26th

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.