Sorry it's been so long!

So right now I'm blogging to you from DC! It' pretty cool here! Went to the Smithsonian, attended a rally, exciting stuff! This week has been so weird! So far I've discovered I actually like cheescake I've been drinking actual coffee, and yesterday I enjoyed an energy drink! What is going on? Ah but this why I love Americorps, I've begun a motto that says to say yes to any new opportunity, I'm really excited to see where that takes me =)
   Also, I've put into motion that my one of my workout goals for the end of this program is to do an 8 minute plank! It'll be pretty intense! Oh! We're also finally done with organizing doors! Now on to other fun projects!  Well that's all for now! I'll update more as things happen!

                                                                           Until then,
                                                                        <3 Heather G

Doors, doors, and more doors!

Yep, you read correct! This week has consisted of moving and organizing doors in the warehouse! It's been taking a lot of time, but progress is to be seen and made! I'm having a blast here in Baltimore! It's gorgeous here! Just a year ago I would have never imagined that I would get a chance at this oppurtunity! It's really humbling when a stranger thanks you for service. It's unbelievable how big an issue poverty is here, it's definitley widened my perspective of things.

        So, I've found that I really enjoy doing planks in PT, I would have never thought that!
    2 of our 3 firefighters come back Saturday night, so we will have a more normalish team!
 Hmm, I probably have more to tell you, but I can't think of those things at the moment haha. We definitly have a lot of good work coming with this project! I'll update again soon!
                              
                                                                            Until Then,
                                                                         <3 Heather G

About to begin the work I signed up for!

Training month is now over! I'm in Baltimore with my team! (though not everyone is here at the moment, we have 3 firefighters on my team and two are gone for this first week of spike but one is gone for the whole round) Our house is really cool! My team lleader says it'll probably be the best living situation we'll be in all yea. There's a backyard in the back that doesn't look like much right now, but as a team we're planning on fixing it up and I'm so excited for that! It has so much potential! Our work start at 9am on Monday and the first couple days will just kind of be an orientation of the warehouse. Lots of things will be going on these next two months! The good thing is that finding internet access won't be hard at all, so I'll be able to update you guys fairly regularly! (at least for this round)
         Lasy Friday was the last night at 9h dorms,  I hadn't expected to do much more than pack and sleep but then I got invited to go bowling! Something else to cross off my list, I've never been in a position where i could say yes to go do something without putting much thought into it. Being spontaneous is awesome! haha 
         Well that's all for now! I'm having an awesome time and hope all you guys are doing fantastic!! I also have been able to photos up! Alright well gotta go, update soon!
                          
                                                                 Until then,
                                                             <3 Heather G

Spike is in Baltimore!

            Yesterday  had been one eventful day! (oh and we’ve had like another three fire alarm malfunctions two were late at night and one was like 8 in the morning it’s pretty annoying!) Anyways, back to today, my team and I did an ISP (independent serve project) yesterday at a facility that helps poverty stricken and homeless girls and such so today we were organizing a room to be a store for the facility’s new website that will be a site that lets these girls get a bunch of things for free (via donations from sponsors like bath and body, Macy’s and other random volunteers) It was pretty cool knowing that we could actually see where we were making a change by doing this project. (And yes I finally took some pictures!)  The place was in Baltimore so that’s about an hour away from the dorms Perry Point. After this ISP, our team leader took us down some random roads and we were all wondering why things didn’t look familiar and finally we were all really excited because we realized our spike project was about to be revealed! So eventually we park somewhere and our team leader says for all of us to hop out of the van. So we do finding ourselves at a loading dock, our team leader hands an envelope to one of my teammates, revealing our first ATL (Assistant Team Leader). As it turns out the loading dock will be our spike and we will do a lot of logistic things and such. (I’ll get more info to you when we actually go on spike and know more of what we’ll be doing) Our housing arrangement will be a 3 bed/2 bath house with a washer/dryer, not sure if there’s wi-fi at that spot, but since we will be in the city it shouldn’t be hard to find a close place with wi-fi!  And that is where we will be for 8 weeks.

            Ah, but we were not done yet! We climbed back in the van and about another 10 or so minutes later arrived at a different location. This one had a sign that said “Rebuilding Together”. So what we will be doing is helping with low income households which includes things such as; demolition, building, carpentry, helping to sort out people’s clutter and much, much, much more! we will be there for about the remainder of the two months. Of course this means that our team will not be coming back for transition week when everyone else does except for one day I think. (we end up coming back on May 4^th, my b-day heh So that means we really won’t see any of the other teams until like the end of June! It’s a little sad, but I’m super excited for all the good, hard work that we will be tasked with! =)          

            I am super excited that we will be in Baltimore for so long!! I can’t wait to explore! Also, Baltimore has FROZEN CUSTARD!!!! I’ve been waiting forever to eat that stuff again! haha

            Also, Baltimore has CHIPOTLE! haha me and my other teammate who is from Sacramento as well were pretty hyped about that.

            A bunch will be going on this week so I probably won’t be updating this for a week or so probably. (But if you send me a letter, I’ll write one back! hehe)

            So that’s what’s been going on lately, pretty exciting since CTI is just about over and now we’re moving into transition week. I may possibly have the chance to go to disaster but I’m not truly counting on it this early in the year heh. Anyways, I hope everything is going well with you guys! Send letters! I’d love to hear from you!

For letters:

 Heather Gorman

Americorps NCCC/ Moose 3

VA medical center

PO box 209

Perry Point, MD 21902

For Packages:

Heather Gorman

Americorps NCCC/Moose 3

VA Medical Center

15 Boiler House Road

Perry Point, MD 21902

                                                Until then,

                                             <3 Heather G

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