Day 2: Icebreakers

Hi, apologies for blogging a day late.
So yesterday we started the day off with "icebreakers," activities and games designed to help us meet each other better and connect as RA groups while also having fun. We first went on a scavenger hunt, trying to find most of the buildings and places we'd be spending a lot of our time, as well as meeting the RAs at each station. Basically we had to do things at each station (like, one was invent a cool handshake, another say random words at an increasingly fast tempo without repeating words) that would allow the RA there to give us a number that ended up being a phone number. A lot of the stuff we did ended up on Instagram because that was also part of the activities. So you can see if you can find any there. (They're probably also on the NYO page.)
After that we played a game of Pruie (my take on the spelling--it's pronounced
PROO-ee) and it's an apparently new game this year. It's a game where everyone is blindfolded except one, the Pruie, and everyone has to go looking for Pruie. Once you find Pruie (who, by the way, is silent while everyone else gets to yell "Pruie") you get to take off the blindfold and join Pruie, so that Pruie gets larger and larger while the people remaining decrease in number. It's funnier when there's only like one or two people left, because Pruie is huge now (at least with 100+ people) so there's this whole chain of people desperately backing away from the blindfolded people. Pruie's also not allowed to run or move if the chain is broken anywhere, to even the playing field (pun intended) a bit. I think the RAs invented this game, and they said it would be the best game we've ever played, and while it probably was, I couldn't notice because I get very discombobulated after being blindfolded for a while. So that was interesting and took up most of the time from around 11 ish to lunch.
After lunch was official orientation, but that was at four, so I went with a few oboists and bassoonists to help them sight-read some chamber music with my laptop. We also heard a brass quintet (quartet?) practicing down the hall, and shoutout to you guys because you actually sound amazing and anyone who tells you otherwise is eligible for an insane asylum. I can't wait to hear the full thing later.
At orientation we met (almost) all the staff and also reviewed our video projects, about which there will be more info later. :) I will say that this year there are only 5 groups, divided by region I think, instead of section groups like last year. (Check them out here; they are quite frankly hilarious and amazing. Another plus of being here is that I finally get to see those people in real life. Again, surreal.)
Then there was more free time, which consisted (on my part) of playing cards and just chatting in one of the lounge rooms, waiting for the ice cream social at 7 PM. We were in the reed room actually, and yet no one was making or working on any reeds; in fact at one point we were watching a video of Yundi performing the Beethoven we're going to play with him.
After the ice cream social in which they offered us both cones and cups (cones!! and cups! but I got a cup :) ) I went back to the lounge room with a few others and we played a fierce game of Uno (someone was dedicated enough to go to the More Store and buy a set of cards) followed by a game of Mafia, which ended up lasting from 9 30 ish to 11, mostly because we had so many people playing Uno that no one was able to get rid of their cards fast enough. We ended up having about 13-17 cards each and just kinda gave up at that point.
I left at 11, even though others stayed until the 11 30 curfew, to get started on this post that I obviously did not finish until today. And that was the end of my first full day at NYO! What do you think? Would you be up to that much socializing and networking? Quite frankly, I'm surprised I didn't crash at around 4 PM. I have to work up my energy to be outgoing and social for hours on end, and I didn't do that beforehand, so I was worried that I'd just give up halfway through the day, but I didn't. I made it somehow. And now I've met a good majority of the orchestra. Still haven't met many brass players. But I'm getting there.
Let me know what you think about everything I said above, especially about Pruie, since it's new. So post any and all questions in the comments below, and of course, stay tuned for more!