I could sleep for days.

This past week has been jam packed full of training! I get tired just thinking about it how crammed the schedule is for the next three weeks.
As of this past week I am now CPR/First Aid certified, have taken a road test to drive a 15 passenger sized van (affectionately named Jaws). Oh and I get up at 4:45 in the morning for physical training. LOVE IT!



It is funny though, having to wake up around six o'clock or earlier. Now that my body is adjusted to it, I consider waking up around nine in the morning to be late.

The best way to tell you what team I'm on is to just think of Harry Potter and the sorting hat. There are about 220 of us in the school campus, and we are divided into three units: Cedar, Oak, and Maple. I am in the Oak unit, Team 3.  So far my team leader is pretty cool, and the rest of us are beginning to know each other better. I feel like the first few days kind of dragged for a bit, but only because we gotten used to our temporary teams.


This lack of internet access is making it hard to update all the time. But I promise I'll try to be better at updating when I know I can. Also, expect pictures soon!

Free day!

Oh Sundays, the day of rest. A day where waking up at 10:30 in the morning now seems rather late in waking up. After being set to wake up at 5:45AM you can imagine my excitement over turning off my alarm clock.

Let's review shall we?
This whole week has been adjusting/orientation to the environment, so there will be a lot of pictures on facebook as soon as I can get to it. Being here feels like 10% percent army (with all the rules), 20% summer camp (with the uniforms) and 50% college dorms freshman year. It'll change though once we have our permanent groups and training starts next week.

My temporary group...I love these guys.

Since we don't have permenant groups til tomorrow, we've been assigned to temporary ones throughout the week. I absolutely love all of them, and our personalities are meshing together so well. We are outrageous and sarcastic...I hope my permenant team will be just as close as this group has gotten.

Also starting in the next few weeks is our training: physical training, CPR training, cooking training (though that's more for people who don't know how to cook all that well, I feel like I'll get kind of bored in that), and tool training. I'll be pretty happy to have a set schedule again, that was one thing at home I missed.

The town of Vinton is pretty small, but the people are extremely nice. It's a close knit community, and there's a few places that I've liked so far. There's an amazing Chinese restaurant that is super cheap and I'll most likely be spending my money there most of the time for lunch. I don't think anything is over $10.25.
Yeah, I'm gonna be such a regular.

These signs are all over Vinton. I feel like such a celebrity...to a small degree.

We've also explored the bigger city near by, which is Cedar Rapids. That was pretty fun. I didn't get a picture of it, but there was a billboard that said "single mother or meth?" Not the only two things you can do in Iowa, I would hope.


I'm out for now, but I'll keep you posted! Check out the pictures on either Facebook or Flickr!

First few days...

Here's a few pictures to tide you over...i'd do them all at once if the wireless could work on my computer. I'll try later tonight. It's been so incredibly busy since I got here!

So far it kind of feels like summer camp. But that will change eventually since we haven't started PT yet (physical training). The other two people are my roommates from California and Florida.
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Move on to another day, to a whole new town with a whole new way.

Oh Michigan sky, you are pretty when you want to be.

My last night in Michigan doesn't really feel like my last night. I know as soon as I get on the plane and I strap myself in, I'll settle for a second and then have that sense of forgetting to do something. Then that feeling will be drowned out by constant ear popping and hoping that I'm not the type to get air sick.

I couldn't have asked for a better weekend though! I spent a majority of it with the people I love in various settings. From bars asking you to be loud and obnoxious, to punk rock dances (even though I think I looked a little more goth then punk but who cares), to just sitting around watching movies, this weekend ended on a sweet note. And the others I could only contact via the interwebs know that I will hack/slash my way to the nearest wireless spot just to say hello and catch up when I can.

Adios Michigan! I shall miss your not-so-subtle mitten potatoes.

One last thing, I've saved up on obnoxious amounts of postcards and I'd love to snail mail you if you'd let me. Just leave me a text/message on Facebook with your address and I'll send it your way!

Less than two weeks!

I still can't get over how slow this past month has been! Now as the flight date approaches the days seem to be zooming by. Too bad that sense of time can't reverse itself to make my last week and a half feel longer.

I went with my dad yesterday to pick up a few things to ship over to Iowa (bedding, laundry hamper, etc.) so I wouldn't have to lug it with me on the plane. But I have a timer when it comes to shopping for stuff.
I seem to have inherited both my dad's practical shopping skills (the whole...get in, get out method) along with my mom's three hour indecisiveness and spontaneity in buying things. Within the next hour I couldn't for the life of me figure out what color towels I wanted. Oh and that hoodie over there? Looks awesome...I should get that. Mmm candy is on sale too!

Needless to say I decided to call it quits for the day.

In other news, snow does indeed exist. And yes, it does happen a lot in the mid west. This should be a no brainer to those living here. Part of me wants NCCC members who don't live in the mid west to come to Iowa unimpressed. Perhaps even call us sissies for living in the cold and acting shocked by the gathering of snow in mass quantities.
Personally, I love it. So the first thing I want to do is go outside!


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