"This isn't Camp UGA"

In case you were wondering, when you combine copious amounts of alcohol with locking yourself out of your room, bad things can happen. For one kid in my program, it meant climbing out on a ledge, trying to open his window from the outside, and falling 10 feet. Before you think the worst, he's okay -- he didn't remember what happened and they took him to the hospital pretty quickly. He had to get stitches or staples or something in his head, but 24 hours later he was walking around and acting as though nothing had happened. But in the meantime, the assistant director of our program sent out a strongly worded e-mail and gave us a speech tonight before dinner about being responsible while we're here.

"This is not 'Camp UGA.' This is a serious course of study at a prestigious University and an opportunity you should all be proud to have, as I am sure you are. By the same token, we in the administration are not camp counselors -- I say this primarily because I want you to remember that it is neither our interest nor our job to be moral police or to prescribe your actions day and night. We intend and endeavor to treat you as the adults you are, as you well deserve.

That means, of course, that you are solely responsible for your actions, no matter the time of day or night and no matter what, ahem, 'condition' you may be in." -Jamie's e-mail

I mean, I expected most of the kids in my program to drink more while they're here because the drinking age is 18, not 21. But seriously? There's no way that alcohol can impair your judgment that much to where you think the best way to get into your dorm room after locking yourself out would be to climb from one window to the next. That just has BAD IDEA written all over it. Thankfully, nothing worse happened. He seems fine (albeit pretty embarrassed), which is good. Hopefully no one else will do anything close to that for the rest of the trip.

On a lighter note, I'm almost 100 pages into Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, from which the new movie The Golden Compass is based. It's pretty good so far, and after looking at the trailer, I think the movie will be good, too.

And another cool thing on this trip -- Michael Adams will be here on Wednesday to give a speech and join us for our high dinner (he's the president of UGA, for those of you who don't recognize the name). More to come on his visit later.