Sunday night I could not seem to fall asleep at all. Because
of that and not feeling well in general I decided to stay home from work on
Monday and get some rest and complete some peer helper work. I ended up doing
laundry, cleaning my room, making tons of posters and activities planned for
peer helper meetings, and of course occasional cat naps. When everyone got back
they started right away doing PT while I cooked dinner. I decided to make tatter-tot casserole, which
turned out to be delicious and reminded me a lot of home. I even made
vegetarian tater-tot casserole which the vegetarians on my team said was really
good. It was pretty funny to see some of my teammate’s reaction when they first
heard what I was making. Evidentially the east coast has never heard of
tatter-tot casserole; but they all loved it! So thanks Aunt Suzan for teaching
me how to make the yummy dish!
On Tuesday
we went to a hill that needed a lot of scotch broom pulled so we worked with a
few men that helped maintain the land. One of the older men was 89 years old
and still driving an ATV around and walking up and down hills. After the hill
we had lunch in the back yard of one of the men’s houses then continued work on
the hill behind his house, pulling scotch broom. I’m not sure if it was the
different soil or temperature I that area, but that scotch broom was a lot more
difficult to pull. Not only that, but there were fire ants everywhere! They
would crawl into our boots, and on our arms; they were everywhere. We were all pretty
happy to leave the aunt infested area and return home. When we got home two of
my team mates made fried chicken and homemade baked mac-n-cheese which was
delicious! We weren’t able to enjoy it as much as we wanted because we planned
a ghost tour at an old hotel in Grass Valley called the Holbrooke Hotel. The
man giving the tour was more interesting than the tour itself. He definitely
was a character! The tour was really interesting but I wish we were able to
actually go into the rooms that the ghostly encounters took place in but I
understand why we couldn’t since it is still a fully operating hotel. Wednesday was a fun and relaxing day. In the morning we had PT which was the regular mile and a half run which I cut another 4 minutes off my time; push-ups, sit-ups and eat Our first house we went to was an older lady’s house that needed a lot of brush removal. This house in particular was pretty fun because the lady had a dog named Emily that I believe could play fetch all day long. We would cut down a small bush, throw the Frisbee and by the time we cut the next limb Emily (the dog) would be back to have it thrown again. After saying goodbye to the lady and her cute dog we went and had lunch at another bridge. After lunch we finished the day another older lady’s house, raking the leaves up from her yard.
Thursday we got up early again for PT doing yoga. We ended up going to a very open area to pull a bunch of scotch broom. While we were there Amanda and Pat went to the hospital because they both had severe cases of poison oak. The day turned out to be a lot of fun because Aysia and I found a bunch of neat stuff while we were working. Aysia ended up finding two little newts, I found a baby scorpion, a couple mice and we also found a cute little red mushroom. One of the men who was in charge that day brought us a bunch of goodies that his wife bought us, such as brownies, apples, cookies, banana’s, tea…etc. We ended up getting a lot of work done which felt really fulfilling. After work we got home and Melissa’s boyfriend came to pick her up (since it’s a 3 day weekend, a couple team mates decided to get away for a while.) After they left a few of us decided to go to target to get out for a while. Before we went to target though we dropped off Amanda who was meeting her mom to spend time with her over the weekend.
Friday turned out to be a little crazy. A lot ended up happening in the morning including a little fender bender to the back of the van which was a total accident. Then our client fell through so we had to practice chain sawing. Well that would have been fine except the chainsaws wouldn’t work properly so we didn’t do much at all Friday until later on in the evening. A few of my team mates and I decided to go to Nevada City to the tea lounge again. It ended up being a good night despite the crazy morning.
Saturday we decided that it’s going to be a lazy day so we woke up late, made our Saturday breakfast (pancakes, scrambled eggs and hash browns, which I believe is becoming an annual thing to do every Saturday morning) and are just lounging around all day.
On Sunday we went to a non denominational church since that is the church that Aisya goes to. I thought it was such a neat experience! Honestly I felt like I was at a church retreat or religious concert. After church we went out for brunch at a restaurant in Grass Valley called Charlies Café which neither Aisya or Molly had gone to. After that we went back home for a little and changed into our AmeriCorps gear because we were going to be in the Valentines/Mardi Gras/Presidents day parade! It was so much fun throwing out all the purple/green/gold and red beads to people. I also got some pictures of some pretty festive people haha. After the parade we changed into "civilian clothes" and enjoyed the rest of the festival. It was however a little strange because only an hour after the parade it seemed like everyone dispersed. Almost everyone was out of the street, and the vendors were all gone. We then went home and watched a movie together to finish the eventful day.
Monday we had the day off since it was presidents day. There was a group of people that went with our sponsor to Sacramento to go to an oriental market because on Tuesday Joanne was going to make us Tai food! Unfortunately all the people that were going were also drivers. So that meant those that stayed home were not going anywhere. At first we were a little bummed but we actually had a really nice relaxing day. Aisya, Maddie, pat and I decided to lay outside since the weather was absolutely perfect! Maddie made everyone a delicious fruit and veggie smoothie and pat made us a tomato/mozzarella/basil grilled sandwiches. I made sure to send a picture to my mom, just to let her know that I'm doing alright. hehe. Later in the afternoon the rest of the team came back and we all went into town to either go to the office or walk around town. I ended up getting a few things in town and spending a little time at the office. We then all went back home, watched a movie to end our fun filled weekend.
I also forgot to mention, on Tuesday in the morning I had an interview with the director of the True North program located in Pennsylvania. During the 30 minute interview I watched the sun rise above the mountains and felt completely at peace. At 7:30 AM the director informed me that I have been accepted into the program! So what does this mean? Well if all goes as planned I will be moving into the apartments on September 3rd to begin my next 9 month adventure. I will be learning more about the bible, serving people and traveling. I still have a lot to do before engaging on this next adventure including getting a passport for a mission trip to Thailand!
~Savannah
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