My month in MI, Albany, The first week!

So I'm here, FINALLY.

So I have a chance to pack a TON of stuff into one blog, I apologize. Feel free to read in doses.

My M&M- the Month in Michigan
I stayed in Ann Arbor for a week, then went up north for a week, back downstate for a week, up north for a week, and then downstate for a few days before I left for Albany. In that time some notable things I got to do that were really special to me:
Mass amounts of genuine quality time with my Mom, my bestfriend from highschool Jessica and her son Michael, and with Megan, my bestfriend from College
Jason and I went Kayaking- which resulted in the death of two cellphones.
I spent the 4th at home for the forest festival, fireworks, fair rides, art fairs etc
Ann Arbor Art Fair, always a blast
I finished reading the Harry Potter Series- again.
Other than that I ate a lot of good food, slept, and slept and slept, and slept some more.
Enjoyed the beautiful temperate weather of MI
And the list goes on, but I was basically useless and ready to start work by the time I left.

The Move
It took a little bit for them to narrow down a day I could move in, but I successfully moved in on July 29th, and started training July 30th. Yeah, take THAT, take THAT. It took 2 days with that trailor to drive to Albany. I actually went the speed limit, it was painful.
Things have been intense with the move, but good, I stayed quick on my feet and flexible and whatnot. The training work days have been long, but not so long that I couldn't get some unpacking done. I actually got a weekend just this last weekend! This was amazing because I got to see my Aunt Lisa and her boys Colin and Christian. I'll probably be mentioning them a lot so keep those names in mind... We saw WALLE in the theater, and I was so tickled I laughed more than the little kids! Hehe!

UAlbany Work
Student staff arrives on Sunday, so right now I've been working with my Quad Staff. Here's the brief Albany structure so you know what I'm talking about.
Housing is broken into 2 apartment complexes, Freedom and Empire Commons
It has four on campus QUADs, a Quad is a series of 8, 3-story buildings in a square, with a 20-something story tower in the middle, a cafeteria underneath. They are located on the four corners of campus. The four quads are Colonial, Dutch, State, and Indian. Downtown campus as a Quad called Alumni. It houses sophomores and transfer students.
There are about 1400 students in each quad, and I don't know how many in the apartments.
Each Quad has 1 Quad Coordinator, 4 Resident Directors, 1-2 GAs, A senior RA, Housing Managers, RAs, and SAs(student desk workers)

Right now, the quad coordinator, the RDs and the GAs are in professional staff training.

Names you will see often:
My lovely Quad Staff that is amazing is:
Karla - my boss and QC
Brian- RD (with a specialty in staff development)
Justin RD (specialty in administrative functions)
Myself RD (specialty as program director)
Nicky RD (specialty is CHARGE, our multicultural programming community)
Allison GA (runs the main quad office)

We're all obsessed with coffee and make a coffee run in the mornings before training, and it's awesome.

Albany
Is a lovely capital city with historical buildings downtown, and it's tucked into the mountains so everything is hilly, green, and gorgeous. A lil drab downtown, but where I'm at, beautiful and green.
Campus is self-contained, but the city is all around us and across the street.
There is a 3-story mall down the road
there is a 2-story super walmart across the street from it. It's awesome.
I have a GPS now so I'll be doing some exploring and will tell you about the mountains as soon as I get there.

Misc.
My apartment is a little strangely laid-out, but it's spacious. The kitchen is SMALL, but it has a lot of storage, and I'm flexible, I'll manage. I'm already thinking about the baking care-packages I'll soon be sending everyone. I put up pictures on the walls last night and that was comforting.
I miss everyone like crazy. I have random UCA moments, and I talk about it in the "we" still. Hard to break that habit. So many isms, so much lingo, it's amazing to think about how cohesive we become, and how the structure of UCA is so engrained.
I'm reading the TWILIGHT book series. It's a little dramatic, lots of vampires, werewolves, and teenage angst. If you have time to read (which I made time for!!! GASP!) I suggest it, it's a 4 books series. Pretty good.
I still do not have consistant access to internet, so as soon as I get that taken care of I will update more often.

As you all know, there isn't much else rather than reslife stuff, because it's not a job, it's a LIFESTYLE.

But that's where I am now. Shout out to my peeps in Arkansas, I miss ya'll like crazy, and PLEASE take care of my MICHELLE!

<3

~Danielle~