Getting Things Done!!

Today is Saturday, but it feels like Friday. The past few days have been a whirlwind of activity. We've done two service projects, met our official teams, went to more meetings, and explored the city.

Friday: Friday was our last day with our pods (temporary teams). WE spent the day on our first service project. It was AWESOME!!! We were weed wackers for the day. Our pod along with two other pods went down to this wetland area that has been invaded by invasive species. We got to spend the day removing the invasive species. The area was absolutely gorgeous. There were animals everywhere and we were right next to train tracks, which seemed fitting.

Our pod got to put on the water boots and waders and go into the wet section, except the wet section was really thick sinking mud. So many of us got stuck. It was such a great team bonding experience. We had to pull our team mates out of the mud. After about 3 hours of work we ate lunch at this nearby park. We played on the swing set and then my gymnastics craving overpowered me and I started a handstand contest. Of course, handstand contests turn into other gymnastics moves and in the end I was just showing off. But it did feel good to flip again :)!

After lunch we went back to the wetland and continued removing the invasive plants. By the end of the day we had made about a half of a mile long pile of the invasive species. It felt good!!

That night we assembled in the dining area where we were given envelopes that contained clues to find our official teams. Bye bye Pod 15, hello Green 7!!! They warned us about getting too attached to our pod mates, but I still got attached to mine. That, however, made it really hard to leave them. I'm currently missing my pod mates, but hoping that I will like my team mates. My TL (team leader) is Nick and he was a corp member about 5 years ago and decided to come back. We ended the night by going out to eat with our new teams. It is really hard to get a good dinner when each person has only $5. Got to love the government funds. We ended up getting really good pizza, along with 4 other teams.

Saturday: Saturday felt like Friday, because we had another service project. Me and my new team got to go to the zoo and help out there. We did a variety of projects ranging from, laying new soil in the foxes' cages to painting to leveling to taking apart and then moving a deer shelter. The deer aer in this huge pastor and they have a little overhang that they can go to get out of the rain. Unfortunately, the overhang was in the wrong part of the pasture, so we got to wear hardhats, safety goggles, and leather work gloves and de-mantal and re-mantal the shelter. The fun part was carrying all the pieces through the zoo filled with people to the other side. Fun times.
Tonight everyone went to downtown Sacramento. We had fun exploring the city. We took the Light Rail down and then walked around. The Light Rail is so much nicer than the "L". And here I am in the computer lab, extremely tired and ready to sleep. Tomorrow is our first day off! I have a feeling the whole campus will be sleeping in past 5:30am.

Miss my Pod 15 mates,
Catherine

Here is my address for the rest of the year.

Catherine Malin
Class 15, Team Green 7
AmeriCorps NCCC
3427 Laurel St.
McClellan, CA 95652