CHANGE & Mendocino

It's been a while! SO much going on here! Still so many classroom trainings but the recent ones haven't been that bad.  More activities and team building stuff. Less sitting, more doing week I guess you could call it.  Also, we are no long in our pods.  We got broken up into units... I am in the Blue Unit.  It was quite an emotional night.  It seems that everyone grew close to their pods and so when they broke everyone up it was quite crazy.  They made it a scavenger hunt... which made my anxiety shoot through the roof.  I am the only one from my pod who didn't't have someone else from their pod in their unit.  It was quite overwhelming to see about 70 new people in the same place and realize I was going to have to do the whole getting-to-know-you thing all over again.  When I finally spotted a few familiar faces it calmed me down, but it never left my conscienceness that something new was beginning and that this program is all about last minute, the unknown and change.  I knew this before I got here, but it was sinking in and the reality of it was showing it's face.  I made myself breathe.  It turned out that my good friend Chase is in the same unit and that made me smile.  We didn't get to find out our teams on this night which made everything even more unsure.

The next night we actually found out our teams.  The entire Corps had a pizza dinner together which meant our pod got together for the last time.  It was bittersweet for me.  I had gotten closer to some than to others but it was weird to know things were going to be drastically different from that point on. We enjoyed eachother and then we were sent on, yet another, scavenger hunt.  Not too me a negative nancy, but I was not thrilled.  I just wanted to know who my team was already and begin the process.... again.  I soon learned that my team will forever be BLUE 1.  Our team leader, Jim, just got back from serving in American Samoa.... which is incredibly awesome.  It seemed like my new team was going to be fine together.

The next few days we had more trainings.  I also learned that I was one of maybe 2 or 3 people (out of our 10 member team) who wanted/were qualified to drive.  I was super nervous!  Turned out I did well on the driving test, passed, and now I am so happy I did it.  The day after the driving test we left for Camp Mendocino.  Camp Mendocino is about 4 hours north of Sacramento on a beautiful mountain.  It's a camp for underprivledged kids and it's the most amazing place I have seen in a while.  It's in the Red Wood forests so of course it was amazing.  We left on a Wednesday morning and I was the first one at the wheel.  It was so breathtaking to see mountains and rolling hills in the scenery rather than the regular flat landcape I'm used to.  I knew at that moment I am living my dream, and if I am seeing such things so early in the program, I can't even imagine what's in store later on down the road.  It was a moment of clarity; why I'm here.  It was a wonderful trip up.

When we arrived to the camp it was a breath of fresh air: literally and metaphorically.  It smelled so wonderful and the air was so crisp.  There were open aired cabins with about 6 pairs of bunkbeds in all.  The owners were so wonderful and made every meal for us (this was such a treat as we always have to make our meals).  This trip was mainly about team building.  We did many activities, a ropes course, a rock wall, and a zip line! And YES, I did it all!  It was such a goal oriented experience.  I had some difficulty during part of the ropes course and the team really helped me through it.  It's been a long time since I have felt that sense of team work and it really was because of them that I didn't give up.  It was a wonderful feeling.  I believe this team is going to be able to get through a lot together.  As long as we all help eachother stay above the water in high tide.

The nights were really fun in Mendocino.  There were campfires, people brought their guitars and we all sang, I got to get to know some of my new teammates, & I got to have moments I never thought I would experience.  When it was time for bed, we all pretty much wore our long underwear, sweat pants, shirts, sweatshirts, hoodie, hat, parka, socks, and maybe even more. It was obviously cold.  Actual sleep was hard to come by, so were showers, so it made us all appreciate more of what we have on campus. Not to mention it didn't really matter how smelly or gross we were because everyone was! haha

On our way back to Sacramento, I was the first one to drive down the mountain.  We were the last team to leave from our unit so when I was driving down there were vans arriving with teams from other units.  When I was passing 2 vans all of a sudden the fire extinguisher exploded in the front seat!  We all had no idea what happened and since I was driving I was in charge of unlocking the doors.  I couldn't see anything and barely could breathe.  I could hear everyone coughing and my team leader yelling to open the doors.  Finally I found the lock and everyone fell out of the van.... still coughing.  We still had no idea what happened.  The other 2 vans stopped to help.  We then realized everyone walked through poison oak when getting out of the van.  We had to go all the way back to the camp and get medicine and since we all had long underwear on, stripped off our pants and shoes and walked around in our socks and long johns.  It was quite a sight.

We finally got back to campus at about 6pm and went out to dinner together.  The rest of the weekend we had off, which was wonderful.