An AmeriChristmas

Campus is dead. Seriously, dead. Almost post-apocalyptic dead, but not quite. Yesterday, I slept for 14 hours and nobody noticed. There is only one person on my floor right now and he works most days. So, yeah, it's been lonely. Last week went by relatively fast though. I tried to keep busy. Here's the rundown.

Before everyone left there was a flood in the building. Some kids decided to play Frisbee in the hallway, and subsequently broke the sprinkler head. Half of the first floor was flooded, a steady stream of water poured for what felt like hours. The fire department came and shut off the water, but unfortunately a laptop was already washed away. Thanks to some fast acting Corps Members it was one of the few casualties. They are still trying to repair the hall way, and the people that live there have yet to return home. The majority of my weekend was spent hanging out with people before they left town. Monday, I went to Davis and got my first, and most likely last Tattoo. I don't have much more to say on the subject. It itches and the guy was a jerk. I would suggest to only go to Urban Body for piercings. The piercer was really friendly and according to my friend has an excellent touch. The tattoo guy was not impressed by what I wanted. At least it was quick.
Tuesday I worked at the Urban League, with the Sacramento Kings. We handed out 300 food boxes. It was really cool to get to see the people we helped. Although, it was a little awkward to load food boxes into Mercedes. I know that there were some boxes donated to organizations as well; I feel better thinking that the Mercedes belonged to people who were picking up the food boxes for others. I did get to make fun of Tyreke Evans and his watch cell phone. I feel like picking on professional basketball players in person is one of those things that few people get to do in their lifetime. So I can cross that off my list. All of the people affiliated with the Kings were really cool, even Tyreke. Wednesday and Thursday I wrapped presents for the kids at the St. John's Shelter. It was really cool project. I felt like an elf in Santa's Workshop, and took pride in wrapping each gift and hoping the the recipient would love it. I was fortunate to find out that the kids were really appreciative of their gifts. Each kid received at least 10 gifts to unwrap. What a cool thing that St. John's Shelter was able to do for it's clients.Christmas was spent at the Shelter again. We cooked dinner for the families, and hung out with Willie who was a team leader for West Coast campus class one. He was probably my favorite part about that day. As a retiree he spends his free time volunteering for the shelter and possibly other organizations. Apparently, AmeriCorps has that affect on people, it turns you into a life long volunteer. I look forward to that. I left before dinner was served, to be served by my Project Sponsor. Jay, one of the members of my team, and I went to Irma's house to have a Mexican style Christmas dinner. We ate Rice and Green chillies on chicken, and other food I can't pronounce, one of which was meat stuffed with meat. Also, Buñuelos my new favorite pastry. We stayed for awhile and chatted. Irma had a slew stories to share with us. She told us love stories about her husband and her parents . It was cute, touching and the perfect way to end the evening.Saturday, I had an early morning project with the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services. We worked the mobile food bank and passed out food and toiletries to people that needed it. After which we went to the Goodwill to find ugly sweaters to wear at our feast. We had an AmeriChristmas dinner, complete with ham and turkey donated to us by Loaves and Fishes. It was really great to be able to have a Traditional meal with friends. Afterward everyone left to play Laser tag, I stayed back because I missed the van. All in all it was a great day.

Sunday, I slept for 14 hours.

That was my Christmas week. It was really great, and unlike any Christmas I've ever experienced. I'm looking forward to my friends to return from their respective homes.


These are the cool new shoes I got for Christmas from my brother. Speaking of whom. I was talking to Joe and he and I had this awesome conversation. He was telling me all about his new ... Hi Susan.


Sara

It's the first official day of Winter Break

I'm in the computer lounge of 947 with my friend Michel, waiting. We're waiting for the time to pass, the sun to come out and for general happiness to return again. Today I was supposed to be working at Loaves and Fishes a local, homeless shelter but the opportunity fell through. Now, I'm enjoying the break. I had been working 10-12 hour days so it's nice to wake up at 9 and not have to worry about having anything important to do. I spent most of my time this morning looking up potential projects that might take on me and my friends last minute but it's not looking good. I'm hoping that Loaves and Fishes will change their mind, and decide that they have work for me and my friends to do.
This past week at school had been pretty stressful, the students were in finals and so we had bunch of kids trying to finish their essays that they should have completed 3 months ago. On top of the that we had to finish our end of the year logs so it had been pretty busy all week. My team is starting to open up more and communicate their feelings, which is definitely important when you are in a live/work environment.
Christmas is fast approaching and I am scrambling to get gifts together. I kind of dropped the ball this year, as I haven't really had a way to get to the mall, had time to make anything or to get to the post office. I need to get some stamps quick though so I can send out my second annual Holiday Greeting Card which I will be happy to post here after all of my intended recipients receive them.
My friends have returned from their respective projects so it has been really great being able to hang out with them and catch up. Their experiences are vastly different, and it's interesting to note that even though we're in the same program no single person will have the same experience. We all react differently to our new projects, not many of us are sent to the same location and most of the projects we are working on vary. For example, I'm working at a high school, while Chase is working at a elementary school, Michel works clearing and creating trails in Washington, and Monica is clearing trails in San Diego.
Their stories are very different but it's great to hear about what they've been up to. Most of my friends have left for their respective homes for Christmas break, while I'm here with only a few friends who will be spending the holidays with me.
The only crazy thing that has happened as of late is that sprinklers broke on the first floor of my building, and the building was flooded. My friend Stu lost his laptop, but most of everyone's belongings was saved or salvaged. The hallway smells of wet towels. It was probably not the best way to start of Winter Break. But I'm sure that this break will be full of opportunities and experiences as soon as I stop trying to find a last minute ticket home.

Wish me luck,
Sara

Another Week of School

It’s Saturday afternoon, I’m exhausted and I’m in the computer lounge watching the Alabama vs. Florida game. It was intense in the first half but now Alabama has such a lead the mood is kind of lame. School is hard to talk about. I don’t know how the teachers come back day, after day to students who could care less. I had one student who told me that she doesn’t do any work ever. I asked her what’s the point of showing up. Her response was “I’m not old enough to drop.” It hurt so much to hear that. That the only reason she stays in school is because she’s not old enough to drop out.

It’s frustrating to work with kids that expect you to do all the work for them. I try to trick them into doing their work, but it’s difficult to do with essays, and after awhile you get so tempted to kick them out of the computer chair and just write it for them. I wouldn’t do it but it’s difficult. My team is affected by the lack of enthusiasm amongst the students. We dread having to work with certain kids because they don’t do anything. They just sit there, waiting it out, trying to get us to tell them what to type. This is Ameriku most accurately describes how I feel about some of these students.

Procrastination,

You’re here because you waited

Next time start sooner

In other news I learned that I’ve been writing senyus as opposed to haikus. Haikus can only be written in Japanese and are about nature. Senyus can be written in English and are usually in seventeen syllables or less, and don’t always have a five-seven-five format. I checked out a book from the library on haikus in attempt to improve my style.

I’m still in love with my team. I’m happy we held it together this week without our team leader. It was good to see that we’re self-sufficient. I didn’t think that I’d like them. I knew I’d like some of them, and that I’d be able to find common ground with all of them. However, I didn’t realize that I’d love them that I would want to spend time with them each individually and as a group. They are each in their own way so great, and so essential to the make up of our entire team. Well it’s time for crepes so I’m out!

Thanksgiving, Turkey Trot, and Tahoe

Last week was Thanksgiving and school was out, so my team worked with Sacramento Parks and Recreation cleaning up local parks. On Monday we raked and trimmed hedges, Tuesday we raked and cut down trees, and Wednesday we raked 6 trucks worth of leaves, by Thursday I was so happy to do something besides raking I got excited over picking up the trash from the over 30,000 people who were at the Sacramento Turkey Trot. The Turkey Trot was probably my favorite part of the work week. We woke up early and cheered on over 30,000 people as they raced to feed the hungry. I danced for and high-fived as many people as possible.

Thursday night we had a very AmeriCorps Thanksgiving. It was nice to have traditional food, but I missed my mom’s green bean casserole. Afterward we hung out on campus and enjoyed our break, and talked of our plans for Tahoe.

We left Friday morning, with the intentions of going straight to Tahoe. Unfortunately, no plan goes off without a hitch and we managed to spend an hour running errands including buying snow chains. The drive up was beautiful, I’ve never ridden in a car while it was snowing so I was in awe with the way it fell against the trees and landed on my hands as we drove up the winding roads. My ears popped continually from the increasing elevation. The pictures I have are beautiful but they weren’t able to fully capture the essence of it all.

As soon as I had the opportunity I loaded my hands up with snow and started packing and throwing at all of my unsuspecting friends. Each hit was accompanied with a cry of delight, and fortunately my friends were more amused by my ear to ear grin and ignored the fact that I just pelted them with a huge ball of ice. Most of Friday and all of Saturday I played in the snow. I even made my very first snowman with the help of my friends Harmony, Chewie and the other Sarah. We also managed to find a hill that was just steep enough to sled down. I was overjoyed with the miracle of snow. As a born and raised Floridian my encounters with snow have been few and far between, and I have never really had the opportunity to play in it.

It was great to be able to kick back with friends and enjoy our time out of uniform and away from campus, before starting back to our regular workweek once again. Now we’re back to work as usual. Although, the kids don’t seem to be re-energized and focused after their week off as they are still in the same mindset of there is no point to school. My team seems to be in good spirits in spite of being surrounded by people without ambition, and the other misfortune that has recently affected the way my team is running.

Our team is down by 1, as our team leader had to return to Virginia for personal reasons. She will return soon and we will function as close to normal as possible in the mean time. Our thoughts are with her and her family at this time.

In other news there is talk of a possible writers group to form on campus in the near future and I find myself very excited by the prospect, as I have been slacking off recently. For now though, I shall finish watching the Sand Lot as James Earl Jones is about to grace the screen.

incomprehensible....

Amerikus about tutoring:

Inadequate me
tutoring you in things I
just don't understand

Back to High School Fun
Joking with kids all day long
what could be better?

Un-enthused kids
force them to try problems now
That's if im lucky

All in all I love
Tutoring students its fun
but sometimes so hard

It's an up and down roller coaster, and I'm sure I have an extra syllable somewhere.

I'm tutoring students at Woodland High School. The majority of the kids are really cool, they just don't want to be in high school. I can't blame them. I didn't want to be in high school either, but I got through it by focusing on what I wanted to do after. These kids can't seem to think about the future. It's like their parents never told them the things mine did. Growing up my parents always encouraged me to do my best, and to try different things. They always told me that I could do anything I set my heart too. I don't think these kids have that, and it sucks. They seem to be okay with mediocrity and even worst, failure. It's incomprehensible.

On top of the majority of my students not having motivation, I have had feelings of inadequacy in my abilities to teach. I keep asking other tutors questions, and I'm always unsure if I caught the mistakes when I'm editing their papers. Then I feel like they're not learning, and that I'm doing all their work. Also, I feel like when I have to edit papers, I don't know what to do. Their papers need so much work, but apparently we only need to get them to pass. The problem is they're not improving at all, because with each essay they only do enough to pass. They don't learn.

BUT!!! The kids are funny, interesting, and amusing. They have this naivety about life that is refreshing. I am surprised at what I remembered from Algebra 1 and Geometry. I also never thought that I'd be at a point in my life where I'd rather solve math problems than work on English papers. It's weird.

In other news, I am going to be a Weed Warrior again tomorrow with Frank! He's a PeaceCorps alum that loves working with NCCC. To top it off he's so knowledgeable and friendly. I'm really excited about our day project. It will be a nice change of pace from being inside all day.

Our Projects Started today!

Today was our first day on the Job. My team Blue 4ious is working at Pioneer and Woodland High Schools in Woodland, Ca. We are tutoring and mentoring students throughout the day. The learning center where we're working was established 16 years ago by this lad Irma who took it from one room and one tutor at Woodland to over 80 tutors at Woodland High School alone, not to mention she's opened several sister programs in High Schools in Woodland, and the surrounding counties. She partners with UC Davis Students who tutor several times a week at the school. She is a very passionate woman, and I hope that if I ever accomplish my dream of opening a non-profit, I have the same passion and pride in my creation 16 years down the line. I'm kind of surprised Irma isn't an National Civilian Conservation Corps member as her main focus was getting things done, and we were thrusted into tutoring first thing. It was stressful, but cool. I feel better about my abilities to get involved straight away. I'm excited to watch myself grow over the next year.

The Continuation of CTI

I'm exhausted. I think it was because I've spent the last few weeks getting little to no sleep, and so here I am at 4pm dying for a nap. This past weekend I went camping with my friends in Marin. It's just across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was awesome, and free. We spent the day in San Fran and slept in the woods. I had entirely too much fun.
I'm back and we're in our last week of CTI. Only four more days and I'm officially inducted as a true and proper corps member. Next week we start our first project. I'm really excited about it.

Like I said before, I'm exhausted and I see my friends outside. So I'm gonna go there.

Hopefully I'll find more time to write after CTI. Especially since I'll be on campus.

Phase 1 Project Revealed!

Despite all the challenges that life can bring right now it seems simply perfect. It’s not always sunshine and happiness; in fact, I spent the two previous days fuming about the little things. About not getting any position that I had requested, and griping about someone in the program I’m not particularly fond of. Complaining about it didn’t really make the situation any better, in fact for the most part, everything felt worst. For whatever reason I woke up the other morning and was like this is going to be a good day. And it was a great day, the sun was shining, I did well in PT, I hung out with friends, and I found out my first project. We’re working at two high schools in Woodland, CA mentoring and tutoring High School kids. We’re trying to encourage them to stay in school. I’m so stoked about this. I wanted a youth project so bad. Just one, and I’d be fine and I got my one youth project first round.

I’m happy I get to stay on campus first round two because more than likely I’ll be going off base for 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th rounds. So I have the added bonus of knowing my surroundings. Staying in one place longer than 6 weeks, I haven’t stayed in one place since I moved out of Tallahassee. I also get to have Internet, cable, and the benefit of hanging out with the other teams on campus.

Today I only had Project Outreach Liaison training; it’s my only specialty role. It’s a good role for me because I’ll get to network with Nonprofits all year, and I was seriously thinking about either going into nonprofit management or child psychology. So I think my career path was just kind of decided for me. My heart has been racing after this dream job for about two years now, so I might as well just dive head first into it and worry about the messy stuff later.

Tomorrow our project is Weed Warriors, where we will spend the day removing invasive species from a creek. I’m hoping I get to wear one of those rubber suits. I think it will make it way better. Pulling weeds is one of my least favourite activities, but I’ll find fun it somehow. I always seem to manage to find joy in the little things.

The weather here is gorgeous. If I were to pick somewhere too live solely based on climate this would be the place. It’s warm but not hot, with a nice breeze every now and again. It hardly rains and the leaves change colors, so there are seasons! I love seasons. Weather should change; it’s unnatural to maintain a state of hot or cold. I enjoy sunshine, but sweltering heat in November is not fun for me. So this place is perfect. I need to upload pictures but it doesn’t seem like that will happen any time soon.

Back to CTI

Mendocino was a nice break from traditional CTI. I miss being surrounded by red woods, and I wish that it were a little bit chillier here. I had my first bad day in Americorps yesterday, but today seems to be going much better. I just have to remind myself that I can change my happiness, not others. We're finding out our Project within the next couple of days, rumor has it I should know it today, but it maybe different for every team. I'm hoping we find out, today. I want to know what we're doing. With each new training new possible projects our mentioned and I become more and more excited about each of them.

I have lots of pictures to put up but I haven't found the time. I do have some up on Facebook, and I may open a flickr account. But I will try and add some pictures to here soon.

I'll report back with my first project as soon as I know it.

My Address

Here is my address if you would like to post mail.

Sara Pennington Class XVI Blue 4
3427 Laurel St
McClellan, Ca 95652

4 days of Cold and The Return to Sunshine.

When they said Camp Mendocino was going to be cold they meant it. I woke up frozen to the core underneath all my layers, until I learned the beauty of a mummy sleeping bag. The trick is wear fewer layers and zip your sleeping bag all the way, by my third night there I slept in a sweat shirt, and pajama pants. I was happy to get back to Sunny Sacramento, although I do miss the peace and quiet of Camp Mendocino. I have mixed feelings about my experience there as I feel it was a lot like summer camp, where you have your good and bad moments. At summer camp, and in live/work environments a day is never all good or all bad. The days are too long and the experiences too diverse for anyone’s mood to be consistent.

When we got there I was wearing shorts and already freezing. I had packed all my long BDU’s (Battle Dress Uniform, they’re cargo pants) so that they would be clean. Long story short, there was enough time for me to put my bag in a cabin and get a bottom bunk and change into shorts, but I wasn’t allowed to utilize that time, so I ended up on a top bunk, and in shorts and a sweatshirt in 58 degree weather. In the end it worked out, I didn’t mind sleeping on the top bunk, and I felt tough in my shorts, being from Florida and watching all my of my friends in plenty of layers. I also had time to change after our first meeting.

We learned about the roles of team leader and support team leader and we watched a movie about the Fish Philosophy. It’s based on the Seattle Fish Market, where those guys don’t have the most appetizing job, but they do have the most fun. There are four principles: Play, Make Their Day, Be There, and Choose Your Attitude. I am trying to utilize that philosophy in my own life, and have been pretty successful at it, thus far. Although, I have a little more experience as I’ve been adapting 3 of the four principles marginally successfully for the last few years of my life. Although, I do have to admit, I’m not the best at being present with people, and I’m trying to get better at actually engaging with people.

The next day, I had a pretty awful morning I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep, I felt sick during PT, and I tripped and fell twice, I cried twice before 6am, which is not the best way to start off a day. About half way through PT I decided that I could either be miserable or do my best, so I kept that in mind and had as much fun as possible. It worked pretty well, although throughout the day I had moments of negativity. After PT, we had a class on Service Learning Initiatives and how it fits in with the NCCC program. I really like how NCCC incorporates service learning into the projects we do, it makes everything come together, and over all we get more out of the experience. The rest of the day we did team building exercises on the low and high ropes courses.

As a former Camper, I have completed plenty of both low and high ropes so they come second nature to me. So at this point it becomes unfair for me to take charge and add my comments and ideas of how to do it. During my last couple of years at Camp Wewa, I was not allowed to speak when doing these activities, so I tried to do the same thing, I gave few suggestions and just tried to follow. The best part of the day for me was the high ropes. I don’t know what happened but I just kind of let go and I climbed all over the challenge course. Everyone else was done and just wanted to go down the zip line, and I wanted to try all of the different ropes out. So after some convincing the ropes instructor let me go out on the course while everyone else waited in line. I really enjoyed it. Although I did have some moments of insecurity, and so I called back with questions about the stability of the cables, how much weight they can hold on, so on and so forth. My team leader seemed to think that I was letting my weight hold me back, because she commented about it later. The people that know me best, would probably say that I rarely let anything hold me back, and that my weight has never held me back from participating in activities. It’s funny that after two days, someone can make quick and completely off the mark judgments about a person. It’s going to be an interesting and challenging 9 months, and I expect I will be pushed and pulled in directions I’ve never been pulled in before.

The next day we completed a service project for the camp, our team sanded one of the buildings and the other teams will paint it. It was great to get our hands dirty, so I was pretty happy about once again being put to work. I took pictures of me sanding, because I know my brother will never believe half of the things that I’ll do this year. In the afternoon we worked on our Individual Learning Plans (ILP’s). It is basically a piece of paper where you organize your thoughts and lay out a plan of how you are going to accomplish your goals. Although, I liked utilizing the ILP but I didn’t feel comfortable enough with my team leader to talk to her about those goals and plans. I know she has great qualities, but she seems very stand offish and unhappy with the fact that she couldn’t keep her pod. I think a lot of us feel that way, considering at this point we’ve still spent more time with our pod than we have with our team. I hope over time I’ll feel more comfortable talking to her about these things.

After ILP’s and dinner we performed a skit for the rest of our unit. It was a lot of fun seeing each team’s skit, and getting to have more bonding time with out unit as a whole. I really like the Unit I’m in and Blue has the best Unit Leader for sure. Overall, I feel like although challenging the next 9 months will totally be worth it.

Day 1 on Blue 4

So today was the first day I was on my permanent team. I think that we have a solid group of individuals. I feel a lot better about the people I will be spending the majority of my time with, although I still have a longing to hand pick my own team, but I am happy with the people that I ended up on a team with. I’m trying really hard not to make quick judgments. Today we had more conflict resolution training. So that was great, it was interesting to get to know everyone on my team. We established a team charter, it’s basically a list of house rules. I’m all for ground rules, in a live/work environment, they become necessary. I look forward to going on adventures and traveling the country in a 15 passenger van. Tomorrow we’re off to Mendocino. I’m going to bring my journal and try and force myself to write in it while I’m there.

My team went for Frozen Yogurt (Fro Yo) at the Big Scoop in the Arden mall, which is by far the best idea for a fro yo ever! It’s a self serve station, with at least 30 different toppings to choose from and 9 flavors, as long as you count swirls as a new flavor. They charge by the weight instead of by topping so you can come up with some pretty crazy creations. Mine didn’t work out as I had planned but the top half was still delicious. If you ever get a chance to try it, I recommend it.

I feel exhausted right now. I think I’m starting to get sick which is highly unfortunate. I’m trying to up my vitamin intake and decrease my sugar intake, but I don’t know if that will really do any good. Hopefully, it will help a little bit as I will be at Camp Mendocino for the next couple of days and I can’t really be sick while I’m out there. It’s really cold there, and I packed all of my warm clothes, so I will be cold for the majority of the day tomorrow until the cargo van gets there and I can grab a hold of my bag.

Life in the Corps: Corps Training Institute (CTI) Continued.

Everything seems to be happening very fast. The Team Leaders who were in American Samoa working on a tsunami relief project with the American Red Cross finally came back. They have been there since before the corps members got here, and it’s good to have them finally here and see all of Class XVI together. They came back on Friday. Last night we were split into our units and today we were spent into teams and on Wednesday we’re off to Camp Mendocino. It’s a camp run by the Boys and Girls Club, where we will do team building exercises as well as work on projects to maintain and fix the camp. I’m pretty excited to finally know who is on my team for the next 9 ½ months.

There are four Units Gold, Green, Silver and Blue. Each unit has 7 teams, and I am on Blue 4. I have mixed emotions because of course I would’ve rather hand pick my team, but I’m happy to meet people that I haven’t seen before today. I also lucked out and was put on a team with one of the guys I met from day one. My team as a whole seems pretty great, and individually I feel that I will be able to connect with everyone on some level or another. I can for see the inevitable bad, but I can also for see the inevitable good. I do happen to be older than my Team Leader, which is a little awkward for me although she is younger than a good majority of our team. She seems pretty nice, and hopefully will warm up as she gets to know us all better. All in all everyone seems, excited about going on projects and finally get out and do what we came out here for.

It will be good to come back and be able to share stories with the people I met during my first 2 weeks of CTI. The past couple of days have been pretty crazy. I completed Disaster Relief training, which unfortunately one of the only positive things I can say about it is that I’m happy to have completed it. I also am recertified for First Aid/CPR and AED. I really like the American Red Cross as a whole, they do really great work for the communities they serve and I’m happy to be able to have a chance to work with them.

My favorite day this past week was probably Saturday because we spent the morning at the Sacramento Theatre and we listened to a panel that discussed homelessness. It was really interesting; I didn’t know that the mayor of Sacramento, former NBA basketball star, Kevin Johnson had such cool initiatives for his city. His top three issues in no particular order are eliminating/reducing homelessness, emphasis on the arts, and volunteerism. He took a picture with all 300 of us. You can probably find it online somewhere but I have yet to look for it. I was in the way back so you probably can’t even see me. The panel was really awesome, we heard about different aspects of homelessness; there was a guy who told us the story of how he turned his life around. The whole panel was pretty inspiring and it was such a good start, because we went straight from there to our project.

My pod, or temporary team harvested, Apples, walnuts, persimmons and plums from an abandoned orchard that is about to be turned into a levee. It was really cool because they let us pick trees, and we also harvested like no one’s ever seen before. We were allowed to destroy the trees. That must sound awful, but they’re going to destroy the orchard anyway. The great part was we got so much more fruit than we would’ve been able to normally. We were also allowed to try out the fruit we picked which was a lot of fun. Aside from my intense fear of getting poison oak, the day went really well. We worked with Soil Born farms which is a non profit that focuses on ensuring people have access to more fruit, and also educates people in the area on environmental concerns. I am hoping to go back and do an Independent Service Project with them, and a couple more of the organizations I learned about that day.

Sunday was pretty chill, I hung around campus with my new found friends and picked up a sweet speakers for my iPod for five dollars from Target. Then Sunday night, I went for a final dinner with my pod, which was separated shortly after into units. I liked the people from my Pod but I am happy to have the chance to work with different people for the rest of my time here.

Monday was a day of diversity training, which was led by some former NCCC members who were pretty awesome. They really seemed to know what they were talking about it, and did their best to make seven hours of training seem like fun. I also found out today that because of the type of work and projects we do, that I will be able to add some college credits to my degree, even if they are Post-Baccalaureate credits. Diversity training is something nice to have on a resume.

I’m looking forward to Camp Mendocino on Wednesday, but unfortunately I won’t have anyway to contact the outside world until after I return on Saturday. Well, it’s 11pm here and sunny California and I have PT in 6 hours so I’m off to bed. Night world.

Corps Training Institute CTI Part One

Since Wednesday, I have received my uniforms and the majority of my gear for the next ten months, and I’m excited to get started. I don’t know when or where my first spike will be, I don’t even know who will be on my team. We haven’t done very much in the first couple of days, mostly because we can’t really get started until we finish our physicals, and complete Baseline. Baseline is where they measure how fast you can run a mile and half, how many sit ups and pushups you can do in two minutes and how far you can reach in a sit and reach box. Luckily we’re allowed to do modified pushups, I can do a lot more modified pushups then I can regular pushups.

I have met so many different people, and kind of settled into a group that I spend most of my time hanging out with, I still bounce around from group to group. I like knowing that there are about 264 different people that I can hang out with. Everyone here is different, but we all have at least one thing in common. So it’s not hard to start conversations. For the most part I’ve never had trouble making friends; I’ve always been pretty outgoing. I am really excited about getting to work side by side with some of these people, but I know that I won’t get to hand pick who’s on my team.

I feel like I don’t have much to talk about, and I think that’s because so much has happened and I’m still processing it. My Pod, temporary team, had our first Project day, my team cleaned up a land park, we raked a pathway laid new composite gravel, pulled weeds, laid mulch, and cleared up some fallen limbs from the storm they just had. It was pretty fun getting our hands dirty, and I was happy that they had us jump right into the community. Our next project is either Friday or Saturday but I can’t say for sure. I don’t know what we’ll be doing but I’m excited to start.

About 6 of us from went to the grocery store to shop for two Pods, which is about 25 people, we bought over $400 dollars worth of groceries to last us a little over 3 days. I didn’t realize how much food it took to feed 25 people. There were other Pods shopping as well, so I’m sure WinCo was happy about the $2000 dollars it made in a little over an hour. They must love our business.

Last night me and another girl from my pod cooked for 25 people. We made stuffed bell peppers, and mashed potatoes, and better than sex cake. She was in charge of the better than sex cake, while I focused on the stuffed peppers. We had a few other girls come help us with chopping and prepping. I was pretty happy with them, although I do wish I would have added more flavors to the rice, but everyone seemed pretty happy with them in the end. Even the people who don’t like peppers at least liked the insides. We definitely cooked way more than we needed to. We’ll have leftovers for like a week.

Today my POD, minus a few, is going to Sacramento. Some have to stay behind for the Pack test. I didn’t want to be on the Fuel Reduction Team. As much fun as trail clearing, and lighting fires sounds, it’s not my thing. They light small fires to help reduce larger fires. There’s a name for it but I can’t tell you what it is. So on the pack test they have to walk 3 miles in 45 minutes with 45 pounds of weight on their back. Although I think I could do it, I don’t really want to try. So luckily I have a day off.

Wireless Unconnected

The wireless isn't working on my computer, so I have to find my Flash drive before I can post anything new. I just wrote an entry, but I thought I'd let you know I'm still alive, and as soon as I either find wireless or my flash drive I'll post pictures and an entry. Today I'm going to Sacramento, so I'm hoping to have some more exciting stuff to talk about. Lame post, I know. Sorry.

I have 24 minutes til Muster!

Muster is when our team meets up.

I checked in On Wednesday at the Sacramento campus. It was pretty cool getting to meet everyone. Overall everyone I've met have been really nice, and so very different. It's such an amalgamation of so many different personalities and types. I can see that there will be difficulties working together. But there will also be some amazing experiences to come. There are over 300 people on this campus, so it's hard to meet everyone. But I feel like I've made a lot of friends already. Mostly the days are long and boring, a lot of meetings, and a lot of waiting around. Although between meetings and at the end of the day it's a lot of fun. It's just hard to be really excited about paperwork, and rules and regulations. I don't mind filling it out because I know it's moving us closer to actually doing hands on work.

Today is our first Service project we're going to work on some community gardens in the Sacramento area. I'm really excited, I've never been a fan of gardening so I think this is great first project for me. I'm hoping to learn and get to meet some really great people from the area. I didn't realize how much the people that know about Americorps, love Americorps. The first night here a group of us went to the local bar, and as soon as we walked through the door the locals cheered for us. It makes you feel like a celebrity. I'm so excited to see the impact we have in the communities on the West Coast.

We aren't in our official teams yet, that's not until after they pick the Fuel Reduction Teams (FRT). I thought about doing the pack test for fun, but I really don't want to be on an FRT because it limits my chance of doing a variety of different projects. I respect the work that the FRT's do because it's very important and I'd love to be able to camp out for weeks at a time, but I'm pretty content not knowing what I'll be doing in the next week, month or even year. It's cool to finally live in the now and be forced to live in the now. Especially since I'm such a planner.

Although, I am excited to see what team I'm on and who I'm grouped with. I'm hoping to get at least one other person that I already know, but with a group this large and only 40 FRT members there is a good chance I won't know anybody on my team. Regardless of what team I'm on, I'm sure that I'll make friends. I'm pretty happy go lucky and can make friends easily, even though I usually stick out in the group as the loud absurd one.

On another note I was encouraged to take pictures, so I'm so happy about that. I was worried they would tell me that I needed to focus on the project, and if they would consider taking pictures slacking off. So I hope to post those in later today. I'm typing this up on the lab computer so I won't be able to update until later tonight. I'm hoping to type up a better reflection of the last few days as well. I feel like it's important to keep a record of what happened throughout this experience.

I do have a feeling that I won't be able to post regularly. I've been trying to keep up with people in the outside world, but every time I get a phone call it's harder to answer it, because I like being able to enjoy every minute of this experience. Although I do miss my friends and family, but if I don't call you guys, it's not because I don't miss you it's because I really want to savor what I have now, and I hope that you will be patient with me.

Anyway, I'm off to do some service. I have ten minutes left, but I'm gonna go make some phone calls.

See ya next time,
Sara

Zipping down the Crooked Street, in the Rain

Every trip has a bad day. It’s bound to happen, you have to have a best day and a day that doesn’t live up to the best day; unless you go on a day trip, but in that case you just compare it to past day trips. Well, today was that day. My friend had to leave early in the morning to get back to school. Which meant I had to say goodbye, even in my groggy four am haze I was sad to see her go. It’s hard to imagine that after four years of having her around all the time now she’s on the opposite side of the country. So my day of course went from sad to worst.

My mom always in a hurry, to get a move on, she woke us up as early as possible. Understandably, we did have to move the car, but San Francisco decided to change its cool breeze to cold wet, wind-whipping weather. We drove through the rain my mom urging us to find something to do, and even though there was plenty we missed out on, it was hard to want to do anything in the dreary rainstorm. My brother drove to Lombardi street and we trolled slowly down the crooked street, which wasn’t as much fun as I had imagined it would be. Perhaps, if my mom had been behind the wheel, her blood pressure would have made her face turn purple as she agonized over every turn. That would have at least been slightly entertaining. So I snapped photos out the window and my family commented on the number of images I captured. It seems as though every bit of today was irritating.

We had to pick up some last minute supplies, during which I felt like I was bothering my brother. How irritating it must be to stand around while your little sister picks out long johns, mess kits and power cords. Thankfully, he didn’t complain about the annoying stops and just kind of went with the flow. Then we went to wine country, another point of interest he didn’t want to be a part of. It was cool to participate in a wine tasting, but I feel like the murkiness of the day, kind of made me feel like it wasn’t worth it. It was hard to enjoy the rolling hills covered in rows upon rows of grapes when the dark clouds loomed over us and the rain beat steadily against our windshield.

Sonoma is a quiet little town with kitch shops filled with overpriced merchandise and interesting wares. If it weren’t grey and wet out I might have even enjoyed poking in the stores playing with things that I’d never buy. We did find the Cheese Factory and purchased cheese and crackers to go with our wine tasting, but my cheese threshold is always smaller when I ride in cars. So I slept from Sonoma to Sacramento, where I had to say goodbye to my family. My mom cried, my brother gave me a hug and said “glad you got to see me” as per usual. Then they were off, and I was left alone to ponder what the next ten months of my life would be like. All in all the general attitude of today was just overwhelmingly sad.

I think perhaps, I was sad that I had to say goodbye to them, or perhaps that I am so anxious about tomorrow, I just wanted to get closer to campus so that it would all feel real. I have 8 hours before I check-in and somewhere in my head I still feel like this is all just a cruel joke. Like I’ll get there and they will turn me away, or Ashton Kutcher pops out laughing yelling “you’ve been PUNKED!” I don’t know why even after collecting all my documents, talking to my POD leader, and flying all the way out here, I still have some lingering doubt, but I do. As time progresses, I will get more and more used to the idea that yes this is real, and yes I am this fortunate. I also know that I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for certain people who have helped me along the way by either encouraging/reminding/urging me to finish the application, or writing my recommendation letter, or by just being there while I agonized over the whole process. So if I haven’t said it already. To those people, thank you.

Riding Through Bay Side

Day 2 in San Francisco we rented bikes and rode 9 miles or more to Sausalito. I huffed and puffed up the hills, usually having to get off half way up. I’m originally from the flat lands of Florida where anything above sea level makes my ears pop. The ride was refreshing though, we pointed at houses we’d love to own, someday. Took many a pictures of the skyline and dinged our bells as we passed pedestrians on the sidewalk. In San Francisco, and probably any city, you’re supposed to ride your bike on the street. I don’t trust cars, or myself for that matter so it has always been one of those rules that I’ve ignored, until a local told us off and we ended up spending the rest of the day in bike lanes. It was breathtaking to finally see the Bridge. It really is a marvelous piece of architecture, although it didn’t do anything to change my fear of heights or crossing bridges. I freaked out half way across when my brother came up behind me and started dinging his bell at me. Every time I looked over I’d hyperventilate. Like I said, I’m a flatlander, and Golden Gate is way above Sea Level for me. Some how I managed to make it all the way across and then I screamed all the way down the rolling hills into Sausalito. Pedestrians gawked, jumped in surprise, and chuckled to themselves as I passed them by.

Sausalito was a beautiful seaside town. As much as I hate the ocean I love seaside towns. Boston is my favorite city, I love the way it smells, tastes, looks and the way it makes me feel inside. I’ve never felt more at home then when I’m in Boston Commons spinning in circles with my arms wide open. I feel such a deep connection with that place that I’ve been bound to like anything that reminds me of it. With its sailboats and yachts tied off in the marina and the cool sea breeze gently waving by I very much enjoyed wandering through this quaint town. After we caught up to my mom who had zipped ahead trying to see as many of the shops as she could before we had to go back to San Francisco, we caught the Ferry across. Again, I have to say that Golden Gate is just a beautiful piece of architecture that adds nicely to the cityscape of the Bay. However when we got off the boat, I realized that I had some how lost my tickets in the twenty minutes of getting on to the ferry, and had to buy a new ticket. Looking back now I think I must have thrown it away, not understanding that you show your ticket at the end, not the beginning. I was aggravated and in a rush to get to Alcatraz but I begrudgingly paid for my mistake and we went on our way. And we rushed on, speeding through the Wharf trying to get to the bike shop, and then speed walking all the way to Pier 33 for our Alcatraz tour.

Alcatraz is one of those things that everyone says you have to see while you’re here. I don’t know if I could say the same. I think if you like history, old buildings, and typical museums, check it out. If that’s not your cup of tea don’t waste your time or money, as there is so much else to do. Overall, I’m happy I did it, but I don’t think I’d go back. It could have been that I was already miffed about looking like a dope in front of my family for losing my ticket.

In their eyes I’ve never been the put together one, they always seem so surprised when I come prepared to something. To the rest of the world, I may say crazy things but I generally have everything together. When I was a stage manager, people would come to me first because I always had a first aid kit, tools, or decent impromptu quick fix ideas. It’s kind of funny the stark contrast of the way my family views me to the way the rest of the world views me. Even if in general it makes me feel like the uninformed, useless one of the group amongst the people I’m related too.

After Alcatraz we walked a mile and half to this Restaurant called Chaya, deliciously expensive restaurant that happens to have a sushi happy hour. I’m sure it had other food but we stuck mostly with Sushi, which I didn’t regret. I had been craving San Francisco Sushi since before we arrived on the other side of the country. The Red Dragon Roll was delicious and the spicy tuna roll tasted like spicy tuna. After dinner we were lost as to what to do. Since my mom didn’t want to deal with car rentals in the morning and the group was having trouble once again on making decisions we hopped in a cab. I chatted up the cab driver while the backseat gossiped among themselves. My mom threw comments up my way. “Sara, do you just talk to everyone?” then to my friend “Is she always this friendly,” “She will just talk to anyone won’t she?” And on it went. I hate uncomfortable silence and when faced with having to sit in a cab with a man I’ve never met before, I’d rather make idle conversation then sit by quietly waiting impatiently to hop out of the car because of my discomfort.

My new Nigerian friend told us about how he loves this city and it’s nicer than Africa, that there was always something to do. Among the people I’ve polled on this trip, it seems that people in San Francisco are much happier with their city than those I’ve polled back east. He scammed a few more dollars out of my mom claiming to be confused as to where to go to rent a car. My mom rented the car for $150 more than she should have paid, and we drove back of course getting lost along the way. Finally back at the hotel, we ran into the sweet china man who had slipped information about the Peace Corps under my door. He didn’t understand the difference between Americorps and Peace corps, but it’s cool to see the impact that organization had on his life in his younger years. It makes me proud of what I’m about to do.

Dungeness Crabs are delicious, if not smelly.

San Francisco, is an amazing City, it’s now in my top five places I’d like to end up. I love places where there is no possible way to see everything in just one weekend. Although, we didn’t see everything we did see a lot. On our first full day we bought some Kara’s Cupcakes, delicious, although mine are way better. Yeah, I said it. We then hit up the cable cars and rode them from Fisherman’s Wharf to Lombardi Street; the view from the crooked street is so gorgeous. The city is gorgeous from wherever you view it, but probably one of my favorite picture spots. I love the way San Francisco is laid out it’s such a change from the straight rows and cookie cutter houses of Florida’s subdivision communities. Although we couldn’t drive down Lombardi Street until later, we did enjoy watching the cars trying to maneuver the wicked curves. I would never want to live on that street, especially with my driving record. We hiked up the steep hill and hopped back on the cable car to Chinatown.

Overpriced and hokey, Chinatown was filled with many an angry Asian. Maybe they’re irritated by all of the tourists or unhappy about the poorly decorated streets, or they just don’t like it when people take pictures. We wandered the streets until we found the Fortune Cookie Factory, which was quaint, but unfortunately took away the mystery of how they get the little cookies into such an odd shape. I have to say that fortune cookies taste better hot. Hungry, and not satisfied by our china crackers we went in search for some local cuisine. Luckily, there were some nice ladies handing out coupons for lunch and so on my suggested we headed for the specials. Unfortunately, it was probably the most overpriced restaurant in all of Chinatown. The service was awful, but we entertained ourselves with conversation and discussions of what to do next. We decided that we’d look at a few more stores and try and find the front gates. On our way we stopped in a store filled from top to bottom with Asian themed souvenirs, including animal hats. We decided to take pictures and were ushered out of the store due to a ridiculous no picture policy. After some encouragement by my bro, I decided it would only be appropriate for me to go back and take a picture of the shopkeeper with a bad attitude. He flicked me off, we chuckled and made our way to the gates. I have to say that all in all Chinatown is my second least favorite part of San Francisco, after Haight-Ashbury.

Here is the shopkeeper that flicked me off

I think I expected too much out of the artsy-hippie side of town. I thought that the place where the free love movement was started, and home to many famous 60’s personas would be the best part of this crazy city. Unfortunately, head shops aren’t any fun if you’re not going to partake in illegal substances. I mean they had really pretty looking pipes, but the smell of pot, incense and week old body odor made my stomach churn. This dirty grungy part of San Francisco was not appealing. It’s filled with bums and stoners and the two of them combined is the second most foul smell I’ve ever encountered, second only to the Tazo Wild Orange Tea at Starbucks. We wandered up and down Haight trying to find something interesting, but once you’ve seen one head shop you’ve seen them all. I never got into tie-dye and peace signs, and my brother was more than happy to get out of there. So we headed toward what we thought was going to be beautiful Golden Gate Park, and although it was Golden Gate Park, it was filled with drum circles, homeless people talking to themselves and the distinct smell of weed. We had imagined this park with beautiful flowers and an unforgettable view of the famous bridge. We learned later that we were at the wrong end of the park, but after walking several miles we decided it was best to find a view of the city.

My mom suggested the Fairmont, which she heard from a friend that from the top it was the best view of the city San Francisco had to offer, and I’m sure if we were allowed to the top it would have been. When we sat in the pirate style Tonga room down below drinking overpriced cocktails she revealed to us that her friend was a resident of San Francisco 10 years ago. In that 10 years the Fairmont decided that it would rather host private parties than cheap tourists trying to find a good view. In the end, I didn’t mind trading an awesome view of the city for a deliciously overpriced scorpion bowl, and a bar filled with all things pirate. After $50 worth of drinks (4 drinks in total, and no not per person), we headed for dinner at Cioppino’s at Fisherman’s Wharf.

This place had some delicious seafood, my mom and I ordered the signature dish which was a soup filled with Dungeness crab, muscles, scallops, fish and all the other delicious creatures of the ocean. Filled with Seafood and warmed by locally brewed beer we headed to a Martini bar near our hotel and scoped out some men for my mom. She was too shy to really talk to anyone, but my friend and I made friends with an Irishman named Patrick, not spelled Padraig, just in case you were wondering. Still shifted from the time zone difference we headed back to the hotel for sleep, and sweetly dreamed of the busy day ahead.