On the FIRST Day of BAMMA...

Today I was blown away by the first full day of BAMMA. This morning was the earliest I have woken up this whole summer. I usually wake up 4:30 AM during the school year, but my body has already disengaged into summer mode. One funny thing that happened in the morning was my roommate, Ramon, had set up alarms to wake him up. Unfortunately, he set his alarms on the wrong times, setting off an alarm at ONE THIRTY IN THE MORNING!!!! I was ready to swing my body off of bed when I looked at my own cell phone and saw the correct time. I almost flipped out, but kept my cool and tried to go back to sleep. At 2:30, however, I was rudely awakened again by banging noises coming from the left of my room. I tossed and turned in bed, fitfully waiting to go back to sleep. After another 30 minutes, I finally drifted back to sleep for another 3 hours until wake up time. As I woke up, I wanted to take a shower to truly wake me up. The shower was a cold affair, as large windows blowing cold San Francisco air into the room ventilated the room. Nevertheless, I got my warmish shower done and changed, getting ready for the day.

In the academic parts of class, our class got to use the computers in relation to a lesson. We got our first lessons from Mary Ann and Jesse. Their teaching styles were both different, each contributing different things to the learning environment. Truthfully, I could not stay awake through the parts taught by Jesse because his voice was really soft. Nevertheless, I learned plenty of things from him such as the “gold, silver, bronze” tiers for getting great news sources, with gold being the most reliable source. After lunch, our class was split into group of four to attend various small seminars to prepare for tomorrow’s trip to City Hall. Our group was CC, Oscar, and myself. Our first class was about photos. We learned the parts of the camera and how we were going to use them tomorrow. It was really fun because we got to run around and jump up and down.

Our second class was the video one, which wasn’t really interesting. It was basically the same stuff as the photo one and the instructors were not really sure of themselves. The last one was the audio one which was really fun. We were assigned to record the three types of audio. I had fun recording the sound of shoes and my elevator excursion to the fifth floor. After I was done, I was ready for some fresh air!

The most important part of the day, however, was getting to know more people. I talked with Ramon on how early we had to wake up and generally figuring out our routines in the morning. I got to know Joel and his Tabasco and “garbage disposal” eating antics. I got to know CC and Oscar with the group activities and class learning. I had fun with Yaya, Goldie, Joel, Monica, and Oscar with our contagious dinner laughing. I usually do not talk with people when I first get to know people. But, our BAMMA was really easy to talk to.

I look forward to see how the rest of the weeks play out.