Alasaka Pictures

So I got these up even faster than I expected...I also forgot to mention that we saw a lot of bald eagle.s

Alaska

Hi everyone,

I apologize for not writing any blogs in over a month, i have been lazy and avoiding writing a blog because I wanted to put up pictures with it, but still don't have any to post right now, but maybe I'll get on that and post some soon.

Alaska was great, it was still off season so we found a lot of things were not open, but we saw a ton of beautiful mountains. I continuously took pictures of them because each one seemed more gorgeous than the last. We did quite a bit of driving, going all the way up to fairbanks from Anchorage and then down to the water (seward and Homer).

Fairbanks had absolutely nothing to offer besides the North Pole, Alaska a few miles away. We visited North Pole, AK and went to Santa's village and met some reindeer. The light poles in the town were all decorated like candycanes! It was quite exciting. It snowed quite a bit in alaska while we were there and when we were in north pole, ak it snowed too! It was pretty crazy.

We used Anchorage as our main stopping spot between towns. Anchorage is kind of like any other city, I enjoyed it but am pretty sure it does not have enough to offer to keep me there. There were some good restaurants and some cool bars. I ate reindeer sausage in Anchorage! It kind of tasted like kielbasa, but it was very exciting.

Finally we visited the water. The towns are popular fishing towns where tourists go on wildlife watches on boat cruises and fish for halibut and salmon. Seeing as we visited in the off season it was pretty quiet there, but we found a lot of great restaurants as well as enjoyed very scenic drives.

We did not see any wildlife in the actual wild besides a moose, however, we visited a marine life center and saw sea lions and puffins and some other sea creatures. We also went to a wildlife refuge center and saw bears, caribou, moose, and a black bear in a tree! I was thrilled to see a bear in the top of a tree just sitting there....definitely the highlight of the trip.

So that's Alaska, it was great, I'm glad I went, it was beautiful! One day when I have money to afford most everything there I will go back!

Another blog entry really soon!

Phase 3 Project

Ok, I know you all are anxiously waiting to hear where the next place Americorps is taking me. Our next Project is working with Recovery School district in New Orleans, LA. We will be living in downtown New Orleans on Magazine Street in a building with other volunteers. We are sleeping 6 to a room with bunk beds; I can’t tell you how excited I am to have a bed again…no more floor! Our project sounds really great. We are going to be helping the relief efforts with schools. We will be delivering supplies to schools, painting murals, building playgrounds with Kaboom, creating greenspace for the schools and much more. Basically we are going to be involved in improving the conditions of the schools and making them better places for kids to get an education! I have not read the project description quite yet so that is about the extent of the details I have to offer.

It sounds like a really great project. Everyone is really looking forward to it. We are driving back down to the gulf, leaving April 14 so our work will start shortly after that!

I am going to Alaska for my Spring break (leaving on April 4), so I will write when I return and share all my stories of Alaska and of course the wonderful road trip stories.

Goodbye Portland

Ok so I have been so kindly informed by my dear friend Jenn that I have not been writing nearly as often as I should in this blog. I must apologize for that by only saying that there really is very little to write about. Blackberry removal is boring and there is often very little to say about it. However, it’s donzo! We are done with our second phase project and now preparing for our third! I’m sure you are all wondering what that is…however, you have to read this thing in order, so first you have to read the reflections on my last days in Portland.

Portland is a lovely city. It’s not a tourist city (just ask Katy and Adrienne who visited last week, they found little to do). It’s a nice place to live, there is great tap water, a wonderful recycling program, pretty good public transportation, it’s clean, and just about everyone is ready and waiting to pass on a friendly smile. With that being said, I still don’t think that Portland all that much. It’s just not a city that interest me, but I can appreciate it and understand why so many people move out here. As for our project…I am glad to see it ending, removing blackberry roots has simply gotten old. It is hard to keep yourself excited about the work you are doing when you are just digging up roots and throwing them to on the ground next to you for eight hours each day. Now don’t get me wrong, we had fun some days playing games and coming up with ridiculous scenarios. We also did not always pull blackberry, some days we removed English Ivy, some days we planted, we laid plants, we spread mulch, and we even built a trail. It was nice when things were mixed up, but still I think the work wore on all of us. It’s most definitely time for this project to come to and end. I know more about plants now and I will never be able to look at a blackberry bush or ivy and think anything but negative thoughts…but that’s ok. They are bad, bad plants that choke natural, native plants and trees. JUST SAY NO TO BLACKBERRY PIE! … and Jam.

A little update, last entry I wrote about life after Americorps, I have gotten accepted into two universities so far and am waiting to hear from the rest…interviews were no fun, traveling to the East coast for two days is exhausting, but it will all be worth it in the end.

As a response to the mother’s question on the last entry: I will never be 100% independent of my parents...that’s the horror in having children I think

Life after americorps

So I was thinking that I hadn't written a blog in awhile, part of the reason is because there is very little to share. Things are still the same, we are still murdering blackberries each day and sometimes pulling out English Ivy (which is a nice change of pace). Today we worked with middle school kids and supervised their blackberry removal...we work with volunteers normally once a week.

So, seeing as I have very little to share about my Americorps experiences, I figure I will tell you all about my life after Americorps. I recently went on an interview at Spalding University for PsyD program, tomorrow I have a phone interview with Towson, and next Tuesday I have an interview at Western Carolina. So, this is good news that I have had the opportunity to interview with these schools, its very overwhelming to figure out travel and to interview with schools. It is becoming very clear that I am growing up and have serious life ahead of me...grad school will not be a walk in the park, no more fooling around and traveling the United States...it will be time to get serious.

That's my story. I am getting very excited because katy and Adrienne are coming to visit very soon! I am looking forward to experiencing Portland with them (I have not done much touristy things yet), introducing them to the team, showing them where I live, and of course spending time with some of my favorite people!

I hope all is well with my readers! Questions? post them in the comments, I will do a blog of answers!

Murdering Blackberries

So per usual I have been very lazy with this blog. I have raked my brain for a really great excuse for why I made promises of entries to come and have been terrible at fulfilling these promises…and the only excuse I could think of was the terrible internet we get in our house. It seems that just about every other computer can connect to the internet besides mine, but that is a bad excuse…so simply –I’m sorry!

Ok so what do we do for work? I am sure that the five people who still check this knowing that I will come through eventually are wondering. Our work consists of clearing blackberry bushes (which are very thorny), digging up the root, and planting trees. We work Tuesday through Saturday. On Saturdays we get to work with volunteer groups often consisting of boy scouts which are always a blast. It is not terrible work, sure the blackberries get monotonous after awhile, sure I have scratches all over my legs, and sure digging up roots is not my idea of a goodtime, but we get through it, it’s mixed up enough that it is just fine. I do not think I will have any interest in seeing blackberries after this project, but we get through it, we try to make the days fun sometimes. For example, last week we played the question game where you simply ask a teammate a question, they answer and then are able to ask another teammate a question and so forth. Today at work we “dared” people to eat weird things, we had people eat a worm, dirt, a fern, drink river water, eat pine needles, and of course a blackberry root. I ate the pine needles; they tasted like a lime rind.

To speak very honestly for a minute, I want to admit to everyone that this project can be quite difficult for me. There are some days where I just cannot understand why I am pulling blackberry bushes and what that has anything to do with why I chose to join Americorps. It is very easy to lose site of the overall goal and my own reasons for joining the program. However, there are also days that are fun and times when I look around and am able to see how much we have cleared and in those moments I remember just why we are here. The work we are doing may be tedious and boring but it could not be done without us, there is a lot of blackberry to clear and without our assistance they would be much worse off. Clearing blackberry is necessary because it is an invasive species to the region; therefore it affects the soil and kills native species. I don’t feel comfortable enough really trying to explain invasive species and why it is important to remove the, however if you are interested in more information regarding that check out solv’s website at www.solv.org

So that’s the work we do. In terms of our living situation it’s not bad at all. We are getting along just fine, I really love being in a house and there are very little problems with so many people living together!

I hope my loyal readers are doing well and haven’t given up on me yet, I promise I will keep up with this until the end!

Portland, Oregon

We had a much shorter road trip to Portland than our first project. Portland is about 10 hours from Sacramento, CA, so we broke the trip up into two days. We spent our first night in Ashland, OR. Ashland is a small town in South Oregon…it’s well known for the Shakespeare Festival, unfortunately we stayed in Ashland just a week prior to the opening of the festival, so no shows for me. The town itself is wonderful, it’s a small quaint town with a bunch of little shops and restaurants, there is a college in the town, and mountains surrounding it. I definitely would have enjoyed a full afternoon of exploration (we had an hour or two).

The drive to Portland was gorgeous; there were mountains on all sides of us. The mountains reached to the sky and were covered by untouched snow; it truly was a sight to see. Throughout the ride we also passed over rivers, the rivers paired with the mountains essentially left me speechless, I only wish I was good with words so I could describe to you people how beautiful this really was…but I’m not…so you all will just have to experience it for yourself!

Ok, so we arrive in Portland, we get to our house. Now you can imagine how nervous I am, I am about to spend two months in a small house living with people that although I may feel like I have gotten to know very well, we still don’t know nearly as much as I think we like to think we do about one another…so this is going to be interesting, living on top of one another for two months…no privacy. Although I am still a bit nervous about how this will all pane out, I have high hopes for our living situation, it is really nice to be in a house. Let me take you for a visual tour of the house…get your imaginations ready!

You pull into our driveway, park in front of our garage door, walk to our front door, ring the door bell...WHY HELLO! Welcome to my humble abode! On your left you will see a half-bath, not too shabby and on your right you may notice our kitchen with an islandesq counter top, enough drawers and cabinets to keep us happy, a working stove, refrigerator, and microwave. As you exit the front of our kitchen you find yourself standing in the living room which has a couch on either wall and a fold-up table set up in the center of the room, you see computer chairs all over the room, realizing that there are 13 people who live in this house that often need to sit down after a long day of work. The sliding glass door into the back yard (which does not seem inviting due to a mess of a compost pile, a broken fish tank, and a torn up yard) is to the right of the fire place which only purpose seems to be to hold a TV from the 1960’s. Don’t bother turning the television on, you will see nothing but snow, however, if you desire you may watch a dvd or vhs later, but first you should finish your tour by heading up the stairs on the left of the fireplace. Once your reach the landing at the top of the stairs you are looking straight into a full bathroom, shower/tub, sink, toilet. How delightful you think! Turn left at the top of the stairs and you will see the master bedroom which houses five girls on cots, walk down the hallway you will see the second girls bedroom which holds three girls, and finally at the end of the hallway is the boys spacious (because they know how to organize their things) room. You may wonder why you do not see clothes in the last two bedrooms hanging out in the open, well that is because those bedrooms have closets, while the first bedroom (where I live) only has a rod and shelf that spans the length of the longest wall for clothing to be hung. Well, that is about it, I hope you enjoyed the tour!

In terms of the City, I have not seen much of it, we have only been here for two nights, but it seems like a great city. We are walking distance from bars, restaurants, and shops. I have not been downtown yet, I will keep you all posted on that stuff.

We had our first day of work today, it seems like SOLV is a great company, and they are very organized and very happy to have us here, so I am looking forward to working with them.


I suppose you people should keep your eyes out for an update on the work and the City of Portland, because it will not be long before I have experienced both enough to write about them!

Sometimes I get the feeling that the only people reading this are my parents and maybe my grandparents…anyone else out there?