The one where a 90 year old woman is in love with Mark Rubio

Greetings from Sactown!!! So it seems to have been about 10 years since I wrote a post. I actually am married with children now (kidding!) At first I just thought nobody would really want to read about taxes but then I just realized that I am lazy (also maybe people don't want to read about taxes) It actually hasn't been too bad here. Here's how it went.

Honestly, the worst part of this project isn't even the taxes.... it was the training to do taxes. 2 weeks of sitting inside talking about taxes is very tiring.... or should i say taxing?.... I'll let myself out.

The Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services where we did training.

Volunteered at a Sacramento clean up day, one mans trash is Blue five's treasure!

So our schedule has been pretty hectic, but not as bad as I thought it would be. We've been at this for 3 or 4 weeks now and I still haven't gone crazy yet so I'm taking that as a good sign. On Tuesday-Friday all 12 of us start the day working at the 211 call center scheduling the tax

appointments. I get to talk to a lot of adorable old people on the phone so I like it. The second half of the day 6 people from the team will stay at the call center and end their day at 5:00. The other half take a 3 and a half hour break at 12:00 and then go and do taxes until about 8:00. On Saturday we all spend the whole day doing taxes. Each schedule has it's positives and negatives but we haven't died yet. It is very fulfilling to see how much money we can get people and how happy they are that we are helping them.

Our first day doing other people's taxes!

I'm probably boring with all of this tax talk! We've surprisingly have found ways to serve in the community and find things to do. So I'll just leave you with pictures! Thanks for reading and don't forget to serve others!

Volunteered for 21 hours at a crab feed for charity

If you're ever in Sacramento on MLK day, join the 5 mile march that starts at Grant High School! it was an awesome experience!

 American River Parkway, Sacramento California

The weather on campus is starting to get nice again!!! Thank GOODNESS!!

The one where Blue 5 goes insane

Hello from Sacramento!! Sorry that it's been a minute ( that's what the cool kids say, right?) since I wrote my last post. We just got off of our two week Christmas break and I was completely not productive when I didn't need to be so I decided to skip the whole writing a blog post thing. It has been an absolutely CRAZY two weeks where our team went through a roller coaster of emotions. Here's how life has been.

SAN FRANCISCO!! A group of us from our team plus a friend from another team decided that we wanted to do San Fran on Christmas Eve and it was SAN FRANTASTIC (that was an awful pun but I am going to do it anyways) Since we are what the cool kids call "Ameribroke", we decided we didn't want to pay for public transportation. we literally walked around San Francisco. My feet have never been so tired but I feel like we got to see more of the city this way. I learned to love SanFran and I plan on going back.

We were caught in the rain, but it was worth it

Ben, me, Amadi, Sheila, and our honorary B5 member Elizabeth

I was literally making Full House references all day

Some random outdoor art museum that we would have never found if we didn't walk the city

Mississippi? Like I said, Blue 5 had a roller coaster of emotions during Christmas break. The members of B5 that were on campus were called to the main office for an emergency meeting. Of course all of the worse scenarios were going on in my head "Oh my gosh, blue 5 is being disbanded!" but we got there and we were told that we were being sent to Mississippi on disaster relief and that we were leaving in 2 days.  We were absolutely excited and we got to packing and everything right away. We got our flight itineraries and we packed for our teammates who were home for Christmas break. We then got a call that told us that our housing fell through so we weren't leaving on Saturday anymore but we still needed to be ready to leave whenever. So my stuff was already packed so I didn't want to unpack and I wore the same outfit for 3 days in a row. Then, we found out that our project sponsor for Mississippi got sent to Texas for disaster relief..... so now we are not going at all. It was a crazy week, but at least now, when I am in a job interview and somebody asks me to describe when I was flexible, I've got that on lock.

Christmas break was mainly a lot of sitting in my room and reading or watching Netflix which was actually incredible and needed but we did some fun stuff too!

We got to do a service project at the zoo AND I GOT TO FEED A GIRAFFE!!

We are starting our tax project this week! I probably will have a difficult time with the numbers but I am really excited to start helping people. I don't want to do taxes but neither does anybody else in the world so I will do them for them. Thanks for reading and don't forget to serve others!!

Got to volunteer at a rose garden with people from other teams!

I really like getting to do service projects outside of work. It's nice to get to know my community and get to know people from other teams!

Happy New Year!!

The one where we say goodbye to trail work and the desert

Yo from Sacramento! (That wasn't meant to rhyme but it is a pleasant surprise) Blue 5 has said goodbye to Pioneertown, CA and we are back on campus with all of the other AmeriCorps teams. What we are going to be doing this week is debriefing and basically wrapping up all of the paperwork and stuff from our first projects. Honestly, I'm not super stoked to be back. I miss Pioneertown, the desert, and the people like crazy. Our last week went really well and I think we wrapped up our time well! Here's how the week went!!

On Sunday, we had our Christmas party. I was lame and didn't take many pictures but we all we decked out in our Christmas swag and did our cute little secret santa gift exchange ( shout out to Amadi, my secret santa!!) We also decorated cookies and played games. I basically told you all about this to brag about how adorable and cool my team is.

Our adorable tiny Christmas tree

We ended trail work with a bang! Blue 5, built over 30 check steps, I wanna say 7 rock staircases, a lot of water bars, and we lopped many miles. Yeah I know those numbers aren't completely accurate and it's just a guess. I personally loved trail work and rock work. I liked getting stronger and I liked the challenge behind it.

My teammates Page, Ben and oe of project sponsors, Tyler, and I with the last check step we made at the Pioneertown Mountains Preserve

 The whole team with our project sponsors on our last day.

So we are back in Sacramento, and it is so weird being around so many people but I am sure we will get used to it again. I am looking forward to Christmas break starting on Thursday. 7 people on my team will be staying in Sacramento including me so I am excited to get to spend the holiday and turn up Christmas style. Thanks for reading and don't forget to serve others!

Last note: I doubt they will see this but shout out to Lucas Wilgers and Tyler Green for being awesome and coming out and working on the trail with us every day!! Even though I was sassy, I really do love and miss you guys!! Basically the best project sponsors in the world even though you are losers!! Peace out!

*This is not an official AmeriCorps blog, all opinions are my own! :)

The one where it snows in the desert

Greetings from Pioneertown everyone!! Sorry I haven't posted in a couple weeks but we don't have signal at the house and when I actually have internet I have so many other things I need to do.... also, I'm lazy. Well the past couple of weeks in the desert trail working world have been so tiring but they have been so great and we are starting the home stretch. This week is going to be our last week here and I am actually pretty sad about it. We also know where our next project is but I'm not telling you until the end so no cheating!! This is how the past couple of weeks have been.

Surprise!! I actually am loving trail work and rock work which definitely which came as a shock. I am no pro but I can feel like I am improving (and our whole team is) and I guess I kinda know what I am talking about. Definitely still get confused a lot but what is new. We leave for work around 7:30 in the morning, hike 2 and a half hours to our work site, do rock work all day and then hike 2 and a half miles back. My body is exhausted but also I could probably take the hulk on in a fight now (not really) the hike is really enjoyable to me and for some reason I like pushing heavy rocks around all day.  

one of our project sponsers, Lucas, thought it would be funny to take a selfie when we were taking a lunchtime nap.

On Thanksgiving I was really happy with my team. We all decided that we wanted to spend our day helping others by serving at a Thanksgiving dinner that served food to the needy. I was so excited that everyone decided to do this together. Not only did we help others, but we had fun doing it to. (that sounds really cheesy but what can you do about it) We had our own Thanksgiving dinner the day after and even though we ate off of a volunteer budget and we were on the floor and on top of that we had plastic plates, the food turned out delicious and we had a great time. I'm not going to be sappy and tell you how grateful I am for these losers and how they made my first Thanksgiving away from home great so I will just post pictures.

We've had some good times together, whether it's going to Joshua Tree National Park or the hot springs it's been a pleasure to be here in Pioneertown and I'm actually going to miss it so I plan on making the most out of my last week here. Before I leave you guys with le pictures, I guess I can tell you where/what Blue 5's next project is. We are going to.........................................................................SACRAMENTO CALIFORNIA. Yep we are staying in Sacramento for our second round project. On top of that we are doing taxes for people with low income. At first, I did not have the best attitude about this project. I was kinda bummed to find out that I am staying in Sac town. I also feel very under qualified to do people's taxes but thinking about it, things are starting to look up. We don't have to all cramp into a 12p van (if you have ever been a sardine in a previous life you know how it feels) for a ten hour drive. I GET A BED!! Also the campus is big and spacious and for the most part Blue 5 will have it to ourselves. Also, we are going to be trained to do taxes so I am looking forward to being able to help people. Next time you see me I will be back at home base in Sacramento getting ready for my 2 week Christmas break. Thanks for reading and don't forget to serve others.

 Joshua Tree National Park

                                    
                                                         Joshua Tree National Park pt 2

 Desert Hotsprings

 Page and I at the Yucca Valley Christmas Tree lighting

Um literally the best office I have ever had

Volunteering at the Yucca Valley Light Parade

The one where I crush rocks and dominate the trail

HELLO FROM PIONEERTOWN, CALIFORNIA!! I live in the middle of nowhere in the desert and I literally have no kind of signal so that's why I have been MIA for a couple of weeks. I have lived here in Pioneertown for two weeks now working on trails at the Pioneertown Mountains Preserve and I am so tired, I am always dirty, I have scratches and bruises all over my body..... and yet here I am loving it. Here's how it's gone so far

Blue 5 and the rest of the class 22 AmeriCorps members have been officially inducted as AmeriCorps members. We got a special ceremony and everything because we are so swaggy and WE SURVIVED TRAINING PRAISE HALLELUJAH

After we packed our bags and said our goodbyes to friends from other teams, we got in our van and truck that carried our tools and made our way to good 'ol Pioneertown. We were shocked to see our house and find out that it is way more bigger than expected and we met our project sponsers who are all fantastic.

                               Our lovely team home (picture stolen from my teammate Ben)

       My humble "bed" for the next month. Trail work is so tiring that I will sleep well on anything.
The work, like I have already mentioned a lot, has been enjoyable. I really like having the outdoors as my office and I love working with my team and my awesome sponsors. It is taking some getting used to living with 11 other people and being with them 24/7 literally but I wouldn't want to do it with anybody else. I am going to leave you with some pictures of the beautiful place where we are living/ working. Thanks for reading and don't forget to serve others.

                                                We hiked up a mountain!!! (Sorry Page)

   Sheila, Lux, and I with one of our project sponsers, Lucas. standing on our first rock step we made!

Corban, Lucas, and I getting ready to lop (sp?) the trails. We hiked the trail and cut off things that were in the way.
*This is not an official AmeriCorps NCCC blog, all opinions are my own :)