Day off!!! Time to update!

Hey y'all!  I know it's been about 4 days since I got here but I am finally allowed some time to do some housekeeping! I can't believe it's only been 4 days! It feels likes weeks, and when speaking to my people here I am definitely not the only one who feels that way.  The first day we were broken up into what are called Pods.  There are about 12 people in each pod and they are just assigned alphabetically.  My "pod people" are some of the goofiest people I have ever met :o) Two of the girls happen to be my roommates. That's actually nice so then we can help eachother out about meeting times and such.  By the way, my roommates are awesome.  The 2 girls next door I also love.  I definitely lucked out in that area.  Honestly though, everyone that I have met, so far, is so fun and nice.  Whenever you seen someone walking around an automatic "hello" and/or smile appears, no matter if you have met them before or not.  It's a small community of people of like minds but at the same time so different.  The perfect place for me.


So, day one was a long day of flying: Tallahassee to Atlanta; Atlanta to Denver; Denver to Sacramento.  I'm still not a fan of flying but once I got here I was fine:o)  There was of course a big group of us there at the end and we broke up and took vans to the campus.  Once we got here we started in processing.  In processing was basically getting all our uniforms, IDs, room numbers, getting aquainted, etc.  It was quite hectic.  There are about 260 Corps Members (CM) and then there are Team Leaders (TL) and Staff.  There aren't as many TL as there normally would be because quite a few are actually in American Samoa helping with disaster relief there.  Incredibly incredible if you ask me.  It's very uncertain when they will return since, I think they said, there are only 2 flights going out of there a week.  Lets just hope they return safely.

The second day began at 6am with a provided breakfast.  Not too shabby.  It's amazing how your picky-ness will disappear after only a few short hours.  Anyhoo, we had lots of trainings that day, which meant a lot of sitting, a lot of listening, and A LOT of paper work!  The TLs actually did some safety skits for us that were HILARIOUS!  These people work so hard but they definitely know how to have fun!  I met some people at breaks that were awesome.  We also had some Pod meetings.  Then we had dinner that was provided for us.  That night I met up with a friend I met on Facebook before all this and he invited me to a local bar a bunch of people were going to.  I thought, "why not?!"  That's right... the second night I was here I went to a bar...haha.  It was very small and full of AmeriCorps people.  I had a service project the next day so I knew I needed my rest so Chase, the friend I went with, walked me all the way back home, and then he went back for a while. I told you these people were awesome! 

Friday we had our first service project!  My group's project was helping out in an organic community veggie/fruit garden (I THOUGHT OF YOU, NATHAN!).  I was excited!  The older people who ran it needed help moving mulch around.  I think we worked for 6 or 7 hours just moving mulch around.  Of course it got hot and we got sweaty and stinky and a whole lot of sun, but when we were done it was so cool to look around at our work and know we helped these people so much.  It would have really been hard for them to do it alone in one day.  The garden was actually going to have an open house the day after so they needed help very much to make it look presentable.  During the day I got to get to know some of the girls on my team.  It's so cool to learn about people's lives and how different everyone is.  After our hard days work, we reflected as a group on the highs and lows.  If you know me, you know I had talking in big groups.  But this time it just flowed out of me like I never had an issue about it.  I thought it was about time I break out and just be me.  It might sound weird but I really think the internal me was yelling to JUST DO IT!  That moment was a big deal to me and I don't think I will ever forget it. 

A funny moment from the service day was when our Pod leader, Dan, asked us to go around the group and say what super power we would like to have.  Before anyone else went, he said he would love to be able to teleport to anywhere in the world because he hates the travel aspect of travel... as do I.  I knew I couldn't say the same thing so when it was my turn I said that I would love to have the capability to make everyone around me calm and happy.  It got a good response so I was satisfied.  Later that night both my roommates tell me that they thought that was the coolest answer and that I was the nicest person... hippie-like.  This made me smile.  I'm finally letting others see who I am and they are actually seeing it.  This feeling is amazing and I don't remember ever feeling it.  I hope I can keep it up.  In fact, I plan to. :o)

The night of our service we went grocery shopping.. From now on we are responsible for our own meals.  It was crazy going into the store with about 15 people, buying food for about 25 (2 pods cook dinners for eachother).  Even though I was exhausted I hung out with a friend afterwards, watch It's Always Sunny in Philly, laughed HARD, then went to my room and fell asleep.  What a great day.

I wake up the next morning and my whole upper body is sore! They best kind of sore though (sore of course from the hard labor before).  Before I know it, though, I will be in shape and things will be easier.  From about 8:30am to 4:30pm we sat in a room and listened to trainings on safety and stuff like that.  It's amazing how stiff ones body can get and how tiring sitting can be.  That was a slow day.  I don't think so much info at one time is a good way to cement it into people brains but I'm sure we will all learn with practice.  That's how I learn.  That was yesterday, so last night my Pod and I went to an amazing Mongolian BBQ.  You make your dish out of raw meats and veggies and then top it off with cold pasta.  You then give it to the cooks and they cook your bowl right in front of you! It was delish!  I also got to talk to 3 other girls my age and had a blast :o)  When I got back I went with my friend Chase and his friends (which I met) and we walked over to a nearby gas station to get ICEES.  The walks and getting out are much needed since we are all living in such close quarters.  When we got back to campus we watched the episodes of Community that we missed and laughed until it hurt, talked for a while, listened to some music, then it was time for bed.

This morning we had 7am physicals.  They weren't too bad.  Then we had to make a trip to Target to get some personal items.  The van rides with my Pod are always interesting and fun.  Now I'm back, finally able to update you all, doing laundry, and hopefully going to go see Where The Wild Things Are in downtown Sacramento.  Fingers crossed!  I miss you all and hope everyone is doing well!  I am doing groovy and gain more confidence everyday for myself and what lies ahead of me for this program.  There are hard moments, of course, but I have amazing people around me to pull me out of whatever funk my brain is in (they of course don't know I might be in a funk but they still pull me out :o)).  More to come!

peace&love,
mags