week update

So I realized I have not been very good at keeping up with this. There is not much to report though, because we have mostly been sitting in classrooms all day doing training for various things like van safety and cpr training. I am now officially certified to perform cpr and other emergency maneuvers. The woman who ran the cpr training was...difficult. She felt the need to add to her 7 hours of lecturing with personal anecdotes like the time her stepmother tried to drive her father who was having a heart attack to the hospital instead of calling and amubulance. She added that her father died and her stepmother got what she deserved. Whoa.
I had to go to urgent care on Wednesday because I was having chest pain for a couple days that was getting worse. I tried to see the doctor here but she said she couldn't evaluate chest pain, so I had to go to urgent care. They told me I had inflamed cartilage in my ribs or Costochondritis. I took ibuprofin for a couple days and it went away.
During the week we also did tool training and various team building activities. On Saturday we left campus at 6:15 to go to city park and build trails, which is what we trained for on Monday of last week. We got there and waited to get our team of 10 people to go start working, but they underestimated the number of people they were getting, so my partner and I never ended up getting a team. A bunch of the corps members who didn't get teams ended up working together. It was pretty cool to see all these huge piles of gravel turn into a trail in just a few hours. Afterwards there was some live music and really good mediterranean food. The mayor even came out and talked to all of us. It was about 85 degrees and sunny, which made it a nice (but pretty hot) day.
Sunday was gorgeous weather again and I spent the day laying outside and reading. My friend Jess Wurtz from Bryn Mawr who lives near Colorado Springs came to visit in the evening and we went to a bar to watch the Redsox game.
The week was kind of rough in terms of so much classroom time, and a few people are really getting on my nerves, but I also feel like I have made better friends this week. A bunch of us went bowling one night, and i went out to eat with some other people, so that has been nice getting to know people better.

Playground Project

A girl in my group took this picture of me during our playground project.



Today (Tuesday), my team did a project in Denver. We were assigned to a playground that needed to be filled in with wood chips. The best way to envision it is an in ground pool with a playground in the middle of it, two feet deep. Those two feet needed to be filled to the top. We ended up using 1700 cubic yards of wood chips (two tractor trailers' worth). The project manager didn't think we could get it all done today, but we finished in about 4.5 hours (with a lunch break in there). It felt good to actually get out and do something after spending so much time in the classroom in training. Tonight at 5 our team is playing another team in kickball and I am really looking forward to that.

Yesterday we went to a park in the morning to get trained for a project we are leading on Saturday. We are split up into pairs and are leading groups of 8 to 10 in building trails at one of the city parks. It should be pretty fun. Starbucks and Panera Bread are catering it, which I am also excited about.

Here is a link to my playground pictures if you want to see more.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025711&l=243ef&id=10300564

Rainy Weekend

On Saturday we went with the entire Fire Unit to Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater to go hiking. It was beautiful and they have an amazing theater where a lot of really cool people have played. The theater is totally carved out of the rock around it. While we were there, there was some kind of fitness group running up and down the steps. I walked all the way up them once and was exhausted. each step is about 2 feet high. Some people from our group ran all the way down them, running all the way down one step and then down to the next level to run all the way down the next. In total, this was 3.1 miles of running. Intense. The hike was beautiful. I will attach the link to my pictures on facebook at the bottom of this post. Afterwards our group went to Denver and walked around and saw things and ate and drank things. I found a really cool bookstore (I love bookstores) and bought a few things. On Saturday night my roommate and I went to a Mexican restaurant/bar and watched the Redsox play and then went to bed.
Sunday was a our big awaited day off and a chance to sleep in, but I of course (with my excellent internal clock) was up at 7. Brunch on Sundays doesn't start until 11:30, and every day the past week I have eaten both breakfast and lunch by 11:30, so I was very hungry. After brunch my roommate and I went back into the city and walked around and some stores. We walked to the Civic Center where there is an enormous blue bear statue peaking into the building. This is also in my pictures. The entire weekend it has been really rainy and cold, so that is a downer. Especially because we were told that Colorado has the most sunny days of any state. Not anymore.

link to the pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025682&l=7c547&id=10300564

i dont know how to make it show up as a link, so you might have to copy and paste it into a browser window

the mountains

The mountains here are really beautiful, and the entire western skyline is consumed by them. Our cafeteria has huge windows all along the west side, so you can see the mountains when you eat, which are especially beautiful at breakfast which is around sunrise.
Last night I went for a run for the first time, to test out how my lungs were taking the altitude. They aren't taking it. It was pretty painful, but I got through it. Then after dinner there was a big soccer game with a lot of corps members and team leaders, which was really fun. I went to bed last night at the latest time so far...about 10:30pm.
This morning we had boot issue and I got a HUGE pair of steel toed black boots...an item I never thought I would own. They're pretty heavy and big and I am not personally looking forward to wearing them although a lot of people on my team were very excited. After boot issue we went to Aurora for physicals where I found out that I am negative for both pregnancy and drugs and that I can see and hear and don't have TB. Now we have a break until one when we have another training session. Today the weather is nice, it's about 65 degrees, but there is supposed to be a cold front coming in this weekend and it might snow. My roommate who is from Georgia and has only seen snow twice in her life (once when she was 3) looking forward to it. I am not : )

Americorps Uniform

So we got our uniforms and I have attached a picture of me in mine. They are...not the most flattering things, but it's nice to not have to wonder about what you will wear every day. We got two pairs of khaki colored pants, and one pair of black pants (which I am wearing in the picture). We also got two pairs of khaki shorts, two long sleeve gray t shirts, 3 short sleeve, a short and long sleeve polo type shirt, a belt, a sweatshirt, a vest, a winter coat, a bag, and we will be getting steel toed boots and winter hats soon. Oh! We also got khaki colored fishing style hats...which I am pretty sure I'll never wear. And an Americorps bandana. Awesome.

Last night a lot of corps members watched the debates in the lounge and then I went to bed pretty soon after that. These 6:00 days are killing me. This morning we had a meeting from 8am to 11:30am about the rules in the handbook, which was pretty boring and made my butt fall asleep. This afternoon we're getting a tour of the campus and possibly going to Walmart/Target as a team to get stuff we need for our rooms, etc.

Americorps NCCC Denver Days One and Two

Monday 10/6

Today started at 5:15 am Eastern time when I got up to leave the house by 6:15 and be at the airport by 6:45. I caught a 7:55 flight out of Boston and arrived in Denver at 10:30 am Mountain time. When I got to the airport I was greeted by NCCC team leaders and taken to a waiting area full of people and bags before we got on a bus about an hour later to take us to campus. Americorps is housed on the campus of Teikyo Loretta Heights University in Denver. It’s a pretty campus and you can see the Rockies clearly, as well as the sun setting over the Rockies, which I really like. Forgive me for this writing, because I am sure some of it will not make sense due to my brain shutting down hours ago.
When we got to campus, we were given our room assignments. My roommate is from Georgia, and we are getting along well so far, bonding over our miserable room. The room is about 12 feet by 10 feet. The two beds are each under a shelf and have to be pulled out to sleep on. Each bed takes up a wall. The third wall is taken up by our desks and the 4th by the door, the two closets and the sink. There are no dressers, so all of my clothes are in my desk drawers (there are two). After filling out some paper work and finding the main office, we ate some old pizza and did “in-processing” which consisted of more paperwork and getting our ID pictures taken. After that we were free from about 2 to 5:30. My roommate and I unpacked and took naps.
At 5:30 we met our team for the week. My roommate and I are both in the “Fire Unit” which is how they break up the 250 class members. Fire, Earth, Sun, and Water (Captain Planet, he’s a hero). Within each unit, there are teams of about 10 people, so we are “Fire 3”. During our 4 week orientation, we will switch teams every week. Once we had all our team members and team leader, we got in a van and headed to subway for dinner. At 7 there was a Fire Unit meeting where we met all the team leaders for the unit and played fun bonding games. Then we were freeee. There are 3 working showers on my hall of 80+ people, so that is going to be interesting. I am headed to bed for 6:30 breakfast and another full day tomorrow. I really miss my friends and family back on the East Coast and I am thinking of you guys all the time.

Tuesday 10/7

Today we were up at 6:30 for breakfast, after a cold night in the dorms. I went to be between 9 and 10 though, so I got a good amount of sleep. After breakfast we had a community meeting where we were formally introduced to all the staff and team leaders from other units. At 10, we had a meeting to set up our direct deposit for paychecks, and then we were free until 11:30 when we had lunch. I have to say I had very low expectations for the food, but so far it has been really good. Today for lunch I had chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, broccoli and raw spinach...some of my favorite foods. At 1, we have our uniform issue which means that after that we are only wearing our uniforms from here on out, which I am a little sad about. It's weird right now because some units have gotten their uniforms and some haven't, so as my roommate pointed out we are sort of like the sneetches. Some with stars on thars...and some not. I am not sure what is up for the rest of the day, but at 6:45 there is a meeting for people who want to play ultimate frisbee, so I am excited for that.

the first days are the hardest days

I apologize to anyone who checks this often, that I have not been posting very often at all. Classes started and work started and soccer kept going and with those three combined, I have felt completely overwhelmed, and like I barely have enough time to sleep, much less post something.

I like all of my classes (Sociology Senior Seminar, The New African Diaspora, African Literature, and Religion in Philadelphia), but they all require 60-100 pages of reading before each class, which I am finding very difficult to keep up with. I don't know if this semester is harder than past semesters in terms of my work load, or if I am just not used to being in Bryn Mawr mode. Maybe both.

Anyway, for my religion in Philadelphia class, one of our assignments was to go to the Haverford Library Quaker Special Collections and Transcribe a piece of writing from early Quaker recordings. So I chose a letter written about a man who had died (Charles Taylor). The librarian brought out this big thick leather bound book from the mid to late 1600's for me to look through. It was pretty amazing to just look at, much less touch, these original writings from 400 years ago. It seemed surreal to me.

This is the passage I transcribed from the swirly fancy writing:

A Short Testimony Concerning Our Dear Friend & Brother – Christopher Taylor—

He was one of the Lord’s Worthies, Strong and steadfast in the faith, very zealous for the truth, very Careful for the Church, a man unknown to the World his Life was hid with God in Christ his Ministry too not in the Wisdom of the flesh, but in the Power of God, It was the seed, the Birth Born from above that could receive him, and was refreshed by him, in a word he was a Jew inward whose praise is not of men but of God and for as much as that he was a man thus qualified I could not well be satisfied that so worth a man as Dear Christopher Taylor should be buried in Oblivion, for though the Name of the wicked shall rot yet the name of the righteous shall be had in Everlasting remembrance; His chiefest joy was to feel Friends in the Invisible Life, and although many Exercises did attend him for the truth’s sake, he was faithful to you. Death, and so has received a Crown of Life, and although his departure from us was our Loss, yet it was his gain, for blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord they rest from their labors and their works do follow them.

William Yardley