ASU Term II 2012
On Sunday the 8th of July the new tipsters arrived at a beautiful Appalachian State campus but none of them had any idea what was ahead of them. All of the kids were introduced to there RC's which included; Adrian, Andrew (RHL), Antavious, Colin, Emma, Erika, Erin, Heidi, Jules, Julia (RHL), Kelson, Mallory, Matt, Nicole, Ryon, and Zach. On Monday everyone attended their first day of class not knowing what to expect. The arrangement of classes was plentiful there were 12 in all; theater arts, science on the appalachian trail, myths and legends, math problem solving, human body, geometry (gee-im-a-tree), from wonderland to hogwarts, design challenges, debate, creative writing, america and the world, and algebra. Eventually everyone got settled in and they figured out if they liked the boy or girl they would be sharing a room with for the next three weeks. The first week had some pretty cool activities including ultimate frisbee, wiffle ball, and speed friending. As the weekend rolled around everyone seemed to have settled in; finding who they will hangout with, building relationships with their RCs, and even some couples were formed that week i.e. Hailey and Jackson (still going strong), Chris and Brittany, and Isabel and Jack (Who was replaced by Connor in week three).
Saturday morning there was a collective trip to King Street where there was lots of candy eaten (Pearl bought 64$ worth of candy) and clothes bought. Also on Saturday there was floors of fun which many campers showed their Meele or Sporcle skills off. Later that night there was the first dance and before the commute to the church was made everyone was scrambling trying to figure out what to wear and who to go with. The theme of the dance was hipster tipster and lots of people came wearing clunky glasses and funky scarfs. Besides the fact that most tipsters were unprepared for the un-airconditioned church and the small cramped space, the overall dance seemed to be a success. The dancing was kept tip-propriate (for the most part) and the refuge downstairs and outside was used happily by most campers. The next day there was an actual chance to sleep in but the day was heavily packed with activities.
Lip-synch, a highly touted competition at TIP where RC groups choose and song and lip-sync and dance to it. The first two RC groups to compete in lip-sync were Nicole's and Colin's which sang Fabulous and Call Me Maybe respectively (both groups scored 18.5 out of 20). Mallory's group sang Call Your Girlfriend and while ending up in third place also created what some may call the song of the term. The very last act of the night was Tay's group lip-synching E.T. by Katy Perry lead by Paul. Tay's boys ended getting fourth place with plenty of laughs from the judges. After it was all said and done there was still a predicament, a tie between Colin's super awesome swagged out RC group and Nicole's fabulistas. In first term Colin and Mallory tied and they both shared the first place title (it was rumored that this is what would end up happening again). Also, bragging rights was not the only thing on the line there was a chance to dress up your RC, first choice activities, a bag of candy, and the spoon. The judges decided that to break the tie for first place there would be an interpretive dance battled, this decision was followed by groans from the crowd not to mention. Colin's group was up first, the song was "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" a song that Colin's RC group taught ASU Term II to love. Next was Nicole's girls and they were dancing to the Spongebob Squarepants Theme Song and bernied when "flopped like a fish" rang through the speakers. Most believe that the bernie sealed the deal for the judges and it was decided that Nicole's group won the interpretive dance battle and therefor also winning lip-sync (the win was not very popular among the tipsters though). Through out that afternoon lip-sync was talked until the buses arrived to take everyone to Horn in the West, a play about Daniel Boone and British settlers in the colonies. Overall the play was well liked and after the play was over many of the tipsters got to go talk to the cast and take pictures with them. And even before anyone knew it, it was already the start of week two.
To say the least week two was an interesting week, with all of the traditions on each day. Monday was pajama day and most tipsters came happily striding into class with there pajamas on. Tuesday was twin day and there were a lot of kids that looked a lot a like in the same clothes which caused much confusing. Wednesday was most likely the most interesting day of all of camp, opposite day. Most tipsters didn't think about putting their clothing inside out or pants on head their head (although some did such as Nor). Instead the thought that came into most campers heads was the opposite gender and that equaled to some interesting results. Most girls stuffed there hair in hats and put on baggy shorts and talked like "guys" for most of the days. There were even a select few boys (around 10) who decided to talk to some of their girl friends at TIP and try to borrow some clothes. Most memorably was probably Brad who went all out, Thomas or Tamika as some called him, and Liam who resembled a very tom-boyish girl wearing a Lady Gaga shirt.
Following opposite day was hippie day which was one of the more low key days. Friday was dress up like a mathlete or a nerd day, and for many tipsters this was not hard at all. Saturday was athlete day which like mathlete day was not very difficult to dress up as for many of the kids. Saturday was carnival: which is when your RC gives you ten tickets and you use those tickets for admission into games, if you do well in a game you win tickets (sometimes gaining tickets, loosing them, or just breaking even) . Some of the activities were football toss, simon says, four square, and Cole Perkins and Kyle Bauske's non-profit activity charades. The majority of the tipsters didn't want the candy or the bouncy balls, they wanted the big prize; pie-ing an RC for 85 tickets. It was a hard task to do, the ones who could complete it had to ball very hard but it was done. After dinner on Saturday many RC's were pied including Jules by Jack, Andrew by AJ, and Kelson by Joe. That night at 7:30 everyone in their Tiki Tiki Tip dress walked over to the Church and proceeded to dance their asses off. This time there were more couples and some people even going with different dates this time. The consensus was that the second dance was much better and by the end some were getting emotional even though it was only week two.
The finale of week two was color day which only can mean one thing, the battle to the death they call PIT Fest. Four teams, only one winner. Yellow, blue, green, and red. Blue team lead by Andrew, Jules, Julia, and Zach. Red was the least enthusiastic of all four but had some talent, lead by Adrian, Ta, Erika, and Mallory. Green team (the team that "didn't want to play dirty"), lead by Colin, Emma, Kelson, and Nicole. Finally the yellow team with most likely the most enthusiasm (thanks to Heidi) but in the end they just sucked. From the very beginning it was back and forth between the Blue and Green teams with Red always trailing in third with Yellow in last. By the end of PIT Fest, the Green team had some big wins in Jello Snarfle and Water Balloon Toss. While the Blue team lead by Corbin and James dominated in tug-o-war and easily got first. Eventually the Green team got bragging rights along with a first place finish followed by Blue, Red, and lastly Yellow.
After lots of dispute and people accusing the Green team of cheating (Blue team....) there was the staff talent show. Which consisted mostly of Jordan and Tam singing to each other, the RCs singing the crazy e-harmony cat song, and a very spot on reenactment of a TIP classroom. On Monday most were in scary movie night where they watched The Ring which scared the crap out of a lot of tipsters or ERS tournament which Jared easily won. Tuesday and Wednesday's evening activities were not nearly as memorable. Then on Thursday there was the looked forward to/dreaded last dance, it was by far the best but also by far the most emotional. The theme was TIProm and all the RCs looked like they were back in highschool while there was a photography section just like Prom (or at least the ones in movies). Also the last dance was in a room at the Union which was far and away better than the Church where dances one and two were held. The room was bigger, air conditioned, and much darker (which proved to help the not tippropriate dancing). Eventually American Pie came on and literally within twenty seconds of the song being on some kids were already bawling. After that everyone circled up and it spread across the room like a disease and eventually the majority of tipsters were crying their eyes out and hugging their fellow tipsters tight. The walk back also had lots of crying and some couples drifted away and did some stuff that the RCs wouldn't exactly love to hear about. And it was already Friday; the last full day of TIP. In class there was pretty much no learning done and just reminiscing about the stuff you learned and all the fun activities you did. Then there was the lovely time of cleaning rooms (some which were very bad) and packing up all your clothes.
After there was the last dinner at ASU which for many kids was a relief because the food was quite bad. 7:45 all the Talent Show acts went to the auditorium to get ready and shortly after the rest of the camp packed into their seats. The talent show was.......interesting. Most of it was singing, most good and some bad (props for trying). Then there was magic (kinda), the Pokemon theme song which was well received, and the White Wop (Performed by Paul, Jackson, Alex, and two others) and if it wasn't the last day there would have been some serious repercussions for but was actually really hilarious. Following the talent show was the slide show which could be summed up in one word; emotional. There were kids crying, screaming, and whining all over the place. Throughout the thirty minute slideshow their were some funny videos such as talking Jurassic Park dinosaurs and the classic e-harmony girl but it was mostly just the tipsters hardly working and playing around. Then there was the announcement about being able to stay up until 1:30 which was very well received and by floors all the campers filed out. Once everyone was at the dorm it was complete chaos; people were singing term books, dancing and crying (some at the same time), couples were making out, and it was just crazy. The clock struck one and everyone had to trudge up to their floors for their last nightly meeting. Most meetings were very emotional and lots of RCs were telling how much they loved their kids and yet again there was more crying. Nightly meetings eventually ended and everyone got all tucked in and went to bed for their last night at White. A short 4 hours or so later all the kids who were riding the bus to go to the airport were woken up and they all sleepily gathered their belongings. Some loyal friends even got out of bed to wish their friends a last farewell. They were the first members of Duke TIP Appalachian State Term II to leave and were followed by many teary eyed goodbyes with every last tipsters leaving camp. After twenty days of pure fun and craziness Term II was over. It was too say no less, a beautiful time. Where life long friends were made and memories were made. Hope to see you all next year. University of Georgia Term II.