first day of work

Today was our first day of work, but before I discuss that I'll tell you a few stories from the past few days.

Last week I went to the Base Exchange on the Air Force Base. Basically it's like Target, but it's duty free, which is awesome. When we walked in the store, an employee asked me and my friend if we wanted to win free jewelry. Of course, we said yes, and were sucked into an explanation about the various jewelry from a woman that wishes she was on an infomercial. The woman held up different jewelry and the customers raised their hands if they liked it, and I was really wondering why I was wasting my time listening to this. She then did a raffle and I won! I won't forget to mention that there were only 10 people in the running, but as far as I can remember, this is the first raffle I've ever won! (It's actually kinda ugly, but that's besides the point).

So then on Saturday I did an ISP (Independent Service Project) at a community garden. We hung out in a park during our lunch break and all of the kids asked us if we were soldiers. When we said no, they asked if we were park rangers. I guess 15 20 year-olds wearing khaki cargo pants and steel toed boots looks like park rangers. It gave us a good laugh.

So today was our first day at the Food Bank. It's an impressive organization since it offers 9 different services. We get to help participate in the turkey drive (they expect 3000 donated turkeys!), turkey distribution as well as The Run to Feed the Hungry on Thanksgiving morning. Everyday will be different and we get to participate in a variety of different projects.


After work today we went to the grocery store to buy food for dinner for the rest of the week. My team is secretly happy I'll be gone for a few days this week so they can eat meat and not feel bad that I can't eat it (I'm the only vegetarian). Actually, they weren't so secret about it, but I don't mind.

Most of the teams left for their projects this morning. This leaves just 6 teams on base in Sacramento. It's weird, the kitchen and dorms feel especially empty, but I still have 2 roommates. Thanks for reading, I know this entry is a bit random.