I have been meaning to post about May Term since the start of May Term, but I've kept so busy that I really haven't had time. So, i have 40 minutes. Ready, Set, Write.
For May Term this year, I am taking a Trends in Business course. We are looking at the Faith At Work/ Spirituality in the Workplace movement, and Social Entrepreneurship. This course is a travel course as well. During week one, we were in the classroom reading articles, books, and listening to speakers. First, we brought in a Stakeholder from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He spoke about the importance of food storage, gave a background on TCJCLDS, and also talked a little bit about how he integrates both home life, work life, and spirituality. Everyone in our class is a Christian (that's what we get for going to an ELCA school I guess) so it was interesting to see a different side of religion. Next, we brought in an em-om from the Islamic tradition. He spoke about the importance of Zakat (basically a social tax) and triggered the discussion of if the United States could ever have a national social tax to help charities and the poor.
On Saturday morning, May 5, we met at our professors house at 5:45 am and left for an 18 hour drive to Princeton, NJ, at 6:30. We stopped in the south side of Chicago (Garfield Park) for lunch at Inspiration Kitchens. Inspiration Kitchens provides cooking and food service training for homeless people and drug addicts to get back on their feet. We had a delicious lunch and spent some time talking (2 hours) before crawling back into the van. A couple stops later, we made it to Newton Falls, Ohio, (Zip Code 44444) around 10:30 at night. It was on the far boarder of Ohio, and the sketchiest hotel I've been in. Our doors didn;t have chain locks, there was a crack in the door frame so light came in, our phone rang all night and was just static on the other end, there was a strip club next door, 2 types of cereal for breakfast (that's all), and a "resturant" in front that looked pretty sketchy too.. We quickly left in the morning for a 7 hour drive. On the way to NJ, we took a Southern Route through PA and stopped off in Hershey, PA because no one had ever been there before. Upon arriving in NJ, we went to Conte's pizza for dinner (where all the college students go), before going to the hotel to rest.
Monday morning, we went to Princetons Center for the study of religion for class for a few hours. After class, we had lunch in their pay as you go and pay for what you eat cafeteria, took a campus tour, then got some time in town to hang out. Holly and I got cup cakes from a place that won cup cake wars and walked through some shops. For dinner, we met at Hoagie Haven (a hoagie is like a sub sandwich.. i dont see the appeal of it, but okay) then headed back to the hotel. Everyone did some reading for class, and headed to bed.
Tuesday, we had class again. It went a lot longer than expected, but we had a good discussion on the Tyson Food Shelbyville Plant case, talked to the guy from corporate Tyson who was focused on in the (inaccurate) case study. Upon finishing a 4 hour class, 6 of us jumped a series of trains to Philly. It took an excessively long time due to class ruining my train schedule (it was all scheduled out, which apparently means i'm high maintenance and a rock star (a bad thing) who needs everything organized and to happen according to plan. I was then told to chill out because every one hates a rock star.). We got to philly 3 hours later to find all the museums closed and rain. Although i still enjoyed looking around, some people were complaining alot and hated the city. We walked to the liberty bell after stopping for food (which also made us miss the museums), and then took a lot of pictures. We stayed about an hour then took an hour train ride home. Tuesday night, I did some homework, talked to some people online, uploaded pictures, and crashed.
This morning, Wednesday, we got to sleep in! We had breakfast, and then people are doing homework and just relaxing for a little bit. In about 45 minutes, we are headed to Trenton, NJ, to visit TerraCycle Inc. Afterwards, I think some people may head into NYC (a 40 dollar, 100 minute train ride) and some of us will hang out in Princeton, I think. I am not completely sure though. We were planning on going into NYC tomorrow, Thursday, on our own then back Friday, but would only have 1 hour there if we wanted to be back for dinner at a professors multi million dollar house. So, we will see what happens. But regardless, we get Friday in NYC so I suppose I can see as much as I can while there and will just have to make it back sometime!
Well, that catches you all up.
There are 2 facebook albums happening. One is my pictures. The other is of Sir Victor Knight. Sir Victor knight is this stress ball type knight that the school sends with travel groups for may term. HE is documenting his adventures through an album on my wall :) enjoy.
