Almost Done

A few quick updates:

• 2 work days left in Alpaugh
• Back in Colorado on Saturday!
• I made a gingerbread house!
• I get IRS certified for my next project
• I can't think of much else....

Things are slowing down here in Alpaugh.  We counted cranes last week with our project sponsor. They all fly in to one area around sunset and they count them once a month to see how many migrate in. We got some neat pictures of the sunset but unfortunately people are slow to laoding them on computers. Maybe next time. I cannot wait to be in Colorado again! Gotta go!

Round 2 is soon!

We know where we’re going for round 2! YAY!!!! A few days ago Ben Richie called Chika to let her know we will be heading to Great Falls, Montana next month. During our project we will be working with Native American tribes doing taxes for those who can‘t afford to have them done. We don’t really know any details yet, but we heard that we will get to stay in different places around Montana. And we also know it is going to be COLD! Despite the weather, I am extremely excited about Montana.
This week was pretty much a continuation of transplating grass. We also worked on irrigating the land. A few of us worked Saturday morning and finished that up which was very rewarding. Watching all of the water flowing into the rows was entertaining. Afterwards Bill took everyone out to lunch at the Mexican café. It was a good day.
Today I have been doing some crocheting and working on gifts for the team. We’re exchanging small presents tomorrow. I also started working on some gingerbread which will hopefully become a gingerbread house!
Chika, Abby, and Kyle should be back from Sacramento soon so I’m sure there will be more Montana info coming soon!
I want to post pictures but no one is loading them on Facebook! Sorry!

I'm gonna miss Alpaugh

I know we still have 2 weeks left here but I will miss Alpaugh once we leave. We've been spoiled all week by having fresh apples and tangerines off the tree every day. And each morning and night we watch Beautiful sunrises/sunsets followed by a sky full of stars. I think I saw the milky way last night! The work has been hard and I am definitely sore (especially because Chika kicked our butts with a crazy ab workout this morning) but we also get lots of rewards being out here. Enjoy the photos!

Thanksgiving Week!

So there hasn’t been much work going on since the last update and it has been quite a nice break. Tuesday night Sam left us to visit his girlfriend and Abby headed out on Wednesday to see her sister, and then there were 9.
Thanksgiving day in Alpaugh was very nice. In the morning we watched the Macy’s Day Parade….(we recently discovered we have basic cable). Then we switched over to football for the day. The entire day the kitchen smelled delicious with all the great dishes being made, that is, until I burnt the rice. But in the end we had a delicious meal with a fantastic turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, cooked vegetables, mashed potatoes, very cheesy broccoli, and pumpkin and pecan pie. It was definitely comparable to past Thanksgiving meals I’ve had. The weirdest part about it was that there were 9 of us opposed to the usual 38 or so.

Kendra's delicious pumpkin and pecan pies!

My feast

After Thanksgiving passed we spent some time sitting around the house, watching movies, playing games. We’ve also gone to Visalia the past 2 days. We organized an ISP at the Visalia Rescue Mission. We split up and helped out at two different thrift stores. We bagged items, organized merchandise, put out new
Christmas items and set up trees! We also got some good shopping in. I was very good about not spending much. I just ended up leaving with some yarn to crochet with. Others have started getting presents for the present exchange we’ll be doing later. We’re all getting small gifts for each other to put in stockings….I need to work on that!
After working the thrift store on Friday we headed over to a movie theatre. Half went to see Harry Potter while the rest of us saw Due Date. I thought it was a pretty good movie, it definitely had it’s funny moments.
Then on Saturday after the thrift store we all went to downtown Visalia and got dinner and sat around a sports bar/restaurant called Steve’s Place. Later a live reggae band started playing and they were super good. They covered Sublime and Pepper and they were pretty awesome!
As of now it’s just another lazy Sunday around the house. We’re all waiting around for Sam and Abby to come back tonight!
Starbucks update: Abby and Sam’s bus got in a wreck. I’m not sure how bad it is but they are alright. We may be waiting longer than initially anticipated.
P.S. I forgot to mention we got a flat tire last night....what a fun time. Then on the way home we also hit a ridiculous fog!!!! It's been eventful.

Quick Blog

We are at Starbucks once again. No work tomorrow! So the team has big plans of possibly bowling or a movie. Sam left town yesterday and Abby is heading out in about an hour so it's weird with our team splitting up for the first time, but so far we've survived.
We have a real turkey to cook tomorrow so the plan is to cook and eat all day long instead of having all of the food prepared for one meal haha. It should be fun. And very interesting since I have to substitute for cheddar cheese in the green rice.
On Friday and Saturday we will be working from 3-7 at the Visalia Rescue Mission thrift store. It's good to get some hours in. Hmm....Nothing too exciting to say here. I can't wait to be back in Colorado! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Backwards Blog

I'm not in the pic....but we mixed seed in the cement mixer

Garbage can full of seed

Working hard on the nature trail

I just accidently put the pictures first...oh well.  This isn't just the backwards blog, it's basically just out of order. It's starting and ending with me in Starbucks on Sunday but I wrote the center on Saturday. And it talks backwards about the week from there....now for Saturday:
Currently the Ameri-mansion is much cleaner than usual and the Rolling Stones are blasting through a sound system we just discovered. We are waiting for the Silver unit Leader to show up within the next hour or so. His name is Ben Richie and he is Chika’s supervisor as well as the guy who decides who goes to Hawaii or Alaska for the Silver unit. He goes around to each of the Silver teams during each spike. So once he gets here he will meet with Chika and Steve, the project supervisor. Then we will all drive around to the areas that we’ve worked to show him what we’ve done so far.
Speaking of which, we did a lot this week. On Monday we continued working on the nature trail, which we finished by lunch on Tuesday. Then we headed back to the wetlands where we continued removing bassia that afternoon and Wednesday. Sam and Ashley also finished planting the fields with Bill. But then on Thursday we mixed some more seeds so they were back to planting again. This time they were in a hurry because Steve heard it would rain on Saturday. So they planted all day Thursday and then headed out at 6:30 Friday morning. Ron and I joined them after work Friday and we all continued working until around 7:30 that night (which was quite a dark and rainy night). But we finished planting all 4,000 pounds of seeds that we had just mixed, plus another 700 pounds we had to mix ourselves that night. So basically, it’s been a long week.
Not to mention this morning we went to our first independent service project (ISP). Everyone in NCCC needs 80 hours volunteering in their free time to help out different organizations. Although I’m aiming to get the Presidential Service Award which requires an additional 20 hours of service, but I’m on my way with the first 5 hours out of the way. (Sam says hi.) We left at 6:30 this morning to drive to Tulare and work with the Salvation Army. They were providing boxes of Thanksgiving food to low income families. Silver 1 took the boxes across the street to senior low income housing. Then a few people arrived from Alpaugh and we drove back with them to deliver another 30 boxes to families here.
Now going backwards some more, I will tell you how we discovered the ISP. On Wednesday evening we went to the Alpaugh town meeting. There we just 3 board members in the room along with a few townspeople and a Tulare County sheriff along with a special visit from a representative of the congressman. We learned a lot about the community there and luckily heard about the ISP. We might also be helping out with a community cleanup later on.
Back in Starbucks again: Other things that happened this week…..I sliced my finger with an exacto knife, basically finished my first crocheting project (a small scarf that I’m going to add a button to!) almost finished reading Into the Wild abd next I’ll probably move onto Into Thin Air. Kendra and I realized why our cookies turned out weird…..we have small sticks of butter that look like half sticks, but are actually full sticks of butter. Oops. And last but not least, my camera finally died. But I’m sure I can steal some pictures from other people to show you. That’s about it for me. Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I’m sad I can’t be in Kansas! Miss you!

Another week

Silver 1 has officially completed our first week of service (although we did have Thursday off). It was intense work but we really did get a lot done. On Friday we moved to a trail on the BLM's land. We cleared trees hanging over the path and did lots more bassia removal. Fun stuff. I got to take out a small palm tree and it turns out the palms from Palm Sunday come from the center of palm trees. It seems so obvious but who knew?!
On Saturday the whole team headed to Visalia, CA. It's about an hour north of Alpaugh. We went to a great farmers market in the morning. We split into groups and each group had a list of fruits or vegetables to find. Once we found all our items most of us got distracted by all of the free samples or fun crafts around. I wish I had taken pictures but I was just too distracted I guess. My favorite stand was one with a large assortment of dips and pita bread. The cilantro jalepeno dip was delicious!
Afterwards we ran a couple of errands, Target/bank, then headed downtown. Steve had reccomended a cafe called the Tazzaria so we hunted it down. But once we got there most people thought it was over priced and headed on their way. I thought it looked good but I wanted to look around some more so I went with.
After deciding I couldn't resist the honey mustard chicken sandwich I went back to the Tazzaria, where it turns out Ron had been talking to the owner and got us a deal of $7 for anything on the menu which was normally around $10-16. I was quite happy about that and my sandwich was fantastic.
Then I wandered around some more. There was a thrift store run by the American Cancer Society. I bought "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer and the game Mastermind. Then I saw a set of crochet hooks, and since Kendra said she would teach some of us I couldn't resist. It was supposed to have 5 crochet hooks but I noticed one is an orange peeler.....It's ok, I actually was looking for one at the store a few months ago haha. So then everyone told me there was a craft store down the street so I went and bought some yarn. Afterwards there were a few of us waiting around for other people to come back from more errands (Costco, Walgreens, etc.) so I headed to a sports bar where Kyle had to see the Ohio State game.
Later that night Kendra refreshed me on how to crochet....but now I can't decide what to make! Not much is going on today. Starbucks in Delano and later some of us will venture to church again!

My delicious sandwich from Tazzaria

First work week

So this is the second blog I’m writing this morning. So far we’ve had 3 work days with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). On the first day we mixed seeds. I didn’t see this being as tiring as it actually was. By the end of the day we had mixed about 3,700 pounds of seeds.

The process begins with the BLM hiring some people a few times in the year to collect all the different types of seeds from the fields. We had around 8 or 9 types of seeds we were mixing. Then We collected the proper amount of bags for each seed ranging from about 4-18 bags. Then we each took one seed and poured a certain amount into a 5 gallon bucket. Then all the seeds got put into a garbage can which was poured into a cement mixer. Finally the mixed seed got poured back into bags for planting later. The process got to be so quick that I was constantly measuring and dumping over and over. This required lifting the heavy bags of seeds and quickly took a toll on my back. But by the end of the day we had got enough done for 135 acres of fields (I think).

Then on Tuesday and Wednesday we were sent to the wetlands. There is a plant there called 5 hook basia that has little stickers that attach to all of your clothes. We had the pleasure of removing all of them from the area. We’ve pulled out some tools for the work but I prefer to just find the softer ground and pull them out. We did this all day for 2 days and my hands are more sore than they ever were after percussion. But we are just about done and we had a lot of time to get to know each other while we were working. It’s been fun. Oh and a couple people from the group have been in the fields helping Bill plant all the seed we mixed.

When we got back from work on Wednesday there was a new dog waiting for us out front. Apparently he had been in the fields all day and since then he’s been hanging around the house. The 2 people in the filed named him Billie, but before we knew that we named him Winston (Churchill). So now he is Winston “Billie” Churchill. As we left in the van to drive to Starbucks this morning, he chased after the car until we couldn't see him anymore. It was adorable!

Some other things going on:

• I've started reading Into the Wild. Good book so far.
• I'm in the beginners phase of learning to play ukelele, fun stuff!
• The other peer helper and I had our first activity last night. A random fun game and a craft-make signs to remind people of things around the house. ie please don't leave dishes in the sink
• We've seen more than one black widow so far. SCARY!
• And I'm very happy to have Veteran's Day off. It's a nice break.

Winston "Billie" Churchill

Ashley and the dog

A picture to prove I'm still alive

Abby and the black widow (it was behind the glass)

Foreign Mass

I guess I should start off with Saturday night. We tried the Mexican restaurant in town for dinner. It was quite good and everyone enjoyed it. It’s just a small place with only 6 menus. While we were there the tv was on the whole time playing games shows in Spanish. They also had a couple of pool tables there. Everyone wants to try to go back around once a week…..we may be able to work it into the food budget.
The next night a few other corps members and I went to church. There is a small local Catholic church in Alpaugh with a 5pm Spanish mass. On the way to mass all of us were quite nervous. We had no idea if the would be 5 or 55 people there, and what we did know is that there would be a big language barrier.
We walked into the church and there was a glass with water by the door. Ashley, being the first one through the doors, dipped her fingers in the glass as if it’s holy water. Whitney, who is right behind her starts to worry that Ashley just put her fingers in someone’s drinking glass since that’s what it looked like. In the end we saw others use the glass as holy water too so we we’re ok. But when we first entered we also saw two rooms and people were in both of them. We weren’t quite sure where to go so we just took some chairs close to the entrance. As we waited more and more people showed up until the two small rooms were packed.
Before mass started a woman got up and spoke to the parish for a while. It felt like she kept asking questions but non of us could understand what she was saying. At one point some people raised their hands while we all just sat there looking confused. Then as the mass got started we all just went through the motions without understanding anything. At least the 4 of us that went are Catholic so we could basically follow along. Although we thought we would be able to do all the responses in English but it gets a lot more confusing than you would imagine. Then when communion came around a lot of people in the back stood up and made a line. We waited patiently for when our row would head up but before we knew it only the 2 people on the inside of our row had received communion and sat back down. It turns out only 50% or less of the church actually goes up for communion…so we missed it. We attempted to sing along during mass since we had the words to the songs. But it was very difficult to find the tune….not everyone was singing together. Overall it was quite the experience.
As we left into an uncommon rain shower the priest was shaking peoples hands. As we passed him he changed to saying “Gob bless you” in English. So we’re going to go to mass again next weekend and maybe we can speak with the priest afterwards.
Well that is the story of church in Alpaugh….now to right another blog.

Spike #1

So as I start this blog, I just realized that I did not bring the cord to connect my camera to my laptop. So….we’ll see if I can figure out another plan. As far as I know the other cords in the house are different. Well, I guess you’ll know if I find a solution.
Anyways, we arrived safely and on time to our house Ah….I think I forgot my battery charger too. Dang it! Anyways, again, we were greeted by the people who we’ll be working with: Steve, Susan, Bill and CJ. Steve is the project manager and has been working for the Bureau of Land Management in Alpaugh for the past 9 years.
Yesterday they took us around to look at past areas they have been working on as well as the areas that we will be working. In the “high point” of Alpaugh there are little horned lizards that Susan is studying for her masters. She picked one up and let us “pet” it. They were everywhere!
So far our nights have consisted of playing a couple of card games and watching Jeepers Creepers and The Departed. Some chess games and puzzles as well. We also have a mini foosball table in the house but I have yet to see anyone playing it….I don’t know if it has a ball…?
This morning was awesome since we all got to sleep in. I woke up and read a little bit then a dog walked through our front yard! A few of us headed outside to see what he was up to and he wandered into our backyard. Ron continued to follow the dog and discovered that it is a very friendly dog! So we named her Mary and she has been hanging around the house for the past few hours while we have all been eating pancakes. Good times.
We’ve stayed in Alpaugh since we arrived but today we plan on heading into Delano.

….So there’s been a couple hour break in writing this. I’m writing on Microsoft so I can just post it when we have internet. We worked on an emergency plan packet and had our alcohol discussion which all went well. I also found out that Whitney’s camera cord works on mine so I have pictures! YAY! I think it also charges my camera….I think.

My bedroom along with Rebecca and Chika

Our living room

Dining area

Kitchen! Check out the sweet lighting

The horned lizard that Susan caught

I tried to rotate that....but that's Mary, our temporary pet

Now I'm at Starbucks in Delano. Fun stuff.

TEAMMATES!!!!!!!

Today I realized that I haven't formally introduced you to any of my new teammates or my team leader. So here they are:

Chika is the Team Leader. She's the leader because she had a different application process and a month of training before we arrived. She gets to take care of lots of planning and keeping us informed. She is 23 and was born in Japan and grew up mostly in New Jersey. And she has a degree in...biology?
Kendra, who is currently next to me in the computer lab, is also one of my roommates. She is the oldest one in the bunch at 24. She's from North Carolina and is our Media Rep/ Service Learning Initiator. Rebecca is my other roommate. She's 22 from Baltimore. Her job on the team is also Service Learning Initiator. Then there is Ashley, 22 from New Jersey. Whitney, 23 from Chicago. Abby, 18 from Indiana. Kenny, 18 from Milwakee. Ron, 20 from Santa Cruz. Sam, 22 from Minnesota. And Kyle, who just turned 24 from Sandusky, Ohio. (Tommy Boy!). They all have jobs on the team as well....I just forgot to list them all but that's not too interesting anyways.
So the other day....I'm not sure how it got brought up but a few of us were discussing starting a(n?) ukelele band. As we were randomly discussing it later Kyle mentioned that he actually plays ukelele and owns 2 that are back in Ohio. So turns out we even have our own personal instructor. But wait....it gets better. Kyle and Ashley and I headed out to a local music shop today where Kyle purchased his 3rd ukelele. Ashley and I wanted to support the fun so we split a book with tons of fun songs to learn. I figure this project will keep us quite occupied while sitting around our Alpaugh home. We leave in a few days!

The start of the ukelele band! btw thats Kyle

In Mendocino



I love this. So random.

Halloween!!!

So I don't really have Halloween plans but I did have a fun day yesterday. Right after I slept in I went to a mall with some of my pod friends. I got some Coldstone while we were out and it was delicious!!! Then I had to be back for a meeting with my team and afterwards a few of us hung out. We went to a place called skyhigh. It's just a big building with a bunch of trampoline areas set up that even the sides are trampolines. I wish I took some pictures but we were too busy jumping. It was tons of fun and very exhausting. But unfortunately I don't feel very good right now....I think I need some food.

We're basically done with training! YAY! I have a Save the Children course on Monday. I'll learn about working with kids in a disaster relief place.
But currently there is a situation. While hanging out with my pod a fluorescent light broke.....we're still dealing with that. Later today I'm going to a trampoline fun place! I'm stoked!

Rhymes with "Cow Paw"

So in just over a week my team will leave for Alpaugh, CA. I highly doubt where you know where that is so....it will be a 4 hour drive south from Sacramento. It is also 3 ish hours north of LA. The area of the town is .99 sq. miles and just over half of the population is Hipanic.


But onto the fun stuff. We will be working for the Bureau of Land Management. We will mostly be doing an environmental project for wetlands restoration. But while we are there we will also be working with the school and doing after school programs. Even though we'll be so isolated my team is very excited to be out there. We will definitely be getting lots of team bonding time! Which will probably occur in what has been nicknamed the Ameri-mansion. Since multiples team work at this site each year there is a house that they always stay at. It is a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath ranch. I'll put the address up when I know! That's just about all of the info I know right now but I'll keep posting about it.
Lots of other things have also been going on. We got assigned our team positions a few days ago. Me along with another member on my team (Sam) are going to be Peer Helpers. Our job is to always be there to listen whenever needed. We also get to plan team bonding activities and do our best to keep morale high throughout the year. This wasn't a position I put in my top 3 (it was 4) but either way I'm really excited about it and I think Sam and I will do an awesome job!
Another thing about today....we had a "class" about interpersonal relationships. For part of it we described good and bad qualities of different animals and then decided which one was most like ourselves. The options were ant, lion, owl, chameleon, lamb, weasel, dolphin, and fox. When we first talked about the qualtites I identified with many different bits of each so I was having a hard time choosing. Then I saw nobody was at the ant station so I decided to wander over there. Then each station had to describe their good and bad qualities and I realized the ant wans't too bad of a choice for me. I feel like I'm a pretty hard worker, I tend to "conform" to different situations, I respect hierarchies(random). A few of the down sides are that I get upset if people are goofing around in a serious situation and that I don't always voice my own opinion. But anyways, after that we got back together and discussed what the other people on our team thought we were like. When it got to me every said they could've seen me as any of them. I took that as a compliment :)
Well, long day so I might go to bed pretty soon. Goodnight!

Make a difference day!

If you didn't already know, Staurady October 23rd was make a difference day. For this all of the Americorps NCCC members here were sent to different community gardens and school yards to help with gardening/cleaning up.
My team (silver 1) along with silver 2 were sent about 30 minutes from campus to the Mather Community Campus. It's a place for homeless to go. They can stay for 2 years while they get different trainging and counceling to get them back on their feet. There is a community garden there where they had all kinds of vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, along with sunflowers and marigolds. In the center there was even a chicken coop along with a turkey.
Most of the plants were no longer useable as far as food goes, and they were also covered with weeds. So our job was to clear out all unwanted plants as well as build a fenced area for composting. We got most of the garden looking quite nice and definitely prepared for planting in the spring. It was a fairly long day but I enjoyed it more than expected. It was nice to meet members of the other team and just play games with everyone all day.
Saturday was also a teammates birthday(Kyle). He really didn't want a fuss made about it but everyone else decided otherwise. Later that night we all headed to Chilis and it was lots of fun! Of course we made them sing to him and they brought a brownie with ice cream on top. Delicious! It was the first real outing with my new team and it was fun to see everyone get dressed up for the occasion.
On Saturday we also found out where our first spike (project) will be! We are heading to Alpaugh, Ca on Nov. 4th. In hopes of not rambling forever on this blog I will save more info about that for a later time. Can't wait to start the project! I'll check back in soon...

So much to say!

It has been quite the busy week. I'm going to start off by saying this would be a lot easier to update if the wi-fi was ever available with my darn computer. But anyways...

Last Tuesday all of the Silver teams headed to Camp Mendocino. It is a Boys and Girls club in northern California in a redwood forest. Very cool! Guys and girls we split into different cabins which had cots and nothing but cloth for the windows and doors which made for chilly housing. Although my sleeping bag did the job of keeping me warm.
After arriving Tuesday we had free time to roam around. I headed over to the playground and had fun on the tire swing. My team also had to help with dinner that night so we prepared the tables and served the food. Which was DELICIOUS along with the rest of the meals they served us there! That night all of the silver teams played "Newly Teams"...or something like that. It was similar to the newly weds but your team was split into two and each side had to choose who on their team was "most likely to...." Some examples were bake cookies, be on jeopardy, be excited for physical trainging in the morning, etc... Silver 1 did an awesome job and was tied for first during some of it. We ended up in 4th.
The next day each team was sent to do some sort of project for the camp. Some worked on a garden or maintained hiking trails while my team bleached buildings. Sounds like fun huh? It wasn't too bad though my team got to interact while working. We simply "painted" on bleach to get rid of dirt and mold on the outsides of buildings. And they looked quite nice when we were done with them.
That night we all had to perform skits. My team did a funny rendition of our CPR training. It went well considering the amount of preperation. Then we all gathered around a campfire and cooked delicious s'mores.
The next day was the real fun day. It began with some team building games. We had to cross a "lava river" with a few "stones" to walk across. There were lots of tough rules and we never fully succeded but learned a lot. Then we got to climb a rock wall! Tons of fun. After that was the high ropes course. I will have to steal a picture from another teammate that she took while on the ground. Mostly we had to walk across tight wires or manuver through crazy ropes. Then I got to RIDE A ZIPLINE! I'm super stoked cuz it's another item I get to cross of my list.

Ummm after that it wasn't anything too excited. ALTHOUGH! my team also won the ameri-lympics. We won the boot toss and wheelbarrow race, which was enough to put us in first :) YAY for free frostys.

Well that raps up Tuesday-Friday. The weekend will be posted soon!

This was an awesome swinging bridge we crossed

Wild turkey!

Hanging out in a tree



Sitting next to a random carving!



They also had 2 awesome pigs!

Silver 1

So I have officially been seperated from my pod (temporary team) and been moved to my permanent team which is called Silver 1. I like everyone on the new team and I think we will all get along really well...but it's still so sad that I'm not with my pod all the time. Although we do hang out most of the time that we aren't in training. Like yesterday. We had the day off so my four pod members and I went to panera for lunch and then to a 2 story walmart! It was pretty awesome. Then last night we all went to delicious In n Out for dinner and then went bowling. It was quite a fun day and it was extremely nice to sleep in.
Speaking of not sleeping in....we officially have physical training 4 days a week now starting at 530 am. On Friday I had ran 2 1/2 miles before the sun was even up. What a fun day.....
Currently I am attempting to plan ahead 10 months. This is going fairly well considering I usually have a hard time just planning for the next day. We had a little class on Life After Americorps. They talked a lot about the different ways we can use our education awards and warning us that the next 10 months will be done before we know it. So I'm looking up colleges hoping to come across the perfect plan for me. (although CU still looks like a good option as well).
I hope everyone back home is doing well. If I haven't talked to you recently you can always call or text!
Oh and btw, it's actually been cloudy the past two days! Nice change of pace.

Two story Wal-Mart. Check out the escalator just for the shopping cart.

Check it out

I got some recent pitures up for everyone to see. There are more on my Facebook if you're interested. Check out the nice California weather!

Showing off the "A"
Most of Pod 7, first day in uniform

Pod 7 with out pod leader, Ameri-Murph

Group playing telestrations outside of the dorms.

More Posting!

I just poster a couple days ago but I can hardly remember all that has happened since then. On sunday it was our first day off so I went and got breakfast burritos with my roommate in the morning. Then the 3 roomies headed around town to pick up some items at Wal-Mart and Goodwill. After that I took a very nice nap...for a couple hours longer than I expected.
After the nap I learned about a new board game. It's called tele-strations (a mix between the game telephone and pictionary) and it's quite a blast. If you ever run into it I suggest you try it out.
Since then we've of course been back in trainings. Yesterday they explained specific jobs that each member of the team will have. There are around 8 to choose from but I am most interested in environmental liason and peer mentor. We'll get more info about them soon. We also learned about different awards and things we can earn while in Americorps (plus some college credit!) Today was First Aid and CPR training. Got to work on dummies and I feel like I bruised my hand from doing so much CPR! And of course there were more board games today. Some Scattegories and our first game of Battle of the Sexes. Girls won :)
It's all been fun but I still can't wait for the projects! Still getting to know lots of great people though! I have pictures to post, but the internet is much too slow for that right now, but soon!

We wireless in the lounge now! YAY! So I took these pictures when I first arrived in Sacramento. I was downtown to drop off Maya at the train station. Then I took a picture of the Americorps building before I even got out of my car. It's the building with the offices and mail room but the outside looks similar to the dorms.

So people in my pod were modeling our coveralls while we got our uniforms yesterday. Left to right it's me, Tucker, Katie, and Ashley.

I was taking this picture and in place of me is Josh. Yet apparently both times Katie didn't get the memo that we were being serious. These are all the pictures I have for now. Hope you enjoyed!

Pictures

So here's a couple pictures of my room. I've got the top bunk. This is taking forever so that's all I can put up now. See ya!

First couple of days

I survived my first training sessions. So far they have just been telling us what kind of projects to expect, policy info, insurance info, and an intro to our physical training (which starts Monday). Nothing has been too eventful although we did get our Americorps uniforms today. The coveralls are quite attractive. We've also had a lot of down time. I've been in a few rounds of Apples to Apples. Plus most of the corps participated in capture the flag last night. My roommates and I got decked out in black but unfortunately I didn't get a picture. After playing for an hour or so the game ended although neither team won (but my team actually had the flag, twice!)
Today catered meals ended so we are begining to cook for ourselves. This morning the kitchen was extremely crowded although for dinner there are a few people assigned to cook for a group so that should work out better.
Mostly the weather here has been fantastic and everyone is getting along well so it's all good. I'm going to attempt posting pictures but I apologize if there are none.

I live in California!

So I made it safely to the Sacramento campus yesterday. I arrived around 3 o'clock and went straight into turning in paperwork, getting my i.d. badge, and recieving the key to my room. There was a short tour of campus and then lots of presentations....so we quickly met all of the staff through these presentations but I dont think I remember any of their names. I met my temporary roommates, because we don't move to our permanent rooms until we're divided into our real teams. Currently I have 2 roommates, Jess and Laura. Jess is 22 and also from Colorado. Laura is 24 (or almost 24?) and has moved around a lot, most recently in New Orleans.
This morning we had an awesome catered breakfast and then we met with our pods (or temporary teams). It was a quick meeting and later today we will all be together learning about...stuff. So far I'm pretty excited for things to get rolling. I've met lots of very nice people here but I can't wait til we're traveling for our projects! Unfortunately there is no wi-fi in the dorms so I'm in the computer lab and I won't post any pictures yet but I'll get around to it eventually. I'll update again soon!

I got accepted!!!!!!!!!!!

       So I applied for Americorps sometime in March 2010...I think. After going through all of the interviewing and paperwork I was told I was on the waitlist sometime in May/June. After waiting for a while, (months) I accepted that I would probably not be doing Americorps this year. That is until last Tuesday. I got a call that morning from  an Americorps representative offering me the chance to serve in Sacramento, CA starting on Oct. 7th. That was 9 days away! Since I was in shock at the moment I asked if I could call back with my answer which was fine, but it's first come first serve. Since I wasn't at home at the time I called my family and explained the situation. They were just as surprised as I was but they reminded me how badly I had wanted this. About 5 seconds after hanging up the phone I realized I could not miss this oppurtunity so I immediately called back and accepted the position. I think making that phone call was one of the scariest things I've ever done. After it was official that I'd be moving to California in just over a week I couldn't control myself and just sat in my car and cried. I can't tell you all the different things I was feeling but I was for sure overwhelmed.
       Since then I've been attempting to get organized and plan for my adventure but I still haven't got a phone call from Sacramento so I don't know how I'm getting there yet!
      Well throughout the next ten months I'll be updating this blog with all of the fun stuff I will be doing. I can't wait for it to all begin!