Tuesday, October 27, 2015
#10 "There is no WiFi in the forest, but we promise you'll find a better connection."
Can I just tell you all how proud and surprised I am of being able to actually keep up with these blogs! It may be very different in the coming weeks but like I have said in the past I will try my very best. It all depends on what I'm doing (could very well be camping for a few weeks) and if I have WiFi or even cell reception.
Anyways back to today. We slept in until 8 and then got ready and had to report at our muster spot (just a name for in between the dorm buildings) and had our morning meetings of what the day is going to look like. We then had a training on how to work with volunteers. Personally I thought the training was kind of pointless because if you have volunteers you need to tell them what to do politely, if they are messing around you should explain the importance of their volunteer work and treat them as you would like to be treated... Yes some of the information was useful but for the most part it was a boring morning. After that I had a little bit of time before my next training which was learning how to properly dissemble and resemble a chainsaw and how to use one. The training was long but the two men who were training us had a funny sense of humor. I now know how to use a chainsaw though and will be able to use those skills the next two days for our mini spike, which will be at Camp Lode Star in Stockton California. Tomorrow we will be leaving around 2:30 and will be doing different team bonding exercises at the camp. Then on Thursday my team will be working in the woods making new paths, cutting down old or already broken trees, etc.. The weather calls for rain in the area so it'll definitely be a challenge chainsawing for the first time while in the rain haha.
After the training I had to quickly change into my PT clothes and get out to the fields. We had to keep moving whether it was running, push-ups, sit-ups, or squats for only about 40 minutes. Knowing that I am one of the people on my team who were trained in chainsawing and the fact that we will be doing non stop trail work and other things in that "nature" (ha that was punny) for about 6/7 months is really pushing me to do extra PT. I'll definitely (hopefully) will be a lot more fit when I come home! We finished the night with a team dinner, meeting, and packing for tomorrows mini spike!
Also, I will not have any kind of cell reception for the next two days while I am at this camp, so if you ever try to reach me, just know I am not ignoring you, but simply have no clue that you are trying to reach me! You can say that I definitely will be connecting with nature!And yes I will try to write everything that I do down, so I don't forget any of it for when I am able to blog about it.
P.S. I know most of these posts are all relatively the same and may seem a bit boring, but after CTI (once we are on spike) they will become a bit more interesting. Depending on what we are doing, I may just have to blog at the end of every week. We'll See!
~Savannah
#9 "It's the little memories that will last a lifetime"
Yesterday I was able to sleep in till 10! New Record! When I got up I got ready for church and then got a text from one of my team mates who said she was making gluten free pancakes. The gluten free worried me a little but I thought eh why not try it!? It definitely had an interesting taste haha. It was very grainy but nothing a little crunchy peanut butter couldn't fix! After that, I finished getting ready and then went to church with a new group of people to a different Catholic church (St.John Catholic church) that was a little farther away. I actually enjoyed this church a little more because it looked like a combination between St.Marys and the Newman Center in DeKalb. It was so weird because before mass started they asked if there were any new people at mass that day, and for us to rays our hands. Obviously we did, and they gave us little gift bags with fiber 1 bars, a pencil and a program in it. I've never heard of a church giving you a gift for going! Very weird but I suppose whatever floats their boat.
When I got back from church I had a little bit of time so I face timed (A.K.A Skyped) my dad knowing that the annual Hay Ride out at the lake was on Sunday. I was able to see a few family members which was awesome! And the photos I saw on Facebook were phenomenal! I started to remember last years hayride and how much fun it was to carve pumpkins, chat with family and at night scare the living daylights out of the couple that we helped put their car with a flat tire on a trailer. I had a lot of fun memories at those family events and hope everyone had a blast like I know I have every year!
When I said bye I got ready for my Independent Service Project (ISP) I had that day. The service project that we went to was called "Fairytale Town's Safe and Super Halloween." It seemed as if you were in a "land" at Disney World with all the different crafts, games, and characters in the park. I was in charge of taking the photos of the little kids with "Jack the pirate". I'm pretty sure I said "Look up here! OK 1-2-3 Smile! Oh great picture!" at least 200 times haha. All the little kids costumes were so cute! Some of my favorites were a family, with the parents dressed as if they were going on a safari and the little boy who was probably 2 or 3 had a little tiger costume on. Another boy who was probably 10 had a suit on with a name tag that said "Walt" and he was holding a small Mickey Mouse. (If you don't understand, he was Walt Disney.) We didn't get back until 11 (could have been 10:30, but a train was stuck on the tracks.) I was super tired, especially because I knew I had PT in the morning. But I sure did go to bed quickly that night!
Today I got up at 5:20 and got ready for PT. One cool thing about having to get up that morning is being able to see the Giant harvest moon still shining bright. For PT this morning each team had a challenge to complete so that meant as a team we had to finish 250 squats, 20 laps, 200 squats..etc. After that I ate breakfast (the usual banana and protein bar), and got ready for the two meetings for the morning. After the meetings one of my team mates and I walked over to a Chinese restaurant that is about a 3 minute walk from campus. After that we went back to campus and my room mates and I have been struggling with our mini fridge in our room because the door won't close, because of all the ice that has built up. So I turned up the temp a little so it could get defrosted, but it wasn't going as fast as we wanted... So I decided to get a hairdryer and speed up the process. My roommate and I sat there for 20 minutes and melted the ice down low enough so we were able to close the door. Once I got done with that My team had to meet at the team van to go shopping for snacks for the trip to and from our Minnie spike that'll be this Wednesday through Thursday. I ended up filling up small bags of raw almonds, dried banana chips and dark chocolate covered raisins. Once we got back I had some things I had to type up for the first spike and then make dinner. Thankfully I got there a little late because my TL messaged the team and said we were going out for dinner because all the kitchens were going to be without water because there was a big back up in the drainage from past teams pouring oil in the drains. We ended up going to a pizza place which was relatively cheep and you could build your own pizza.
The next two weeks are going to be extremely hectic my TL keeps telling us, so keep the prayers coming everyone, they are working marvelously!
Also thank you Grandma and Anna for the wonderful cards! I received them today and I love to hear what has been going on! I'll try to write back as soon as I can!
I believe these photos truly capture the beauty of the lake. I wish I could have been there with you all but you can bet your bottom dollar that I'll be there next year! And just know I am having a great time helping people, trying new things (pretty much just different foods haha) and am learning! And for the two who took these photos, you did an amazing job.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
#8 "Team work makes the dream work!"
Today was national "Make a difference day". So that meant all the teams had different projects in the surrounding area. The first project that my team had was for a lady and her community garden that was huge, that she had in her back yard. She needed all the plants taken out, ready for next years garden. Because of our height, one team mate (Morgan) and I were in charge of trimming a tree, which we got to use a few saws to cut about three large tree limbs down. We were also in charge of trimming this beautiful metal arch that had roses rapping around the whole structure. And trimming a few of the fruit trees she had. The project was really fun and we always had something new to do that kept us busy. When we finished all her tasks the garden looked beautiful! You could see the walkway that goes through the garden and everything was open and looked well managed.
The next project that we had was at a compost company, and we had to uproot tons of tall dead grass that was behind the mulch piles. It was definitely tiring but that is one reason why I love manual type labor because I get so much satisfaction knowing that all the hard work paid off.
It makes me that more excited to go do all the other projects with them and achieve challenges along the way.
The next project that we had was at a compost company, and we had to uproot tons of tall dead grass that was behind the mulch piles. It was definitely tiring but that is one reason why I love manual type labor because I get so much satisfaction knowing that all the hard work paid off.
It makes me that more excited to go do all the other projects with them and achieve challenges along the way.
The team!
From left to right.
Joe, Patrick, Aisya, me, Morgan, Melissa, Molly, Emily, Anthony, Maddie and our Team Leader Amanda
#7 1/2 "Never stop exploring" pictures
Inside the Museum
Folsom Lake photos
This is a photo of what the lake used to look like. The four small wood pillars are the same in the photo below 
you can tell the water used to come up a lot farther!
Panorama I took of the full lake. In the left of the photo you can see the life guard posts and
in the distance you can see the little bit of water
This is the boat ramp (if you don't know what that is, it is where they would put the boats in the water.) (The blacktop actually dips down if you cant see). In the distance you can see the water.
Standing on a rock that used to be in the middle of Folsom Lake
two of my fabulous team members (Maddie and Melissa) with the deepest part of the lake behind.
#7 "Never stop exploring"
Friday fun day! Yesterday we had the day off, so some of my team mates and I went to the Aerospace Museum that is about a mile and a half away from our campus. The museum was really interesting and I learned a lot about some of the planes that flew during the war. They also had a plane simulator and I was able to fly a plane around San Francisco and even flew it under the Golden Gate bridge!
After the museum we all walked back to campus which was around 12:30 and got ready for Folsom Lake, which is about 25 minutes from our campus), and spend the day at the beach (we thought anyway). The whole team went with which was a great car ride there, until we got to the "lake"... well what was left of the lake anyways.. We all got out of the van to see what looked like a scene out of an apocalyptic movie. I had always heard about the droughts in California, but to actually see it was a different story. There was life guard stations guarding over a see of dirt, sand, rocks and shells. The only water that was left must have been the deepest part of the lake because it was miles and miles out from the shore. To think that, what was once a haven for families to relax, swim and have fun outings, is now a deserted land that may be where kids had the best memories growing up. It was really sad to think about but also fascinating. The fact that it only takes 5 years to dry out a huge lake is insane. We ended up driving to the boat ramp was and walked to the little bit of water that was left. In a way it was amazing, because how many times could someone say "I walked in a giant dried up lake". We spent about an hour there; it was a bit eerie because there was no one else around and it was completely quiet which also made it extremely peaceful. From all the noise of everyday life, it was a great getaway. We all thought it would have been hilarious if anyone saw us because we were all ready for the beach with our suits, towels and flip flops, we sure were surprised haha.
After the beach we all were pretty hungry so we decided to stop at a California classic,
"In-n-Out". The first few bites were delicious but after eating relatively healthy the past two weeks, I felt pretty sick the rest of the night. When we got back I did some cleaning around the dorm, went to the kitchen to make my breakfast and lunch for tomorrow (today). I ended up packing left over spaghetti, some sliced up apples and a protein bar. I went to bed relatively early that night, tired from the fun day and excited about the day of service the next day.
Because of the many photos I took on Friday I'm going to make a post for just my pictures :)
~Savannah
After the museum we all walked back to campus which was around 12:30 and got ready for Folsom Lake, which is about 25 minutes from our campus), and spend the day at the beach (we thought anyway). The whole team went with which was a great car ride there, until we got to the "lake"... well what was left of the lake anyways.. We all got out of the van to see what looked like a scene out of an apocalyptic movie. I had always heard about the droughts in California, but to actually see it was a different story. There was life guard stations guarding over a see of dirt, sand, rocks and shells. The only water that was left must have been the deepest part of the lake because it was miles and miles out from the shore. To think that, what was once a haven for families to relax, swim and have fun outings, is now a deserted land that may be where kids had the best memories growing up. It was really sad to think about but also fascinating. The fact that it only takes 5 years to dry out a huge lake is insane. We ended up driving to the boat ramp was and walked to the little bit of water that was left. In a way it was amazing, because how many times could someone say "I walked in a giant dried up lake". We spent about an hour there; it was a bit eerie because there was no one else around and it was completely quiet which also made it extremely peaceful. From all the noise of everyday life, it was a great getaway. We all thought it would have been hilarious if anyone saw us because we were all ready for the beach with our suits, towels and flip flops, we sure were surprised haha.
After the beach we all were pretty hungry so we decided to stop at a California classic,
"In-n-Out". The first few bites were delicious but after eating relatively healthy the past two weeks, I felt pretty sick the rest of the night. When we got back I did some cleaning around the dorm, went to the kitchen to make my breakfast and lunch for tomorrow (today). I ended up packing left over spaghetti, some sliced up apples and a protein bar. I went to bed relatively early that night, tired from the fun day and excited about the day of service the next day.
Because of the many photos I took on Friday I'm going to make a post for just my pictures :)
~Savannah
Friday, October 23, 2015
#6 "Oh the places she'll go!"
Thursday was seemed like such a big day even though we had the afternoon off. I'll start off at the beginning though..
In the morning we had PT; sadly a girl from a different team was running on the field and right away, badly sprained or potentially fractured her ankle. Great way to start off the day right? After PT I ate breakfast, packed my lunch and got ready for the two meetings that would take up the whole morning. That morning we learned about disciplinary standards and safety, not the most exciting topics, but useful information. After the meetings though we got the rest of the day off, accept for my team because we had to go down at 5 to help clean out the 15 passenger van, once my team mates got done with van training. In the meantime I cleaned, washed my clothes, was able to finish some "homework" and do a quick 20 minute jog. I'd say I was pretty productive.. Anyways once 5 came around, the other team mates who weren't getting van training and I went to meet up with Amanda (my team leader) and the other two. Once we all were together, Amanda told us that she had really bad news. We all went over in a grassy section and sat down, all really worried about the news. She told us that there weren't enough people that signed up for the ATL (Assistant Team Leader, could possibly be a different name) spot, which are positions that have to stay on campus and help organize different projects with the staff (or something in that nature). Anyways she said that because none of the team leaders wanted that position and none volunteered, they put all the Team Leader names in a hat and drew one out, and it was hers. So that meant the team would have to be split up and put on different teams. There were so many thoughts running through my head than. I just got this team! I've made a family out of them! I love these people! I even considered quitting haha. The whole team was outraged that we would have to be split up after the close bond we created. Amanda then passed out the envelopes that would say our new teams that we would be put on. She told us that we could not open the envelops until everyone got them. And boy were we surprised what was inside!
If you cant read them this is what it says...
"Sike! I would rather us stay together. So HOW ABOUT... Let's go work for the Mountains to Sound of Greenway Trust?! We'll be doing tree plantings, trail work, leading volunteer events, managing invasive species, & so much more! And we'll be doing this in... North Bend, Washington :)."
That's right! Moving to North Bend, Washington for however long this spike will be! We won't be leaving for about two weeks still and the trip will take about two days to get there, so my team and I were talking about possibly camping on the way there, then making the rest of the trip in the morning. We also plan on going to national parks on the way there! Amanda said that Americorps has done this kind of spike multiple times, and every team that goes has a blast. The town that it is in, is very small but then there are a bunch of mountains around, so very scenic! Once I told my parents, my dad had to look up the town and found out that they used to film a TV show there years ago called Twin Peaks in the early 90's.
A random photo I found when I looked up the Mountains to sound in North Bend, Washington so your able to get an idea of the sights we will be able to see!
(Don't worry dad, I wont be like these crazy guys and stand up or go near the ledge.)
To say that I'm excited is to say the least, all the long meetings are totally worth it and everyday I am getting more and more excited for this excursion! Especially because most of my team and I have never been to Washington! We then finished up the perfect day with tacos, rice, corn, and for dessert a slice of cheesecake.
~ Savannah
Thursday, October 22, 2015
#5 "Be strong enough to stand alone, be yourself enough to stand apart, but be wise enough to stand together when the time comes"
Today is Thursday so that means I need to catch up on all my other days! Yayy!
Okay let's start off with Sunday. I went to mass with two other girls and the church was pretty nice, a bit different from the Catholic church in DeKalb but hey church is church. From there I went back to campus got dressed and headed over to the base exchange which is kinda neat because it is only for military personnel, their family's and Americorps members so I had to show my issued Id to get in, which kinda made me feel like I'm a VIP or movie star.. Anyways I decided to stay at the campus while the rest of my team but one went to old Sacramento and walked around. Once late afternoon came around I was really regretting my decision of staying at the campus. It felt like I was back home and none of my family was home to hang out with haha. Thankfully though the one team mate that stayed behind had to go to best buy to get a new phone because he lost it the first day. So our team leader asked if I wanted to go and of course I said yes! The best buy that we went to was giant! While he went to look for a new phone my team leader and I went to look at everything else and we saw refrigerators with screens on them! A few years ago I remember going to Lowes or some other kind of large store that sold different appliances and saw one refrigerator that was stainless steel and was "smudge proof" so you'd never see fingerprints! Well I had this bright idea to try all the refrigerators to see if they were "fingerprint proof" and told my team leader... long story short we had a lot of fun trying to see if they were fingerprint proof and we had about 6 employees ask if we needed any help looking for something. Just had to add that funny little story because I laugh every time I think about it. After he got the phone, the rest of the team called us saying they were ready to be picked up. Finally I'd get to be with my little "family"! They had a good time and when we got back to campus we all went to bed right away because we had physical training (PT) in the morning.
So Monday came quick with PT at 6 AM meaning I needed to get up around 5:20 (something that I am getting used to). It really wasn't challenging at all; they probably didn't have very hard exercise's just because they knew it was the first one and we ALL were out of shape. After PT we only had an hour to take a shower, get dressed, and make breakfast in the main building which is a nightmare because you have these tiny kitchens that you have to share with another group. That means at least 20 people cramped in a kitchen trying to make breakfast and their lunch for the day. I ended up being a minute late to my teams meeting spot which does count. I can guarantee you that, that was and will be the last time I am late again. The rest of the day we had meetings, were issued our rain/snow gear and had an disaster service online training that seemed to take forever! Because it was the start to the new week, we have to start making our dinners for the whole team. For dinner the two who were in charge of making it made vegetarian chilly. I had never tasted, let alone heard of vegetarian chilly before so it was going to be interesting I thought. The chilly was AMAZING! They ended up having some meat on the side, so I had two small helpings and honestly I didn't notice any difference. What is in it you may ask? Well there was red and green peppers, onions, beans, water, corn and a few other vegetables. You then could put a little cheese and a dab of sour cream and wow it was delicious.
Tuesdays schedule was a little different than Mondays. We started off with breakfast ( I'm learning to just make my breakfast and lunch at night after I wash my dishes from dinner). Got dressed and ready for the meetings. These included van driving class, Alcohol awareness and healthy relationships. All that didn't pertain to me whatsoever; and trust me, watching paint dry would be more fun than sitting in any of those classes. After the meetings we then had PT which was actually nice to have in the evening than in the morning. After PT I decided to just do a 20 minute jog on the treadmill we have in the dorm, before I had to go to dinner. It was a nice easy jog and was perfect timing before I had to go to dinner. That night we had cheese and tuna quesadillas, and tomato soup. Again very apprehensive on the dinner because usually if I have tuna I like to have the whole works with it (mayo, mustered, relish, and chopped up celery). And I have never liked tomato soup; but I was willing to try it. Again it was really good! I would have never guessed to put tuna in a cheese quesadilla; and with the tomato soup they put chopped up garlic, onions and canned chopped tomato so it didn't taste like regular tomato soup! I felt like I needed to start to write all these different recipes down to remember after my 10 months!
Yesterday (Wednesday) we didn't have any PT but had a meeting inside allllll dayyyy. This meeting was all about the importance of diversity in service. Don't get me wrong I think it is great to have diversity and I do believe it is important to respect everyone's differences. But it felt like it dragged on and on. We did some different activities, one that really got my attention was the "sticker activity". We all had to close our eyes and the team leaders went around and put a sticker on our four head. From there the main lady said "find your group". One thing that was difficult was that you could not see the color of sticker you had on your own head. But other people helped you group with other people of the same color of sticker. We all ended up grouping in the same sticker color, with some people having two different colors and one girl had a completely different color than anyone else in the room. The main lady then asked us why we went to the same color on our head. And we answered because just that, they were the same color. I wont ever forget the next thing she said though. "I said find your group. I never said find the same color." We all realized then that our group could have meant anything! It could have been our team mates, gender, height, anything! But we grouped up based on the color of the sticker. Interesting right!
After that we had dinner which was stir fry with steak and we had cake and ice cream because it was one of our team mates birthdays! At night we had "duty" which pretty much means my team was in charge of cleaning one of the dorms. When you are on duty you are in charge of taking out all the trash, vacuuming the rugs, sweeping and mopping the floors and van check which you just have to go outside and make sure all the van doors are locked and windows are up. I would say a pretty easy job.
I would write about today but I decide that I would leave that for the next post because
1. It is getting really late. It's 11:20 now and I would have never thought that I would consider 11 late haha
2. I have a lot to write for today (Thursday)
3. Tomorrow we have off, but I still will be busy towards the afternoon so I will have a bit of time in the morning to write :)
~Savannah
Thought this quote went well with my post, not only that though, my unit is the silver unit and we refer our unit as the "wolf pack" so I thought the picture was great!
So Monday came quick with PT at 6 AM meaning I needed to get up around 5:20 (something that I am getting used to). It really wasn't challenging at all; they probably didn't have very hard exercise's just because they knew it was the first one and we ALL were out of shape. After PT we only had an hour to take a shower, get dressed, and make breakfast in the main building which is a nightmare because you have these tiny kitchens that you have to share with another group. That means at least 20 people cramped in a kitchen trying to make breakfast and their lunch for the day. I ended up being a minute late to my teams meeting spot which does count. I can guarantee you that, that was and will be the last time I am late again. The rest of the day we had meetings, were issued our rain/snow gear and had an disaster service online training that seemed to take forever! Because it was the start to the new week, we have to start making our dinners for the whole team. For dinner the two who were in charge of making it made vegetarian chilly. I had never tasted, let alone heard of vegetarian chilly before so it was going to be interesting I thought. The chilly was AMAZING! They ended up having some meat on the side, so I had two small helpings and honestly I didn't notice any difference. What is in it you may ask? Well there was red and green peppers, onions, beans, water, corn and a few other vegetables. You then could put a little cheese and a dab of sour cream and wow it was delicious.
Tuesdays schedule was a little different than Mondays. We started off with breakfast ( I'm learning to just make my breakfast and lunch at night after I wash my dishes from dinner). Got dressed and ready for the meetings. These included van driving class, Alcohol awareness and healthy relationships. All that didn't pertain to me whatsoever; and trust me, watching paint dry would be more fun than sitting in any of those classes. After the meetings we then had PT which was actually nice to have in the evening than in the morning. After PT I decided to just do a 20 minute jog on the treadmill we have in the dorm, before I had to go to dinner. It was a nice easy jog and was perfect timing before I had to go to dinner. That night we had cheese and tuna quesadillas, and tomato soup. Again very apprehensive on the dinner because usually if I have tuna I like to have the whole works with it (mayo, mustered, relish, and chopped up celery). And I have never liked tomato soup; but I was willing to try it. Again it was really good! I would have never guessed to put tuna in a cheese quesadilla; and with the tomato soup they put chopped up garlic, onions and canned chopped tomato so it didn't taste like regular tomato soup! I felt like I needed to start to write all these different recipes down to remember after my 10 months!
Yesterday (Wednesday) we didn't have any PT but had a meeting inside allllll dayyyy. This meeting was all about the importance of diversity in service. Don't get me wrong I think it is great to have diversity and I do believe it is important to respect everyone's differences. But it felt like it dragged on and on. We did some different activities, one that really got my attention was the "sticker activity". We all had to close our eyes and the team leaders went around and put a sticker on our four head. From there the main lady said "find your group". One thing that was difficult was that you could not see the color of sticker you had on your own head. But other people helped you group with other people of the same color of sticker. We all ended up grouping in the same sticker color, with some people having two different colors and one girl had a completely different color than anyone else in the room. The main lady then asked us why we went to the same color on our head. And we answered because just that, they were the same color. I wont ever forget the next thing she said though. "I said find your group. I never said find the same color." We all realized then that our group could have meant anything! It could have been our team mates, gender, height, anything! But we grouped up based on the color of the sticker. Interesting right!
After that we had dinner which was stir fry with steak and we had cake and ice cream because it was one of our team mates birthdays! At night we had "duty" which pretty much means my team was in charge of cleaning one of the dorms. When you are on duty you are in charge of taking out all the trash, vacuuming the rugs, sweeping and mopping the floors and van check which you just have to go outside and make sure all the van doors are locked and windows are up. I would say a pretty easy job.
I would write about today but I decide that I would leave that for the next post because
1. It is getting really late. It's 11:20 now and I would have never thought that I would consider 11 late haha
2. I have a lot to write for today (Thursday)
3. Tomorrow we have off, but I still will be busy towards the afternoon so I will have a bit of time in the morning to write :)
~Savannah
Sunday, October 18, 2015
#4 "Every morning you have two choices: Continue to sleep with your dreams. Or wake up and chase them."
Thursday the 15th was my first official day of AmeriCorps. It was a extremely busy day that consisted of boot sizing, orientations, meeting my team, medical screenings and issuing our uniforms. It all was very exciting being issued our uniform, knowing that I'd FINALLY be wearing the "A" after months and months of just seeing pictures of past corps members in uniform. Generally we would just wear our gray t shirt and khaki shorts or BDU pants. On special events though we would wear the "Ameritux" which consist of our black BDU pants and white polo shirt. We are required to wear our normal uniform on all training and work days. They are very strict on how we are to wear our uniforms. Gray shirts tucked in, with issued black belt, and black/white or gray socks that can not go past your knees with your issued black work boots. This also goes for our dorm rooms which will have weekly and random room inspections. Beds neatly made, no cloths on the floor , desk neat and orderly, trash containers empty and clean..etc. Obviously something that I will have to get used to. To be honest though it really hasn't been that hard to keep up with. Especially the whole bed making process, which has become a task that takes seconds compared to what it seemed like hours when I had to make my bed at home (yes I am overly exaggerating). Other than that I was able to talk to my new roommates a little more and both are super nice! All in all the first day went by quickly and I was pretty tired so it was easy to go to sleep that night.
The next day consisted of A LOT of meetings of policies, our benefits and different things we have to complete that year like independent service projects (ISPs). Wednesday was a dull day for sure, but was good information to obtain. My team also had a meeting regarding food. In this program we have to make food for our whole team (usually just for dinner). Which means we also have to accommodate each members dietary needs. On my team I have 2 vegetarians, one person who is gluten free, one who is allergic to poultry (no chicken, turkey or duck) and one who doesn't drink cow milk. Although all of those restrictions seem like a lot, I was very excited to see what kinds of new food I would be trying. On Friday my Team Leader (TL) went out and bought some food for the weekend (For breakfast, lunch and weekends we are to make our own food).
At night there is usually some kind of event that goes on during campus whether it be movie night, "Ted talks'", Environmental Affinity group (environment club) or even a self defense class that will be coming up soon. This certain night though there was a movie night! The movie that was playing was "Space Jam" which all the 20-24 year old knew very well, but being one of the "babies" on campus, I showed my age because I didn't know of, nor had ever seen this particular movie.
Finally to today now! Today was one of my favorite days thus far. My dorm neighbor (who is on my team) and I walked to the main building that has all the small kitchens, to get breakfast. We both had honey nut cheerios and when I went to get the milk I noticed that all we had was vanilla almond milk (to accommodate to the one person who doesn't drink cow milk). I was very apprehensive on drinking it because I remember a few years ago I had my parents buy me a jug of almond milk because I heard that it was actually really good for you... but I didn't like it all. So like I said I wasn't sure how I would like it now. Once I tried it though I found out I absolutely love vanilla almond milk! We then made our lunches and went back to the dorms to get ready for the workshop that we had today. The workshop was a lot of fun and really made us understand and accept each others differences no matter what our beliefs and views are. We are all human and need to treat each other with respect and understanding. We also learned how to work well as a team, and understand the importance of communication and teamwork to accomplish a task. The work shop went until around 3:30 and then around 5 me and some of my team mates went to make some dinner. Because it is a Saturday no one was in charge of making dinner, so most of us had different left overs that the campus provided for all the members for the first week we are here. I had corn, some noodles that looked like rice that had olives, and other vegetables mixed in, and for the first time ever I tried tofu that was on top of some kind of peas, and asparagus. The tofu was like nothing I have ever tasted before; very strange consistency and bland kind of taste but went well with the peas and asparagus. I also found out that you can cook tofu in lots of different ways. Then later tonight there was a ice cream social in the main building where I got to meet a lot of different people from other teams.
I am pretty excited for tomorrow because thankfully I found some church buddies!! So tomorrow I am going to 10 AM mass at the closest Catholic church from my campus called St. Lawrence. It'll be the last day before we start physical training (PT) so be sure to pray for me!
My mailing address is:
~Savannah
Me in my uniform ready for the day!
The next day consisted of A LOT of meetings of policies, our benefits and different things we have to complete that year like independent service projects (ISPs). Wednesday was a dull day for sure, but was good information to obtain. My team also had a meeting regarding food. In this program we have to make food for our whole team (usually just for dinner). Which means we also have to accommodate each members dietary needs. On my team I have 2 vegetarians, one person who is gluten free, one who is allergic to poultry (no chicken, turkey or duck) and one who doesn't drink cow milk. Although all of those restrictions seem like a lot, I was very excited to see what kinds of new food I would be trying. On Friday my Team Leader (TL) went out and bought some food for the weekend (For breakfast, lunch and weekends we are to make our own food).
At night there is usually some kind of event that goes on during campus whether it be movie night, "Ted talks'", Environmental Affinity group (environment club) or even a self defense class that will be coming up soon. This certain night though there was a movie night! The movie that was playing was "Space Jam" which all the 20-24 year old knew very well, but being one of the "babies" on campus, I showed my age because I didn't know of, nor had ever seen this particular movie.
Finally to today now! Today was one of my favorite days thus far. My dorm neighbor (who is on my team) and I walked to the main building that has all the small kitchens, to get breakfast. We both had honey nut cheerios and when I went to get the milk I noticed that all we had was vanilla almond milk (to accommodate to the one person who doesn't drink cow milk). I was very apprehensive on drinking it because I remember a few years ago I had my parents buy me a jug of almond milk because I heard that it was actually really good for you... but I didn't like it all. So like I said I wasn't sure how I would like it now. Once I tried it though I found out I absolutely love vanilla almond milk! We then made our lunches and went back to the dorms to get ready for the workshop that we had today. The workshop was a lot of fun and really made us understand and accept each others differences no matter what our beliefs and views are. We are all human and need to treat each other with respect and understanding. We also learned how to work well as a team, and understand the importance of communication and teamwork to accomplish a task. The work shop went until around 3:30 and then around 5 me and some of my team mates went to make some dinner. Because it is a Saturday no one was in charge of making dinner, so most of us had different left overs that the campus provided for all the members for the first week we are here. I had corn, some noodles that looked like rice that had olives, and other vegetables mixed in, and for the first time ever I tried tofu that was on top of some kind of peas, and asparagus. The tofu was like nothing I have ever tasted before; very strange consistency and bland kind of taste but went well with the peas and asparagus. I also found out that you can cook tofu in lots of different ways. Then later tonight there was a ice cream social in the main building where I got to meet a lot of different people from other teams.
I am pretty excited for tomorrow because thankfully I found some church buddies!! So tomorrow I am going to 10 AM mass at the closest Catholic church from my campus called St. Lawrence. It'll be the last day before we start physical training (PT) so be sure to pray for me!
My mailing address is:
Savannah Price, Class 22, Silver 6
AmeriCorps NCCC
3427 Laurel Street
McClellan, CA 95652'
And if you all could either comment (if your able to), text or Facebook message me your address if you want a letter of some sort that would be awesome! No guarantee that I'd be able to respond to mail or any other messages very quickly because of time, but I will try my hardest! Thank you!
~Savannah
Me in my uniform ready for the day!
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
# 3 1/2 "What happens on family vacations, is talked about all year" continued...
Some of the photos from the previous post!
http://flipagram.com/f/dk4MsblZMN
Some of the beautiful sights
On the way to the redwood forest
Stanford University
History building
Outside the church!
Look at all the small designs!
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Monday, October 12, 2015
#3 "What happens on family vacations, is talked about all year."
The first day we woke up VERY early (if you read my last post you understand how early). We boarded the plane at 6:55 and took off around 7:30 from Chicago, then landed in California around 9:30 at LAX. From there we went to the beach in LA and stayed there for a while. We walked the pier and ate at an okay restaraunt. We actually did a few other things the first day but can't exactly remember all of it. I'm starting to realize that I need to write EVERYTHING that I do down so I'm able to blog about it. Sorry everyone I'm sorta new at this!!
The second day we spent the day at Pismo beach which was really cool! The sand there was so soft and all in all it was a very relaxing day. From there we walked on the pier and watched some of the local surfers catch some waves! While we were watching Sierra must have been on one of the seagulls "hit list" because she got pooped on in three different spots! Disgusting right! After Sierra cleaned herself off we walked around the little surf shops. And like I said there's probably a few other little details that I'm forgetting.
The third day was by far my favorite. We got ready and walked around Stanford University. The campus was huge but really pretty. What got my attention though was the church they had on campus. It was absolutely beautiful!! From the outside to the in, everything was spectacular. After that we traveled to half moon bay (may or may not be right about the name) which was a cute fisherman town. After that we started to travel to the Red Woods. On the way there though were some picturestic mountains, so a perfect photo opp. From there we went to the Red woods which just like the church at Stanford, was breath taking! If you have never been there, I highly suggest you go.
The fourth day we drove to San Franscisco and went touristing, to what I can't remember, but one place we did go to was a fancy golf course. (I'm starting to realize the ony things I was really interested in or stuck out to me, I remember.)
The fifth day we went to Alcatraz! Which was a very cool experience. I ended up learning a lot about the history and some of the inmates that went there. Since we're on the subject of inmates, there was actually a former inmate, that went to Alcatraz, in the bookstore signing his book he wrote about his time there. My mom did buy the book, so I'm sure she can tell you more about it. We then drove to the hotel right next to my campus called the "Lionsgate hotel".
In the morning we got ready, knowing it would be my last few hours before we had to say our final goodbyes. We went to Walmart, got a few things I would need, drove to see where the closest Catholic Church was, and drove around my campus in our Silver car about 6 times. (Remember the silver car and number 6).
Then in was finally time to check in. I went through about 9 different stations to check in, and get different information that I needed. Included in this information, I learned what team I am on, I am on team SILVER 6! HA just thought that was a funny coincidence! After the stations my parents (and Sierra) helped me move into my new room, which is a pretty good sized room (I'll talk about my room later).
We then said our goodbyes and they had to depart. If any of you are wondering, yes. We ALL cried.
After they left I got my sac lunch and actually made a couple friends right away! One girl who's room is right across from mine and a boy that is from a different country. I'm really excited to get to know everyone else (which will be hard to do since there are 300+ people on this campus) to learn about their past, hopes for the future, goals, where they are from etc. Its all a learning experience from here.
~Savannah
P.S. I know there is a lot of information not in this post, but I actually wrote it out a few days before and for some reason (I blame the poor wifi at the hotel) it did not save, or post. So again I'm sorry, but I'll try to write things down for now on!
P.S.S I know many of you want me to post a lot, but you'll have to bare with me because I don't have as much free time as before! I promise to put my address up soon! Also, I wrote this post using my phone so if there are misspelled words it's auto correct.!
Sunday, October 11, 2015
#2 "Life is about change. Sometimes it's painful. Sometimes it's beautiful. But most of the time, it's both."
Well my adventure started EARLY yesterday morning, and when I say early, I mean 3AM kind of early. And if your thinking "oh she must have gone to bed early" think again. I ended up doing one last adventure with some of my best friends. We went to the Haunted Corn maze close to my house around 9:30 that night, and Tia, Brian and I didn't get back to my house until 10:30. But the fun didn't end there! Two more of by best friends, Melanie and Laurel, ended up stopping and saying bye one last time. Once they left, Olivia (another best friend) stopped to stay awhile. Olivia, Tia, Brian and I sat around my kitchen table reminiscing the past few years in which we all grew so close together and had some of the best times in our lives. By the end of that night, we were standing outside of my house at 12AM, crying and hugging. Now I don't think we were crying just because I was leaving for 10 months, but because we knew that when I came back it would never be the same. All three would either be starting college, or transferring schools. That meant no more spontaneous calling each other to see if we wanted to hangout, no more sleepovers, no more random pizza party's while watching Netflix in my basement...
Olivia said something that night that really made me think. She said "Ya know, our parents always told us "to enjoy the time we get with our friends while were able to. Because someday when your older you won't have those kind of chances." When they said "older" I thought they meant in our late 20's/30's. Not now..."
I knew that when I graduated, things would be a bit different. But I never really thought about the fact that we wouldn't get together like we usually did. Not only that but who knows, in the next 5-7 years, some of my friends could be married! And some may think that 5-7 years is a long way off, and your right! A lot can happen in that amount of time. But I've realized ever since the beginning of senior year, time seems to go by a lot faster. I have to keep reminding myself that although we are finishing chapter 1 of our life, we should definitely be excited for chapter 2! Learning, growing, and all the new adventures, are just a few things to look forward to. And pondering the past won't stop the future. So might as well smile because it happened.
~Savannah
As I was writing this blog I thought of the song "My Wish" by Rascal flats. I heard it when I was on a church retreat my junior year and thought that it is a perfect message for all of my friends back home, and even for me as I start this 10 month journey. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz32I_GbpeU
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