact that we had planned to go today but didn't because they wouldn't be open until 5 PM, a fact that we had not been aware of.
So eight of us decided to go in one van and we get there and it was closed even though they were supposed to be open until 11 PM. We saw a note that said they were at MacDonalds and there was talk about going there (since it was down the street a bit and we could see the Golden Arches) and asking them why they were closed…
When we had gotten there, the building still had the lights on but after we banged the door a bit and yelled a bit, we decided to leave. That's when the lights turned off on us. It was eerie.
After that we didn't want to go back to the church so we decided to cruise around the town a bit… We ended up the movie theatre but we were way too early for all the movies except The Diary of a Mad Black Woman and there were people who didn't want to see it (Steve) so we left and ended up at Dairy Queen. There I had my very first Blizzard! I'm not the type to go to Dairy Queen so it was nice for me to finally enter one and get something from there.
I got the Mint Oreo Blizzard and it was sooo big even though I had a small and it was soooo sweet. My teeth are aching now…
And yes, I remember the whole thing yesterday about cutting down on the dairy… I am sooo gonna be sick tomorrow, it's not even funny.
So after that, since there was like nothing in Danville to do (other than going sign stealing or night swimming in the Dan River and bowling), we decided to just go to the Food Lion (I have NEVER heard of this chain but apparently it's pretty well spread around here since I saw a couple coming down here) to get breakfast foods since we were running out of fruit and cereal.
And we got lost.
We got so freaking lost, we ended up in North Carolina.
That's right, North Carolina. Another state. Yeah.
It was hilarious though. We were like "Where is it? Did we go this far last time? We must have." And then we crossed the border to North Carolina and realized we were soooo incredibly turned around. It was freaking hilarious. I had a blast even though it was kinda sad.
What else about today… Well, it was a half day and since it was raining for the entire day (well, it turned into snow later but it was just wet), we ended up with not much too do since all of us were like packed into the inside of the church. Kendra and Betty attempted the steps outside in the pouring rain (and it was really coming down) but even they had to come in. I felt kinda bad being indoors painting… It was sad. And we gave up like an hour and a half before we had to leave for lunch. I learned a new game from Bob though. It was fun, really.
We left early for lunch since there was really nothing to do and the lunch was sponsored by "Roots and Shoots" a club at Galileo High School, the place where we were eating. I was expecting cafeteria school food but they got us pizza which was nice. But we've had soooo much pizza already and we'll be having pizza on Friday too…
Still, the school was cool. It was made out of an old Sears Store and was actually a magnet school. It had like 100 people, really tiny but it was like a tech school and they had so much money to spend on things. They had 8 million dollars in grants and that is like sooo much more than what my poor high school had. And I don't mean "poor" as in sad; I mean dirt poor.
Still, they were a nice bunch. Half the group decided to go to Lynchburg to switch the cars (because of the expired temporary license plate) and they were basically the people who didn't want to go bowling. We who stayed and wanted to go bowling (or at least were receptive to it) got to see a tour of the school. The kids were sooo funny. We had a nice laugh when they asked "So how are the ghettos in New York?" It was serious brill.
We got to see the school (really tiny) and like classes had like five people in them. It was amazing. And still they could afford for each class to have a flat-screen plasma TV (*dies*). Seriously, they are rich. I wish HRV had that sort of cash handy.
After that we had wanted to go bowling but since it was closed, we decided to go down to the Y and work out. At least they did. I took my shower, washed my hair and read a book out in the lobby area. And I watched the Mariners vs. Giants game. Mariners won 4-1, yay! I have no idea how good the Giants were but they were at zero up to like the seventh or eight inning…
Anyway, it was during that time that it decided to start snowing. And it was coming down sooo hard and thick. But it wasn't sticking luckily. It's supposed to continue on through the night which absolutely sucks. It makes working outside hard and I'm part of the outside crew… Plus, EVERYTHING will be all muddy tomorrow. It'll be sad and bad. I hate to think about what's gonna happen tomorrow.
This week has gone by sooo quickly… I can't believe tomorrow is the second to last day. It really has been an experience. I wish I had more spring break time though… I caught up on my World Cult reading but I still have bio and my Jap art class to worry about… I need to do something today… I think. I don't want to…
Anyway after that we went to the library and it was so funny. We got to go online (goddamn Hotmail, didn't let me see my account) and like five minutes later, the person on the intercom tells us the library was closing in ten minutes and in five minutes the computers were gonna be turned off. We had a nice laugh about that.
After that was the dinner which was a bit of a disaster in my mind. I mean so many things bothered me about it… Apparently it's a weekly thing but it was at the church we're staying at (First Presbyterian) and it was all decked up. Bob was the MC and was pretty good. They had skits with kids – stupid. The bells with the adults – very boring. The young adults bell ringers – stupid but there were a couple cute guys there. The choir, eh, well they were okay but still nothing to talk about. And they had so much God related stuff. All throughout it, I was thinking, wow, they're brainwashing us. No wonder people come out of this place all screwed up if this is the sort of stuff they're teaching their kids. It was so hard not to scoff and make a face at everything. It was so religious that I just couldn't take it anymore. Gah, an atheist like me finds stuff like that annoying, you know? It just chafes.
We even had to sing the song the sing at the site everyday. This is how it goes:
This is the day
This is the day
That the Lord has made
That the Lord has made
We will rejoice
We will rejoice
And be glad in it
And be glad in it
This is the day that the Lord has made
We rejoice and be glad in it
This is the day
This is the day
That the Lord has made
It's sickening, isn't it? And then we do morning prayers. Gah!!! I am soooo not religious at all. I was like okay, for the week, I'll deal with it, I wouldn't mind saying Lord with the capital "L" and saying "amen." I mean, it's not like I believe in it so it's pretty much empty so who the hell cares.
(Sidenote: I almost was tempted to ask one of those church people which they would prefer, a person who doesn't believe in any God at all or a person who believes in a different god(s) because depending on how they answer would be kinda characteristic of their religion. Because if they accept divinity and a higher power, that's a different thing from accepting God as that divinity and as the higher power. It's really just do they hate people who believe in other gods or do they hate people who don't believe in their God, you know?)
But tonight it was just like overload, especially when that one woman was doing a skit dealing with the meaning of the Lord's Prayer and how it had God interjecting about how a person should be.
And those couple of lines from the Bible (from Matthew) made me kinda sick. It was like how community service is borne out of the desire to serve God. Gah…! How sickening. I wish I hadn't known about that. Here I thought I was doing good in helping people but really, I'm helping people and because of that, I'm helping God. I don't like that at all.
I know I'm being harsh about this religion thing but really, I am an atheist and I'm one of those who disbelieves in God. I mean I say I'm open, but really it's just a sliver of openness. I absolutely hate Christianity and I wish I didn't have to encounter it. It's not bad essentially, but I can't help but think of it as like a very widespread cult who has been known to do bad things.
Anyway, during the dinner, we were a bit rude and all left to go outside to talk about our plans. And then we went back and interrupted the proceedings because the whole program was still going on.
Steve was going on about how rude we were and the girl from Queens (don't remember her name, god, I'm so stupid but I am just blanking right now, I know everybody else's name and I knew hers so I don't know why I'm blanking right now – Linna, that's her name) chimed in and was sooo much louder and ruder than the rest of us. I just wanted to snap at her and say, "Why don't you shut the fuck up because you're disturbing everybody more than we are and are so much more ruder for saying these things." She was sooo annoying. She's loud, she' doesn't know when to quit, she's a little too hyper and go "awh" a little too much. It's the type of "awh" that Nanny Fran use to use from The Nanny. Every since we've remarked on how many times she says it, she says it even more. It's sooo annoying.
Anyway, that's pretty much the day. After dinner we smoozed with the kids from young adults group – they were nice. Mostly seniors and the rest high schoolers. Stella had a crush on one of them and I admit he was cute but I liked the other guy sitting next to him. He had much better hair. And apparently he was flirting a bit. I wasn't there so I wouldn't know. Oh, and he looked a bit like Buffy's boyfriend in college – the army guy? I don't remember his name…
Stella made them turtles, cranes and stars and they were sooo amazed at that sort of thing. It's amazing how white people are so easily amazed. Actually, it's kinda sad come to think of it. I mean come on. We are in the South though.
Okay, while my opinion of the people in the South has changed, I still think they're not quite right. I can't help it. They are fundamentally different from the rest of the country – especially the West Coast and New England. They can't help that.
We asked them if there was anything to here and they basically said bowling, night swimming, stop sign stealing, rope swing and movies. And that was it. So that's what we were left with.
And so I'm back to the beginning. I'm sleepy right now so I'm ending this post. But before I do, I wanted to comment on one thing. I've realized my speech patterns have changed a bit while I've been here… Different pronunciations, worsening of grammar… I've been saying "ain't" so much, it ain't funny.
Before, it's always been a conscious usage of "ain't" since I'm so aware that it's incorrect and bad but here it just comes out naturally. I don't think that's a good thing.
Like, I correct myself and sound normal while writing but that's only because it's been drilled into me that writing should be done right. But still, I find it kinda interesting to know that I have been effected here…
