Intern Assimilation

The title of this blog is all that we were told as far as what today's events were going to include.  Wikipedia tells me that assimilation comes from the latin word assimilatio meaning to make similar, but from our perspective it seemed like a strange word to use, how about orientation?  I personally like orientation better, but that's just me, I never have been good with latin :)

Today promised to be full of team building exercises and being told for the 100th time that we are not allowed to have alcohol in the dorms, which can sound pretty boring if you are expecting the run of the mill ice breakers and what type of personality am I tests.  Here in USOC land we team build by watching an awesome 1990 plane crash video, which I am confident inspired the ABC hit TV show LOST and then do the traditional "what of your supplies do you use first" exercise.  Why is it always the stupid little things that always are the most important things for those exercises?  I need to remember this for future team building experiences, the dumb mirror in the cosmetic case can help you live in the desert for at least 3 days after a plane crash.  My team did really well.  Two of us got to pick our teams and the rest were just assigned...  I got to pick my team!  And we kicked some major ass, well the closest team to us was within 4 points but everyone else was WAY off!  Not that we are competitive or anything...  It's hard not to have a competitive energy when nearly everyone in the room competed in intercollegiate athletics on some level.

We also heard from some amazing speakers, and if you know me you know how passionate I am about the Olympic Games, I get goosebumps and teary when anyone talks about it because I believe in it so much and I love seeing and helping people succeed.  Anyway, Kelly Skinner spoke to us and he could not be more inspiring, he was an intern 14 years ago and apparently he is one of the most helpful people around the USOC, he's a pro networker and made me feel like I really was doing the right thing by pursuing things that I am passionate about and not necessarily what is going to make me the most money when I get done with school, love it!

Planning on getting lots of bonding in over the weekend including a nice little run/walk/survive of this...

It's called the incline, its a mile and half hike that climes over 2,000 ft in elevation, rumor has it that Apolo Ohno ran it in 17 minutes...  I am just hoping to survive it and live to do it again!

Happy Weekend!