Back to business...
So I've become very close with/to my pod over the past two weeks. We really had a pod of all-stars, although all the pods said the same thing about themselves. It's an amazing unintentional experiment of human needs (at least for my age group.) In my opinion, since nobody knows anybody at the beginning, we're all more prone to opening up to the kids we spend the most time with, which was the pod. It sounds simple, but these kids really were great. There were three college graduates from George Washington, Dartmouth and Wesleyan, a 24-year old coming back from a year in Australia, and even more easygoing, adventurous children of nature. We hit it off right out the gates.
The first service project we had was in a town called Winters, a small, rural place 1 hour northwest of Sac town at a community garden. Or at least it would soon become a community garden. Right now it was an uneven plot of land with some posts marked out. We dug trenches for 8 hours for irrigation purposes. Nuff said.
The following day the crew went to downtown Sacramento and spent the first 2 hours eating brunch and exploring a sizable park behind the capital building. It was breezy, but warm. There are rarely clouds in the sky in Sacramento. But after those first couple of hours, we branched out into different parts of Sacramento and found a very different scene. Not only were 95% of stores closed (granted it was Sunday), but some parts of teh city looked stuck in the 60's. The only people on the streets were homeless and mostly crazy. It was a really sad scene. My first glimpse of poverty. We rambled over to Old Sacramento (affectionately dubbed Old Sac, guffaw guffaw) and found a kind of frozen 20's small town setting, but the stores were filled with souvenirs and some were restaurants and ice cream parlors. Nicer then downtown Sacramento, but still shady. Either way, the pod endured a laugh fest that continued all day. For lack of better description, we just laughed at each other and stupid things (like Old Sac) all day. My abs were sore the next day.
A moderated crew went to San Francisco the next Saturday night. Talk about an awesome city. It's all on a hill, just beautiful. We met a friend of a friend working there, ate Thai food, and went out on the San Francisco town. It was awesome. The friend of a friend was Latvian, so we all went back to her friend's house and partied there for the rest of the night. Reminded me heavily of times spent abroad. I learned only the most essential Latvian phrases, which I won't repeat. The next day consisted of breakfast, Golden Gate Bridge park, Pier 39 (where Sea Lions whore themselves out to each on docks in plain sight of humans), and a store called 826 that sold pirate gear (don't ask).
We started Physical Training (heretofore called PT) the week after we arrived. It consists mostly of running, with some pushups, situps, and other exercises mixed in. Not hard, unless it's at 5:30 every morning. Ever tried serious physical activity in the middle of the night? Add some dew and you have PT. Not to mention grumbling guys and whining girls. And overspirited team leaders. And 300 kids running every which way to nab the best "night vests" (bright orange). Because if you don't get the best night vests they end up falling down one side of your body as you run, an unwanted distraction to even the least serious of runners. PT just sucks. Plain and simple. I see why some people need it, but it's too early. Simple bodily functions don't operate that early. See what I mean by "grumbling guys"? And of course you stay up too late with your new found friends and deprive yoruself of sleep. Everyone has a cold. Seriously. Everyone.
The nightlife at McClellan Air Force Base consists of two options: the local dive bar Harvey's, or the hookah bar a little down the road. The 18-year-olds prefer the hookah bar, while I like Harveys. For those who know what I'm talking about, imagine Don's Rok meets the pub. Only beer is served, but it's small and crowded with only the most suspicious townies posted up at the bar. The primary activity at Harvey's is pool. I've seriously improved my game. Or maybe I just get drunk and think I've improved my game. More coming on that once I've figured it out. On the way back to campus is the 24-hour taco restaurant Adalberto's. I have yet to stop in, but I can only imagine how much effort they put into their ingredients and flavorings. Can't wait.
So I'm almost caught up. The most recent event (happened 2 days ago) was the break up of Pod 5 (my pod). I am now fully with the team I will spend the next 9.5 months with. They are a great bunch, but the energy isn't there yet. They are quite reserved. 3 boys and 6 girls, with a male Team Leader. Everyone's starting to loosen up, but we have a long way to go. I guess that's why they put us together for 10 months. More on this later.
Just a warning, I want this blog to be just that, but also a journal. So at times I may wander off into thought, at which point if you find it boring or not understanding what I'm saying move on to the next paragraph. Not sure if this will work, but I want to remember some things I was thinking also. And keeping a blog and journal is difficult. I'm bound lose one of them.
As you were. Still "Getting Things Done" in Americorps. Even if what's "getting done" wasn't supposed to be.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Sunny California
I hoped to only blog on my own computer, to relax with some music, clear my head, and try my hand at this blogging stuff. But it has yet to arrive, so for now I'll do a short post in the computer lab at McClellan Air Force Base. In all honesty, it's not fair writing my first post at this time. So much has happened that trying to sum it up in one sitting can't be justified. In this way I've failed in my first blog attempt, but hopefully future posts will fill you in. Eh fuck it i'll try and do it now:
It's boring to list off the activities completed day by day, mostly because said activites were more boring than Home Ec class. So assume that by day (roughly 8 - 4), I was sitting in a drab, grey, mess hall type-room, sitting in drab, grey chairs, leaning over (you guessed it) drab, grey tables staring at a projector screen and listening to a lecture that could have been cut down by a quarter of the time in which it was given. Diversity training does not take 8 hours. I refuse to believe it. Anyways, much time was spent playing 4-person scrabble on iphones and trying to figure out how to sneak a headphone into one ear without the team leaders noticing.
I will, however, start you off at the beginning. I took a 5:40 AM flight to Sacramento Airport, stopping in Philly and Las Vegas. I met 3 other kids from Albany somewhere along the way (who knew Albany was a hotbed for Americorps NCCC members?), and we played the let's-make-awkward-conversation-as-we-size-each-other-up-in-our-anti-sunday-best-comfort-clothes-while-hoping-that-everyone-else-in-the-program-does-not-look-as-bedraggled-and-dishevelled-as-these-shmucks-look game. A laborious game with very few winners. Naturally, I became good friends with them and remain so to this moment. I hope they don't consider me a shmuck.
Arriving on campus (jetlagged and tired), we were thrust into the pandemonium that was the administering of uniforms and gear. It was a similar sitaution to the game played with the Albany kids at airports, but multiplied by about 75. Instead of 4 kids sizing each other up, there's 300. And it's much, much louder and more chaotic. There's 9 stations to get to, and you can go in order, but there's a twist. If one station looks too crowded, you can skip it and move on to the next one, or just hop around at random if you are so inclined. Either way, you can see where the chaos comes from. Some questions I inevitably overheard at this time: "Wait, we can go to ANY station we want?", "But I don't have my boots yet... Can I get my shirt first?" and "Is this station 2, 3 or 4?" What they didn't tell us was that stations 4, 5 and 6 had to be consecutive. Anyways, you can see how frustrating this could be with a temporarily deaf left ear (from jetlag), sleep deprivation, and the always overzealous try-to-meet-everyone-kid shaking your hand twice in the span of 10 minutes. However, I got all my gear, a room and a roommate in a little under 2 hours. Not terrible I guess. Perhaps time for a hot shower...
We learned later on that evening that half of the team leaders that would normally be there were in American Samoa helping that area get back on its feet after a hurricane or tsunami or something hit the area a month or two ago. So the team leaders left at campus were overworked and very stressed. We were separated into 12-person pods by alphabetical order. So, in my pod, was a Dixon, Drago, Duff, Dye... you get the idea. These pods, in normal circumstances, woudl last 4 days, as they sorted out who would be in what team. But this year they kept us in them for 2 weeks, leading inevitably to all-consuming infatuation with the members of ones pod and pure spite and anger when we were separated 2 weeks later. Seriously, people cried. But I'm really tired now, so I will finish this tomorrow...
Things to look forward to in tomorrow's post: Physical Training Starts, Trips to Downtown Sacramento and San Francisco, The local nightlife scene, campus dynamics and kitchen chaos.
It's boring to list off the activities completed day by day, mostly because said activites were more boring than Home Ec class. So assume that by day (roughly 8 - 4), I was sitting in a drab, grey, mess hall type-room, sitting in drab, grey chairs, leaning over (you guessed it) drab, grey tables staring at a projector screen and listening to a lecture that could have been cut down by a quarter of the time in which it was given. Diversity training does not take 8 hours. I refuse to believe it. Anyways, much time was spent playing 4-person scrabble on iphones and trying to figure out how to sneak a headphone into one ear without the team leaders noticing.
I will, however, start you off at the beginning. I took a 5:40 AM flight to Sacramento Airport, stopping in Philly and Las Vegas. I met 3 other kids from Albany somewhere along the way (who knew Albany was a hotbed for Americorps NCCC members?), and we played the let's-make-awkward-conversation-as-we-size-each-other-up-in-our-anti-sunday-best-comfort-clothes-while-hoping-that-everyone-else-in-the-program-does-not-look-as-bedraggled-and-dishevelled-as-these-shmucks-look game. A laborious game with very few winners. Naturally, I became good friends with them and remain so to this moment. I hope they don't consider me a shmuck.
Arriving on campus (jetlagged and tired), we were thrust into the pandemonium that was the administering of uniforms and gear. It was a similar sitaution to the game played with the Albany kids at airports, but multiplied by about 75. Instead of 4 kids sizing each other up, there's 300. And it's much, much louder and more chaotic. There's 9 stations to get to, and you can go in order, but there's a twist. If one station looks too crowded, you can skip it and move on to the next one, or just hop around at random if you are so inclined. Either way, you can see where the chaos comes from. Some questions I inevitably overheard at this time: "Wait, we can go to ANY station we want?", "But I don't have my boots yet... Can I get my shirt first?" and "Is this station 2, 3 or 4?" What they didn't tell us was that stations 4, 5 and 6 had to be consecutive. Anyways, you can see how frustrating this could be with a temporarily deaf left ear (from jetlag), sleep deprivation, and the always overzealous try-to-meet-everyone-kid shaking your hand twice in the span of 10 minutes. However, I got all my gear, a room and a roommate in a little under 2 hours. Not terrible I guess. Perhaps time for a hot shower...
We learned later on that evening that half of the team leaders that would normally be there were in American Samoa helping that area get back on its feet after a hurricane or tsunami or something hit the area a month or two ago. So the team leaders left at campus were overworked and very stressed. We were separated into 12-person pods by alphabetical order. So, in my pod, was a Dixon, Drago, Duff, Dye... you get the idea. These pods, in normal circumstances, woudl last 4 days, as they sorted out who would be in what team. But this year they kept us in them for 2 weeks, leading inevitably to all-consuming infatuation with the members of ones pod and pure spite and anger when we were separated 2 weeks later. Seriously, people cried. But I'm really tired now, so I will finish this tomorrow...
Things to look forward to in tomorrow's post: Physical Training Starts, Trips to Downtown Sacramento and San Francisco, The local nightlife scene, campus dynamics and kitchen chaos.
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