Fill-in

I realize it's been a few days since my last post, so I have a bit to fill in. I also realize in reading back that my previous posts have been a bit overly cheerful, so I feel the need to reconcile the fact that I sound like a kid at summer camp.

For the latter half of this week, we've been doing 8 hour days of diversity training, group conflict resolution classes and CPR training-- just preparing for the worst of what may arise among fights in our team. These sound fairly harmless, but really they are more exhausting than the 5:30 PT that we've also been up to. Imagine an 8 hours session of group-hugs: after a while your arms start to get a little tired. In all seriousness, the times when we've been able to sit down and talk with a little sincerity about things that have been worrying us have been refreshing. As a team we seem to be doing really well thus far, and I'm glad that each one of has a lot of character to bring to the group.

The weekend has been a good change of pace, though I've still been keeping very busy. Yesterday was our 'van-driver test' which consisted mostly of driving around town with our head PT coodinator Willie Holmes and shooting the bull with him. Willie is a really gregarious guy, though it's easy to resent him when he's having you hold a push-up in the down position for what seems like an eternity. He's a retired Navy-man and has been staffing the Western NCCC HQ since the early days. Someone else described him aptly as a very intense Bill Cosby. Anyhoo it was nice to see a few more parts of the area beyond walking distace. We drove out to Fair Oaks-- a little old town just east of North Highlands (the neighborhood of Sactown that our base is situated). It's a nice area situated above the American river (very close to the beach we visited last week) with a lot of oldish houses and wooded areas.

It's hard to describe the area exactly since the environment doesn't remind me anything of home. All the fast food is taquerias and In-and-out burgers (not to mention Carl's Jr's, the nasty western version of Hardee's). There's no McMansions in the nice neighborhoods and the woods are full of trees I've never heard the name of. It's a little comforting that we're in an environment that is somewhat seasonal; many of the scragly oaks in the area are turning brown at the present. I had forgotten from 7th grade geography class but we're in a 'Mediteranean' climate, and they only get about 2 months of good rain every year. This makes most of the non-sprinklered grass the shade of caked mustard, which is a little strange to me.

The city itself is less of a disappointment than people paint it. Colin was not particularly impressed with his recent visit before I came, but I find it fairly welcoming. The public transportation isn't perfect and smells distinctly of weed most of the time, but it gets the job done so long as you make the last train home on time. The midtown area is very nice, with a lot of nice restaurants/bars/art galleries/things-to-do within an easy walking distance. On Friday I went out with a few friends to go swing dancing, something I only got to do once when I was living in Indy all summer. Besides that the area is very diverse and integrated. There is a big Russian, Phillipino, Chinese, and Vietnamese (to name a few) community living just outside our campus area. The area is a little depressed due to the Air Force base pulling out around 2001, but all in all it's not a bad area. You just need to know where to go as a group and not to mess with the bikers at the local dive bar.

Lastly, and so my parents can finally read this-- today I got out to Folsom, CA to do an ISP (Independant Service Project) with an environmental non-profit called Weed Warriors. We spent the morning cutting down a non-native invasive wetland grass that was edging out all it's native neighbors. I might have a bit more to say on it, but I need to get to dinner. I may be doing the same thing next week-- it was pretty fun.