Weeks 3 & 4

Weeks 3 & 4... Let's see, it has been something else. All the classes for these couple weeks have been pretty standard.

Big news!
If I haven't already told you, I am going to Mobile, Alabama for round 1. Wolf 1 will be working out of Mobile Co. building houses. I have never built a house before, but I can only imagine how tough it will be. Alabama in the spring should be nice. I am going to leave for Mobile in about two weeks. I will probably be down in the gulf area for two rounds, roughly 12 weeks total. My first big break after these rounds is summer vacation which starts just after my birthday and ends after July 4th. If anyone wants to get me airfare for this time that would make an excellent birthday present! lol

Okay, back on track. Sometime last week I contracted some poison ivy or something of that nature. It is eating me alive.
I recently received my team specialty role of Media Representative. This role will put me in the position of team photographer. I will be working with Anne on this. We will be creating briefing and debriefing slide shows.
Last weekend was a three day weekend for us due to Presidents Day. This weekend has also been a three day weekend due to a "snow day" on Friday. Not going to lie, it has been real nice. Not much going on this weekend because our independent service project was canceled due to the inclement weather. We were supposed to assist the archaeological society in excavating an old cemetery. I was pretty excited for this.
Maryland gets less than 1" of snow and the entire place shuts down. I love it. :)

Last weekend we rented a car and drove to New York City. An amazing time to say the least. I was very impressed at the size of the city. I drove there and back which was the most intense and uptight driving situation I have ever been in.

Here is a fraction of the photos I took from the trip..

See the full size photos of NYC here

This week we went on another service project. It was very cold and windy. The service project consisted of Wolf 1 clipping grass and pulling invasive species from the ground.



That about does it for now. I am sure I will think of something after I have already left the computer lab for the night.

See you later,
Justin

Week 2 CTI

Teams and Units have been delegated. I have been appropriately placed on the Wolf Unit, Team 1.

Wolf 1-


This week we went on our first service project to the Havre de Grace Recreation Center. We banded with another Wolf Team to trim branches and vines growing on the fence. We also picked up rocks out of the soccer field. After that we scavenged for litter. We finished 2 days worth of work in under 4 hours.

Service Project #1-


Random oil tanker in Delaware City-


This week we have been spending most of our days training at the University of Delaware. We take all kinds of seminars. Yesterday I took my drivers safety course for passenger vans. Today I took classes to become Red Cross CPR and First Aid certified. I had early physical training this morning at 5am. Pretty rough time to be getting up... I'm so beat. We looked up in our attic last night and found a bunch of boxes left for us from teams of the past. There was some interesting stuff in the boxes to say the least. I don't have any major plans for this weekend. We didn't sign up for any Individual Service Projects so no working for me this weekend. I am going to sleep in and hang out with my roommates.

Allie- Still waiting on that C&N! Where's it at?

That's all I have so far. Talk to you later!

Full size photos on Flickr

Here it is... first official post from Maryland

Ok, it's finally the weekend- Saturday to be exact.
The flight over was pretty good with the exception of my light jog to terminal C in O'Hare. First few days have kept us pretty busy here with seminars and social events, but so far it's been a smooth ride!
We have approximately 300 people on this campus which is a record number of members in one class. As of now, all of the Corps members are split up into 4 units which are further separated into temporary pods. I will get my official team placement at the beginning of next week. Training (or CTI as we know it) will last another 5 weeks and then the teams will depart on their first assignment (or SPIKE).

Here are a few photos to summarize life so far in The Point-
(Click here to see full size photos on Flickr)


Our house- It's located in what is called The Village. The Village is in Perry Point, MD on the grounds of an active VA Medical Center.


The Village- I live on the very far left end. Each house is a four bedroom one bathroom unit. Each bedroom bunks two members.


Our bedroom- I get the top bunk and share the room with Zach.


The 7 roommates- Sitting around the table for our first self-cooked meal. I made dinner this evening. Clockwise from the left most person: Logan, my empty chair, Joel, Adam, Zach, Kenneth, Justin, and Thomas. Good bunch of guys.





Chesapeake Bay- We live right down the street from the water line. Across the river is Havre De Grace, a neighboring city. It's not much different up here from home with the exception of different names for gas stations and grocery stores. Our gas stations are Royal Farms and Wawa. Our grocery stores are Food Lion. We have a local bar down the street called Rendezvous. I have ended up there a couple nights this week :)

Today we went on a scavenger hunt that took us to most of the locations you see above. We live close to and travel often to New Jersey and Delaware.

I am trying out to be on the Wildfire Team. Tomorrow morning at 7am I have to walk 3 miles under 45min with 45lbs on my back. That test is just to get in the program. It gets more rigorous after that. I got my carbs tonight and am going to get to bed early. Team assignments and training begin on Monday.
The internet in our computer lab is very intermittent so I apologize for the randomness of the post. Just trying to get this done before I lose the net again. I've actually been working on it for several days now.

Done

Must head out now though. Hopefully I will be able to post again sometime in the middle of next week.

See you later