Hello there!

  So I'll start out by saying that I am one sore person! Wall sits during PT make for a very sore rear end XP I feel like an old lady every time i have to sit and get up at the moment haha.
  On an entirely different note, we have had FOUR fire drills in between friday and yesterday, the first and last were because of the fire alarms messing up, the 2nd and 3rd were actual fire drills. Of course the fluke ones happened when everyone was getting ready for bed. The second one on friday night was a particularly chilly night everyone was freezing so most of the Corps members formed a huge huddle, and I happened to be smack in the middle of it somehow! It was quite the experience haha.
  Yesterday was training for permanent specialty roles, my role as a service learning initiator (aka SLI) is to do at least 3 service learning projects for my team during our 6-8 week project "spike" and also initate team reflections about the project. There are many other things that I as an SLI must do, and that includes a BUNCH of paperwork, but I think it'll be pretty fun as I get hands on with the job. Also, at the end of each project round the team will create a project portfolio and I'll help coordinate that.
     Search and rescue training on friday! I'm stoked about that =) 
Had a yummy dinner tonight! ginger chicken and rice and a cauliflower/potato mix that is pretty good!
   A person on my team has taken from calling me  "Heather G" to occasionally calling me "g-unit'.Yea, 'cuz I'm so gangster, right? haha. The team is pretty cool and we're all bonding really well  =)
    Yesterday, I took a run along the bayside that's right acrooss from the dorms. Let me tell you, I have never seen something so breathtaking as a sunset on the water. It's amazing!
       I'm super excited to find out where our team is headed for spike! Should know in a couple days!!!
 Sorry, I'm still lacking in pictures. I probably won't be really starting to take a boatload of pictures until spike though!
    Well that's all for now, I'll post again when something of importance comes up!
                         
                                                                      Until then,
                                                                   <3 Heather G

What A Week!

       Sorry that I've been so late on this! I just got back to the dorms after a four day mini spike helping clean up a girl scout camp in Pasadena the last four days. In case your wondering, that's Pasadena, Maryland, not Pasadena, California (which is still weird to hear haha). My team was helping to cllean up the area, it was a crazy amount of work! There was this little shed that had been filled up with useless things over the past decade or so and we ended up filling a 30 yd dumpster with all the things that were inside! We were all left wondering how it ever fit in that tiny shed in the first place. Now, that shed is a perfectly useful tool shed. Night time in the little cabin we stayed in was pretty fun,I played Spoons for the first time (which I fail at haha) and some game called Ninja. We've all started to bond better which is pretty cool, I'll be learning a lot over these next 8 months! There's this one person on my team who is an awesome cook. He literally can pull out the random few things we have left in our food cabinet, and make something amazing! So when I come back home, I'll maybe know at least a thing or two about cooking. There's another Heather on my team she's like 5 years older than me, but her birthday is on may 3rd! that's kinda crazy haha so now I;m either known as just, Heather, "G" or Heather G, to differentiate between the two Heathers. There's another person on my team who is also from Sacramento so it's pretty nice when we can talk about areas back home. My team leader is a vegan, so I've been eating a lot of vegetables and non-meat, non dairy stuff! I've been eating a lot healthier than I have in the past year or so! A handful of people on my team (there are 11 of us altogether) are very health conscious so that makes it a lot easier to stay motivated to be healthy. And on top of work, we do PT  (physical training) 3 times a week, 45 min each, so I will be very excited to see my results at the end of this service! The next two weeks I will be staying at the dorms doing training for various things and then induction is March 9th and first spike is on March 10th! Everyone on the team has a specialty role, which are permanent roles on the teams. I am a service learning initiator, so part of what I will be doing is researching the spikes we go on, find information about the spike project and come back to team meetings to discuss with the team about why we are doing the project and so on. Training for that is next week. Also, next week is disaster training! I'm excited for that, hopefully we actually go out on disaster this year. 
     I signed up for training to be a VA search and rescue person, which basically what I'd do is search for any of the seniors that live on the VA medical campus if they are missing (our dorms are shared with the Veterans medical center campus. Since we wouldn't do search and rescue on disaster, I figured this is about the closest I'll get to being able to do search and rescue. 
      I'm sorry I've been so horrible about pictures! I will try to be more on top of that!
    If ihaven't talked to you in awhile, don't be offended, I've just been really busy! (I do have a phone on me now though, so if you shoot me a text I will try to get back to you, or you could just go the old fashioned way and send me a letter! hehe =))
        Well that's all for now, I think. A lot of stuff going on lately, I love having things to do! My next post should be a lot sooner since I'll be here at the dorms for two weeks, so yea. Love ya guys hope all is well, talk to you soon!!!

                                                        Until then,
                                                     <3 Heather G

Mailing Addresses! (Finally!)

Ok, for packages:
                           

Heather Gorman

Americorps NCCC/Moose 3

VA Medical Center

15 Boiler House Road

Perry Point, MD 21902

And for letters:

Heather Gorman

Americorps NCCC/ Moose 3

VA medical center

PO box 209

Perry Point, MD 21902

                         

Moose 3!

  Yesterday we got permanent teams (and I apparently got the term of 'pods' wrong either they mean that temprary teams were 'pods' or if the term 'pod' is synonymous with teams) I'm on Moose 3! My team is pretty cool though at the moment the dynamics are a little odd since six out of the ten members stayed on the same team that was before temporary team. I'm sure that'll change soon though since we will all be spending ten months together! There's also a person who's also from Sacramento so that's cool. Half the team knows how to cook for real so I'm guessing I'll be eating a lot of random weird things that i've never tried before (today one of my teamates cooked chicken that was cooked with some kind of sauce, curry with lentils and other things and eggplant, first two items were pretty good, but I still don't like eggplant =P) that'll be new since i'm so used to eating a bunch of microwaved stuff! haha
        My phone somehow got water damage and rusted so now it doesn't turn, luckily it has insurance on it so my dad is having them send out a replacement phone, but I won't get it until Friday at the earliest, I'm considering going old fashioned and try to find a watch to buy in the next couple days heh. 
    My team is in D.C for tonight and tomorrow, I couldn't go because I still have to get my TB results, which I have to go back to Deleware for on Monday morning.
    We had drug testing this morning, I never realized how hard it would be to go pee! (if that's TMI for you, well I told you this was going to be a more detailed account of this trip =P lol)
         I have my first PT on Tuesday! (I'm not sure how excited I should be for that haha) then we have our first mini-spike Tuesday-Friday at a girl scout camp in central Maryland, helping clear brush and such (I'm hoping to be able to get some girl scout cookies! haha)
     Um there's some pictures up on the Americorps Alantic Region Class XVIII facebook page so check those out if ya want to!
    I promise I'll put my mailing address up tomorrow! i keep forgetting to write it down before I come to the computer lab. I'll have 2 addresses since one will be for mailing letters and one is for sending packages.
      Well, that's all for now!  Miss and love you guys!I'll try to stay as updated as possible!
                                                                  
                                                                       Until Then,
                                                                      <3 Heather
                                                                      

                                                   

I'm Here!

So I left yesterday at 8:15 and arrived in Baltimore at 6:10 eastern time. A very long flight to say the least! And then the campus is about another 50 miles from Baltimore. But I made it! When I got in last night there was much to talk about! First I got my uniform (I'll try to post a pic in the next few days!It's A pretty cool feeling to wear it!) there were a few other people who had arrived last night as well. After that we got to the dorms, which to me they are huge! I think there's about 160 of us here, so many names that i can't remember! I have 5 other roomates in my room and I have a top bunk, but at least we have a room with a shower! There is so much diversity here, its so crazy and cool!

    Today, I had CPR and first aid training, 6 hours! But Red Cross doesn't make you take a written test in order to get certified so that's cool. After that we went to Walmart which is also really big! (Maryland seems to like big stores) Got back to my new home,  took a run, had some dinner with my pod ( there are about 5 teams in each group thus we call them 'pods') Oh yea! That reminds me! I'm in a team called Moose 1! At least for tonight anyways, tomorrow we get our permanent teams that we'll have for the next 10 months. Which means even more people to meet!
      Tomorrow I also go to Delaware to get my medical stuff done, which means shots, but oh well heh. After that i'll be going to DC to help with a swim meet either tomorrow or Saturday! (depending on which team I get into.) Everyone is crazy nice here even though  a lot are at least a couple years older than me but it's all good! 
   Well that's all for now, the campus is really pretty (right along Chespeake Bay) there are a LOT of deer, and no so snow as of yet, but I'm sure I'll see it somewhere soon  =P
  Monday is President's Day, so we get it off, all I have to do that day is go back to Deleware for TB results, so that's probably when my next post will be!

                                                                        Until Then,
                                                                     <3 Heather G

So, it's not a dream?

It’s now February 10^th….Yep, this is still very real! I’m still trying to take it all in and my mind is racing of all the things I need to do before I leave in just 4 days. I need to buy some necessities, pack my room, pack my bag and say all my goodbyes to my family. It’s weird, I’ve never flown on my own, I’ve never even been so far away on my own, and the longest I’ve been away from family is like one week and that was for a sixth grade camping trip so there were people I knew and people I was friends with. This is definitely going to be a new adventure for me and that’s exactly what I’ve been wanting for so long. I’m glad I was lucky and got at least 5 days notice instead of like 2. Now I can be fully prepared and can also see most of my family before I go.

I’m not even really sure what to pack. They say to pack as little as possible and I’m not exactly sure how to do that for ten months. I put a list together but I know I’ll probably forget something I usually do, even when I over pack to go somewhere haha. I suppose I’ll just have to do my best and hope that’s enough!    I’m super excited, I know this is just one of those things that is going to change and help define my life. And to think, just the other day I was just some girl who worked in a bagel shop! (I can see myself when I’m like 70 years old telling one of my old lady stories about how my first job was at a bagel shop XD)

Waiting is worth it in the long run!

So I've been waiting for this for about 7 months now. I got accepted into Americorps NCCC! I leave for Perry Point on February 15th! This is how my day went:
               I had the day off from work so i ended up waking up at about 11am, i found a message from Americorps NCCC from a Kevin Johnson(which i thought was a bit funny considering that's the Sacramento mayor's name heh) saying to call him back ASAP, i start freaking out and in my head think of everything I need to get done before I leave. Well when I got a hold of him, it turned out he just wanted to make sure I was still interested in case a vacancy opened up. I said Yes and he said he'd send the info to his supervisor. I hang up, disappointed but still hoping that I could accepted in the next couple weeks. At this point I'm already up so I take a run. About a half hour after that though, I get another call from Americorps! THis time it's to tell me that I am accepted, I am so excited that i can hardly talk on the phone (I think the person on the phone could tell that too as she was kinda laughing heh) so after i hang up. I am yelling! Excitement that's hard to contain! (no jumping around though, last time I jumped in excitement I sprained my ankle haha) after that i called my sister, then my mom (my mom was at work and had to take her break early because she was in tears, now i feel bad ) she's happy for me but understandably it will be hard for her to let me leave. After that I pretty much go through everyone in my contact list to tell them I'll be gone for ten months. I have like 4 more days to work at my job which is crazy, I've been there six months now. I'm really excited for this adventure to begin! I've never flown anywhere by myself, let alone go all the way to the other side of the country! It's still crazy to take in that in 5 days i will begin something that will be a huge life changer! I'll try to keep this blog up to post my adventures!!