Hey everyone!
I know I haven't posted for awhile, so I'll try to go over a quick recap of what I've been up to. Monday we had boring classes about driving the huge 15 passenger vans. It felt like driver's ed all over again. But, in the afternoon our team leaders took us into the city and we got to explore a little bit! That was really neat. We didnt have much time, so I know I'll want to go again. Tuesday, we spent all morning taking our 15 p's (the vans) on a "confidence course" in the parking lot. basically we had to swerve around a lot of curves and maneuver into tight spaces. It was difficult, but not too bad. That afternoon we practiced something called community mapping. Each time we go on a spike project we are expected to do community mapping where we familiarize ourselves with the community we're living in. Observe the strengths and challenges of the area, ask community members for their opinions on social issues and also the history of the place. We got to "map" the community surrounding City Park which was pretty neat.
Wednesday was our fun day where they took us all to Rocky Mt. National Park!! It was a 3 hour drive, but the drive was beautiful! When we got there we had lunch by Bear Lake, and then took about a mile hike to Alberta Falls. It was totally worth it! We were all so happy to have a day out instead of inside doing training. Thursday consisted of driving the vans all over the place so that each corps member wanting to drive could do so with an instructor. Along the way we stopped at neat places and gave our legs a chance to stretch. Our first stop was in Columbine, CO. We got to go to the park and walk around the memorial a little bit. The memorial was VERY neat but of course sad as well. They had quotes of students, parents, and faculty at Columbine High School. From the memorial, I drove the 15p all the way to Red Rocks ampitheater!! I was sooooo nervous but our instructor was really good. He even made me put the van in manual and learn to shift up and down as you drive through mountains. Red Rocks ampitheater has huge red rocks that make natural acoustics as good or better than any manmade acoustic design. They had a rock 'n roll hall of fame there and we found out that pretty much any singer/performer/band you could possibly think of has performed there. It was incredible. From Red Rocks we went to Buffalo Bills which is at the top of a mountain and has a museum, gift shop, and cafe. Very beautiful views and we had our little picnic lunch there. The rest of the day we spent driving around.
And today (Friday) were sitting through lots and lots of training. Disaster stuff, discrimination stuff, etc. I think this afternoon we have to try to memorize the Americorps NCCC pledge too, our regional director is obsessed with the pledge! Haha, it is pretty good though. I'll post it some other time. I'm REALLY excited though because tonight some of us our going to the Denver Boys and Girls Club to help with a Halloween party. This will count towards part of our ISP hours that we need 80 of. It should be a lot of fun because we just get to hang out with the kids and play games with them. AND tomorrow, some of us are going to Lifeline Puppy Rescue where we get to play with puppies and try to get people to adop them. That counts for ISP hours too. I'm actually getting things accomplished!
Ok well I gotta run, because meeting are starting up again soon. Oh yea, for anyone who doesn't have facebook you can go to my shutterfly acount. go to shutterfly.com click on sign in. my username is niekamp.25@osu.edu and my password is abigail. Under my albums you can click on the album called Amerilife and see my pictures! Because posting them to this blog takes a long time and I can only do a few at a time. Going on Shutterfly will allow you to see all of them! Ok that's its! :) :)
Love,
Abby
No comments:
Post a Comment