Speaking of our class activity on egg planning, I would like to start with mentioning that I was lucky to work in my team. It was easy to work together with my teammates because everyone was enthusiastic, talkative and had ideas; we didn’t waist time on getting over being shy. As for our planning process, I can define the following steps:

1. Define your goals and objectives.

This was probably the step that we spent the least time, because the goal and objectives were clearly explained by the professor. And by the time we formed a group all of us clearly knew that we need to make some sort of cushion for an egg in 30 min. So, in about few minutes we went to the next step.

2. Determine your resources and current status vis-á-vis objectives.

This was the step when we recapped on the resources that we had which was 2ft of tape and 8 straws. Then we were asking each other if any of us had a previous experience of doing something like this; or may be someone had some sort of knowledge for example in physics that might help in designing the egg protector. In about 4-5 min we moved on to the next step.

3. Develop several alternative strategies.

At this point we started collecting different ideas on how to construct the protector. We had few ideas, such as to make a cube out of straws and make the egg hang inside; also we had almost the same idea as the winning team, which was to hang up the egg on a long string to decrease the falling distance of the egg, one more idea was to construct some sort of a cone out of straws for the egg. Few people out of our team were drawing the possible constructions.

4. Make a tactical plan.

At this step we came to a conclusion to make a cone-like structure to protect the egg. We declined the rest of the ideas as we thought they were too complicated to be made in the remaining time. We didn’t allocate jobs or roles for our team. I think it didn’t really come across our minds, I personally think it wasn’t as important for our type of activity.

5. Implement the plan and evaluate results.

As soon as we got our materials, we started working on the project. I can say that every member of the team was involved. No one was just standing by and watching. Someone was holding the egg, someone was giving out tape in portions, someone was cutting straws in pieces, a couple of people were holding the straws in place and someone was taping the whole thing together. As a result pretty much did the structure we planned to do; we didn’t have to change anything while implementing our plan. Unfortunately our egg broke, but we were not disappointed in the way we worked as a team because we did choose the best option we had and we didn’t dismiss any other ideas; we all felt like we did our best as a team.

I was born and raised in Russia. So, it was my first time abroad when I came to Wildwood, NJ in summer of 2005. I remember that there was a ton of things that surprised, shocked or puzzled me and my friend (we came here together).
There were all sorts of things, starting from a salt package that we tried to open for like half an hour to clothes in store that has only 4 sizes: small, medium, large and x-large, we fit in neither of them and didn't shop for the whole summer.
But I can point out one thing that is very characteristic for the majority of Americans, which is makes American and Russian people differ a lot. The thing is that, very often Americans come across as very emotional people, who get easily excited; they are extra nice and caring and they have their Hollywood smile on all the time. At first I felt skeptic about this kind of behavior, it seemed to me fake sometimes.
At the time I was working in a store on the boardwalk and I used to see women come into the store, see pretty bracelets for $10 and start jumping like little girls saying: "OH MY GODDD!!! How cute! How Pretty! It's amazing! I Love It! I Love It! I Love It!" And I would think to myself: "Ok, yes, the bracelets ARE pretty, but it's not like they are some miracle bracelets that will, for example, turn all the singles in your wallet into 100 dollar bills. Why jump like that? It looks stupid."
Also, people always had a smile on their faces, they smiled walking along the boardwalk, walking into the store or just talking to me. In the beginning I kept thinking: "What's so funny? Is there something wrong with my clothes? Or makeup?" I started carrying a little mirror in my purse and kept checking myself, later I realized that it's not me, the people are just smiling. My American friends always asked me why I look upset or sad and I kept telling them that I’m fine and happy, if I don't smile it doesn’t mean I’m upset.
I tried to do it myself - to smile more often, at first I felt like an idiot. But in a week or so, I just felt like smiling. It helped me to understand American mentality more. After all, why not smile to each other? Why not get happy about simple things? If these little things don’t get you excited or happy, then what does?