The beginning of my AmeriCorps NCCC FEMA adventure
I doubt I've mentioned anything but I'm currently a Team Leader for AmeriCorps NCCC FEMA and this has been my adventure so far.
So the first day, Thursday June 19th, I flew out of my airport…after a long wait on trying to find out if my plane ticket was actually real. The stupid United airlines people messed everything up because when I got to San Francisco, I was supposed to fly out of Delta to Atlanta by 2:11pm but the fucking people didn’t tell me in time. They took my luggage, then told me that I didn’t have a damn ticket, so had to wait for my bag…well I’m in San Francisco like at 11:45am and I don’t find out until 2:45pm that I ACTUALLY HAD A FUCKING TICKET! GAAAAAAH! So then I had to wait in the fucking airport until 10pm because that’s when the next flight to Atlanta was….then it got delayed until 11:15pm because of random shit that I really didn’t care about because I was so damn tired…and it’s like a 4 hour flight or something to Atlanta. So didn’t get in until like 6am Friday morning WHERE AGAIN! My damn flight was delayed. But this time it was actually a legit reason because one of the tires on the plane had its threads showing and then they found another problem while they were trying to change the tire…so instead of leaving at 8:11am and arriving in Jackson, MS at 8:23am (because of 1 hour time difference) didn’t leave until like 10:45am…yeah. So didn’t get into Jackson until like 11:20am or some such. I was soooo tired and hungry wasn’t even funny. But got picked up at the airport, dropped stuff off at the dorm I was staying at, met some people, ate some food, met the rest of the crew, went back to dorm room, then went to get clothing. Man the uniforms suck because they’re geared towards men and feel like I have so much room in them! I don’t have anything in the crotch area that needs to be held carefully! Oh well, making them work. And supposedly after drying them, they’re supposed to shrink so hoping that well help as well. Haha after that, went to see the member support ladies about getting a refund for my baggage ($25) and doing some paperwork and what not. They’re super nice and totally can go to them and talk with them. After that, sat in the last class of the day and met the rest of the team leader crew. So that was a lot of fun. Saturday, we went out for a scavenger hunt at 10am so we were able to explore the town of Vicksburg and get a little familiar with the place. A lot of people in the group I was in wanted to finish early so they could watch the Germany and Ghana game which was pretty exciting. Then one of the Team Leaders made dinner for everything so that was super nice and it was tasty too. Then Sunday we didn’t really have anything going on so it was low key and a little boring. But not bad. Then had a meeting at 1pm to write down our expectations of the staff as well as ourselves in general. Then went on a walk with one of the Support Team Leaders (who stays behind and helps us, the Field Team Leaders). Then after that, went with some of the other TL’s to a crappy, wannabe Mexican restaurant (probably good here) to watch the U.S.A vs. Portugal (where freaking US let Portugal tie with them!) and then got back in time to help unload groceries since we ran out of them!
This morning, June 23, 2014, we were supposed to have this thing called “Base Line” where we are supposed to see how many pushups and situps we could do in 1 minutes (did 20 and 25) and then run 1.5 miles around this track at 6:30am. But it got cancelled because of lightning. Then come to find out, we had to do it at 3:30 that afternoon! But before getting to that, ran with my roommate (who is pretty cool) for a bit and then got ready for a day of training. Which was kinda boring but important because we learn a shit load of stuff…and I’m glad it’s mostly written down because it is a lot of information that is important to know. Then we had a meet and greet with the staff on campus so I helped (along with a few other Team Leaders) in making a burrito bar possible so that was fun. Especially working as a team with one another in this type of situation. Haha but after that, we had another training then had to get ready for this base line. WHICH SUCKED! Because it was 81F degrees outside with like 91% humidity, no breeze and full blast of sun. IT WAS HORRIBLE. And we were only supposed to do 5 laps because that was 1.5 miles but one of the Unit Team Leaders (who is in charge of us Team Leaders) miscalculated and made us do 7 laps (for like 2.1miles) and I got a time of 28 minutes and some odd seconds. So I did better than I expected even if I was dying of heat. UGH! And currently right now, Monday thru Thursday a different group of cookers makes dinner for everyone else. And tonight we had hamburgers and fruit salad which wasn’t planned (or cooked) very well but it wasn’t bad. It was food. And that’s about all that has happened so far. I’ll try to update as much as I can…meaning hopefully I can get in a couple hours each day in the main office building since it’s the only building with wifi but we shall see. I definitely won’t have as much time once the corps members get here and we start working with them. So it’s nice currently. And I’m going to bed early because I’m tired and have to be at our training tomorrow at 8am. Woo.
So the first day, Thursday June 19th, I flew out of my airport…after a long wait on trying to find out if my plane ticket was actually real. The stupid United airlines people messed everything up because when I got to San Francisco, I was supposed to fly out of Delta to Atlanta by 2:11pm but the fucking people didn’t tell me in time. They took my luggage, then told me that I didn’t have a damn ticket, so had to wait for my bag…well I’m in San Francisco like at 11:45am and I don’t find out until 2:45pm that I ACTUALLY HAD A FUCKING TICKET! GAAAAAAH! So then I had to wait in the fucking airport until 10pm because that’s when the next flight to Atlanta was….then it got delayed until 11:15pm because of random shit that I really didn’t care about because I was so damn tired…and it’s like a 4 hour flight or something to Atlanta. So didn’t get in until like 6am Friday morning WHERE AGAIN! My damn flight was delayed. But this time it was actually a legit reason because one of the tires on the plane had its threads showing and then they found another problem while they were trying to change the tire…so instead of leaving at 8:11am and arriving in Jackson, MS at 8:23am (because of 1 hour time difference) didn’t leave until like 10:45am…yeah. So didn’t get into Jackson until like 11:20am or some such. I was soooo tired and hungry wasn’t even funny. But got picked up at the airport, dropped stuff off at the dorm I was staying at, met some people, ate some food, met the rest of the crew, went back to dorm room, then went to get clothing. Man the uniforms suck because they’re geared towards men and feel like I have so much room in them! I don’t have anything in the crotch area that needs to be held carefully! Oh well, making them work. And supposedly after drying them, they’re supposed to shrink so hoping that well help as well. Haha after that, went to see the member support ladies about getting a refund for my baggage ($25) and doing some paperwork and what not. They’re super nice and totally can go to them and talk with them. After that, sat in the last class of the day and met the rest of the team leader crew. So that was a lot of fun. Saturday, we went out for a scavenger hunt at 10am so we were able to explore the town of Vicksburg and get a little familiar with the place. A lot of people in the group I was in wanted to finish early so they could watch the Germany and Ghana game which was pretty exciting. Then one of the Team Leaders made dinner for everything so that was super nice and it was tasty too. Then Sunday we didn’t really have anything going on so it was low key and a little boring. But not bad. Then had a meeting at 1pm to write down our expectations of the staff as well as ourselves in general. Then went on a walk with one of the Support Team Leaders (who stays behind and helps us, the Field Team Leaders). Then after that, went with some of the other TL’s to a crappy, wannabe Mexican restaurant (probably good here) to watch the U.S.A vs. Portugal (where freaking US let Portugal tie with them!) and then got back in time to help unload groceries since we ran out of them!
This morning, June 23, 2014, we were supposed to have this thing called “Base Line” where we are supposed to see how many pushups and situps we could do in 1 minutes (did 20 and 25) and then run 1.5 miles around this track at 6:30am. But it got cancelled because of lightning. Then come to find out, we had to do it at 3:30 that afternoon! But before getting to that, ran with my roommate (who is pretty cool) for a bit and then got ready for a day of training. Which was kinda boring but important because we learn a shit load of stuff…and I’m glad it’s mostly written down because it is a lot of information that is important to know. Then we had a meet and greet with the staff on campus so I helped (along with a few other Team Leaders) in making a burrito bar possible so that was fun. Especially working as a team with one another in this type of situation. Haha but after that, we had another training then had to get ready for this base line. WHICH SUCKED! Because it was 81F degrees outside with like 91% humidity, no breeze and full blast of sun. IT WAS HORRIBLE. And we were only supposed to do 5 laps because that was 1.5 miles but one of the Unit Team Leaders (who is in charge of us Team Leaders) miscalculated and made us do 7 laps (for like 2.1miles) and I got a time of 28 minutes and some odd seconds. So I did better than I expected even if I was dying of heat. UGH! And currently right now, Monday thru Thursday a different group of cookers makes dinner for everyone else. And tonight we had hamburgers and fruit salad which wasn’t planned (or cooked) very well but it wasn’t bad. It was food. And that’s about all that has happened so far. I’ll try to update as much as I can…meaning hopefully I can get in a couple hours each day in the main office building since it’s the only building with wifi but we shall see. I definitely won’t have as much time once the corps members get here and we start working with them. So it’s nice currently. And I’m going to bed early because I’m tired and have to be at our training tomorrow at 8am. Woo.