One Week Till First SPIKE!

Saturday, October 31st (continued!)

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to be volunteering at the Denver Children's Museum from 4-10pm on Halloween. It was a ton of fun! I love handing out candy on Halloween to cute kids in costumes, and I was thrilled to have the chance to sit in this "candy house" and pass out candy to trick-or-treaters.

It was interesting, because Denver has a fairly diverse population, so I observed many families that didn't speak English. The cutest child was a toddler that couldn't speak yet, dressed as Chicken Little. She came up to me wide-eyed with her bag, and I placed the candy in it for her. Her mother then told her to say "thank you," and in turn, she signed it (using baby sign language.) It was so adorable!

According to a follow up email I received, over 4,000 people visited the museum during this event on Halloween. Afterwards, we stayed to help tear down all of the set-ups and tents. It was a really fun service opportunity, and I hope to work with the museum again during a transition week in Denver!

Sunday, November 1st

Today it was sunny and warm outside, so Megan and I took advantage of our free day and spent most of it outside.

After breakfast, we walked about two miles to Mile High Coffee Shop. We brought our computers, ordered coffees, and just enjoyed the change of atmosphere for a couple of hours. It was relaxing to sip coffee and reflect on everything that's been going on here over the past couple of weeks.

After the coffee shop, we stopped to pick up a few grocery items (and cereal! which we're both huge fans of eating for a snack), and then we walked the two miles back to campus.

On our walk back, we started talking about health and fitness and how difficult it is to make fitness a priority once we are adults with careers and families. This conversation motivated us to go for a run when we returned to campus!

In the evening, we just relaxed in our room. I bought knitting needles and yarn when we were out earlier in the day, so I re-taught myself how to knit and am currently working on a scarf. It is grey, so that I can wear it with my uniform when it's cold!

Monday, November 2nd

Today our unit had Diversity Training from 8am-5pm. I was excited about this training, and even more excited that it lived up to the expectations that I had for it.

The presentation was given by two men from the Seattle area who travel the country providing diversity training to various groups of people, including AmeriCorps groups.

We participated in a variety of activities that engaged us in conversations and thought about diversity within the world. It was great to take time to discuss differences, stereotypes, power dynamics, marginalization, and cultural differences. If nothing else, these types of trainings raise general awareness about groups of people that are discriminated against, and false perceptions that exist.

This training was important to NCCC because not only are we working on teams with eleven other people who have different backgrounds than our own, but we're also going to be working in communities that are diverse.

Tuesday, November 3rd

Today was our "Unit Activity Day," and we were thrilled when we learned that we were all going to Boulder, CO for the day!

Our first stop was hiking at Chautauqua National Park.

We were fortunate enough to have yet another beautiful day to spend time outside!


Here's me pre-hike. We were allowed to choose from two hiking groups: easy and moderate. We were told that moderate wasn't going to be too hard, but it was actually very steep in some sections!

Here's a picture of some of my unit-mates during the hike. The trail we hiked had many trees and rock formations. You can also see some snow off the the right side of the picture. (Don't worry, it all melted during this day in the sun!)

Here's Megan and I at the bottom of the mountain.

After our hike, we sat outside and ate our sack-lunches that we pack EVERY DAY.

Random fact: my new favorite sandwich is humus, cucumber, and provolone cheese on wheat bread. If you've never tried it, you should!


After lunch, we drove into downtown Boulder, and we were given two hours to explore and shop. I went with a group of my unit-mates to the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House.

We had heard about this tea house during a training, and we thought it would be a fun place to check out. This tea house was actually built in Dushanbe, which is the capital of Tajikistan (part of the former Soviet Republic) and given to Boulder as a gift because they are "sister cities." The exterior and interior of the house is all beautifully hand-painted.

My group mates and I ordered tea from the bar area and then sat in the outdoor patio for our "tea party."

I enjoyed a delicious "Green Passion Tea," which was described as green tea with flavors of strawberry, raspberry, and rhubarb. It was excellent!

After the tea house, we walked about Boulder's "Central Park." Below is a picture of some of my unit-mates on a bridge over the river. I think this is a really neat picture!

We arrived back to campus from Boulder around 3:30pm, and moved right into PT training at 4pm. Two members of our unit, Kelsey and John, have personal training backgrounds, so they led our unit in various PT activities.

After PT, I went to dinner, and then Megan and I attended a belly-dancing class. One of the guys here on campus was certified as a belly-dancing instructor in college, so we attended his class to see what it was like. It was really fun and a great workout -- if was definitely much harder than I expected.

Wednesday, November 4th

In the morning, our training was put on by the American Red Cross, and the focus of the session was on shelter management. The information was important, but I had a difficult time staying awake and paying attention. At this point, I am getting a little burned out from all of the training. I know it's all very important, but I am getting anxious to leave for my first SPIKE and begin actual service work.

After lunch, we had an equally important yet slightly boring training session: Motor Stables. This included any sort of training that accompanies our lovely fifteen-passenger van. I learned how to check the oil, change the tire, and put on snow-chains.

Our last activity of the day was finally running our "baseline" PT test. We were supposed to have this the Wednesday prior, but due to all of the snow, it was postponed. I completed my 1.5 mile run in 14:57 (which is pretty slow, but between the hills and elevation here, I was happy I made it the whole way). Then we had to do a minute of push ups (in which I did 17 "real" push ups, not modified by bending my knees), and a minute of sit ups/crunches (in which I did 54).

This is just a starting point for us; we will complete this same baseline test during each transition week between SPIKES, so the goal is to improve each round.

This evening I received a very beautiful surprise in the mail: two dozen pink roses from Eric!

They are beautiful and make our room smell so good! I am very lucky to have a boyfriend who cares about me and supports me the way Eric does, especially given that we are so far away.

Thursday, November 5th

Today was, by far, the most difficult day to sit through trainings. Not only did we have a full day of Red Cross CPR/AED and First Aid training (the material can only be made so exciting), but we also had the anticipation of finding out our permanent teams and SPIKE locations at 4pm.

After successfully completing the Red Cross trainings, it was time for us to do an activity that would lead us to our permanent teammates and team leader. We were each given an envelope with our name on it, and inside was a strip of paper with a section of song lyrics on it. Our job was to find the rest of our teammates by matching up our song lyrics. This got pretty chaotic -- 65 people in a small room running around excitedly, trying to figure out who their teammates are!

My group had the lyrics to the Rhianna song, "Live Your Life." After about 10 minutes, we had successfully found all of the members of our group. Next, we had to put all of the lyrics in order to find the location of our team leader. When we got everything in order, individual letters were highlighted throughout the song that spelled out "WALSH HALL." We immediately ran to our dorm and sitting on the couch in the lobby, hidden underneath pillows and a blanket, was our team leader, Marty. Marty was my first team leader during temporary teams, and I've really excited about being on her team! I am now officially a member of "Fire 1," as there are five teams in my unit.

Next, we headed outside and circled up to reveal the location of our first project. As my previous post says, we are going to be travelling to Freeport, Texas and working with the Boys and Girls Club, as well as local elementary schools. I was so excited when I heard this news, because working with kids is always the highest on my list of projects.

We discussed a few minor details of our travel and living arrangements next.

HOUSING:

We are going to be staying at the Boys and Girls Club house, so we will have access to a TV, and Internet. We will be sleeping on cots and must bring sleeping bags and pillows.

FOOD:

We are given a food budget ($4.50/person/day) and allowed to grocery shop and then cook our own meals at the B&G Club.

TRAVEL:

We are leaving on Saturday morning (Nov. 14th) and will not arrive in Freeport until Monday morning. We are only allowed to travel either 8 hours or 500 miles in the vans each day, so we will be staying in hotels overnight on Saturday and Sunday. These expenses are paid for by AmeriCorps, and it's nice that we don't have to spend 24 hours straight in the van.

TENTATIVE DAILY SCHEDULE:

We are going to be assigned to classrooms in the elementary school from 9am-1pm each day during the week. I am excited about this because I hope this will give me an opportunity to establish a relationship with the teacher and students in my classroom. We are going to be working with kids who need extra help, specifically in math and literacy. Then we will return to the B&G Club from 2-pm, where we will plan and lead recreation activities for the kids, as well as provide tutoring and homework help. We have Saturdays and Sundays free to explore, work on ISP hours (Individual Service Projects -- must have 80 to graduate), and lay by the beach (we are only a mile from the Gulf!)

MY ROLE ON THE TEAM:

Each person has to choose a role to perform on the team. There are a variety of positions, such as media rep., recruitment, food planning, ISP planning, PT coordinator, yearbook rep., portfolio editor, etc. I chose to be (get ready, this is shocking) the Service Learning Initiator (SLI). I am really excited about this job -- it will be my responsibility to plan various service learning activities and gather information for my team to enhance the learning during our work. I will also be in charge of planning reflection activities so we can discuss our experiences as a team and really digest everything we're learning about and accomplishing. I am very excited about this role!

After our team meeting, we ate dinner together. It was awesome because the entire Corps found out their permanent teams at the same time, so in the cafeteria that night, everyone sat by team. The room was buzzing with excitement and people yelling across the room about where their teams are going and what projects they're going to be doing.

The rest of fire unit is working on the following projects:

Fire 2 - Gulf Coast repair in New Orleans

Fire 3 - Work in a botanical garden in Missouri

Fire 4 - Camping in Arizona and working on trail restoration

Fire 5 - working with resource management and trail building outside of Houston!

*Fire 5 is going to be only 1.5 hours away from my team, and we are actually going to carpool down to Texas together and share a cargo van. This is especially excited because guess who's a member of Fire 5? MEGAN! So we won't actually be too far apart. There have also been rumors of all of fire unit trying to travel to New Orleans for Thanksgiving and spend the weekend together. More information to come on that.

Whoo! After all of the excitement surrounding team reveals, we needed to burn off some adrenaline. Luckily, my unit-mate Emily and I had signed up to teach a Zumba class at 7pm. It was a blast -- about 20 people came to our class, and all but 1 of them were from fire unit. It was comforting to know that so many of my unit-mates were there to support me while teaching this class (especially because I had very little time to prepare), and we worked up a great sweat while dancing to some of our favorite Latin and hip-hop songs.

Friday, November 6th

Since we've now established team roles, today I attended various sessions relating to the roles I signed up for on my team. I attended the media relations and service learning sessions. I am really excited to start gathering information and planning service learning activities. (Actually, I will probably begin doing research online as soon as I finish this ridiculously long blog entry!)

In the afternoon, we had a speaker on STD prevention (which was incredibly random!), and then we had team time to follow. My team leader told us what she has planned for our "team bonding day" tomorrow -- we are going out to lunch at Old Chicago and then going rollerskating! I am so excited for skating, because I can't remember the last time I went. Probably one of my last birthday parties held at Edru in Mason, MI. Ahh, good memories for those of you who know the rink!

Following dinner tonight we had a schedule activity called "World Cafe." It was a hunger awareness activity where we rotated around to three different stations as a team and discussed global hunger.

At our first table, we were asked to decorate a paper plate using magazine clippings to describe our feelings about hunger. Below is mine -- on the right side I placed pictures of luxury foods (candy, potatoe chips, fried chicken, etc.) On the left, I placed a picture of a little boy and then a plate with very little food. The aspect of hunger that stood out to me the most was that many children come to school (and leave school too) hungry, and this really affects their ability to learn and perform.

The next table that we went to had a laptop set up with a brief slideshow of hunger statistics around the world. The one that stuck out to me the most is: "Every six seconds, a child dies from hunger." After reading these slides, we read the discussion questions that were written on our table and engaged in conversation about this issue.

Finally, the last table we went to had colored papers in the center with scenarios typed on the reverse side. These situations were about people in the local Denver area who were experiencing hunger. After passing around the situations and reading them to ourselves, we again discussed the issue of hunger based on the questions written on our tablecloth.

Overall, I thought the "World Cafe" activity was a well-organized way to remind people of the issue of hunger that effects over 900 million people globally. This was the first serious discussion that my permanent team has had, and I was very pleased by the amount of interesting and thoughtful comments that were expressed. I left feeling excited to have more conversations with my team about issues and ways to make a difference in the future!

And now here I sit in my pajamas on a Friday evening, processing the week's events in one EXTREMELY LONG blog entry. I apologize if this is too lengthy, but I've realized that a big way in which I've been reflecting on my experience thus far is through this blog, so hopefully you enjoy reading it.

Look for an update at the end of this week! One 8 days from now I will be on my way to Texas! Thanks for reading - take care!