Cam C. Chanina K.
Chanina reflects on the first week of OS34 in light of an early morning orientation activity which sets the stage for our Observation Projects:
On the morning of January 24th, our 5th
day at Oxbow, we were all woken up at around 7 in the morning, and were given 5
minutes (more or less) to meet near the New Media studio. After some rushing, and
a little bit of confusion, journals and pens were distributed, and we were told
that we would be doing some writing about external and internal observations.
Some of us, still shivering, then went back to the dorms to get another layer
before joining everyone on the walk to the place where we would be writing.
Apparently, I was still not entirely awake, because in the process of getting
my jacket, I left my journal in my dorm room and had to go back again to
retrieve it. Dayna and I, the slowest to leave campus, ended up trailing the
group from a distance. While walking on the trail to our point of observation,
we made comments to each other about the shockingly green colour of the grass,
or about the way that the early-morning frost left a thin coat over some of the
plant life surrounding us.
When we eventually reached our stopping point, we
each found a place to sit and record our observations and thoughts until we
heard the signal to meet back up with the group. Like the majority (probably)
of OS34, I was still slightly missing my bed, but I also appreciated the experience
in many ways. I’ve never been one to take morning walks, and I feel like this
was a good opportunity to enjoy the period of time in the morning that I am not
usually awake for. The amount of time that we spent writing in silence also
allowed me to notice things that I might not have otherwise noticed. Certain
sounds and movements that I observed became magnified and more noticeable, and
I allowed myself to write more freely while trying to capture some of this, and
to record what I was thinking at that moment. When the activity was over, we
gathered ourselves back into a group, and waited for any stragglers. Two hot
air balloons happened to be floating overhead as we stood there, and when a
hand stuck out of one of them to wave down at us, we all waved back
enthusiastically. After we walked back to campus, we were more awake and ready
to meet the day ahead (which included our first math classes, and the
exchanging of Oxtags (name signs for our dorm room doors) that we had all made
for each other!
I don’t know how each person’s
experience here has been so far, and I don’t know how everyone felt about this
activity, or about any of the others that we’ve gone through in the past week.
But, even if not everyone equally enjoyed this experience, or if some of us are
still unsure about our new surroundings, I know that there is still so much
more waiting for us in the months to come, and that each of us will find and
make memories that we’ll want to keep for a long time.
