Robots and Round 1

I know, I know.... I'm terrible.... I haven't posted anything in about 2 weeks. It's difficult okay ( you'll understand when I write about all that has happened).

So last time I kept my eyes open long enough during free time to write was before mini-spike at the VEX Mid-Atlantic Robotics Championship. That was sooo much fun. It was three busy 12 hour+ days that included 1.) Setting up every single table, chair, competition area, and stage. 2.) Implementing the use of all these things by spending all day on our feet telling groups of nerdy middle schoolers and high schoolers that it was their turn to get in queue. Most of the time they feel it quite unnecessary to listen to the obviously less intelligent people with the head sets and the gray shirts; however, a lot of them were extremely adorable and nerdy and they even elected my teammate Brie as their leader for our awesome game of laser tag one of the nights. 3.) Taking it all back down.

After that we came back and prepared for our debrief on the project and found out where we were going for round one spike. Now most of you already know where I am but for those that don't DRUMROLL PLEASE.....................................................New Jersey. We're working in New Jersey at various camps for inner city youth from New York City and New Jersey. We left last Saturday and we've been working here all week and so far its been pretty groovy. The wonderful ladies of Buffalo 2 get to stay in a sweet little cabin complete with bunk beds and a miniscule shower. We LOVE it. (the boys get to stay in a big theater building that kids actually inhabit on the weekends and their room is the size of a closet :) )
So far this week the camp we've worked at has been the Trail Blazers camp and my main project has been moving the library. The people who set the library up before us thought it was a good idea to have categorical groupings like "Birds, Plants and Dinosaurs" so me and two of my teammates went through every single book, put them in categories that made sense, and alphabetized our behinds off. But it is all done now and it was well worth it. Today I cleared away some camp ground space and then in the afternoon we put up a gigantic sign that required a power drill  (any day there is a power tool involved is a good day) and dumping cement. And that brings us to now. I'm positive I skipped some important little things (like how I spent the entirety of the week before we left at the library preparing our media plans or how I am in fact the regional coordinator of the all the media representatives in New York and New Jersey you know... things like that) but you guys are just going to have to get over it.

Hope all is well wherever you may be.
Love you and miss you all

(You will get some more pictures soon I promise)

Can't believe it has only been three weeks...

Every day I find myself wondering how time is going by so fast and so slow at the same time. I feel as though I've been here six months though at the same time it feels like I just left home yesterday. I probably couldn't remember everything that happened last week if I tried so I will summarize to the best of my abilities.

The swim meet last weekend was pretty awesome, the kids were adorable and their smiling faces made standing for twelve hours straight in wet flip flops on three hours of sleep tainted by flourescent lighting totally worth it.

We did have Monday off and right now I'm struggling to think of how I spent it....OH sushi with friends...and probably something else...(not kidding when I say last Monday feels like last year).

I fould out my specialty role on Monday as well, right now you guys are reading the blog of Buffalo 2's Media Representative :) What this means is that I will be in charge of getting press releases out and getting media coverage for my team during our "spikes". It seems pretty challenging but it will definitely allow me to utilize some of my schooling on a much more professional level so I couldn't be happier. Tuesday I got the training for this role so it was pretty engaging.

(side note: I took out my lip ring...it was getting to be a pain ((and painful)) to take it out and put it back in every day)

Now what on earth did I do on Wednesday...I honestly have no idea right now; however, I'm sure it was totally engaging and very relevant to the next ten months.

Thursday we got tool training :) :) :) :) It was fun. I got to use table saws and a jack hammer. Everyone feels like a BA with a jack hammer :) We also got a chance to do some team development which was great. I'm an Owl...just in case anybody was wondering.

Friday we went to the University of Deleware for CPR/First Aid training so now I'm all certified in that. (By the way U of D has the most awesome convenience store/cafeteria ever).

Saturday I went to the library to look up ISP's (Independant Service Projects). I was almost successful. Then we went out and I got to see some of my new best friends sing some karaeoke....

Sunday we spent most of the morning traveling to and from the ice cream place near us that just opened. Strawberry Shortcake Sundae's are my new favorite thing.

And that brings us to today. We had a service learning class in the morning followed by some project implementation stuff and a public speaking seminar. Busy Busy Busy!!!

I found out that we're going on our mini-spike to the Mid-Atlantic Robotics competition so more on that after next weekend!

So excited for this adventure to really get started. I love and miss all of you every day <3

Thursday

Disaster, Diversity and its TOO doggone easy.

So it's been about a week since my last post and I apologize for that but they keep us just a tad bit busy. AKA I barely have time to breathe let alone create blog posts. This has quite possibly been one of the longest weeks of my life so I'm gonna have to go through my actual schedule to remember everything. Let me see if I can break it down day by day.

Monday: We had PT at the ass crack of dawn and then we had unit time and did some team building so it was pretty fun. It was also our last day with our temporary teams so it was also pretty sad :(

Tuesday: Disaster services overview facilitated by the red cross. Sounds like fun right? Yeah I thought so too until we had to sit there for almost eight hours. But there is no denying that what we learned is going to be invaluable during our service so it was ok. After that was done we played a game to figure out what our permanent teams would be. It was so exciting! I'm on Buffalo 2! My team leaders name is Constantino aka Chappy and he seems pretty awesome...just don't be late to the van...because he will leave you. The rest of my team is chill, there is Angela from Long Island who was on my temporary pod, Christine from Wisconsin, Brie from Hawaii, Patrick from Maryland, Tomoyo (aka Tomo) from Los Angeles, Benton from Kansas City, Kendrick from DC, and Erin from Brooklyn. We're a very diverse group and I really hope we take that as a positive thing and are able to learn from each other over the next ten months. I think so... But then according to my Myers-Briggs test I'm the most optimistic.

Wednesday: Red Cross shelter simulation which was really engaging and fun! I could now have no problem (almost) setting up a disaster shelter with my team. We came back and did some PT outside in one of the fields of goose poop.. Chappy really likes PT and I have a feeling he's gonna kick my butt this year.

Thursday: PT at 6am again followed immediately by van driver training zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Need I say more? But we had a scavenger hunt with all the teams in the buffalo unit that was pretty awesome later on. (we totally should have won).

Friday: Diversity training. It was intense. Some people.... Later we went to target and had dinner and just chilled out in general with our new fantastic teams.

That brings us to today. I had a drug test a few hours ago and in a couple hours my team will be heading off to DC to volunteer at a swim meet from 6am to 6pm Sunday. It'll be a long day but I know we'll rock it :) (again... Most optimistic).

I hope all is going swimmingly (pun intended) wherever it is you may be. Things here become more challenging and more fun every day and I'm learning a lot about myself. I'm excited to break out of my comfort zone and push my limits even further. I promise I'll have some more pictures for you guys next time.

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Tons of fun... And we've only just begun.

So I last left off wednesday night right before I went to sleep. The next morning we went to PT at 6 am. Here are a few things I learned from that PT session: it is very easy to get dehydrated at 6 am and you probably will get very dizzy if you don't drink a lot of water the night before, butt thrusts are very difficult, and the military style chanting will remain in your head the remainder of the day. After PT we got to go on a tour of the little town we are near to and afterwards it was time for our shots/tb test. I don't like shots :( we spent the rest of the night hanging out with our temp teams. They tell you not to get attached but its really hard when they are all so awesome.
Friday we had our first service project! We painted the inside of the department of public works and ummmmmm.......broke a desk and put a hole in the wall. Some people might ask if we did more harm than good....we don't like to talk to those people. Afterwards we made dinner and had a reflection on the day.
Saturday I got my tb test read (negative)in the morning and spent the rest of the day playing games like catch phrase and jenga and soccor. Attached is a picture of or epic jenga. That night we went out to a local bar and what might be considered to much fun. :)
This morning I got to sleep in and hang out with some people. I really can't emphasize how nice everybody here is enough, it feels like we've all been friends for years it really is hard to believe that we've only been here a week.
It was nice to get out there and get stuff done on friday. I can't wait to start really getting into the service part of this adventure. The more people I can have a positive impact on the better. I believe most of our training next week will be in disaster relief so I'm very excited about that (not that I don't love listening to policy for hours on end). As for now I should probably get to bed (PT AT 6 O'FREAKING CLOCK AGAIN!!). Hope everyone reading this having as much fun as me. And a happy early valentines day to my Alex who I miss more every day.

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One day down..

So where do I begin the magical tale of my first day and a half (about) at "the point" as campus is called. My flight went really well, my ears weren't too happy about it but they got over it pretty quickly. Then a group of us got to wait at the airport for a few hours wich was actually pretty fun. When we got here from the airport we had dinner and got to our rooms. As of now I have 3 roommates (who are all awesome I might add). This morning we got up and had a nice long day of in processing. Then we got our fabulously stylish near runway quality uniforms. After that it was a lecture on various policies and then we got put into our temporary teams called pods. We will get our permanent team assignment next Tuesday. Right now my unit is buffalo (there are three units: buffalo, raven, and moose) and each unit us broken up into 7 teams of 8-12. We also got to go eat at a chinese buffet which was great fun and we got to hang out with our temporary teams. And that pretty much brings us to now. I'm very scared to go shower because of the very scary showers but it must be done! Everyone here is wonderful and the area is be beautiful (see below). Be very jealous.

(ok so I tried to post this last night but it wouldn't let me so I'm going to go ahead and add on to it with todays stuff)

Today my unit got to sit in the auditorium from 9:00am to 5:47pm with about an hour break for lunch. Well I shouldn't say we were just sitting we were also being informed on many important things from safety to sexual harassment. However a day of lectures does not make for a very interesting blog update. After the lectures me and another girl on my temporary team got to make dinner for the rest of our team for the first time (stir fry, a big hit) it was a lot of fun but when you have 7 groups trying to work in limited kitchen space it does get pretty hectic.
I should probably go to bed now it is 10:40 here and PT starts tomorrow at SIX AM! Still having such a great time! Lets hope I have more exciting things to add later in the week.

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At the Airport!

So I can't believe this day is finally here. I'm currently sitting at the gate waiting for them to start boarding my plane. (alex assures me planes aren't scary so lets hope he didn't choose now to start lying to me). I'm so excited it's hard to put a few words together but I'd be full of it if I didn't acknowledge how terribly I'm going to miss everyone. My family that has been so wonderful and helpful throughout these last few weeks. My fantastic friends that have made sure that this last month has been one to remember, especially my best friend in the entire world Cristian who very unselfishly didn't lock me up last night(though I know she wanted to). And to Alex there is absolutely no way I could have prepared myself for any of this without your constant love and support. I'll miss all of you very much but absolutely no more tears from any of you! That means you Lindsey!
Well guys my adventure starts now! I can't wait to write and take pictures of everything! I can't wait for this experience! I just can't wait period!

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One week to go!

So I suppose there is no time like the present to write this first post. I leave for NCCC one week from today. For those of you who don't know much about NCCC I'll give you a little overview. NCCC is a government organized program for people ages 18-24 who are looking to strengthen their country through community service. People serve on teams of 8-12 and usually complete 4-6 major projects throughout the ten months of service. Service areas are generally in one of these categories: disaster relief, urban and rural development, environmental conservation, energy conservation, and infrastructure improvement. Before setting off on my first project (called a spike) I will be heading off to Perry Point, Maryland for about a month of training. This training will include things like diversity training and team building, disaster relief training with the American Red Cross, regular PT and all kinds of other fun stuff I'm sure.

This is going to be a really big step for me in many, many ways. I've never been away from home and so far away from family and friends for this long and I'm going to miss all of you every day; but this is also giving me a chance to do something I'm passionate about while growing as a person, meeting what are sure to be amazing new people, seeing parts of the country I've never seen before, and having a life experience like no other. Now the tears have already started flowing and I'm sure there are plenty more to come in this next week, but I'm positive that this is going to be a wonderful opportunity. I hope that this blog turns out to be a good way to keep all of you posted on my future crazy adventures! My next post will probably come from an airport or a different state so wish me luck! Now I should probably go finish packing...

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