Happy Turkey Day! I now give you permission to listen to Christmas music!

You can definitely tell the holidays are upon us. It's like suddenly California got the memo that, to most people, cold weather goes hand-in-hand with Thanksgiving and Christmas. Since Sunday it's been overcast and cold. And I mean COLD. Wind that cuts right through you no matter how many layers you're wearing and just in case that wasn't enough, a rainstorm to soak through your clothes. When packing to come here I didn't bring a lot of long sleeved things because I figured I'd have no need for them. Well I have since learned there is a BIG difference between northern California and the rest of California.

School was out of session all this week for the kids' Thanksgiving holiday so we had to find other places to fulfill our workday hours. We went with Silver 2 (which is our step team because our TL Abby is dating their TL Josh) to the American River to remove red sesbania.

This is an invasive plant species that grows its seeds in pods. There are 7 seeds per pod (little nod to pod 7!) and at least 20 pods per plant. So we pulled the plants and bagged the pods to be completely removed from the waterfront to make sure they wouldn't take root.

We learned what a real day's work in AmeriCorps really felt like- not to say that keeping thirty 2nd-graders in line isn't work... but the repetition of bending down to pull a plant up by the root and all the muscle action that goes along with it- let's just say we all slept very well that night and actually got to be outside for a work day!

For the ones that had really deep roots we used that bright orange tool in Baby Brett's hand

Green 2 and Silver 2 on lunch break

Tuesday was probably the best day. My team has been very lucky and it makes me very nervous to think what will happen when this luck runs out. We didn't have to work in the rain at Mendo and instead got to help set up a haunted house. We got Abby as a TL. Our team gets along very well... which most other teams don't. We got an amazing first project. And Tuesday our work day back at the riverbed was cancelled due to rain- they were calling for flash flooding. So we started the day in the 947 (my dorm building) lounge watching Finding Nemo with Silver 2 while the TLs tried to find something for us to do. All the other projects we could potentially do would have only taken like 30 mins for 24 people so that was out. Instead we went to 923 (the Big room) to make hand Turkeys:

Crafting!

And watch Crash for a diversity building day.
If you're wondering what that symbol in the middle of my hand turkey is, it's the official Green 2 logo:

After the movie and some discussion we went over to the supply depot building to help Handy Andy and AmeriMurph get everything counted and organized. Maya and I cleaned off rain boots and then were assigned to sleeping bags. We had to unroll all of them, check the zippers, check for rips and then roll them back up and categorize them as good, minor problems, or donate. 90 sleeping bags later and I never want to roll up another sleeping bag again!

Wednesday was another lucky day. We went to a California Park reserve to clear more invasive species- weeds and thistles- along a hike and bike trail. It was a cold day but we finally got to work together as just a team. We're usually separated in different classrooms so we were so excited to be on a job site just the 12 of us. We played games to make the time pass and when it came time for a bathroom break we had to pile in the van to drive to the other end of the park, where there was a playscape! So we got to play on the slides and swing sets.

So much fun! And as an added bonus, StepTL Josh brought us cookies and coffee on our lunch break!

During one of our breaks we played Ha-Ha

Thursday, of course, was Thanksgiving. I felt so accomplished for it being a day off. I woke up, showered, watched some morning TV and had breakfast all by 8 a.m. on my own! Marybeth and I headed over to the kitchens in 943 to help prep for the big meal. I was in charge of the turkeys- we named them Tom (~25 lbs), Theresa (~23 lbs), and baby Tony(~17 lbs). 3 turkeys for what turned out to be 70 people. I also helped make the mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and oversaw the making of the gravy and stuffing. We had quite a spread (but sadly no rutabagas)- cooking Thanksgiving dinner in 11 different kitchens certainly makes things a lot easier!

Sadly, that's sparkling cider... not chamagne 

Friday I finalized my Christmas plans. Originally I was going to stay here on base and maybe go explore wine country or possibly Canada with a couple of the girls on my team but they were bought surprise plane tickets home... which happen to be in the Chicago area (Naperville, Lincolnshire, and Elgin)- a place I haven't visited since last Christmas. So after a quick chat with the wonderful parental units, it was decided I would go to CHICAGO!!! I'm so excited to get to see the Illinoisey family again and see all my AmeriFriends who've been away on spikes, living in yurts and tents and whatnot. There's talk that we might knock out some ISP hours at a soup kitchen or a coat drive or something.

Today we took the 15-p into downtown Sacramento just to get off the base and return some library books. We wandered around the historic downtown area and then went to the Wesfield mall. It's a HUUGE open-air mall so we'd be walking through and all of a sudden it'd be raining and then dry and then raining again. But we did see something else that isn't too common in a mall:

I don't know if you can see all that well... but it's a fraking Hyundai dealership- in the mall! Across from the Verizon store and a Starbucks. Need a new car to go along with the caffee? California is a very interesting place.

Back to school on Monday. And hopefully I'll take lots of pictures now that we got the principle's approval to photograph the kids.

Oh and just as a little side note- look what I saw around the corner from Temple Cafe, Josh:

What did you do to end up on the Naughty list?!

Enjoy the pictures, there's a lot of them!

So once again, it only rains here on the weekend. But it's getting colder! Last night it was ~35!! But by the time the sun is up in the afternoon it's 70s. Fickle California.

So last night we went laser tagging!!!

We take this game seriously, so we were seriously prepared with face paint and our AmeriAlls to show what's up.

Real thugs don't look at the camera...

The Teams:

Blue: STL Lindsay, TL Abby, STL Murph, Maya, and Brett

Red: Me, Carly, Domo, Taylor, Allison, and Danny

Turns out the (S)TL plus Brett and Maya team beat us both times but it was so much fun!

This past work week just flew by. It was a short week again for the kiddos- school on Monday-Wednesday and off Thursday/Friday for parent-teacher conferences. We weren't off though, we had cleaning to do. We helped Robert the janitor clean the classrooms,

paint the tetherball poles,

 paint the playground benches,

clean the picknic tables, pick up trash,

 rake the playground mulch, clean restrooms, clean the cafeteria, remove graffitti, rake the courtyards,

 clean the area around where the dumpsters are kept, weed flower beds, clean up the parking lot,

polish the brass fixtures,

 and clean windows and mirrors. That last task got me into some trouble. I was cleaning windows and thought I'd go into the little girls' bathroom to clean the mirror. So I went in through the door on the right...

Got all the way into the bathroom and then discovered there was no mirror. So I went back to the door I had come in, but there was no handle on it and the actual exit door was locked. Luckily I had my phone and called Carly to come find me. That conversation was hilarious! "Carly... I'm trapped in the bathroom... could you come help me?" And because I didn't remember exactly which bathroom I had walked into she had to go around for a bit looking for me. Thanks, Teammate!

They told us in training that people would underestimate the amount of work an NCCC team could get done. We finished all our tasks in a day and a half. And that's only because it took us a while to rake up all the dang leaves. So Friday we had some free time to go see HARRY POTTER! So awesome! And I'm so glad it wasn't in 3-d... I think that would have been too intense.

As a joke one night, we borrowed Taylor's room key and got a poster at Target. We had originally been looking for a Hannah Montana poster to hang on Murph's door but found this instead. 

We signed each G2 girl's name to a girl but had one girl left over... so we signed Murph. Haha. When we showed it to him he just looked at the poster and said "yeah... so?" We told him to look further and when he noticed his name, in true Murph fashion, he just shrugged  and said "oh." Oh, AmeriMurph!

Friday night we loaded up the 15-p to get sushi! Yum! The STLs told us about Arigato's. Uh-maze-ing!

Got a caterpillar and spider roll and a glass of wine for $18 because we went during Sushi Happy Hour- all rolls 50%! After dinner the of-age girls decided we needed "grown-up drinks" because all we've had is beer from the local dive bar, Harvey's. So we were dropped off at the Streets of London Pub in Sac.

 It kind of reminded me of the Loophole. They had games behind the bar but no deck of cards. So we played waterfall with dominoes. It's difficult to remember the rules we agreed on and add the dots quickly. And it has a fireplace! Next time, we're going to shoot for a day when it's not raining so we can sit outside at the beer garden. After our drinks we called our favorite cab driver, Michael! He's so much fun- asks us trivia questions or tells us little knowledge nuggets during the ride, plus he gives us a flat rate and lets us know the cool spots to go to. Last time some of my team members went out, Michael dropped them at a club, told them to tell the door person he said hey and they were able to by-pass the line and the cover charge!

Yesterday and today have been lazy movie days, thanks to the rain. I have no idea what we'll be doing tomorrow for work. The kids are off all week and that means the school will be shut down so the NCCC admins are pairing our team with another local team so we don't fall behind on direct service hours. For Thanksgiving we're having a big potluck on base. Anyone staying behind who wants to eat has to volunteer to prep dishes, cook dishes, or clean up after the meal. And next weekend we might be planning a trip into San Fran. I just need to get paid. California is expensive and my stipend doesn't last very long. Especially with all our independent cultural enrichment activities lately.

The girls of G2!

I cleared my CTI pregnancy test but now have 30 kids

I've only been in the classroom for a total of 3 days and I am loving this long weekend! Monday I was dropped into my 2nd grade class and just told to be an aid to the teacher. So I spent most of the day grading homework, making copies, and walking the classroom to make sure the kids were paying attention. Tuesday the kids knew me a little more so I was able to interact more one-on-one with them during group work and help them understand the concepts better. I LOVE tutoring! I love finding the questions to help lead them to figuring out their own way to the answer. I love the light that happens behind their eyes when they figure out the answer. I love explaning things to them.

In my class we're learning how to regroup to help them learn to add. So if you have 13 and 9 you have 3+9 in the ones column and a 10 in the tens column. So 3+9 is more than 10 so you have to regroup. You group 10 of the ones together and "take it to the bank" to exchange for a ten-stick and now you have 2 tens and 2 ones. Making your answer 22. On Wednesday my teacher let me teach a section of the lesson using the SmartBoard. This is definitely the COOLEST bit of learning technology ever. It's a touch-screen overhead projector. You can highlight pictures and move them around, write on it using special markers, and then you can select to change your handwriting into text font. It's so hecka cool! I also got to do an art project on Wednesday with the kids. Earlier in the trimester they cut out autumn leaf shapes so I got to help them use temper paint and sponges to stamp-paint them. I was so proud of my kids. They got all the extra paint on their hands and the table and none of it on themselves or Miss Kate.
They call me Miss Kate- which I love. At first they just called me AmeriCorps and when the teacher addressed me by name, they all seemed confused and were very surprised to learn that AmeriCorps wasn't my name. So they learned to call me Miss Katie. But some of my problem children decided it was funny to call me Miss Cake but now it's settled into Miss Kate.

There's such a range of abilities in my class. It's kind of humbling to realize the diference between an elementary school here and back home. It makes me greatful for the schools I went to. When they say California schools are in trouble- they're not kidding. Within my class of 30 students, most of them have reading levels waaay below the lowest standards for their grade. Some of them don't even know the letter sounds. On Tuesday I lead a small reading group. We played a game of text twist. I gave them the letters- a,d,d,i,i,n,o,t on little cards and we used them to spell words like "add" "ant" "dad" "idiot" and worked all the way up to making the word "addition" which used all the letters. I did this to show them that big words are just made up of letters we know and you can break a word into more manageable bits by sounding it out. On top of being placed in a 2nd grade class, I was assigned to a specialty class- RSP. Basically it's the Learning Center to provide extra one-on-one time to those who really need it. I helped some 6th graders take a theme test by reading them the questions and answers and then reading the question again. On Monday I start work with a 6th grade boy who reads a little below a 2nd grade level.

By far my favorite time of day is the after school program with the Boys and Girls Club. It's set up to have the Power Hour first up where the kids go into a classroom and do their homework for a whole hour and we walk around helping them if they ask for it. I've stationed myself in the 4th grade room helping with math. We're learning about points, lines, rays, parallel and intersecting lines, and angles. Like I said, I love tutoring those kids! After Power Hour it's free time. They can rotate between art projects like coloring pages or decorating seed planters, playing board games, and going outside to play basketball or tetherball.

I know all of us on the team look forward to the school day being over so we can go to BaGC. It's a more relaxed time to spend with our kids and get to make better connections with them. I think, really, this is the point of why we're here. Yeah, it's great to be in the classrooms and help the teachers, but being there to make those personal connections with the kids, I feel, helps with the attendence rate. If getting to BaGC is what gets me through my day, is it the same for those kids? Would they show up to school just to get to go to the after school program and hang out with us? I've learned all the names of the kids in my class and know at least one thing about them. I know maybe 20 kids at BaGC and it's my goal to know them all by name, if not all the kids in the school. There are 500 kids enrolled from pre-k all the way up to 7th grade and I have until December 14th.

Thursday was Veteran's Day so we were off and Friday was a staff development day. I know I've been sitting in trainings for the last month, but this was especially boring. I don't know how you did it all the time, Mom! It was weird to be back in a classroom sitting in those desks with the chair attached and I have a bruise on the side of my right leg because I kept forgetting about that dang side bar under the desk. But I did remember how awesome it was to crack your back by leaning back in the chair!

The first guy was fun- kind of reminded me of Will Forte from SNL. His lecture was about reminding us what a different level these kids think on because most teachers assume kids have the cognative function to interpret actions, facial expressions, and vocal clues the same as adults. He also talked about separating your opinions from fact. Just because you've been teaching for 20 years and had multiple children in your class who have been diagnosed as bipolar and now you have a child acting in similar ways to those past children who hasn't been diagnosed does not mean that child is bipolar. He kept it light and interesting. The second lecturer for the day could have learned from him. He was so dry and, for being someone to teach teachers to teach better- he could work on his instruction skills. Multiple times he wanted to work on a choral responses and wanted everyone to recite answers back, but then changed where he started reading and then chided us on our unability to follow directions.

The best part of that day was the lunch break. You could definitely see the age groupings when lunch was over. We ate in the cafeteria and the adults were content to sit and the tables (after we had spent the whole day so far sitting) talking while the AmeriCorps stood in a circle playing hackey sack, dancing, and of course- since my team is never content with silence- we sang our two Team Theme songs- Build me Up Buttercup (my most favoritest song ever!) and Waka Waka by Shakira.

I just know tomorrow is going to fly by, as the weekends always do, and we're going to be back at school. My teacher told me she'd let me do more teaching next week. It's a short week again because there are parent-teacher conference days on Thursday and Friday. So we'll be using that time to help out the janitorial staff (which has been reduced to one guy who comes in twice a week due to distric budget cuts) clean the campus and painting. The playground is not as bright anymore and a lot of kids have felt the need to write profanity on it and the bathroom walls. We were told we could paint whatever and where ever we want to. So yay! A couple days to wear our coveralls, aka- AmeriAlls

Rainy day

As far as I can tell, with the exception of Camp Mendocino, it only rains in California on the weekends. This morning was a wonderful, lazy, overcast, day light savings time day. We woke up at 10 and invaded the kitchen for an hour long breakfast where we decided we needed to take a trip into SacTown. So Brett drove the 15-p into downtown so we could go to the library and the cafe. I got a library card today! I felt so accomplished!

I love the Central Library! It's 4 floors and the whole 1st floor is kid's floor with a huge dinosaur, lots of little reading tables, and of course- this awesomely huge Willy Wonka chair! We got a lot of books about teaching, games, and autistic teaching techniques in preperation for our first day in the classrooms tomorrow. Then we walked across the downtown square to Temple Cafe to stay out of the rain, use their internet and be someplace other than base. I got Enlightenment tea- green tea with steamed milk and honey... it was the weirdest thing to order "hi, I'd like Englihtenment, please?"

Tomorrow is the first day in classrooms and I'm so excited. I just know how tired I'm going to be after we're done. I think the van ride home will be very quiet. Wish me luck!

Back to School!!!

Yesterday was a long day, and we weren’t even in classes yet! We started the day with a 5:30  PT which left us with an hour to shower, make breakfast, and pack a lunch. We showed up at 7:30 to help with breakfast at school. The kids are allowed to eat in the cafeteria but can’t take the food out. We were there to help the kids stay on schedule and eat. I sat down at a table to help two 1st grade girls open their milk cartons. They just wanted to talk talk talk! I had to make a game out of it where every time they made me laugh they had to take 2 bites of their food- I laughed a lot!

Dr England, the principle, gave us a little more time to go through and visit any of the classes we missed or re-visit ones we liked and then we had to meet up in the teacher’s lounge to decide which classes we’d each be assigned to. It was a little hard to figure out at first because a lot of us wanted the same 4 teachers, but I got my first pick! 2nd grade, Mrs Neal’s class! We also had to pick a specialty, a class to spend an hour a day. we could pick from preK, Kinder, 7th grade, office work, counselor assistant, PE, RSP, or library help. I wanted a kindergarten class but I got RSP. Don’t ask me what it stands for, but it’s  a focused class where small groups of kids from any grade can come and get extra help with their courses. So I’ll be working with all the grade levels!

After we decided that we had some time to divide between recess monitors and lunchroom help. Went outside and played with the 1st graders.

I went to play tetherball and man are they fierce! I thought I’d be taking it easy on them, but no, those kids beat me for real! Going into the lunch room was a lot of fun. The kids can earn academic achievement bracelets, which look kinda like the LiveStrong ones, and we got to pass them out. The principle read the names, the school counselor rang cowbells and we ran around like crazy people passing out bracelets.

As soon as lunch was done we had to help clean the cafeteria:

and then run back to the teacher’s lounge to get ready for the Reach for the Stars assembly!

We decided to do our dance in our star costumes to the Cupid Shuffle. We came running down the aisle and all lined up at the front of the room and made complete fools of ourselves. Dr England had told us, there is no such thing as making an ass of yourself in front of elementary school kids. The more outrageous you are and stupid you feel, the more they love it! After we did our silly dance, Dr England announced which classes we’d be in and we went to sit with them.

The kids. Went. Crazy!

The sound system wasn’t working so to kill time the teacher who was running the whole assembly gave the AmeriCorps 10 seconds to run back up to the front and then we had to do our best horse impression. It’s so much fun to be around kids all day. We were all winding down by lunch time and then one of the kids, John-John came running up and gave all of us a hug and that was it- instant extra energy!

The after school program was a little less hectic than the day before because there were less kids there. My team and I were standing in the cafeteria trying to figure out where to go and one of the girls motioned for me to come over. I sat down with little Dominique and she told me I was her AmeriCorps and when her brother sat down with me and started telling me jokes she told him- “you can’t talk to my AmeriCorps!” It’s so funny how they call us “AmeriCorps” like it’s our name. So cute!!

After snack, I put myself at the crafts table (and Eslee quickly found me and sat as close as she could without actually sitting in my lap) where we were decorating plastic cups to be planters so that when the kids learn about photosynthesis they have something to grow their plant in. The B&GC staff just didn’t know what they could plant during this season that will grow. Anyone know? I didn’t think it would matter because they’re not outside/in the ground. Someone tell me what we can plant so we can hopefully get these going next week.

At 5 we were allowed to leave school so we could run home, eat dinner, and change from our AmeriPants into jeans and quickly dash back to school to watch Toy Story 3. Such a great movie! And it was so awesome to see the kids there with their parents.

After only 2 days at the school my team and I see so many things we want to help. And service learning tasks keep popping into my head. I want to find documentaries about the lives some of these children have when they go home- most of them have open CPS files. I want to learn more about the growing homeless rate of California- there’s a family that literally lives in a tree because that’s the safest place they can find. I want to learn games we can play at recess and learning games for the classrooms. I want to know kid-appropriate jokes- because yesterday some of them were telling me jokes and I don’t think they know how jokes work; example: “why didn’t the potato chip get cooked” “because it was covered in poop” while a valid point, not really a funny joke. I want to know what’s to be expected of each grade level- because to me there are two groups of school kids, little kids and big kids, so I have no idea what to expect from the grades and especially these kids because they’re so far behind. I want to learn how to discipline these kids within reason- there’s a 1st grade class where the teach has NO classroom management and the kids are ridiculously out of hand, I don’t want to throw off the balance of my classroom by being too harsh or not harsh enough. The B&GC wants us to start a program while we’re there and because we’re so musical, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a sing-along.

I can’t wait to get into the classroom on Monday and get to know all my kids and what I’ll be doing! But for now, we luckily have the weekend off. All the teachers told us to enjoy it because we’d need the rest!

I went to Mendocino and I’m surprised I didn’t come back with pneumonia…

We left Wednesday morning to drive the 4 hours north for our retreat in the redwoods. Not a bad drive, until you get to the winding roads that go along the side of a mountain, which as it turns out make me tearfully car sick when not sitting in the passenger seat. We got to the camp and found games to play while we waited for the other teams to arrive because of our staggered leaving times. This would be the last time we saw anything resembling sun light for about 80 hours! As soon as we were directed to our cabins and told to get settled in- it started raining. And it didn’t stop until the morning we left, and even then there was the chance of more rain to come.

Our first few hours there, while we were still waiting for the others, a group decided to go seek out the big tree. Somewhere about a mile away from camp was a HUUUGE redwood. About half way in our 1.5 mile trek away from camp we discovered that no one in the group we were with knew where we were headed. So we stuck to the train tracks until we came across A big tree. We were later told it wasn’t THE big tree, but so what. It’s the biggest tree I’ve ever seen and I’m kind of content with that. Plus we got to see some pretty cool nature stuff.

Everyone's so excited... even though it's the NOT big tree

I didn't want to hold this because I was pretty sure it was poisonous

As much as I want to see Montana or Washington, I really hope we don’t have any camping projects in the rainy mountains! Mendocino was eye opening for what SPIKES could be like… and we had it easy! “Camping” in open-air cabins and our meals provided to us by the camp cook. There were only 3 places that were guaranteed to be dry- the cabins, the chow hall, and the one room “museum” about the forest- only the dining hall was heated. When there are no dry places to play outside and no normal rainy day activities like tv/movies, computers, or cell phones time seems to pass very slowly. 

The facilitators tried their best to keep us dry, entertained, on schedule, and learn all the things we needed to have for our team building. We played games like the Newly Team Game, Birdie on a Perch, Swamp of Chaos, Number Pit, Cyclops, and Mafia. And true to sleep-away-camp form we preformed skits!

It was important that we have the team building classes because on Thursday we were to go up the high ropes course. And guess what! I actually did it! I didn’t get the least bit nervous! I should have been terrified because not only was the course half way up the redwood trees, but it was raining the whole time we were up there! I did get a battle scar from slamming my shin into the platform on the tree trapeze.

the tree trapeezes... trapeezi?

obviously I didn't take any of these pictures because it was raining the WHOLE time we were at camp

By Friday I was ready to find civilization, so it was rather lucky we got the service project we did. Now, the reason Pacific NCCC is allowed to go to camp Mendocino is because we’re free labor for them. We use the camp and they use us to beautify the place. So all the other teams had been sent out in the rain to dig trenches along the side of the road into camp to help with drainage make sure the road lasts longer. We got to drive 40 minutes down the mountain, past all those wonderful trenches, into Fort Bragg to help the Starr community center build their haunted house (AND on the drive down I got to see the Pacific Ocean! It was stormy and gloomy, but I saw it!). We walked into the center and everyone started cheering for AmeriCorps. One of the women who worked at the center showed us to a room that was to be the kids’ games room and just told us to decorate it and another room that needed to be completely blacked out for the haunted house. I spent most of the time cutting out bat bodies so the kids could trace their hands to make the wings and stuffing the plastic bag pumpkins with news paper. Our TL Abby and a couple of the boys went to get 50 pumpkins for their aquatic pumpkin patch! That’s right! They had stickers for the kids to decorate the pumpkins and then they would all be thrown into the pool. Let’s just say most, if not all, of Green Unit hates my team for escaping trench duty.

Saturday could not come fast enough. I was so ready to be warm and dry and sleep in a real bed! We woke up at 5 and had our first day of PT since getting to camp because the other days’ had been cancelled due to rain. I know I was glad, and those around me were thankful for only having one day of PT at the end of the trip because it was so cold and packing space was so limited that most people (myself included) did not plan to shower while at camp. Don’t judge! I technically had a lot of little rain showers!

After a quick clean up of the camp, the AmeriOlympics were held! The winners of each event were awarded medals. The events:
1) boot toss- throw a steel toed boot from one end of the field into a hula hoop at the other end of the field
2) wheel barrow race- one person is the wheel barrow one way down the field, the other person is on the way back
 3) 4-legged race- 3 people, one had to face backwards and we had to go across the field and back. It’s a lot harder than you think! We thought we had it all planned out- we definitely made it half way down the field the first lap and fell over laughing and couldn’t finish!
4) egg relay- 5 people relayed an egg balanced on a spoon
5) PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) race- one person started on one end of the field, ran to the other and had to quickly dress in coveralls, hard hat, work gloves, and eye goggles before running back to the start line.

I  am sad to report Green 2 won no medals that day.

Then we packed up the vans and headed out! Yay! It’s so nice to be back on base!! I’m pretty sure it was in the 30s every night and the rain didn’t help so now I have a bit of a cold. Just to go to sleep I wore 2 pairs of socks, long underwear, sports bra, under armor (which I never took off the 4 days we were there), sweatshirt, neck warmer, beanie, fleece vest, and zipped myself all the way into my sleeping bag. Getting up in the middle of the night to put on boots to trudge across camp in the rain to go to the bathroom was a ridiculous task!

On the way down the mountain I felt the need to pop my ears but I couldn’t get it. I self-diagnosed an ear infection and cold. Went to Sick Call Monday morning, accidently told the receptionist I had alternative healthcare, was charged a $30 co-pay instead of the AmeriStandard $5 to be told I was right. I have a prescription for 7 days of antibiotics. First AmeriIllness- history in the making people! When I was at Sick Call, I was honestly surprised it was only me and 2 other girls. I was expecting most of Green Unit to be complaining of flu-like symptoms… or pneumonia!

The last couple days have been pretty easy. I think I've only had a few meetings and they've been at night. I missed my Red Cross Save the Children meeting due to Sick Call but it's basically opening a box of toys to provide care for children when we're in a disaster shelter. I had the training for SLI (Service Learning Initiator, my team role) and last night was the intro meeting to the Governance Council (AmeriCorps' answer to Student Council). So there's been a lot of sleeping in and spending time with pod friends and friends on other teams because today is the last official day of CTI (corps training  institute). This morning was our last PT of CTI so we re-did the baseline test. I think I've pretty much stayed the same... if not worse. I joked that I wanted to add 2 minutes to my run time because I thought that was a goal I could accomplish, but I'm pretty sure I shaved a minute off. As far as the push-ups/ sit-ups, I think I might have done worse. I hate sit-ups. They should have had us do crunches. I can rock crunches! And the stretch test I think I lost an inch or two on. Oh well- personal best is always changing.

Tomorrow is our induction and we get to wear our AmeriTux, which consists of black BDUs with a white polo and our steel-toes. We had a big AmeriBoot Polishing Party yesterday. I don't think I did it right. They still feel kind of sticky from the waterproofing. I don't really know how I could mess it up- you just put the stuff on a towel and rub it into the leather- but I think I accomplished it.
Induction also means tomorrow is departure day- everyone is leaving on SPIKE until December 14!! The base is going to be so empty! Only 7 teams out of the 28 that are here will be staying local. I'm going to miss everyone so much but I can't wait to start the adventure and get SPIKE mail from everyone about their projects. 5 weeks is a long time in AmeriDays. I hope we all learn a bunch.