Back from the FFA state convention!
First and foremost, out of 14 ag. issues teams that competed, we placed 4th!
Here's what happened..
Friday: Left the school at 8:45. I brought my backpack which was stuffed full of essentials (food and discman basically) and a giant suitcase, because I usually tend to pack more than is necessary. We stopped at the Troutdale outlet stores, for a reason unknown by me. I browsed in the wholesale book store and the guys bought toy guns and had the police called on them because they were running around the parking lot with them and whoever called thought they were paint guns. At this point I knew it was going to be one heck of a long weekend..
We went to some ritzy little club type place in downtown Portland called The Mac and listened to the state vet and a farmer talk about Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. Then we headed to Corvallis and checked in at the Hilton Garden Inn (really nice hotel!). We ate at Ruby Tuesday and went to opening session, which was cool and kind of overwhelming. The auditoreum is huge and there were over 1,000 FFA members attending.
Saturday: Didn't go to the morning session because, wouldn't you know it, I was sick. Predictably enough I couldn't escape the cold that seems to coincide with my spring break every year. Luckily I had anticipated such an annoyance and had a few vitamin C tablets with me. But my throat was really sore (the first indication of an illness for me usually) and I had a headache. At 11:00, Michelle, Dani, and I went on the meat processing tour. After we wandered around a while, I talked to a fisheries and wildlife major and we got lunch at the campus burger king. Found out that our slideshow for ag. issues was destroyed somehow, so we spent two hours making a new one on powerpoint. We went to some fraternity house for a barbeque in the evening, then headed back for pre-session talent show and had our second evening session. Back at the hotel, most left for the dance at the memorial union, but me, on account of the facts of sickness and lack of dancing ability, opted to stay and rest.
Sunday: Hectic because we practiced a lot for ag. issues. We ate at a sub shop and then prepared for it. Had to wait for 2 hours before, too. It went surprisingly well, and I actually got to answer a couple questions, including the one I hoped the judges would ask about similar diseases in other species (chronic wasting disease in deer and elk. Heck yeah!). So after that we went to the dairy which was very cool, I got to see and pet a bunch of adorable jersey and holstein calves and we even got to go into the milk parlor and watched some jersey cows being milked (mechanically). I even learned how to milk a cow! After, we headed to the sheep barn, which was way out in the country, and it is lambing season so there were a hundred or so ewes with young lambs. Amazingly enough we actually got to see a lamb being born. Found out that we were moving on to finals because Dani called us when the results were posted as she had to take a co-op quiz and was still on campus. Out in the pasture there was a whole mini flock of lambs bounding about, it was so cute. I should have brought the camera but I felt that it would just be one more responsibility and didn't want to lose it. After the tours we went to dinner, I went to Subway rather that Izzy's because Izzy's was way crowded. Then the evening session.
Today: Got up at 6:30 to practice for our final performance of ag. issues..practiced for an hour, then packed up, then got out of the hotel rather late. But it was really amusing, because in our room there was this monstrous plastic plant that we decided should help us annoy the room cleaner. So it was hauled into the bathroom. Then Michelle and Dani placed it in the shower and turned the water on, drenching the plant and filling the tub with an inch of water. So a note was placed on top: "I think you need to water your plants more because they look a little dry =)" Then they stole the alarm clock and were contemplating whether or not to take the end table too. Went to lunch and then to finals. We were first up this time, but the computer was being sassy so we ran over our allotted set-up time! Plus then our video was lagging and I was practically laughing because it looked really funny and reminded me of an SNL skit. Then someone skipped a line and we totally had to cut out a big portion of our skit. Questions were more difficult, and I didn't get to answer any. That was annoying. Wasn't feeling too confident.
But then we got to go to Soap Creek Ranch and see some angus cows and then to the pig barn, where there were several 700 or 800 pound pigs! Crazy. They're kinda scary considering they weigh as much as or more than the average grizzly.
Got to go to Sharis (yay strawberry lemonade!) and I got this big platter of unhealthy items such as onion rings and mozarella sticks. After dinner we headed back to campus and changed into official dress for the session. We went up on stage (and this time there were over 2,000 people there!) and accepted our banner for placing fourth. We all kind of knew we'd get last out of the four teams chosen to move onto finals since we had a lot of technical difficulties. Still, it was cool to place.
Then the journey home began..pretty uneventful, just listened to music and such. Glad that it's over but it was a fun and memorable time.
First and foremost, out of 14 ag. issues teams that competed, we placed 4th!
Here's what happened..
Friday: Left the school at 8:45. I brought my backpack which was stuffed full of essentials (food and discman basically) and a giant suitcase, because I usually tend to pack more than is necessary. We stopped at the Troutdale outlet stores, for a reason unknown by me. I browsed in the wholesale book store and the guys bought toy guns and had the police called on them because they were running around the parking lot with them and whoever called thought they were paint guns. At this point I knew it was going to be one heck of a long weekend..
We went to some ritzy little club type place in downtown Portland called The Mac and listened to the state vet and a farmer talk about Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. Then we headed to Corvallis and checked in at the Hilton Garden Inn (really nice hotel!). We ate at Ruby Tuesday and went to opening session, which was cool and kind of overwhelming. The auditoreum is huge and there were over 1,000 FFA members attending.
Saturday: Didn't go to the morning session because, wouldn't you know it, I was sick. Predictably enough I couldn't escape the cold that seems to coincide with my spring break every year. Luckily I had anticipated such an annoyance and had a few vitamin C tablets with me. But my throat was really sore (the first indication of an illness for me usually) and I had a headache. At 11:00, Michelle, Dani, and I went on the meat processing tour. After we wandered around a while, I talked to a fisheries and wildlife major and we got lunch at the campus burger king. Found out that our slideshow for ag. issues was destroyed somehow, so we spent two hours making a new one on powerpoint. We went to some fraternity house for a barbeque in the evening, then headed back for pre-session talent show and had our second evening session. Back at the hotel, most left for the dance at the memorial union, but me, on account of the facts of sickness and lack of dancing ability, opted to stay and rest.
Sunday: Hectic because we practiced a lot for ag. issues. We ate at a sub shop and then prepared for it. Had to wait for 2 hours before, too. It went surprisingly well, and I actually got to answer a couple questions, including the one I hoped the judges would ask about similar diseases in other species (chronic wasting disease in deer and elk. Heck yeah!). So after that we went to the dairy which was very cool, I got to see and pet a bunch of adorable jersey and holstein calves and we even got to go into the milk parlor and watched some jersey cows being milked (mechanically). I even learned how to milk a cow! After, we headed to the sheep barn, which was way out in the country, and it is lambing season so there were a hundred or so ewes with young lambs. Amazingly enough we actually got to see a lamb being born. Found out that we were moving on to finals because Dani called us when the results were posted as she had to take a co-op quiz and was still on campus. Out in the pasture there was a whole mini flock of lambs bounding about, it was so cute. I should have brought the camera but I felt that it would just be one more responsibility and didn't want to lose it. After the tours we went to dinner, I went to Subway rather that Izzy's because Izzy's was way crowded. Then the evening session.
Today: Got up at 6:30 to practice for our final performance of ag. issues..practiced for an hour, then packed up, then got out of the hotel rather late. But it was really amusing, because in our room there was this monstrous plastic plant that we decided should help us annoy the room cleaner. So it was hauled into the bathroom. Then Michelle and Dani placed it in the shower and turned the water on, drenching the plant and filling the tub with an inch of water. So a note was placed on top: "I think you need to water your plants more because they look a little dry =)" Then they stole the alarm clock and were contemplating whether or not to take the end table too. Went to lunch and then to finals. We were first up this time, but the computer was being sassy so we ran over our allotted set-up time! Plus then our video was lagging and I was practically laughing because it looked really funny and reminded me of an SNL skit. Then someone skipped a line and we totally had to cut out a big portion of our skit. Questions were more difficult, and I didn't get to answer any. That was annoying. Wasn't feeling too confident.
But then we got to go to Soap Creek Ranch and see some angus cows and then to the pig barn, where there were several 700 or 800 pound pigs! Crazy. They're kinda scary considering they weigh as much as or more than the average grizzly.
Got to go to Sharis (yay strawberry lemonade!) and I got this big platter of unhealthy items such as onion rings and mozarella sticks. After dinner we headed back to campus and changed into official dress for the session. We went up on stage (and this time there were over 2,000 people there!) and accepted our banner for placing fourth. We all kind of knew we'd get last out of the four teams chosen to move onto finals since we had a lot of technical difficulties. Still, it was cool to place.
Then the journey home began..pretty uneventful, just listened to music and such. Glad that it's over but it was a fun and memorable time.
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