#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 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!