Oops

For some reason I can't edit that last post without deleting all my info, so I will just start a new one. The hassles I deal with...

:)

The map in the post below shows the route I traveled in 3 weeks time.

Alright, so let's start from the start, meaning forget about the travel details because I just don't have time now, and maybe someday I will come back to that. I doubt it. I arrived here (Perry Point) on Tuesday morning at 6:30 a.m. via train, they picked me up at 7:15, and my day kept going and going and going. We've been doing "in-processing" since then: lots of paperwork for health insurance, policies, procedures, etc; uniforms, including BDU pants, steel toe boots, many shirts, khaki shorts, different types of hats, sweater, fleece vest, and a shiny black coat; physical exams, including vision, hearing, urine test (mandatory pregnancy & drug screening), breast exam, tuberculosis test, tetanus shot, plus run of the mill body check-up; team building, including 7 hour scavenger hunt in 12 passenger van, short hike, lots of talking; training sessions, which involve sitting and watching presentations; wild land firefighting information sessions; housing assignment (I got a house, not dorms! Woot!), plus the nitty gritty of moving in and living, like cleaning, organization, meal planning, etc; and a TON of fun.

Highlights:

• Housing!
  
• There are two types of housing at PP, dorms & houses. The majority of corps members and team leaders live in houses, but there just weren't enough for the entire crew so they opened up an old wing of a hospital. Oh, by the way, we live on VA (veteran affairs) Hospital grounds. Lots of old men walking around.
  
• The dorms are weird-- 4 to 8 beds per room, no kitchens which means all meals catered, and I think a bit less freedom. NCCC will be updating a room or two in the dorms with kitchen stuffs after we leave campus in a month for spike projects (spike being our away-from campus service).
  
• The houses are awesome, even in their dilapidated state. The VA refuses to repair the houses (old barracks) because they want to tear them down and sell off the million dollar land they're occupying. Did I mention I have a view of the Susquehanna River meeting the Chesapeake Bay from my bedroom window? I think not. Anyhow, the VA won't repair them, they won't let NCCC make any changes, and so we're left with some sketchy housing built in the 1920's. Some houses have holes in walls, parts of windows missing, MOST have terrible paint (it dangles from the ceiling and walls in large chunks), and ALL have very interesting heat-- a metal grate in the living room floor through which heat blows. And then there's a much smaller hole upstairs (location of bedrooms) through which some air might blow from the living room. Tonight the floor of our kitchen was a bit flooded because the pipes beneath leak mightily into the cupboard. In the houses we make our own food. :) Oh, and my house has a ping pong table instead of a dinner table, and we even have a ghetto TV (TVs are rare). I think it's from the 70's. Not joking.
  
• Roommates!
• I live in a 4 bedroom house, 7 girls total. Because I arrived at campus so early I had first call on my bedroom so I chose the only single room. I wasn't sure that I'd want to shut myself into a bedroom by myself (I loved sharing a room with Sara at my last apartment), but now I'm thinking it's a good idea. Alone time is rare, and having my privacy is important to me. Besides, we don't spend much time in there. The girls I am living with are great! I'll write up some biographies sometime. 4.5 vegetarians in the house, 2.5 meat eaters. I call myself the half... because there are certain meats I dislike, such as ground beef (unless it's from home), bologna, turkey sandwich meat, etc. And I prefer to eat meat sparingly. And black bean garden burgers are so delicious! enough.
• Food!
• This has been one of the highlights I think. In the houses we are allotted $5.00 per day for food (will drop to $4.50 in a month), and that includes all 3 meals plus snacks. The food allotment can only be spent in the once-weekly shopping excursion, not during personal time. We decided, as a house, that it would be best to pool our money together and cook together so as to save money. With the differing diets in our house (one girl requests turkey meat, one girl requests whole milk and red meat, and vegetarians wanting this type soy milk, that type veggies) it makes grocery shopping VERY interesting. We sat down a couple nights ago and made meal plans and a shopping list- it was huge! I thought wow, we will have to spread some of these things out over the next couple weeks, like condiments, tea, honey, etc.

Goodness gracious. Time has flow. It's 12:59 am and I need to get up around 7:30 I think. I will write about the shopping trip soon, hopefully tomorrow. Goodnight!