New Orleans!!

We found out our permanent teams on Friday and mine is amazing! We are going down to New Orleans and working at Camp Hope, which is a place that volunteers coming to work on disaster relief can stay. We are going to cook for all of the volunteers- there are two shifts- 4 am- 12 pm and 12 pm to 8 pm. Our team leader is going to change the shifts every week so that we get to know all of our teammates. We are working Monday to Friday and getting off the weekends which should be good. It also means that there is plenty of time for ISP, or Independent Learning Service, which is basically volunteering for hours. We all need to have 80 hours of ISP for the end of the year. Luckily, we will have lots of time off and will be able to easily do ISP. We are counting down the days now until we leave Monday morning. We can drive 8 hours per day and are staying in hotels Monday and Tuesday night. People who are the drivers for the team can only drive for 2 hours at a time, so we will be making many stops along the way!
We went to the air force academy yesterday, which was difficult because there was a lot of physical activity involved, which included having very good arm and upper body strength. There were some who were really good at this and others who could not do many of the activities because they didn't have the strength. It was overall a very fun day and also a good way to bond with the team.
I went to the Obama rally on Sunday, which was really fun. There was about a mile long line to get in to the park where it was and there were tons of people. There were snipers on the roof with huge guns, watching people the whole time.
I also have pictures of this but I forget my cord for the camera in my room, so next time!!

training!!

So everything is going pretty well here... it feels like these past weeks are flying by. I am still training, getting ready to go on spike and going to many in-depth classes. Some of the classes are hard to remain awake for though! We had a training today on media representation- what to say if a reporter wants to interview you. We've also had classes on how to have a healthy living style, and how to handle different situations when they arise, all in preparation for going on spike.
We are going to find out who is on our permanent teams this Friday! I am starting to get a little nervous because those are the people I will be spending the rest of my ten months with. We will most likely be going down to the Gulf Coast. Many teams will be placed in Texas for Hurricane Ike work and a lot will be stationed in Louisiana for Hurricane Katrina.
I have heard that we are going hiking in the Rocky Mountains in a couple of days with my unit, so that should be pretty amazing. I am going to go to Boulder this weekend with some friends, so I will get to see some more of Colorado.

Since I couldn't fit all of the pictures onto the same blog, here are more!!!


The rooms are really nice and pretty big. My roommate and I have a huge desk complete with drawers and shelves above it!!

We have our own sink, so that way there is no line in the bathrooms!

My roommate and I each have our own closet and pull out beds that are on wheels, so it is easy during the day to push the beds in and have more space in the middle of the room.

The buildings here on campus are so beautiful. The top one is the tower, which is really pretty.

The backpack is what we have to bring on spike (each project we go on). They're pretty awesome!!

the sites in Denver

Tonight, I thought it would be fun to go outside and take pictures of the sunset because there's a really pretty view of the Rocky mountains and the town right in front of it. It's so amazing here... the computer lab is on floor four, and let me tell you- the walk up to the fourth floor is very tiring to get to because of the altitude, which also means that I am constantly thirsty!

packing

It's harder to pack for 10 months than I thought! I just don't know how I will be able to fit this all into my suitcase... and... I already sent a box to Denver!