K-Ville From The Front Line

More pics

Pics from my last K-ville shift!

This post is about how our tent came to be.  It’s kind of a long story.  Some plot twists.  It’s no Harry Potter, but it’s a fun read. 

First, I’d like to apologize to the people in my tent who were kept in the dark during Christmas break when this was all going on.  I didn’t want you guys to have to stress out about this over break like I did.  Here it goes:

Also, I’m aware that some of the people I mention might read this.  Please please don’t take this as me talking crap about you.  That’s not my intention, I’m just telling the story…

It all started with the tent last year.  We were made up of 7 seniors, 2 juniors and 3 freshman.  Both juniors decided not to tent this year, so I had the task of finding 9 new tent mates.  I turned to my friends who I had lined with for games last year and friends from our neighboring tents.  JP was in Tent 2 last year and original tent captain Kapil and I met Jack while sleeping out for the Presbyterian game.  Things were going good and as of the beginning of December, we had 11/12 of our tent members. 

And then people started dropping out. I’m informed via drunk text that 2 members will have to drop out.  We’re down to 9/12.  No big deal.  Got until January 15th to get everything together.  The next day, two more inform me that they will be unable to tent.  We’re down to 7/12.  We had a tent meeting that weekend, had everyone ask around to fill the spots. We also added Joel to the group: 8/12

Christmas:  I’m informed that one of members can’t black tent.  7/12.

January 2nd: The guy who was originally going to be tent captain had to drop out due to commitment for grad school interviews (by the by, if you read this you should definitely go to Duke).  6/12.  I took up the helm at this point.  Invited Cameron to rejoin.  We’re at 7/12. 

Some time between Christmas and the 1st: I had been recruiting 2 groups of 3-4 at this point.  One ended up blue tenting (and shares out green tent).  The other is part of another black tent and couldn’t back out of that.  So my list of options is running short.

It looked for awhile that we wouldn’t even have a black tent this year. And then we finally caught a break.  After being informed of another group’s desire to be tent 1 (and some facebook stalking), I messaged Elizabeth about forming a tent.  She had problems getting a group together, so it was a natural fit.  With her she brought Jordan, Carly and Scott.  11/12. 

Unfortunately, over the next few days, two more members couldn’t tent.  We’re back to 9/12.  I met Michael at the Penn game over break and he said he was looking to black tent, but couldn’t get a group together, so I asked him and he came aboard.  10/12.

Now is when it got really fun.  We had a quick meeting after the UVA game, which was two days before the tent rosters were due.  Since we needed 12 people at night for black tenting, if we didn’t have 12 people by Saturday night, we weren’t going to black tent.  The next day (Friday), Jack informs us that Kevin’s tent fell apart, so we added him.  11/12.  I had been in contact with someone else who was interested in tenting, but wanted to meet with us before she made a decision.  So Friday afternoon, about 5 of us met with Zoya and made our case as to why she should tent with us: she accepted our invitation.  12/12.  Roster submitted.  BAM.

So of the original 12 members I recruited from last year, only 2 of us remain.  It was a hard and stressful pre-tenting winter, but we got through it and now we’re only 2 days and 2 night shifts away from personal checks.  All in all, this tent has turned into a pretty damn good group and I’m proud to be a part of it.

-Eric

The siren that wakes us up for tent checks.  They got a new one this year.

So as this tenting season winds down I figured I’d put some stuff on here.  I’ve been pretty slacker with the blog this year considering I wrote a post about every other day last year.  I’m also working on a post about how the current tent came to be, hopefully I’ll get that done soon. 

The best thing about white tenting is your sleeping space will be comfier than your own bed.  Or close.

Thursday is supposed to be a beautiful day.  I’ll be here for most of the afternoon taking pictures and enjoying the day.  Come visit us.  We always accept cookies.

-Eric

Tent 1

With the last week of tenting here, I’ll likely be going on my annual K-ville photo rampage during my last day shifts.  Oh yeah, and I might actually write the blog posts I’ve been meaning to write all year.  Stay tuned.

-Eric

K-ville while we took the tents down during the tornado watch Friday

Semi-snowy K-Ville taken from the 4th floor balcony of the Schwartz-Butters building…so pretty!

- Jordan 

Just got the updated google doc from Ellie and Bobby (head line monitors) now.  Very excited to re-inhabit my former home!

-Eric