Alex's Adventures in AmeriCorps*NCCC

Leaving for the woods!

2010-04-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

So tomorrow I'm moving to the woods for a month. We received our tents on Friday and it took us over an hour to figure out how to set them up. I think we're good now, but we'll see. I'm super stoked to go camping though. Here is one last picture of the girls of Green 5 before I leave with no electricity or cell phone reception for a month!

Me, Erin, Megan, July, Mae.

South Los Angeles

2010-04-07T12:51:00.001-07:00

I realize that I haven't updated this blog in over two months, but it's better late than never. The last two months were spent tutoring children in South Los Angeles. My daily schedule was pretty interesting so here goes:

PT (Physical Training) from 6-645 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We would either run up and down our street or do yoga and stretches in the living room. There were some scary dogs that would bark and chase us down the street, which was in some ways an incentive to run faster. Most of the neighbors were pretty friendly actually and said hi to us on their way to work.

After PT we had a little over an hour to get ready for the day. That consisted of making breakfast and lunch and showering. We had one bathroom for 10 people. Intense. At first we thought 5 minute showers would suffice, but we ended up running out of hot water halfway through the lineup, so we settled on 4 minute showers.

Our team was split up between two different elementary schools: Marvin and 61st. 61st School was 2.5 miles away and the 4 people working there walked or skateboarded to school each morning. I worked at Marvin Elementary School, which was a 30 minute drive without traffic, but this is LA so there was always traffic.

The site supervisor at Marvin was awesome. During the morning we were in charge of designing after school enrichment programs for the students in the CYFC (Children Youth and Family Collaborative) program. This work became tedious when we spent 3 hours each day doing it, so after the first 2 weeks or so, we were able to go assist in the classrooms. I went to a 3rd grade classroom for an hour every morning and assisted the teacher with checking the student's fluency levels. I had a stack of passages of various reading levels and I would time each student for one minute to see how many words they could read. The teacher explained to me that this standard for reading ability is rather new and mostly only used in inner-city schools. It was really rewarding to see how so many of the students advanced 2 or 3 reading levels just during the time I spent in their classroom.

After our lunch break the four members of my team and I went to a 2nd grade classroom. Each of us was paired with a 2nd grade boy that was at risk for being held back. We had 1st grade workbooks to help the students with and it was really sad to see that most of them were struggling with that work. I was paired with a boy named Alex who had a great personality and always made me laugh. One of the last days I was working with him, he was playing with a pair of earplugs and I asked him why he had them. He told me his teacher gave them to him so he could sleep at night since he sleeps next to a window and hears gunshots outside every night. Hearing stories like this from the kids put life a bit more into perspective.

After assisting in the 2nd grade classroom for an hour, the after school program began. Our supervisor pretty much gave the four of us AmeriCorps members free reign to structure the program the way we wanted. There were about 60 2nd-4th graders in the program divided between 3 classrooms. The kids adored us and after 2 days some of the girls began calling me "mama". I'm not sure how I feel about that, but it was still cute. We helped them with their homework for the first one-two hours and then we led an enrichment activity.

Snack time was always fun. We had all of the kids sit quietly at picnic tables outside and one student was chosen to pass out snack. I have never heard so many creative lies for why they deserved more than one snack. My favorite was when they had crumbs from graham crackers all over their face and they'd claim they were never given any. Play time outside was pretty fun. I usually played house with the girls. It was a much different game than I remember. It was pretty common for them to say someone died, they'd fall on the ground, and the next minute grandma was alive and running around again. This game is what provoked the girls to begin calling me mama.

There is one girl in particular that I really bonded with. This girl made me cards every day and I would usually have to threaten that I wouldn't accept any more cards until her homwork was done. I now have a stack a foot high of cards she made for me. For an 8 year old her maturity was incredible. She walked home by herself after school, vacuumed, did the dishes, made dinner and went to sleep by herself. She told us that if her homework wasn't done before she got home, she would get in trouble. This was a common story from many of the students.

At 530 we would drive to the other elemetary school to pick up the rest of our time and get back to our house by 630. Two people were in charge of cooking dinner each night which was usually at 8pm. All in all, the days were rather long, but I looked forward to seeing my kids everyday.

The last day we spent at the elementary school was really moving. Almost all of the kids in the after school program cried. It was awesome to see how much of an impact we really made in the kids lives. Many of them just needed a stable role model to be there for them each day and I'm glad I was able to provide that for a short period of time.

Next week we leave to go camping for one month at a YMCA in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I'm excited to be in such a pretty area, but I will definitely miss not having electricity again. We'll be trail building and repairing cabins which sounds similar to the work we did in Catalina. As with anything this year, it's all an experience! Thanks for reading, I realize this is rather long. I miss everyone SO much!!!

You know a storm is going to be bad when it is given a name

2010-01-21T13:11:00.000-08:00

The past two weeks have been crazy. We're currently living in a hotel, but I'll get to that in a moment. Last week we worked with the facilities crew which is mostly in charge of road maintenance. We were able to partake in the annual bison census which involved driving around the island for 8 hours and stopping to count all of the bison we could spot. The crew were divided into about 6 different teams, each responsible for a different section of the island. Most of the roads on the island are dirt and I have never been off-roading for such a long period of time before. My team spotted 47 bison, while other teams that had the shoreline counted only 2 or 3 bison. One bison came close enough to our vehicle that I could have pet it through the window, but I refrained. That was definitely my favorite day on the island thus far. It was really nice that our team was split up, and we got to learn more about the island and the individual facilities' crew members that we worked with.

The wind is intense on the island and last week we were all woken up to what sounded like our tent collapsing. We remembered that we had left our laundry out to dry and we all ran out frantically with our headlamps to grab our clothing that was strewn all over the campsite. The joy of camping.

Monday morning it started raining so for work we drove around the main roads to make sure they were safe and that there wasn't too much debris in the roads. In the early afternoon we drove by our campsite to see how it was holding up in the rain and realized it was pretty destroyed by the wind. Our whole kitchen was torn apart, the pantry that contained most of our food, dishes and silverware had opened and plates were strewn everywhere. The grill was sliding down the hill and the canopy covering the kitchen had broken apart. The canopy on the guy's cabin had blown away and there was a hole that allowed water to seep in. I have a short video of what the campsite looks like when it was destroyed, but I'm unable to upload it now, so I'll try again later.

We were warned that the storm this week was going to be pretty intense so our sponsor was prepared to have us stay in a hotel for the remainder of the week. We are SO lucky about this. We were given 5 hotel rooms for the 10 of us and I have never appreciated heat and electricity so much. The last few days we were able to get in a few hours of work before it started raining again, but it has been raining all day today so we didn't have work and who knows what will be in store for us tomorrow. There's always something exciting in the Americorps world. There is another campsite that was not as badly damaged by the wind, so we will be moving there later tonight or tomorrow. Our sponsor says she's never seen a storm this big in Catalina and she's lived here for 30 years so we're very happy to be out of our tent and in a room with real walls.

Next Friday we head back to Sacramento for a week before heading to our next project! We'll be moving to Central Los Angeles (Compton/Inglewood) to work with an organization tutoring and mentoring K-12 students for 2 months. I'm really excited about working with people again, especially tutoring students. I was initially disappointed to be staying in socal for another round, but living in central LA will definitely be a different experience than anything I've ever had before. We'll be living in a three bedroom house attached to a Lutheran Church which sounds pretty spacious in AmeriCorps standards.

I hope everyone in CA is safe from the storm! Miss you all!

Greetings from Catalina!

2010-01-09T13:58:00.000-08:00

Driving from Sac to Long Beach was an adventure in itself. Every 2 hours we have to switch drivers and “safeties” (the person sitting in the passenger seat). It ends up taking quite a bit longer to get places. We got to our hotel in Long Beach and all 10 of us went in with Tonye (our TL) to check in. The look on the lady’s face was priceless when we told her that all 10 of us were staying in one room with double beds. She was a bit confused but didn’t try to stop us. It was about 8pm once we settled in and we still had to go grocery shopping and we were looking for a store that sells food in bulk. The nearby Sam’s Club closes at 830pm and opens at 10. Our ferry ride is at 10am Tuesday morning and we had no food and no way to get reasonably priced food once we got to Catalina. We sweet talked our way into allowing Sam's Club to give us permission to shop at 7am which is generally only open for business members.

Tuesday morning we went to Sam’s Club and got the majority of our groceries for 3 weeks. We realized we didn't have a current Sam's Club membership upon check-out, and once we paid for that and took all 450 granola bars out of their boxes to save room, we missed our 10am ferry. The combination of luggage, groceries and 10 people in a 15 passenger van is a ridiculous site. We took the next ferry at 2pm, but it was still unfortunate that we missed it and didn't arrive to our campsite until dark. We somehow had to bring all of our stuff to the ferry; what a ridiculous sight. Here’s a picture of some of our stuff on the ferry.

Our accommodations are actually pretty nice at the camp. There are two cabins, one for girls, one for guys. There are 8 beds in each so we have plenty of space. There is a wooden floor and sturdy canvas around the tent so you almost feel like you are inside with the exception of heating. We have two showers, one of which is an outdoor shower which is really awesome at sunset. We have a full kitchen with refrigerator and freezer and hot water, so there’s not much to complain about.

This past week we spent working with the Fox Recovery Program. The Catalina Island Fox was almost completely wiped out by canine distemper about 9 years ago so the conservancy created a breeding facility to bring the population up. Now that the population has flourished, the fox pens are no longer needed and are really overgrown and the brush is a fire danger. We removed wires and camera equipment from the fox pens and cleared brush for the last 3 days. We have found a few rattlesnakes and we wear snake chaps when trudging through the brush. Daylight is short on the island and it’s a mad rush after work to be sure that we have enough daylight to do PT and start a fire for warmth.

Home.

Bison are everywhere

So far Catalina has been awesome! Every night we have a campfire after dinner (both to stay warm and also for entertainment). There is a nearby park with a playground which we visit on a daily basis. We have been given 2 vehicles to use to drive to and from work and we were lucky enough to be able to use them to drive into Avalon last night for my birthday. We found live music and that was all I needed to be happy! It was definitely strange to spend my birthday clearing brush in 80 degree weather, running up and down mountains for PT and having carrot cake (that's the only kind the convenience store sold) around a campfire.

My team at the fox recovery pens after work one day. I suppose our view of the mountains and ocean is nothing to complain about!

PS I don't get cell phone reception at our campsite, but will try my best to keep in touch when I get back into Avalon on the weekends! Without electricity or cell phone reception it's hard to remember I'm only an hour from home, but when we listen to the radio on the way to and from work everyday we hear the traffic update on the 405.

Back from Break

2010-01-03T18:17:00.000-08:00

Exciting news: I’m going to the university of Minnesota pharmacy school next fall! I found out that I was accepted 3 weeks ago, but now it’s official that I’ll be moving to the Twin Cities at the end of August! My good friend in AmeriCorps, Mae, found out that she was accepted to law school in Minneapolis the same week as me and it’s exciting times for both of us!

Another winter break accomplishment: I talked about NCCC so much that 5 friends said they are applying for next year.

Upon returning to the dorm from the airport this afternoon I found that half of the floor that I live on was flooded. Luckily it is not the half I live on, but there is furniture in the hallways and laundry room.

I’m back in Sac for the night and will be driving down to Long Beach with my team tomorrow morning. We will be purchasing all of our groceries for three weeks before we take the ferry over to Catalina Island on Tuesday morning. This should be interesting. As far as I know, the first week we’ll be working with biologists to save foxes that are endemic to Catalina. I’m hoping to develop a passion for animals this week. I also have a headlamp and approximately 6 books so I will hopefully be able to survive without electricity for 3.5 weeks.

I will hopefully give an update when I go into Avalon (the only town on Catalina) every once in awhile, but until then, email/facebook me your address and you will receive a postcard! :)

Food Bank!

2009-12-19T00:29:00.000-08:00

Since today was my last day working at the food bank, I realized that I still have more to write about.

This first project was so amazing. Last Monday one of the staff asked if any of us wanted to tutor a student in math and I immediately volunteered. I was paired with a girl to study for the GED. It turned out she really needed help with English and Social Studies, which I was less excited about. I had no idea what the GED tested and assumed it would be similar to junior or senior year English class, but boy was I wrong. She showed me the packet of papers she was expected to complete for the week, most of which focused on similes and metaphors in a paragraph of text that was provided. I tutored her for about 2 hours and in that time learned that she is 25 and dropped out of school at 17. What surprised me most was that she was pretty much unable to read. She said teachers were never willing to explain things to her more than once and she slipped through the cracks and she was so grateful that I was willing to repeat my explanation multiple times for her. The next day I was assisting at a mobile food distribution and I saw her again when she came to pick up food for her family. The Sacramento Food Bank really provides assistance to those in need in just so many ways. I loved that I was able to directly interact with the clients.

Today I helped with the clothing program. 1000 articles of clothing are donated each day to families in need. Volunteers sort through the clothing, organize them on the racks and bag the clothes that the clients have picked out. I have never worked with people that are so appreciative of your help before. Even when clients approach their limit of clothing for their visit, they are almost always polite and hand me items to return. I'm definitely going to miss working here. The food bank set a high standard for our first project and it's going to be hard for other projects to be as great!

Last night a team returned from Catalina and everyone seemed to have a great time, so I'm really excited to be going there after new years! Yay for 2 weeks at home though! Happy Holidays everyone!

Some pictures from the last weeks

2009-12-13T15:45:00.001-08:00

Susanna, me, Mae in Lake Tahoe

Iris, me, Mae, Pat chilling in San Fran

Lake Tahoe!!

A Long Thanksgiving Season

2009-11-29T20:57:00.000-08:00

Working at the food bank so far has been exactly what I was expecting to do with AmeriCorps. This has been the longest and most rewarding Thanksgiving I've ever experienced. Two weeks ago Friday my team assisted in a turkey drive and collected an incredible 6600 turkeys. The goal was to collect 5000 and was pleasantly surprised to receive so many more. The event was well publicized by KCRA (a local Sacramento television station) and a few of my team members were on the local news. Unfortunately I was out of town that day and missed what my team considers the best day of work thus far.

Last Monday and Tuesday were turkey distribution days at the food bank. 2500 turkeys were allotted each day for distribution and the remaining turkeys were given to other non-profits in the Sacramento area to assist in preparation of a hot Thanksgiving dinner to those that do not have access to a kitchen. Monday was one of the most eye-opening experiences I've ever had and I'm sure the memories will stay with me for a long time. KCRA did a great job of publicizing the large number of turkeys we had to distribute and when we arrived at 6am to begin distributing turkeys, people were already lined up around the block, many of which had slept there all night. I was given the responsibility of "traffic control" and I stood on a street corner and made sure that no one crossed the street until I gave them permission to do so. This turned out to be a great job. I got the chance to speak to almost all of the clients that came to pick up a turkey that day and what I observed was incredible. Almost everyone I spoke to told me this was their first year relying on the food bank for Thanksgiving dinner and most of them have only recently begun utilizing the services at the food bank. One man was a WWII veteran and that was really upsetting to see. One woman told me every year until now she was the one donating turkeys but her business took a turn for the worse this past year and she found herself in line for a free donation. That story became too familiar and I heard it multiple times throughout the few hours I spent distributing turkeys. At one point a crowd of people surrounding me started discussing the economy and how things have never been so bad for so many people. Of course I know the unemployment rate is high and the status of the economy but it really sinks in when I was surrounded by so many people relying on donations for a Thanksgiving meal that I always took for granted. So many people thanked me over and over after handing them their Thanksgiving meal and couldn't be more appreciative of our assistance.

This is only a portion of our freezer after some of the turkeys were already distributed.

On Tuesday I helped a Food Bank employee (also a former AmeriCorps NCCC member) collect donations. It was awesome to see how many people were donating clothing, food, turkeys, and other miscellaneous items while so many people were in need. Everyone was in high spirits and it was really great for them to see the people they were donating to.

Thursday was the Food Bank's 16th Annual Run to Feed the Hungry. It is the largest Thanksgiving day run in the country. My team along with about 20 other AmeriCorps NCCC members volunteered to help set up for the race and clean up afterward. I helped control traffic before the race and helped pick up trash afterward. (I also received 2 free t-shirts which is always a big plus!)

One of our sponsors from the Food Bank invited my entire team over for Thanksgiving dinner. She was an award-winning cook and baker and her kitchen wall was covered in 1st place ribbons from county fairs. Her family was extremely generous and it was really nice to spend Thanksgiving with my entire team. It was definitely strange not being home for Thanksgiving for the first time. For the remainder of the weekend I went to Lake Tahoe with a few friends. The ride there was quite adventurous and took 5 hours instead of 2 due to an unanticipated blizzard. We had to pull off the freeway to purchase and install chains on our tires which is something I've never experienced before. It was a great weekend of hiking and lots of card playing. Most of all it was nice to step off the base for a few days!

Needless to say, this was the most meaningful Thanksgiving I've experienced. One of the employees at the food bank told us we would remember this Thanksgiving 30 years from now and think that it was the best one we've ever had. I can already tell that she's right.

here's a link to a few pictures of the food bank during the distribution
http://www.sacbee.com/photos/gallery/2343099.html

first day of work

2009-11-16T20:26:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-13T07:53:00.000-08:00

I found out yesterday that the project on Catalina Island will consist of deer counting in the middle of the night. How awesome is that!

The End of Training

2009-11-12T08:03:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is induction and we will become official AmeriCorps NCCC members! This has been one of the longest months ever. Waking up at 5am almost everyday makes the days last forever and I feel so much more productive. Last weekend I went with some friends to San Francisco which was a great time. It's really nice to leave the base in Sacramento and re-enter the "real world".

Training is now coming to an end. This morning we had a baseline physical training test so we could see if we've improved during the last month. I was really happy that I improved my 1.5 mile run by over 1 minute and I'm sick, so I'm especially proud of myself. This afternoon my team has a briefing in front of the staff to explain our expectations for our first project.

So after this weekend we will begin our first round projects! From now until our winter break beginning December 18th, I will be staying in Sacramento working for the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services. At first I was disappointed to be staying in Sacramento while other teams are going to the gulf (all of Gold Unit will be there) or other states in the western region, but prior teams have said this project was their favorite. We will be assisting with many special holiday events for Thanksgiving and I think this is a meaningful time to be working with this organization. The SFBFS offers many other services in addition to providing food, such as donating clothing, tutoring youth and childcare. There should be a variety to the tasks we will be completing, but I won't know what I'm atually doing until we start the project next Monday. Also, 6 other teams will be staying on base working on various projects throughout Sacramento, so it will be nice to be able to hang out with them on nights and weekends.

Now comes the exciting part! For 3 weeks in January I will be living on Catalina Island!!! This will be an adventure for sure. We will be doing environmental work for the Catalina Island Conservancy. There is a 15 year waitlist to bring vehicles onto the island, so after we take the ferry from Long Beach onto the island, I'm not sure what kind of transportation will be available for us. We'll be having "luxury camping". This means there will be limited electicity and hot water. I don't think I'll have cell phone reception or internet access unless we go into Avalon which is a few miles away. Prior teams have said they had campfires everynight and the sponsors provided free kayaking and snorkeling for them! We will be living with a few other volunteers, but this will be a great experience for my team to learn to live together! I went to Catalina this summer and it's so bizarre to think that I'll be living there in January!

Everyone has a specialty role on our team. I am the peer helper which is the position I wanted. I get to act as a "team psychologist" and assist team members with any issues they are having. This will be an especially important role while in Catalina.

I'll try to update next week once I actually begin working!

Alex :)

Return from the Woods

2009-11-04T12:52:00.000-08:00

I had such a great time camping in the redwoods! The first night we were there was Halloween so the team leaders had a surprise for us. They spread out throughout the forest and we went up to them with our teams and had to do "tricks" to get candy. Here's a picture of my team spelling out our team leader's name "Tonye".

The food was so good at the camp and it was so nice not having to cook for a change. It was just like summer camp, we did team building games all day on Sunday, including a ropes course and zip line. There was a large wooden board that tilted to the side when you stepped on it. Our goal was to have all of our team members stand on the board and balance it and then have one of us cross the board without letting it touch the ground in under 15 minutes. It was intense. I was chosen to the slide across the board to the other side on my stomach and we did it in 8 minutes. I was very proud of my team. This was the first time we really worked well together and everyone was really focused on the task and voiced an opinion. For PT (physical training) we ran through the forest at 530am. It was actually really enjoyable blindly following people through the forest because it was too dark to see where we were going.

The second day we spent working on our service project. My team painted an old cabin. I never realized how much fun painting can be. I did get some white primer in my hair, which will probably never come out. At least it's on the tips so I can cut it out. We went on a hike through the woods and found a huge redwood tree. Here's a picture of my team in front of it so you can see how large it is. On a side note, if it looks like I'm wearing the same thing in all of these pictures, it's because I am. You probably won't see a picture of me wearing normal clothing for the next 10 months.

The last night camping a few friends and I decided to sleep outside. We set up our sleeping bags around the remains of the campfire and it was probably the best sleep I've gotten in the longest time. I had forgotten how much fun sleeping outside can be! We missed merging onto a different freeway on our drive back and ended up driving 1.5 hours out of the way, but we did get to tour wine country which was awesome!

I slept until 1030 today which is the highlight of the day when you're used to waking up at 530 am. We leave for our first project in about 10 days and rumor has it we'll be finding out where we're going tonight! I'm really excited!

Green 5!

2009-10-27T16:41:00.000-07:00

Sunday and Monday were full of anticipation and excitement! On Sunday night we found out our units and Monday night we were told our teams. We said bye to our pods and it was really emotional for most of us. We've been living, eating, and working with the same 12 people for almost 2 weeks and it's hard to realize that we won't be seeing each other anymore from now on. The corps is divided into four units (Silver, Gold, Blue and Green). We learned our unit cheer and played some ice breaker games. I was really excited that a few of my good friends were in my unit since until we go on our first spike we'll be participating in programming with our units. We found out then that we had the day off on Monday. It takes some getting used to realizing that every day is spontaneous and we don't find out what we're doing until the day before.

The whole corps had a pizza party Monday night and then it was time for the teams to be revealed. We broke up into our units and were each given an envelope with our name on it. Inside the envelope was a puzzle piece and we had to run around finding the other people to complete the puzzle. Once we found our other team members, we went on a scavenger hunt to find out who our team leader is. As a team we had to drink a gallon of apple juice as fast as we could and then head over to the nearby hotel. At the bottom of the pool was a clue and one team member volunteered to dive to the bottom to get the clue.

There was so much anticipation during this whole process. It was really strange standing in a circle with the 10 other people that I would be living with for the next 10 months. I got really lucky, my team leader is awesome. As you can tell from the scavenger hunt he made us go on, he has a great sense of humor and I'm excited to get to know him better. We have a smaller team, there are 9 of us, 3 guys, 6 girls, not including our team leader. I'm surprised that only 3 people are younger than me. I'm the only one from California and the south is well represented (Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama).

The last two days have been diversity training and other ice breakers to get to know our team members better. I'm really looking forward to this weekend. We're going to Camp Mendocino, a Boys and Girls Club Camp in the redwoods from Saturday to Tuesday. It's supposed to be in the 30s at night and we're sleeping in open air cabins, but I'm excited for the possibility of snow.

I know I've been horrible at returning phone calls lately, but that doesn't mean I don't want to talk to you!

alex :)

2009-10-24T18:23:00.000-07:00

Thursday was a crazy day. About 20 minutes into our first training session of the morning I noticed that I had a swollen bug bite with a red line spreading up my arm. I got scared and showed my pod leader and he freaked out. Luckily in the next room over, there were CPR instructors from Red Cross who told me I needed to go to the doctor immediately. I was very impressed with how fast AmeriCorps took care of the situation. They drove me to a nearby doctor and within an hour I received a shot and a prescription for antibiotics and steroids. The doctor was not very friendly and when I asked her what she thought bit me, she said there's no way to know unless she saw the animal. Most of my friends think it was black widow though. I was back on campus by lunch and received way too much attention. People I had never met before asked if they could see my arm and took pictures.

I had to return to the doctor yesterday morning for another shot. There were 8 people that attended sick call and since none of us had appointments, we spent about 4 hours at the doctor's office. Normally I wouldn't mind skipping some of the boring lectures, but apparently I missed an interesting one about the history of national service.

I've been enjoying PT a lot more than I thought I would. It is definitely hard to wake up at 500am but when I realize that by 630 am I have already worked out, it's a good feeling.

Today was National Make a Difference Day. This is the first year that Sacramento participated so there was a ceremony downtown with many motivational speakers. Each pod spent the day volunteering for a different non-profit combating homelessness around Sacramento. The speakers were really inspirational and gave more meaning to our service project today. My pod volunteered for the Habitat for Humanity Restore. It's a huge warehouse like Home Depot that sells donated building materials for cheap. We cleared out a storage room and moved metal shelves for the majority of the day. It was tiring work but it was nice to be outside and get stuff done.

Pod 1 at Make A difference Day

There is speculation that we will receive our permanent team assignments tomorrow night since the Team Leaders serving in American Samoa returned last night. I'm really excited/nervous to find out who will be on my team, but less excited to change rooms. I really like my roommate and am going to miss talking to her every night.

We have the day off tomorrow and I'm planning on going to the zoo with some friends. No this was not my idea, but it should still be fun! Here are some pictures from the last week.

Me, Iris (roommate), Diana, Maura out to sushi last week.

Diana, Iris, me

Pod 1 harvesting apples last Saturday.

2009-10-20T17:45:00.001-07:00

I know I've been slacking on updating this, but since I never sleep for more than 5 or 6 hours each night, I feel like I've done a lot so far. Friday night I went grocery shopping with 3 others from my pod. It was hilarious buying a week's worth of groceries for 26 people on a budget of $5 a day per person. Almost all of the pods had a few members at the grocery store that night and it was so easy to spot other AmeriCorps members. I mean, how often do you purchase $600 worth of groceries?

Here's a picture of some members of my team in the grocery store. This is only a few of our grocery carts, I think we had 5.

Saturday we did our first service project at an abandoned orchard. We harvested 4,000 apples and plums for the Sacramento Food Bank. Any of the apples that the smallest bruise or cut were thrown away and it was really sad to realize that at least half of t

he apples we collected were discarded. Of course I brought home a whole bag of fruit, so I was happy! This project was great since we all had the opportunity to bond with the other members of our pod. Collecting apples all day in the sun is really tiring, but it was great to actually get out and do something meaningful!

Sunday we had the day off so I went with 12 friends to downtown Sacramento. We spent about 8 hours riding the buses and light rail and managed to get on the wrong light rail or going in the wrong direction 3 times (there are only 4 options). Needless to say we spent the majority of the day wandering around, but I was enjoying it.

The last few days have been nothing but training in CPR, First Aid and Disaster Relief. The classes are long and mostly boring, but sitting with your friends makes it tolerable. Last night we were given our jumpsuits. How awesome do we look?

This morning we had the physical training baseline test at 530am. We had to run 1.5 miles and do as many sit ups in 2 minutes as we could. I was impressed with the number of sit ups I did, but I have no doubt I will improve my running since we have PT 4 days a week.

I'm off to make dinner right now, I promise I'll update again soon!

2009-10-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

The first few days have been pretty good so far. The electricity went out at LAX Tuesday morning. LA just can't handle the rain, but my flight was fine. The first day was in-processing. We got our uniforms and our room assignments. My roommate's name is Iris (my mom's name) and her last name is one letter different from mine. I was really weirded out when I saw her name on our door. We have 3 suite mates and everyone is really nice, but honestly I haven't met anyone yet that wasn't incredibly friendly and excited to be here. There seems to be an overwhelming number of people from Minnesota and UW-Madison grads. Yesterday we found out our pods (temporary teams until we receive our permanent teams in a few weeks). The pods have 12 members each and are assigned alphabetically, so I'm in pod 1. The rest of the day was mostly paperwork (Red Cross registration) and many general meetings about rules, etc. So far the food has all been catered, but starting tomorrow we wil be cooking with our pods. We have a good amount of free time and since the weather's really nice we play frisbee and hang out outside a lot.

This morning we had physicals and I found out that I'm now 5'0"! I was really excited to hear this until everyone else on my pod told me they found out they were taller than they thought as well. So far I haven't had to wake up before 6am, but that will change come Monday when we have physical training at 530am. Tomorrow we're doing our first service project. We'll be beautifying gardens in Sacramento.

I already feel like I've been here for forever, but that's usually how I feel when I move to a new place. I promise I'll post pictures of my uniform, the dorms etc soon!

Alex

2009-10-08T23:57:00.001-07:00

Hey! I’m beginning this blog one week before I fly up to Sacramento, CA to begin training for AmeriCorps NCCC! I’m pretty sure everyone I’ve spoken to over the last 6 months has heard me mention AmeriCorps, at least once, but now I’m finally leaving!

AmeriCorps NCCC is a 10 month volunteer-based program for 18-24 year olds. There are 5 campuses: Sacramento, CA; Denver, CO; Vinto, IA; Perry Point, MD and Vicksburg, MS. I was assigned to the Sacramento, CA campus along with 300 other members. After the first 4-5 weeks of training I will be assigned to a team of 10-12 members and together we will complete 4 different projects in the Pacific region. Projects range from responding to natural disasters, mentoring students or working with Habit for Humanity. The Pacific region serves California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, Washington, Hawaii, Alaska, Guam and American Samoa. After the earthquake and tsunami that occurred in American Samoa last week, it wouldn’t be too surprising if I had a project there! I bet you’re wondering where I’m going to be stationed or what kind of project I’m going to be working on after the training in Sacramento, but at the moment your guess is as good as mine. It is definitely a huge thrill not knowing where I’m going to be living a month from now!

It seems weird to be starting an adventure without even leaving California. Throughout college whenever I told people I was from Southern California, their immediate reaction was, “what made you choose Wisconsin?” I would usually shrug my shoulders and say “I just wanted to live somewhere different. “ I was, and still am after any opportunity I can get my hands on to experience something different and with that I’m sure that the adventure I’m about to embark on will be more spontaneous than anything I’ve experienced thus far!

My next update should be from Sacramento, but until then, feel free to ask me any questions you have about the program! Thanks for reading!