Yoho, Yoho! Americorps for Me

Thank goodness for this week! 

The MLC (Multilingual Leadership Corps) had its Celebration of Service during the work week and it a hallelujah-life-saver not only because I got to legitimately miss work which sometimes (often) makes me want to cry, but also because I simply adore the constituents of my corps. We arrived to Mount Desert Island last Wednesday and returned to the Dirty Loo on Friday. I've been to Mount Desert Island three times now, and each has been SPLENDID. I love Acadia. 

Our cabins were the staff cabins for Camp Beech Cliff.

View inside the recently redone cabins.

I never met a Maine forest I didn't like. Right beside the cabins.

New England experienced a brief relapse of wintritis (the disease of winter time) whilst we were at Camp Beech Cliff, but it was of no consequence, save the need for a few of us to pull our mattresses from the unheated cabins into the space-heater-warmed common area. OF COURSE I did this. It was rainy and mist-ical the entire time we were there and temperatures hung in the mid-to-high 50s and low 60s. This is actually more like NC winter, but I thought we were done with coldness. NOPE. The first night was for hanging out and singing karaoke in the dark without actual karaoke anything. The second day was for hiking and team building exercises.

The Hike

Of course we went into Acadia Park, you silly geese! Misty rain or not, we had to go.

The thing I love most about Acadia is that every clearing of trees is a view.

The mist made for a gorgeous day of hiking.

Hey, liddle guy!

Trees across the way

WHAT A PROUD PURPLE PINE!

An attempt to capture the movement of the cloud that encapsulated us via miniscule aperture and slow shutter.

The summit

The vegetation is so gorgeous in the park.

The Team Building Activity 

Throughout our COS (celebration of service) we were encouraged to reflect on some prompted questions about our service thus far, which was way too difficult for my brain to begin to comprehend. To lighten that load, we were given the task of constructing boats/rafts out of cardboard and creating team cheers for each of three groups to which we were assigned. Then we were supposed to race the rafts in the water, which is still frigid. At first, I was so mad we had to do this activity because it seemed like an utter waste of time and resources, plus I hate cheesy ice breaker-family challenges. I didn't really contribute to the construction of our raft, but I did draw a shark face on it, coined our team name, and lyricized our team song. So, I started to get into it when we started making up dance moves and singing in parts for our team song. The theme was pirates and our song was to the tune of "A Pirate's Life for Me."

The Motley Lingual Crew (I love puns)

Our boat

AmeriCorps ALWAYS get things done

The lake we were to take our boats out into. That is a loon on the water.

The competitors approach

Preparing for boat launch.

The Motley Lingual Crew takes the lead!

Annnnnd CRUSHES the competition.

Our boat was truthfully so impressive. No other groups' boats worked and our not only stayed afloat and was paddlable, it didn't take on water so that another member of group was able to take it out after the first member went.

Group victory! She had a cup on her head. Our paddle got flop'd.

And on the third day, we did some service for the camp in the form of assembling soccer goals and breaking down tree-limb huts in the woods. It was VERY windy and raining steadily the whole time, but it was at least warm air and warm rain and warm friends being silly together.

For the rest of the weekend, I rested and caught up on much needed catch-upables. I went to Freeport on Monday for Memorial Day sale shopping with my friend Laurie and got amaaaaaayzzzing deals on outdoor wear for my backpacking/camping trip to Katahdin this July. Then, we ate free pizza and drank Sam Adams summer varieties on a porch. How American!

I'd gladly stand up next to you,

JB