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