The Internet Has Been Down!!

<---- Pod 11/SaberSquad
Back row: Sam, David, Dustin, Mike, Thad
Middle row: Me, Vaya, Max, Sam, Yakov
Front row: Jennifer, Caitlin (my roommate), Vladi (our TL)

So, the internet has been down for the past 3 days. Very sad indeed. Here is a quick review of last week:

Wednesday: We had a meeting about community relations and we all designed bumper stickers for AmeriCorps. Mine was: "get things done" (which is part of the AmeriCorps pledge) and it had a picture of a chicken on it with a thermometer popped out. I thought it was brilliant, but when I presented it in front of all the groups, only my pod laughed... I think I'm just beyond everyone when it comes to the mind...

Thursday: In the afternoon, we had a Van Driver course; think drivers ed for 15-passenger vans. I am officially van driver certified. Yeah!

Friday: It was our first PT (physical training) running day and we were split up into running groups based on ability. The three groups are: Rivercats 1,2,3 Kings 1,2,3 and Monarchs, 1,2,3. I'm a Rivercat 3. Yeah! In the afternoon, we had CPR/First Aid/AED courses. I am now recertified in all three.

Saturday: Official Make a Difference day in Sacramento. Mayor, Kevin Johnson (former member of the Suns basketball team) met and spoke with us and we had a huge group picture with him. All 300 of us were there. Then we had a presentation about volunteerism and homelessness, and one speaker was a guy from Michigan who had been a homeless drug addict for 11 years and now has a job and a home and is successful. Very inspirational.

Then, in the afternoon, our pods separated and went to do various service projects around town. Pod 11 worked at Senior Gleaners, the place where the collect food and drinks and other items from businesses throwing things away. For example, Campbells has a package of soup cans, but one of the cans is slightly dented. Well they would throw the whole pack away normally, but Senior Gleaners picked it up and distributes it to homeless shelters around the area. My pod and another pod cleaned off dirty pop cans for 4 hours. We cleaned, boxed, and stacked over 2,000 cans that day! Yay productivity!

Sunday: It was a free day today, so my pod, as a last hurrah before being split up into our permanent teams for the year, went to this riverbank called Paradise Beach. That is the location of the picture above. Then after, we came back and grilled for dinner before having a big community meeting. *Details of the meeting will come tomorrow, for I am exhausted and have PT at 5:30 am.

So, thanks for everyone who has been reading!

<3 anne