Photos!

Here are some pictures of fun things in Oregon! Enjoy! Sorry, it always takes forever for pictures.

Swinging at the Takilma Folk Fair

Oregon Caves!

Butterfly Pavillion

Hopefully, more butterflies soon!

I know it's not much, but just a glimpse of what's been happening! More removing invasive species(pulling weeds) in the morning!

Birthday week

Since I last wrote, I turned 21! Yay birthdays! It was a Monday but luckily we had the day off and some teammates and I went bar hopping around Grants Pass. I was quite a fun day! Then this last weekend Allie and Jeff came out to visit. It was awesome to spend time with people from Colorado, I missed them! We had quite the fun filled weekend. On Saturday we went to the Great Cats Park in Cave Junction. I thought it would be a bit of a sketchy place but it ended up being really awesome. They had everything from a giant lion to an african wildcat (looks just like a house cat!) Then we went to a vineyard in the area for wine tasting. It was a really nice place and I think we all found a new favorite wine. Sunday began with the off trail caving tour in Oregon Caves National Monument. It was so intense! There were places to climb up and to crawl under. We got all kinds of muddy but I enjoyed it. Next we drove right over to the treehouse resort to ride their ziplines. We only did the basic package but that came with 5 zipline rides! And we decided to try the "tarzan swing" after that. We really only got talked into since they said I could go for free for my birthday. But Allie and Jeff tried it too and it was so scary! They strap you to a swinging rope, then you grab two handle and they pull you up into the trees. When you're at the top you just have to let go and you free fall for a second before the rope catches you. We each got to go twice and it may have been even scarier to let go the second time! Throughout the weekend we also went to some neat restaurants and bars around town and met up to hang out with my teammates a couple times. Overall, it was definitely a fun time....but as of now I have to get back to doing laundry...fun.

One week down....7 to go

I survived my first week of camping! Although there were some moments that were questionable. The other day we returned to camp and the tent Ashley and I are using had collapsed, but we were able to get it back up and stabilize it. Some people at the field institute also found a rattlesnake off of a trail near our campsite….I check my sleeping bag every night now. Other than that I have yet to get poison oak or find a tick on me so that’s a good start I guess.
Our weekend for the first month is Sunday and Monday, so on Sunday a few of us headed to Grants Pass. We wanted to walk around downtown but of course, things aren’t open on Sundays. So instead, we walked around for a bit and headed to a movie. Four of us went to watch Bridesmaids, it ended up being a pretty funny movie. We also ate lunch at a pizza place that’s all over town called Abby’s Famous Pizza. It was delicious! I also had a delicious meal of Ramen the other night that I cooked over the fire. I was pretty proud of myself.
…Not too much else has been going on. The project work has been good. I did a lot of debarking trees. It was kind of a relaxing job and a few of us did that for most of last week.
Today we went into Grants Pass again, but today it was to take the van for a check up and go to a Laundromat. It was the same Laundromat that I went to during Drum Corps! Crazy stuff. But this time I didn’t lose my wallet there. Now we’re about to drive about 10 miles to Cave Junction where some other members are gonna do their laundry and then we’re going to check out some shops around town. Should be fun!

The big old tent in the front is mine (and Ashley's)

Our campsite and lovely view

My Ramen cooking over the fire

Yum!

Behind me are some of the logs after shaving the bark off

OREGON!

I can't believe it always takes me so long to remember to post. Hopefully I'll be better. There is more to talk about this round than just tutoring students every day.
We arrived in Oregon yesterday afternoon. It started sprinkling when we got here so we quickly just wanted to set up our tents and get everything settled. Then we had a bit of an orientation with our sponsors from both Rusk Ranch Nature Center and the Siskiyou Field Institute. Most of what we talked about was safety stuff.: Don't go near bears, check for ticks (Abby had already found 2 by that time), avoid poison oak, and don't startle rattle snacks. Ya know, lots of good nature stuff. Then thankfully they held a potluck for us and we all gathered at some tables under a tent/tarp and ate together. Then it unfortunately rained ALL NIGHT LONG. Since I was near the wall of my tent I woke up with a soaked sleeping pad and pretty damp tent, thankfully I was mostly dry....we're working out the kinks but I think I have a better sleeping place now.
Today we headed off to work at the Rusk Ranch Nature Center for our first day. Again, it was mostly orientation and touring the 50 acres of property. As it turns out the Nature Center is very new, and hasn't even opened to the public yet. Hopefully we can help them out and they will be opening their butterfly pavillion while we are here. They have lots of cool things going on there like a garden (there was a fancy word for a self sustaining garden that I don't remember). They also hope to have a natural playgound, campground, and lots of other little things.
Other than the rain it has been beautiful here in Oregon. It will be nice when it is just slightly warming but overall it's been good. Hopefully I can load some pictures on here (internet is a bit slow). Although I am sitting outside while on the computer which is kinda nice :)
Nevermind...the internet is too slow (or I'm too impatient). But just so you can picture it, our tents are set up in a large field next to a hostel type building which is the Siskiyou Field Institute. My new tent is a big green fabric type one that looks like it could belong to the army. Hopefully things stay dryer tonight. Wish me luck!

This is a blog about spring break...

This is a blog about spring break and all of the delicious food I ate.
Immediately after I arrived in Colorado and suprised my mom at home, my mom, sisters and I decided to go get lunch at a delicious Mexican restaurant just down the street. Just for the record, Colorado has THE BEST Mexican food.

I believe this was called Ricardo's Special, or something like that. It's potatoes, chorizo, and cheese smothered in green chili. Tortillas on the side. Yum

Next, I had to surprise my dad since he was at work when I got home. So the perfect place to do that is out to dinner right?! We all met my dad at the usual Adelita's. Also a delicious Mexican restaurant.

This is a chorizo and egg burrito....smothered in green chile. So gooooood!

The next day I had plans to hang out with Ross in Boulder. We wandered around Pearl St and came across this pizza place. I think it's called Pizza Coloure...or something. They have cheese, pesto, and....some other kind of pizza by the slice, then you add your own toppings.

This is my pesto and artichoke heart pizza. Good stuff.

And as usual, Ross and I had to go to Maggianos (my all time favorite restaurant) for dinner. So we drove to Denver just for this delicious meal.

Chicken and spinach manicotti. I've had it once before and it was just as good as I had remembered.

The final meal I have to mention is Easter dinner!

We had delicious options of green rice, ham, twice baked potatoes and green bean cassarole. The last one isn't in the pic (sorry Allie!)

Overall, a good Spring break! :)

So there have been lots of things going on since my last post but I want to write about the most recent, first. The Indoor Percussion finals were this weekend in Dayton, OH. Blue Knights had an awesome show (yes, it's already on YouTube) and I wish I had been there to see it...or perform in it. They got 6th place with a 92.025 and they won fan favorite. Cuz their show is basically the coolest thing ever.
Anyways, My team found out our 4th round project! (before me since nobody noticed that I wasn't in the room at the time!) We will be traveling about 6 hours to Cave Junction, Oregon. I need to check back into the details about who our sponsor is, but we will be clearing trails and camp grounds, and building playgrounds, information kiosks and possibly an ampitheatre too?! Our housing will be either tents or yurts. We'll be in a pretty small town. But not too far away is Grants Pass, OR.
Funny story about Grants Pass...I think that's where my wallet disappeared about a year ago during drum corps. We had a laundry day there when we were staying in Hidden Valley High School. My next round is about 35 miles from that school and it was one of the prettiest places I've ever been so I can't wait to see the area where we'll be!
Of course, as always, I'm hoping to cross a few items off of my list. Prospective options:
#29. Camp in Oregon (crazy right, I get to do it for 8 weeks!)
#74. Go spelunking (Cave Junction...there really are caves around)
I can't wait! Should be a fun an interesting end to my time in Americorps!
http://www.youtube.com/embed/vq1-_gkUUv8 -Blue Knights at finals!

Gov. Shut Down?

On Friday night we were all here watching CNN off and on waiting until the countdown to midnight (9pm pacific time). But as it turns out there is one more week off temporary budgets. Although the government shuting down wouldn't ultimately be the best thing, a few of us were secretly hoping it would happen so all the teams would be back on campus and it would be a crazy story to tell. Oh well, I still have a "job".
I just got back a few hours ago from visiting my uncle Frank in Berkly, CA. It was a fun weekend full of lots of delicious food, some shopping, the Walt Disney museum, and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. It was nice to hang out all weekend and we ended up spending time in Berkley, San Fran, and Oakland which was fun.
This was the first week back in school after spring break. Each of us got assigned to classes that we help out in. I have Geometry and Algebra 1 which I go to every day. Since there are 4 class periods that takes up about half of my day. I really enjoy being in the classes. I'm sure that I can always help the students with their work since I'm there for the lessons and it's nice to be getting to know the students instead of always working with someone completely new.
Overall thing have been going well! Just 4 more weeks left of this project. Time flies!

Great Weekend

Blue Knights Percussion Ensemble came out to the Western Percussion Championship last weekend. Since they were going to be in California I knew I had to go down to see the show.....even if it was 7 hours away. I headed down after work work on Friday and made it to the hotel around 11pm. There were a few people there that knew I was coming, but for the most part it was a surprise. So I headed to breakfast the next morning and got some confused looks. A few people said, "Hey Shea.....oh wait, what are you doing here?" But everyone thought it was cool that I got to drive down and hang out. I just spent the weekend following them around, watching practices, taking pictures, and helping set up at the show. After finals we all drove out to the beah and got dinner. It was quite nice. Being around them really made me miss Colorado and all my friends even more. I can't wait to be back home! And definitely doing indoor next year, I miss it too much to not be in it again.
As for their show this season, it's awesome! They have added a few things since the last video I saw online and I love everything about it. At finals they scored 87.825 which is higher then our finals score last year. And the crowd really loves their show...I'm sure if you watch you'll see why it's so cool!
Hopefully I can get a video up here soon....

Cool props! The show is called Physical Graffiti



Practice in a parking lot

 As for Americorps...since our students are on spring break we "beautified" the school last week. Mostly by painting bathrooms. It doesn't sound to fun but it was pretty cool. We got to paint logos and cool designs. I impressed my self with my painting skills.

This week they are still on spring break. We are now working with the Sacramento Tree Foundation, although I haven't worked with them yet. I got sick over the weekend and have stayed home the past two days. But after getting lots of sleep this morning I'm feeling quite a lot better! Yay. Well thats about it for now....oh, and I can't believe college basketball right now. I think there is one person on my team that has a final four pic right. Ridiculous.

Bathrooms and Bouquets

I don't know why it's so difficult to get online when I'm in Sacramento! There's finally internet in my building but I feel like I'm always just so busy! Last weekend I took a nice trip to Santa Cruz. Kendra, Abby, Whitney, and Ashley came too. We went just to see a State Radio concert and it was tons of fun! Santa Cruz is a very cute city. The downtown is full of unique shops and when we headed towards the beach everyone said it looks just like we could've been in Europe. We only got to walk around for a bit. It was raining most of the time we were there and we we're only there for like 24 hours.
Now, for next weekend! There is a regional competition for indoor drumline, and Blue Knights will be there! I'm gonna drive down just to see and I'm so excited. I'm even taking off Monday morning so I don't haveto leave early. I'll let you know how it all goes next week :)
As for actual AmeriCorps stuff....the students are on spring break for the next 2 weeks. For this week we're doing some work around the school. We've been painting bathrooms and doing different landscaping type jobs. Next week we will be working with a different sponsor temporarily. Still don't know what it will be though....
Oh I forgot to mention why the post is called bathrooms and bouquets....Bathrooms since I've been painting them the past two days; bouquets because we also arranged and bagged flowers. There is a flower arranging class at the high school that put together arrangements for National Agriculture Day. We got to help out a bit with that the past couple days too. they also gave us 6 dozen roses and a ton of daisies to take home with us :)

I have a few pictures from Santa Cruz I can post soon...These pictures are compliments of Abby

Ashley and I concentrating at a team BBQ



Kendra and I, at a cafe in Santa Cruz




Flowers!



Starting Round 3!

Since the last post, I've mostly been in transition. This is just the time between two rounds when everyone is back on campus in Sacramento. I had lots of different meetings. We talked about our last project and how it went, we talked to a team that just worked the project we're starting, plus meeting about my team position (peer helper) and governance council. But, we also had a lot of down time.
I went to a mall, went kayaking (on my list), sang karaoke (on my list), watched some movies, and got to sleep in sometimes! It has been a good week.
Today we actually started our project though. Our team is split up between two schools. I'll be at Pioneer High School with Kenny, Kendra, Whitney, and Kyle. It's a really nice school that's only 5 years old. It also has a cool campus since there are a bunch of different buildings and there is lots of outdoor space as opposed to hallways. We've met some of the other tutors we'll be working with and they all seem really nice.
This week will mostly be training and reviewing subjects and we'll actually be tutoring more next week. It seems like it will be a good project and it's nice to finally be in a real city. Also...internet isn't working very well on campus and every time I go to Starbucks or Panera I keep forgetting to blog. Sorry! I'll try to remember!

SNOW DAY!

We woke up today to lots of snow on the ground and more still falling. We had just finished getting ready and were about to leave when Chika declared a snow day! I tried to go back to sleep but Sam insisted that we all hike a hill and he wouldn't stop jumping on my bed. I gave in and went on the hike/walk with everyone but by the time we got to the bottom of the hill my face was frozen and I few of us headed back. But it was still a very pretty walk!
We also found out about the next round last night! Out of 3 people on my team that applied for composite teams, none of us got it. But thats cool. We found out where our team is going! We will be staying in Sacramento next round (which is a relief that we don't have to pack anymore). We are assigned to work with two different highschools in Woodland, CA: Woodland HS and Pioneer HS. Our team will split between the schools and help with tutoring and such. I think I'll end up enjoying it even if it doesn't sound like the most exciting project ever. We'll see how it goes! (oh and I can't wait to have my car for 2 months)
BUT before we will be back in Sacramento, we are going to Chico Hot Springs right outside of Yellowstone! Our sponsor will be paying for us to stay there. The girls get a chalet and the boys have some sort of suite in the lower lodge. It should be awesome. Some people are going to splurge on massages or mud wraps....but it's pretty expensive! I'll have to wait and decide when we get there. Thats all the news for now!

Next Project???

Round 2 is quickly coming to a close with less than 10 days for this project. That means we should find out our next round any day now. BUT.....We just found out that round 3 will have 2 composite teams. This means they take members from different teams and put them with a STL (support team leader) and send them on their own project for just one round. The STLs are team leaders that don't normally have a team. They normally stay in Sacramento and help run things. They each have certain jobs although I don't know what all of them are.
What we know about the composite teams is that there are two, A and B. "A" will be on a project that has to do with environmental conservation, forestry, and house repairs. "B" will be working in schools, focusing on PE and sports related activities. That's about all we know.... And of course we won't find out more until the end of the week. Which is also when we will be finding out team projects.
Basically, I think the project for Composite A sounds like what I came to Americorps to do and something that would be AWESOME! So I put my name in for the opportunity....but we'll see who they pick.
Waiting, waiting, waiting.
Either way I can't wait to find out what I'll be doing next month (not to mention where I'll be going). I'll keep you updated! Hopefully soon!

Taxes Taxes Taxes

So..Browning went well. It slowed down towards the end of the week but things were good. On Sunday we planned to head out and drive to Rocky Boy. Unfortunately it had snowed all night on Saturday and we had large amount of snow in our "drive way" blocking us from the plowed roads. We weren't sure if we would get out but after a bit of shoveling and maneuvering we made it out so we packed up and were on our way.
In Rocky Boy we were staying in a gym type room with a kitchen in the back. It is part of Stone Child College which is also where our tax site was. On our first day we headed over at noon (the site opened at 1). Unfortunately we didn't find the woman we were supposed to be working with until around 1:30. They gave us a room and handed us folders full of peoples information and said to do taxes...it was weird.
The project has continued to be weird. I have been at tax sites all week but in the past 4 days I think I've only done one actual tax return....it's been slow. Nobody seems to know that we will be doing taxes in their town.
On Thursday we drove to Fort Belknap just to have a tax site in the afternoon and then keep traveling to Wolf Point. It turns out the woman we were meeting in Fort Belknap didn't know about us until the day before, and while we were setting up our site the director of the building came in quite upset because he was not aware we would be using his building. He tried to scare us by telling us the roads would probably be really bad for our drive later, but we had a couple people show up at the site so we stayed and did their taxes. That is until 3ish when another woman came in and said the roads were bad. She said they were all leaving work early and the roads were down to one lane. Of course we quickly rushed out so I drive wouldn't be too terrible. But...we think she just said that so we would leave...the roads weren't bad....
Anyways, now we are in Fort Peck/Wolf Point. We are staying in a church and for the first time in Americorps I have my own room. (we're sleeping in Sunday school classrooms). Unfortunately that means that we have to be up and packed bright and early tomorrow before class starts. We will be heading to Ashland.
...hopefully they're expecting us!

Traveling time

So since the last time I posted we have traveled to Browning, MT. We are staying at a place called PO'KA ranch. Its a house that is also an office. I'm still not suite sure what they do here though. We have 4 dogs from our neighbors house that come and visit us everyday. They are so adorable!
The house is pretty nice, but we have to sleep in our cots with the option of being in a loft, basement or garage. I started off in the loft which was quite warm...a little too warm. But then one night it was 35 degrees in the loft! Ever since then I've slept in the basement. Much better. The tax work has been going well and on Sunday we'll be heading to the Rocky Boy reservation. Hopefully we'll get to go skiing there....we'll see.

Abby and I at a cool sculpture

The Week of the List

So as some of you may know, I have a list of things to do before I die that has just over 100 things on it. Well this week I completed 2 of the tasks:
83. Volunteer at a soup kitchen
93. Attempt a restaurant's food challenge
Volunteering at a soup kitchen just happened tonight actually. We had an ISP (independent service project) at the Great Falls Rescue Mission. We started off there serving meals and picking up everyone's trays afterwords. Then we were sent on a few tasks of wiping down walls, mopping, and organizing. Overall it was a good night there. We also had our supervisor visiting today so he hung around to watch us do taxes and we all had a meeting tonight. Luckily the meeting included 3 berry pie and root beer floats!
As for the food challenge....we found a place called the Downtown Dog House. Its a hot dog place that has a wall of fame for all the people who complete the Dogzilla and Holy Cannoli challenge in under 12 minutes. So of course a few members of my team and I had to attempt it. There were 4 of us but only Kyle finished right in time. The hot dog was 13 inches and weighed about 2 pounds with all the toppings on it. And in addition there was the 1/2 pound cannoli.  You can see it for yourself in a few pictures!

Pre-eating

This is how far I got in 12 minutes

Picture update!

This is back from when we rode the trolley around town. Rebecca, Sam, Kendra and Abby in the back. Fun times!

While we were on the trolley the driver drove us by this old bridge. They are trying to restore it and they added the cool blue lights.

Last week we did our "community mapping". As part of it we headed around to a few of the great falls!

The team in front of one of the falls. It was quite a chilly, windy day.

These heads are examples of my awesome haircutting skills. Thanks Ron and Kenny!

During our tour of the Ursaline Centre we headed up to Sister Raphaels gallery. Not all the art up there was hers but most of it was. Very cool stuff.

Sam and I hanging out at the rodeo! We all bought fun shirts from the flea market that day.

 It was lots of fun!

This is not my first rodeo

I'm trying to keep up on posting although I haven't been uploading my pictures enough. So the first week of training was a bit rough and I'm glad it's over. I'm officially certified to do taxes! Although I only completed the basic level. There is also intermediate, advanced, military, and international. But I can stick with this or move on to intermediate.
It was a long week of sitting at a computer for 8 hours day. We took advantage of our hour long lunches and added a few breaks to walk to a nearby coffee shop. The only very eventful thing during the week was the tour we got around the Ursuline Centre. We got to finally see the locked up rooms including one nuns art gallery on the top floor. Very cool stuff.
Today there was a flea market that we took turns working. We sat at the Tax Help Montana booth and also put our some Americorps info. It was a fun place to wander around and most of us bought some cheap used shirts.....they're mostly plaid men's shirts but we got them to wear to the rodeo tonight. I'm pretty excited about it. A few people we know from work will be there too so it'll be fun to be around newer people. I'll let you know how that goes and definitely post some pictures!

Great Great Falls

So last Friday was a super fun night definitely worth mentioning. In downtown Great Falls there is an art walk every Friday. It basically includes different galleries that are all open and have snacks and some had live music. We are just a mile or so down the road from all of this so a few of us head over. We found a couple of very cool galleries and there was a guy singing and playing guitar that even covered a Ray LaMontagne song. I thouroughly enjoyed it. As I was listening to him some of my teammates rushed in and said the trolley was leaving for its last run of the night but we can all get on for free. So we all hopped on without really knowing where we were headed.
The driver was a nice older later that was asking all sorts of questions about what we were doing and where we were from. There were 9 of us on the trolley plus two random people. The trolleys first stop was up to a random house. Our trolley driver stopped and said, "run in and say hi, you'll make her night." We were all very confused about what was going on but we all ran into this house. It turns out it was a temporary art gallery for the night so we checked out everything quickly and hopped back on the trolley.
After another small tour we pulled up to another gallery. This time the driver says we have to go in and she will park the trolley and be in in a minute. We can see throught the window that there is some live music and when we walk in we realize one of the performers is Jolene, a woman we had just met earlier that works with Tax Help Montana. And as we look around the room there is also Tom, the boss from Tax Help, and another women who works there. We all see them and acknowledge them....but they don't realize who we are for another 3 minutes or so. But it was great seeing them for a bit and Jolene is a fantastic singer.
Soon our trolley had to head out again and our driver decided to take the long route around town so she could show us an old bridge in town plus one of the great falls. And on our way back she dropped us all off right in front the Ursaline Centre at the perfect time for us to pick up our late arriving teammate at the airport.
Turns out it was a very unexpected and very fun night!

This is the most excited I've been in my whole life!

So it's the first morning in our new Ameri-mansion and there has already been and early mass and school and daycare are still going on on the first floor. This place is so neat!
We arrived at the Ursuline Centre yesterday just after 5pm. We met up with Margo (our supervisor from Tax Help Montana) and Harry (the director of the Ursuline Centre). They gave us a mini tour of our room (yes, just one), bathrooms, and kitchen/eating area. But there is so much more to see in this building!
From there we followed Margo to Tax Help Montana where we had a pizza dinner, which we happened to also have for lunch, and met Karen who I believe runs Tax Help Montana. They talked and talked about the town, themselves, taxes, Native Americans....they went on and on. And everything there were saying was so awesome! It turns out when we head out from Great Falls we will be going towards Missoula then driving up to Browing. Then heading east and stopping at different reservations and the last stop is down near Billings and North Cheyenne. They say hopefully we'll drive through all of Montana's 7 reservations!
Then there were all the fun things they were hoping we could do. They are looking into getting us deals on skiing, taking us to hot springs, and letting us in on a bunch of other deals. It's so exciting! Plus they not only fed us dinner yesterday but also had bought us food to take home with us. AND they're having a potluck for us this afternoon AND they're giving lunch all next week. Our food budget is going to last us a long time here.
I have so much more to say but this is the begining of all the info. Now for some pictures of our fun housing!

The bedroom

My bed!

Cool bathrooms, showers on the right

There is art everywhere!

Pianos are everywhere, too!

There will soon be more pictures coming to Facebook, but now I must get ready for orientation!

Back in Ameri-world

So...I just spent 2 weeks in Colorado and had a very nice Christmas break. There was snowboarding, cookies, presents, family and friends. And it was very much needed but not long enough.
Still, I'm happy to be back with my team and we are right back into hanging around eachother 24/7. Yesterday there were just a few meetings going on throughout the day. Starting off with everyone in a community meeting. Then I waited around until the afternoon when I had a peer helper meeting. Overall, not a very eventful day. Although Kyle and I attempted to purchase tire chains and only ended up driving around for two hours...it didn't work out. Today we got back into PT and had an all corps PT again. And since then I have been sitting around the dorms....waiting until we have something to do. There is another team that is heading to Alpaugh next so we have a cross-training with them in about an hour. After lunch we have our briefing on the new project and then I'm basically done for the day. Except for loading the van tonight! We head out for Idaho at 6AM tomorrow. We'll be staying in a hotel and hopefully we will be in Great Falls by Thursday evening.
We have found out that we are staying in a place called the Ursuline Centre and I believe there is a nun that lives there as well. There is a chapel on the 3rd floor that I believe holds mass every Sunday so it will be neat to check it out.
The program that we will work with is called Tax Help Montana. I still don't know much about them but we will start off in Great Falls for maybe 4 weeks and travel to other cities doing taxes the whole time. I'm excited to see Montana!
So basically there isn't much going on around here at the moment but I'll be sure to let you know more when it happens!