Hello people!
Yesterday was Make a difference day, meaning it was my first day of actually going out there and doing service! It was a really great day. We started bright and early and worked a full day. Each team was paired with one other team and went to various places around Sacramento to help clean up! My team went to a community garden and cleaned the whole thing up by weeding, planting trees, and laying down a ton of mulch. It was a lot of work but felt really great, especially seeing how much better the garden looked when we were done. It was also a great day for getting to know my team! Each time we hang out the group dynmaics just get better! Hooray.
I went to downtown sac last night. It was fun, but cab fare is expensive! So I think that's the end of that nonsense. I can't make believe I'm rich anymore! :0
I think that's all I have to say.
Oh yes, my whole body is sore today, I feel like and old lady...all the work, PT starts tomorrow for real!
one other thing, for those of you hoping for really good juicy stories about whatever, I can't do anything like that, this is a public blog, which means I'm reflecting on Americorps...so only positive!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
Blue 3
Hello people, yesterday I finally met my team. It was very exciting. There are 12 of us and so far so good. Everyone is welcoming and ready to just jump in. So for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, my team is the group of people who I will go on spikes with, who I will do everything with, they are basically going to be my family. For the next 10 months we will eat meals together, we will travel together, we will live together, and we will work together. So basically, we are going to have a pretty intense relationship. And good news, there are musicians on my team! I’m looking forward to campfire songs…
Today we had our PT baseline…this was basically the PT test to see where we fell in terms of physical fitness so we could be grouped accordingly. I have to say I was pretty proud of myself, I did 25 pushups in a row! That’s crazy for me. I ran my mile and half without stopping right around the time I expected, and I did well on my sit-ups. Now, I have PT to look forward to four days a week at 5 AM! Woooo!
I’m pretty sure I don’t have much else to share...we still have a good amount of downtime, but when the downtime comes you feel like you need it. Saturday is Make a Difference Day so I will be making a difference somewhere…I believe we will me making community gardens. Sunday we have the day off, so expect to hear of some adventure we went on that day, we still haven’t decided where to go yet, but will be deciding soon!
I have really enjoyed hearing from everyone through texts, the phone, emails, facebook, and messages on the board! Keep it up, I want to know what is going on with everyone else just as much as you guys want to know what is going on with me.
For those of you who did not receive a picture of me in my “suit” enjoy!!
P.S. I was supposed to put this up last night, but I got lazy…so now here it is a day late. My bad. Also, I think many of you will be interested to know that my roommate and I walked 30 minutes today mainly for a dollar general.
Today we had our PT baseline…this was basically the PT test to see where we fell in terms of physical fitness so we could be grouped accordingly. I have to say I was pretty proud of myself, I did 25 pushups in a row! That’s crazy for me. I ran my mile and half without stopping right around the time I expected, and I did well on my sit-ups. Now, I have PT to look forward to four days a week at 5 AM! Woooo!
I’m pretty sure I don’t have much else to share...we still have a good amount of downtime, but when the downtime comes you feel like you need it. Saturday is Make a Difference Day so I will be making a difference somewhere…I believe we will me making community gardens. Sunday we have the day off, so expect to hear of some adventure we went on that day, we still haven’t decided where to go yet, but will be deciding soon!
I have really enjoyed hearing from everyone through texts, the phone, emails, facebook, and messages on the board! Keep it up, I want to know what is going on with everyone else just as much as you guys want to know what is going on with me.
For those of you who did not receive a picture of me in my “suit” enjoy!!
P.S. I was supposed to put this up last night, but I got lazy…so now here it is a day late. My bad. Also, I think many of you will be interested to know that my roommate and I walked 30 minutes today mainly for a dollar general.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
pictures
this was a real pain in the butt to do, so i hope you guys like it.
this is us on top of san fran. and the goats.
no pics of old. sac...too much time and people waiting...maybe you'll get some more if i ever figure out how to do this efficently.
Life in Americorps and San Fransisco
So we still haven’t started hardcore stuff, I still have quite a bit of downtime, it still feels like freshman orientation here, just with a lot less drinking…however I did visit the bar twice this weekend. So the cool way of talking here is "ameri _______ fill in the blank. There are Amerisins, Amerilove, Amerifun. My opinion is its very ameriLAME. Basically it sounds ridiculous, but these people are really into it, I’m pretty sure I have made a few enemies by making fun of some of the ridiculousness out loud…but that’s okay because I only have room for a certain amount of friends and I think I have already found too many...
There aren’t as many people who just sit around and play instruments as I expected. I was hoping that just about everyone would be jamming and what not, but today was the first time I heard any whole made music. Maybe I have made the wrong friends…
Some of you, especially the young adults reading this, may be interested to know that you are not allowed to candoole on government property. No form of sexual contact...if you are caught you get written up and a $75 fine! However, my roommate overheard people talking about sleeping over in a boys bedroom…so I’m pretty sure there are some sneaky kiddies here.
Seeing as I had the weekend off and the majority of today, I have some adventures to share. Before I do, I’m sure many of you are wondering what I actually do. So far, we just sit in classroom situations all day long and learn about rules, regulations, the American red cross, what to expect out of projects, and service. It’s not too bad. We get our teams on Wednesday and start PT soon after…so that when hell begins.
BUT, until then I will play. On Saturday I visited Old Sacramento, what I learned: Sacramento does not have much to offer. On Sunday a group of friends and I went to San Francisco. We went down to the wharf, had a nice time eating at in and out and of course visited the sea lions (there was a dead one L). One of the girls we were with had a great book about the west coast, and we used to go on a fantastic hike. We started off in the Castro (the gay district, where a rainbow flag hangs instead of an American flag). While there I used a public restroom on the street and the door didn’t close all the way, so that was an experience… We walked up a huge hill then up the side of an enormous mountain. It was really awesome, at the top besides seeing a lot of goats, we were standing on top of San Francisco. We had a phenomenal view. Then the hike took us down into Haigh Ashbury where we strolled around in book stores and thrift stores and all that good stuff. It was a very nice way for us to spend our Sunday.
This morning we had to muster (meet the group) at 7:45 and then had the day free till our 2:30 muster, so two other people in my group and I decided to walk down the street a bit to see if there was anything to explore. As we walked we decided to just hop on the lite rail which took us into down town Sacramento where the Capital building is. We were able to take a nice little tour of the capital building and see Arnold’s office. The boys I was with were very excited about seeing the "governators" office. I basically just enjoyed the entire building, there are old rooms on exhibit and the senate room too…and a lot of people who wanted to give us helpful information. We were also in our uniforms and someone thought we worked there!
I know a lot of people have been asking for me to send pictures of me in my uniform. I promise that next entry I will have the pictures, we always talk about it, its just that at 6:30 AM that’s the last thing we are thinking of, and when we return it’s the first thing we want to take off….plus I don’t have the full ensemble yet…the boots or on special order still.
ok so i had 3 pictures i was going to post...but i can't figure out how to do it, and I have to go get lunch...so I'm just going to have a friend do it for me later...sorry people
There aren’t as many people who just sit around and play instruments as I expected. I was hoping that just about everyone would be jamming and what not, but today was the first time I heard any whole made music. Maybe I have made the wrong friends…
Some of you, especially the young adults reading this, may be interested to know that you are not allowed to candoole on government property. No form of sexual contact...if you are caught you get written up and a $75 fine! However, my roommate overheard people talking about sleeping over in a boys bedroom…so I’m pretty sure there are some sneaky kiddies here.
Seeing as I had the weekend off and the majority of today, I have some adventures to share. Before I do, I’m sure many of you are wondering what I actually do. So far, we just sit in classroom situations all day long and learn about rules, regulations, the American red cross, what to expect out of projects, and service. It’s not too bad. We get our teams on Wednesday and start PT soon after…so that when hell begins.
BUT, until then I will play. On Saturday I visited Old Sacramento, what I learned: Sacramento does not have much to offer. On Sunday a group of friends and I went to San Francisco. We went down to the wharf, had a nice time eating at in and out and of course visited the sea lions (there was a dead one L). One of the girls we were with had a great book about the west coast, and we used to go on a fantastic hike. We started off in the Castro (the gay district, where a rainbow flag hangs instead of an American flag). While there I used a public restroom on the street and the door didn’t close all the way, so that was an experience… We walked up a huge hill then up the side of an enormous mountain. It was really awesome, at the top besides seeing a lot of goats, we were standing on top of San Francisco. We had a phenomenal view. Then the hike took us down into Haigh Ashbury where we strolled around in book stores and thrift stores and all that good stuff. It was a very nice way for us to spend our Sunday.
This morning we had to muster (meet the group) at 7:45 and then had the day free till our 2:30 muster, so two other people in my group and I decided to walk down the street a bit to see if there was anything to explore. As we walked we decided to just hop on the lite rail which took us into down town Sacramento where the Capital building is. We were able to take a nice little tour of the capital building and see Arnold’s office. The boys I was with were very excited about seeing the "governators" office. I basically just enjoyed the entire building, there are old rooms on exhibit and the senate room too…and a lot of people who wanted to give us helpful information. We were also in our uniforms and someone thought we worked there!
I know a lot of people have been asking for me to send pictures of me in my uniform. I promise that next entry I will have the pictures, we always talk about it, its just that at 6:30 AM that’s the last thing we are thinking of, and when we return it’s the first thing we want to take off….plus I don’t have the full ensemble yet…the boots or on special order still.
ok so i had 3 pictures i was going to post...but i can't figure out how to do it, and I have to go get lunch...so I'm just going to have a friend do it for me later...sorry people
Thursday, October 18, 2007
I made it here alive
I made it to Sacramento!
After 21 hours of Americorps registration fun, I finally made it to bed, it sure was a lovely day of waiting in lines, making friends, and being delirious.
I suppose you people would like to know about my living situation. This is it, I walked into my bedroom and it was already fully occupied, so I dragged my luggage back down two flights of stairs, got a new room (in temporary housing) and lugged my bags to the other side of campus to that room. Later in the evening, after my roommate and I had already unpacked our things, we find out that our suitemates are males…and that just doesn’t fly for Americorps, so at 9 PM last night people had to move, luckily the guys next door to us lost in rock, paper, scissor, and had to move! So I am all settled in to my room, we don’t have a refrigerator like other rooms but do have a TV unlike other rooms. It’s pretty nice, think hotelish, but twin beds and a little smaller. We share the bathroom with the people next door (but we don’t have neighbors anymore! J). So all in all, it’s pretty nice, especially compared to the other people’s rooms…josh litwin is in a room with 2 other guys that is the size of a closet with an excessive amount of furniture.
So far there’s not too much going on, we don’t start PT till next week. Hooray! We have this weekend off, so I’m gonna try to do something exciting, we’ll see if my new friends want to do something.
Basically I feel like I’m at a summer camp, with a lot of rules, and maybe missing the camp songs (although I have heard a few songs already).
So, I’m going to do a little survey, what would you people like to see in my blog…
Do you want inspirational stories with tons of details about all the good and how much I’m learning, or do you want more narrative of what’s up or perhaps just ridiculous stories.
VOTE in the comment section, I can’t promise I’ll always do one or the other, but I can make attempts.
PS, pics of me in my uniform coming soon! Get excited.
PS again – they didn’t have gloves for my small hands and when I tried on steel toe boots, the guy just looked at my feet, made a sound, and walked away. When he returned, he said, we’ll have to order some boots for your feet, they’re much too small.
After 21 hours of Americorps registration fun, I finally made it to bed, it sure was a lovely day of waiting in lines, making friends, and being delirious.
I suppose you people would like to know about my living situation. This is it, I walked into my bedroom and it was already fully occupied, so I dragged my luggage back down two flights of stairs, got a new room (in temporary housing) and lugged my bags to the other side of campus to that room. Later in the evening, after my roommate and I had already unpacked our things, we find out that our suitemates are males…and that just doesn’t fly for Americorps, so at 9 PM last night people had to move, luckily the guys next door to us lost in rock, paper, scissor, and had to move! So I am all settled in to my room, we don’t have a refrigerator like other rooms but do have a TV unlike other rooms. It’s pretty nice, think hotelish, but twin beds and a little smaller. We share the bathroom with the people next door (but we don’t have neighbors anymore! J). So all in all, it’s pretty nice, especially compared to the other people’s rooms…josh litwin is in a room with 2 other guys that is the size of a closet with an excessive amount of furniture.
So far there’s not too much going on, we don’t start PT till next week. Hooray! We have this weekend off, so I’m gonna try to do something exciting, we’ll see if my new friends want to do something.
Basically I feel like I’m at a summer camp, with a lot of rules, and maybe missing the camp songs (although I have heard a few songs already).
So, I’m going to do a little survey, what would you people like to see in my blog…
Do you want inspirational stories with tons of details about all the good and how much I’m learning, or do you want more narrative of what’s up or perhaps just ridiculous stories.
VOTE in the comment section, I can’t promise I’ll always do one or the other, but I can make attempts.
PS, pics of me in my uniform coming soon! Get excited.
PS again – they didn’t have gloves for my small hands and when I tried on steel toe boots, the guy just looked at my feet, made a sound, and walked away. When he returned, he said, we’ll have to order some boots for your feet, they’re much too small.
Monday, October 1, 2007
DISCLAIMER
I have chosen to take on the task of writing a blog while in Americorps. This is the official disclaimer for this blog:
- I am not an entertaining writer ~ so if you're looking for mere entertainment this is not the blog for you
- I tend to get excited and write spastically ~ so be prepared for jumbled entries
- I have a terrible memory and am incredibly lazy ~ so entries may not come as much as one may hope.
- I have never written a blog, or anything remotely like on ~ so lower your expectations
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, welcome to my blog. I will try to blog at least once a week to share with all of you my experiences during Americorps! I hope you all enjoy!
P.S. I do not leave until October 17th, so there will not be any posts until then.
- I am not an entertaining writer ~ so if you're looking for mere entertainment this is not the blog for you
- I tend to get excited and write spastically ~ so be prepared for jumbled entries
- I have a terrible memory and am incredibly lazy ~ so entries may not come as much as one may hope.
- I have never written a blog, or anything remotely like on ~ so lower your expectations
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, welcome to my blog. I will try to blog at least once a week to share with all of you my experiences during Americorps! I hope you all enjoy!
P.S. I do not leave until October 17th, so there will not be any posts until then.
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