Um?

Hey Everybody,

The last couple days were not the most exciting, but, I will share the details anyway, for those who really care.

Thursday, we had training for our team roles. Each team member is assigned certain jobs for the entire year. I am a co- PT coordinator, and the Service Learning Initiator. Sounds fancy. For PT, I get to pretty much be a health and fitness coach for the team alongside Andrew, my Jersey teammate.

For SLI (Service Learning Initiator) I get to initiate service learning activities. And, what exactly is service learning, one might ask. Well, I really can't tell you, because I still don't really get it. Apparently, we have to plan team activities to teach the team members more about the community and history and backgrounds of our project. For example: we will be in Mecca, CA for seven weeks. So, an activity would be to gather community newspapers, have each member read an article, and then report back to the team. But then, during training, they had us do activities such as: make a magazine collage about how you feel in AmeriCorps, and then another where we made an acrostic poem using all the letters from AmeriCorps (Ex: Awesome, Marvelous, Exciting, etc.). I don't really understand what those two activities have to do with anything, or service learning, so I'm just not going to do those. I'll spare my team from elementary exercises. We aren't seven.

Then came Friday. Today we had an all day service project from 7 am to 2 pm. Our assignment, along with 5 other teams, was to clear brush and thorny blackberry bushes from a biking trail through a suburban community, right near an elementary school. Now, you may recall, I have had a run-in with prickly bushes before. This time, I was prepared and ready as ever to tackle those thorns. It was a great, productive day.

This weekend we have Saturday and Sunday off! So that means.......I'm going to Lake Tahoe! Five people from good old Pod 11 are heading out there tomorrow morning (it's around 2 hours from Sacramento), spending the night in South Lake Tahoe, hiking on Sunday, then heading back. I'm very, very, very excited to get out of here! Can't wait to not wear a uniform, and do my hair, and look like a girl, and go somewhere new (and by choice!). It's going to be great! I will report back Sunday!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Anne