So many things have happened since I last wrote..
We spent two nights at Camp Mendocino with the rest of the Green Unit. It was a lot of fun but it was freezing from 9pm-11am everyday, and we slept in open-air cabins so there wasn't a lot of shielding from the cold. On Wednesday, we woke for PT at 5:30am, then breakfast. Our service work was cutting lumber for the fireplaces and sorting other random wood. In one of the wood piles we uncovered a scorpion den..ughhh. There was one mother and a whole bunch of babies, it was so gross. Later that day our team got to do the high and low ropes courses. The low ropes consisted of team building activities that we've done a thousand times. The high ropes was amazing. Our team did the tight rope. We got hooked into a harness and had to climb up a tree about 40 feet, then situate ourselves onto a metal cord. There were two cords to hold onto as well, but they were so wobbly that it was almost pointless. The rope was about 50 feet long, and the goal was to walk across it. Everyone on my team did it, so we were really proud of ourselves. At the end, we got to fall which was definitely the most fun part.
We headed back to campus on Thursday afternoon, and we had the rest of the day off. That night the team went out to dinner at a Mongolian BBQ place.. so yummy. At dinner we learned that our team will be deployed to Bay-St. Louis, Mississippi on November 3 to work with Habitat For Humanity. I'm so excited because Mississippi is close to my heart.
Friday we had trainings in our respective team positions. My position is "CAPer".. Corps Ambassador Program. Basically, recruiting. I'm really excited because I get to go out and talk to people and get them interested in AmeriCorps NCCC. My training was scheduled to be 8-11am, but I got out at 10 so I did laundry, showered, painted my nails.. it was weird having so much free time.
My team had a meeting that night and we found out that another one of our team members was being sent home :(. This time it was because of drugs though. It was so sad because we all knew he used to do drugs but he really wanted to turn his life around. It was hard because we had all gotten a lot closer during Mendocino, so it was like losing another family member. Now we're down to 9 corps members and 1 team leader.. all in a 15 person van. That's 2 people per row. Sweeeeeeet. Even though we all miss Kris, its nice to spread out. Friday night most of Green 5 and a few other people went out to the Karaoke restaurant next door to the campus and sang stupid songs, dedicated to him. We sang "Pretty Fly For a White Guy" by the Offspring. It was a terrible rendition, but he loooved it.
Saturday was "Make A Difference Day," so every team went to different schools in the area to help build/plant/create gardens. We went to two different schools and built and landscaped garden boxes at both. It was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work, definitely worth it. Last night we started watching Sweeney Todd, but I was so tired that I went to bed half way through it... at 8:30pm. I didn't wake up until 12pm this afternoon.. I had every intention of going to church but I guess I needed the sleep. Today we've just been lazy, we watched Sweeney Todd again and just sort of chilled. It's so nice to have nothing to do! Tomorrow's back to trainings..wooo!
Love, California.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
20th
This morning we had our first official day of PT, beginning at 5:30am. We ran about a mile and did the usual calisthenics and stretches, etc. Breakfast was a Cliff bar that Nancy's aunt gave her..yay!
Our first training was "Healthy Lifestyles and Personal Development" with Debbie, the campus counselor. We watched a video about 4 people who had different hardships in their lives and how they overcame with them. Our second training was called "Leveraging Volunteers," which was about learning how to pull in and then retain volunteers for different jobs. It was interesting because she gave each team a scenario in which they had to point out the challenges of getting volunteers, and then solve the problem.
At lunch we learned that one of our team mates, Erin, decided to leave the program. She felt that it was not right for her. I didn't think she was fully invested in AmeriCorps since the very first day, she often drove home for dinner (she only lives 40 mins. away) or ate in her room. Even though it's sad to lose a member of our Amerifamily, it's better for her to leave than to be unhappy all year. And also, there's more room in the van now. :)
Since I opted not to be a driver, I have the rest of the afternoon off because it's "Van Driver Training." Tonight my team is cooking dinner, taco salad...easy.
We have to pack up the van tonight because we leave for Mendocino tomorrow morning for 2 nights!! We'll be trail building and sprucing up the camp for the Boys and Girls Club, but also doing a lot of team building activities, so I think it will be a lot of fun. I don't have any cell phone service, so you can call but I won't be able to answer.. in an emergency, call the NCCC campus and they'll get a hold of me.
Love, California.
Our first training was "Healthy Lifestyles and Personal Development" with Debbie, the campus counselor. We watched a video about 4 people who had different hardships in their lives and how they overcame with them. Our second training was called "Leveraging Volunteers," which was about learning how to pull in and then retain volunteers for different jobs. It was interesting because she gave each team a scenario in which they had to point out the challenges of getting volunteers, and then solve the problem.
At lunch we learned that one of our team mates, Erin, decided to leave the program. She felt that it was not right for her. I didn't think she was fully invested in AmeriCorps since the very first day, she often drove home for dinner (she only lives 40 mins. away) or ate in her room. Even though it's sad to lose a member of our Amerifamily, it's better for her to leave than to be unhappy all year. And also, there's more room in the van now. :)
Since I opted not to be a driver, I have the rest of the afternoon off because it's "Van Driver Training." Tonight my team is cooking dinner, taco salad...easy.
We have to pack up the van tonight because we leave for Mendocino tomorrow morning for 2 nights!! We'll be trail building and sprucing up the camp for the Boys and Girls Club, but also doing a lot of team building activities, so I think it will be a lot of fun. I don't have any cell phone service, so you can call but I won't be able to answer.. in an emergency, call the NCCC campus and they'll get a hold of me.
Love, California.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
18th
Yesterday we began physical training (PT).. well, actually, we just did our baseline test, which measures how far along we are physically, so that we have something to work from. This test consists of doing as many sit-ups and then as many push-ups you can do in 2 minutes, then running 1 & 1/2 miles. Let me just make this know, unless someone is chasing me or there is food in front of me, I do not run. As you have, I'm sure, guessed, I was not happy about this mile and a half business. It actually ended up not being that bad and I wasn't last..! That was my main goal.
After PT we had a short training in "Member Benefits and the Equal Employment Opportunity Act" and then.. 7 hours of First Aid and CPR. It turns out, not much has changed in the first aid world since I last took a class so I passed the final test.. phew. I now know how to effectively wrap your arm if someone jabs a pencil into it.
After first aid we had another short training on "The Role of the Support Team Leader." It was self-explanatory but basically they all just introduced themselves to us, even though we kind of already knew who they were.
Dinner last night was spaghetti, thanks to blue 5. After dinner a few teammies and I went food shopping at Wal Mart (ugh..they're just as skanky in California) and by the time we got home we were all so tired that we crashed. Welcome to AmeriCorps.
This morning we mustered at 7:50 to head over to "Cultural & Human Diversity Training." Also self-explanatory. We did lots of little activities with our teams and also with other teams in the green squad. Basically, don't be mean to anyone. They could have said that sentence in 3 seconds and then let us spend the rest of the day in the sun, but instead we sat in the same room for 8 hours. ugh.
After diversity training, we had a really short meeting about the governance committee. It's just like student government in high school, but for us. I'm kind of interested in being my team's representative and so is another girl, so we might have to duke it out. Just kidding..
Tonight is a free-for-all for dinner so I'm going to try to scrounge something up now, and later I'm heading to a karaoke place with some teammies. Should be fun!!
Love, California.
After PT we had a short training in "Member Benefits and the Equal Employment Opportunity Act" and then.. 7 hours of First Aid and CPR. It turns out, not much has changed in the first aid world since I last took a class so I passed the final test.. phew. I now know how to effectively wrap your arm if someone jabs a pencil into it.
After first aid we had another short training on "The Role of the Support Team Leader." It was self-explanatory but basically they all just introduced themselves to us, even though we kind of already knew who they were.
Dinner last night was spaghetti, thanks to blue 5. After dinner a few teammies and I went food shopping at Wal Mart (ugh..they're just as skanky in California) and by the time we got home we were all so tired that we crashed. Welcome to AmeriCorps.
This morning we mustered at 7:50 to head over to "Cultural & Human Diversity Training." Also self-explanatory. We did lots of little activities with our teams and also with other teams in the green squad. Basically, don't be mean to anyone. They could have said that sentence in 3 seconds and then let us spend the rest of the day in the sun, but instead we sat in the same room for 8 hours. ugh.
After diversity training, we had a really short meeting about the governance committee. It's just like student government in high school, but for us. I'm kind of interested in being my team's representative and so is another girl, so we might have to duke it out. Just kidding..
Tonight is a free-for-all for dinner so I'm going to try to scrounge something up now, and later I'm heading to a karaoke place with some teammies. Should be fun!!
Love, California.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
15th
I already know that I'm going to be really bad at keeping this up..sorry.
We've been really busy these past few days which is why I haven't been near a computer. Other than doing some boring trainings we were able to work with the Sacramento Tree Foundation for two days, planting trees around the area. Did you know that Sacramento has the largest tree population per capita in the entire world? And I helped by planting 7 more :). We were finally assigned our teams on Friday afternoon! Green 5! It was so sad to leave Pod 20 because we had all grown so close over that week, but green5 is starting to feel the same way, and it's nice because we still get to see our "pod people" during meals and eventually during physical training. Yesterday we had a pretty relaxed day, in the morning we had "Legacy of Service" and "Service Learning" training, then lunch and after lunch a scavenger hunt in all of Downtown Sacramento. It was so cool to be able to walk around Sac during the day and explore. Unfortunately, my team placed second, but we're going to contest that because we feel we deserved first.. we'll see how it goes. Last night for dinner, Blue 5 made us fried tacos.. definitely the best meal we've had so far! I think I'm gaining weight here, wasn't it supposed to be the other way around? Also last night, I went to "Guess the Straight Person" which was sponsored by the Pride Alliance. They had a panel of people that answered random questions and the audience had to guess who was straight, gay, bisexual, etc. It was very interesting and it tried to show that you can't necessarily tell just by looking at someone. It got the point across.
This morning we were supposed to have a training about tool safety but it was cancelled so we didn't have to muster until 8:45, which meant I got to sleep until 8:00am. It was the best morning so far! I met with my group to discuss and research what "community mapping" is. Basically, it's walking around a community, trying to figure out its strengths and weaknesses, in order to try and help. You have to talk to the community members to find out what they think needs help, rather than you deciding for yourself. After that, I did a few heart-to-hearts with some of the other team members. Ben (the team leader) really wants us to be a close-knit team so he's having us talk to each other individually about whatever we want so we can get to know each other better. It's a really good idea, I love hearing people's stories. I think I've done 5, so I have 5 more and then Ben also.
After the heart-to-hearts, we had a meeting with Janine, the Green Unit Leader, just to ask questions and to get to know her a little better. When that was finished, we met up with most of the Green Unit to discuss community mapping, then we were actually sent out into the community to do it. My team went south on Watt Ave, which is the main road going through our area. It was interesting to hear people's differing opinions of the area. Some people thought it was a great, family-oriented area, and others were afraid to leave their houses. Lunch time.
After lunch, we had our physicals which didn't take long at all, and now we just have free time until dinner at 6:30. Imagine that, free time at AmeriCorps*NCCC.
Love, California.
We've been really busy these past few days which is why I haven't been near a computer. Other than doing some boring trainings we were able to work with the Sacramento Tree Foundation for two days, planting trees around the area. Did you know that Sacramento has the largest tree population per capita in the entire world? And I helped by planting 7 more :). We were finally assigned our teams on Friday afternoon! Green 5! It was so sad to leave Pod 20 because we had all grown so close over that week, but green5 is starting to feel the same way, and it's nice because we still get to see our "pod people" during meals and eventually during physical training. Yesterday we had a pretty relaxed day, in the morning we had "Legacy of Service" and "Service Learning" training, then lunch and after lunch a scavenger hunt in all of Downtown Sacramento. It was so cool to be able to walk around Sac during the day and explore. Unfortunately, my team placed second, but we're going to contest that because we feel we deserved first.. we'll see how it goes. Last night for dinner, Blue 5 made us fried tacos.. definitely the best meal we've had so far! I think I'm gaining weight here, wasn't it supposed to be the other way around? Also last night, I went to "Guess the Straight Person" which was sponsored by the Pride Alliance. They had a panel of people that answered random questions and the audience had to guess who was straight, gay, bisexual, etc. It was very interesting and it tried to show that you can't necessarily tell just by looking at someone. It got the point across.
This morning we were supposed to have a training about tool safety but it was cancelled so we didn't have to muster until 8:45, which meant I got to sleep until 8:00am. It was the best morning so far! I met with my group to discuss and research what "community mapping" is. Basically, it's walking around a community, trying to figure out its strengths and weaknesses, in order to try and help. You have to talk to the community members to find out what they think needs help, rather than you deciding for yourself. After that, I did a few heart-to-hearts with some of the other team members. Ben (the team leader) really wants us to be a close-knit team so he's having us talk to each other individually about whatever we want so we can get to know each other better. It's a really good idea, I love hearing people's stories. I think I've done 5, so I have 5 more and then Ben also.
After the heart-to-hearts, we had a meeting with Janine, the Green Unit Leader, just to ask questions and to get to know her a little better. When that was finished, we met up with most of the Green Unit to discuss community mapping, then we were actually sent out into the community to do it. My team went south on Watt Ave, which is the main road going through our area. It was interesting to hear people's differing opinions of the area. Some people thought it was a great, family-oriented area, and others were afraid to leave their houses. Lunch time.
After lunch, we had our physicals which didn't take long at all, and now we just have free time until dinner at 6:30. Imagine that, free time at AmeriCorps*NCCC.
Love, California.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Second Day!
So today is my first official day in training for AmeriCorps*NCCC! Yesterday we did all of our in-processing, got our uniforms, met the roomies, and moved in. My room mates are really nice, they're both 18 and just graduated high school, Shelby is from Dallas, TX and Kate is from DeBuque, Iowa. The campus is beauuuuutiful! There are palm trees all around and the sunset is amazing.. like nothing in New York. Even though I'll miss fall and the leaves changing colors I think I could get used to this, too.
This morning we woke up at 5:45 for a 6am breakfast, then we assembled in our pods..our temporary teams.. at 7:30 to debrief about the day. After that, we went into the main room that we eat in for a seminar thing about rules and regulations and safety around the campus. Later on in the day we had more meetings to fill out piles of health forms and such.. fun! Dinner was great, chinese-ish food catered by a cafe located right behind the campus. The best part was that we didn't have to cook it ourselves! After dinner a whole bunch of people piled into the rooms with tvs to watch the presidential debate... oh man are there a lot of Obama Mamas (and papas) here. Chris would love it.. not. haha
I think tonight is going to be another early night, it's already 11:15pm at home so I'm getting sleepy! Tomorrow we have mooore fun training!
Love, California
This morning we woke up at 5:45 for a 6am breakfast, then we assembled in our pods..our temporary teams.. at 7:30 to debrief about the day. After that, we went into the main room that we eat in for a seminar thing about rules and regulations and safety around the campus. Later on in the day we had more meetings to fill out piles of health forms and such.. fun! Dinner was great, chinese-ish food catered by a cafe located right behind the campus. The best part was that we didn't have to cook it ourselves! After dinner a whole bunch of people piled into the rooms with tvs to watch the presidential debate... oh man are there a lot of Obama Mamas (and papas) here. Chris would love it.. not. haha
I think tonight is going to be another early night, it's already 11:15pm at home so I'm getting sleepy! Tomorrow we have mooore fun training!
Love, California
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