A Trip to the ER

This will be the last post for this year. I will be flying home for Christmas, so starting today, I am going to be taking a short hiatus so I can spend more time with my family and friends. I will still be writing, but pen and paper style, a little bit over Christmas so if I have the time, I will write a brief overview of my break for you guys when I return.

With that, stay safe and warm over the holidays, and I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years from the Ruder Family!!




Day 154 - Monday (14), Today was a stressful day at work. I have a huge report due tomorrow and I'm quite behind right now. I have 8 pages and each page takes approx. one hour to complete. So it's really slow and tedious work.


After work, I drove around Columbia for two hours dropping people off because we have two hours to kill before we can return back to housing.


When we returned to housing, I took a short break and headed back to finish my report for tomorrow. It took about 5 hours until I was somewhat satisfied with the report. After that, I went straight to bed.




Day 155 - Tuesday (15), I finished my report today and presented to the branch director for PA. He wasn't happy about how many financial discrepancies there were between the two set of data I was given and told to compare. So he had me go back and make updates to the data and make them match.


After work, we drove around Five Points, which is a neat little outside outlet full of stores near our housing. It's already decked out in lights and ribbons for Christmas, which I really like.


When we got home, we had dinner. After that, I took advantage of church's gym and played basketball for about an hour and a half.




Day 156- Wednesday (16), Today I spent majority of the day working on updating data to make sure finances match. Like before, it's slow and tedious. It requires much patience and not much room to screw up because we're playing around with large sums of money.


For PT today, we played soccer with our sister team - Gulf 3. When I first got to this program, I was really bad at soccer because it was a sport I never played growing up. I still am really bad at soccer and I mean really bad, but not as bad as when I first got here. So a slight improvement.


After PT, I took a shower and tried to watch the US Women's Soccer game, but it wasn't on any of our channels so I gave up trying to watch it and instead I did online Christmas shopping. Or more like Christmas researching. If you don't remember from one of my previous blogs, my family and I are doing a non-stuff Christmas this year.


Day 157 - Thursday (17), Today at work was mainly the same. I spent majority of the day updating finances so they match our online database.


After work, we did an ISP at the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army does an event where families can apply on their website to receive Christmas gifts for their kids due to them being in a financial crisis or at or below the poverty line. So we helped with retrieving gifts from the back of their warehouse and bringing them up to the front.


Half of the team went to see the opening premiere of the new Star Wars today. I originally was going to go with them, but I decided to hold it off until I got home to see it with my Dad. We've been seeing quite few movies together over these past couple of years and since I've been gone, I've haven't been able to see any with him. So I wanted to do that with him.


I did more Christmas researching today. I've probably changed everyone's gifts at least a few times, except for my Mom's. Her's was the easiest, but it did take me a few days to think of it. I think she's going to like it. It's been fun trying to brainstorm for gifts. It really tested my knowledge of how well I know my family and their interests in addition to what they like to do instead of setting a physical object in front of them and saying "Merry Christmas!" I'm trying to do stuff meaningful for them and actually put thought, time, and effort into these gifts. I really hope they all like it.




Day 158 - Friday (18), Today I finished fixing/updating my financial data and it's looking pretty good so far. But since one data is an electronic database, it needs to checked on a constant basis since numbers can change at anytime.


After work, we dropped off a couple members around town and then a few of us went to a mall. I spent majority of my time in Barnes and Nobles rifling through books.


We got home around 6 pm and I made dinner tonight, which was my Mom's chili. I really enjoyed it and it was warming since the last few days have been muggy and rainy. It's definitely starting to get a little colder here.


I spent part of the night talking to the other AmeriCorps teams stationed in Sacramento. I also just sat in the stairwell listening to Christmas music and making plans with friends for when I got home. One of my all time favorite Christmas songs of all time is Grown-Up Christmas List. I could just listen to it over and over again.




Day 159 - Saturday (19), Well, I had quite the day today! We had a Stafford ISP with the St. Bernard Project in which we cleaned out insulation from the ceiling. The house was flooded by the flood so there was mold damage on the ceiling. And since the ceiling was scheduled to be replaced, we had to take out the insulation before they could tear the ceiling down.


A few of us got to climb in the attic while half of us stayed below. We cut a square hole in the ceiling, taped a trash bag under the hole and swept all the insulation into the bag.


We were in the final stages of cleaning out the last of the insulation, when there was an emergency. We found out that Kristina didn't tell us she was allergic to mold so she had an allergic reaction to it. She was breaking out into hives and couldn't talk or swallow very well due to her throat, so Kodiak and I took her to the ER. As we were driving to the ER, there was a funeral procession going on and I felt kind of bad cutting through it, but I needed the exit that was coming up. The one time that a government licensed vehicle actually came in handy!


We arrived to the ER, got her checked in and they took her to the back and gave her an IV line and some shots. We made it to the ER just in the nick of time. The doctor said that within another five minute, it would have gotten way worse with way more severe consequences. Within an hour after the shots and IV line, she started to look much better and was returning slowly back to her normal self. We got her discharged, picked up the rest of the crew, headed back to housing and told everyone to take showers. We dumped all our clothes that were exposed to mold downstairs so she didn't have any contact with them and then put her to bed.


After putting her to bed, I myself fell asleep for a hour tired from this morning's activities. When I finally came back to life, Kodiak and I watched a movithat was playing on TV and we also watched some Food Network's Chopped.




Day 160 - Sunday (20), Today was a lazy Sunday. I slept in until about 11 am and took a drive through Five Points dropping people off.


After we got back, I made myself lunch and watched football for a few hours. We were supposed to go grocery shopping and do laundry today, but we left our government credit card card at work so we were unable to do either of those. But we will be grocery shopping and doing laundry tomorrow when we get off of work.




Day 161 - Monday (21), Today was a rather slow day at work. It really dragged on for me because I know that I'm going home this week so it seems like someone bewitched the clock to move extra slow.


Today, Kodiak is leaving for Christmas so we dropped him off at the airport. After that we spent about 2 hours at the laundromat washing and drying our clothes. This laundromat is cheaper that any other ones we have been to.


After laundry, we dropped the boys back at housing and then Kristina, Madeleine and I went grocery shopping. Since people are leaving this week including me, our budget is smaller than usual due to absences. Kristina and I picked up a bunch of frozen food and quick meals for the boys because once Kristina and I leave for break, the boys won't really cook so we just bought them frozen pizzas and frozen meals.


I made dinner for Kristina and I when we returned back from shopping. I made vegetarian fajitas. I used corn tortillas opposed to whole wheat or flour tortillas because it's healthier. I sautéed corn, bell peppers, and onions and mixed that into a refried/black bean mixture. I also added a little dash of spices here and there.


We also rented a redbox movie and had a movie night. After that, I took a shower, downloaded some songs and put them in my phone and went to bed.




Day 162 - Tuesday (22), Today, all the clouds from the sky, just decided that they would spread their joy all over Columbia today. It rained extremely hard that it woke me up from my sleep.


Walking out the door this morning was a lovely surprise. It rained so hard that it made difficult to drive. I was driving so slow because visibility was not optimal. Probably like 35-40 mph on a 70 mph highway if that gives you a better perspective. The windshield wipers were all the way on high and they almost rendered useless in this situation.


Nonetheless, we made it to work. Or I thought we did. One of my team member informed me that he forgot his badge back at lodging so I had to drive all the way back. By the time we made it back to lodging, weather was improving. I made some tea inside before we left to drive to work...again.


Today was the same at work. It went by a little faster than yesterday, but that's probably due to the fact that I missed the first 1.5 hours.

We were going to do PT after work today, but the grass fields were too wet and muddy so we did individual PT today. So for the two hours we had to kill, we drove to downtown Columbia. It was the first real time I had actually been able to explore downtown. I would always drive through it, but it was really nice to walk through it.

At 6, we dropped everyone back at housing, and Alex and I went to go grab dinner at Ramen House, a ramen place I spotted a couple weeks ago and scouted out the menu today when we walking around downtown killing time. The ramen was very delicious and I ate very last bit with no struggle. It reminded me of the ramen house that my family would always go to in downtown Sacramento. As matter of fact, this is the first bowl of ramen I have eaten in this program, and that includes the microwave ramen also!

For my individual PT today, I played basketball in the gym. For the first half and hour, I shot by myself. Then for the last half, I played a game with Drew and Nic, which was extremely fun. But I could not wait to take a shower. I was disgustingly gross and covered in sweat so it felt very satisfying to wash it all off and be clean.


Day 163 - Wednesday (23), My day technically started with me finishing yesterday's blog and me waking up at 2:30 am to drop Kristina off at the bus station so she could catch her ride home back to Virginia.

Today was another one of those rainy days. Only four of us went to work today, two stayed behind sick, and two had already left for break. Today went by extremely slow because we had no work due to our POC being out of office and majority of other FEMA employees were also out.

The only action we got today was a tornado warning. We got the emergency alert on our phones and then we had to go down all the way to the basement and hangout there until the tornado warnings were lifted.

We finally left work at 4. I dropped Sean off at a barbershop and I went with a few others to the mall to hangout there until 6. We dropped a couple people back at home and a few of us went to Starbucks to use their free Wi-Fi.

I spent the evening watching a movie that was running on TV. I also watched the boys sword fight with foam pool noodles - they just saw Star Wars, and then I packed.

Kristina, Kodiak and I in the ER

Working in the damaged house clearing out insulation

 

Christmas Tree at the Capitol

Ramen at the ramen house

Tornado warning at work

Round 2: Columbia, SC

Day 147 - Monday (7), Today, we started our two day road trip to South Carolina! Before we left, we had to finish cleaning our dorms and get them inspected. Then we had to make sure our van passed the inspection checklist before we hit the road. We passed the inspection, and after we started moving, I fell asleep and the rest is unknown.

We traveled for about 8 hours today and took a lunch stop at Chipotle. I started reading a new book called Unbroken. There's also a movie made after the book, which I have already seen so I know what the books is about. It's based off of a real life story and it took place around WWII. It's about a man named Zamperini who was an Olympic athlete and he joined the Air Corps for the US military. He got lost at sea and got captured by the Japanese. I'll just leave it at there if any of you want to read it.

We finally arrived in Atlanta about 7:30 pm and unloaded our personal bags into our hotel rooms for the night. We ordered a few pizzas for dinner and Kristina and I went grocery shopping with our leftover budget money. We grabbed some snacks and sandwich stuff for tomorrow's lunch.

We also drove through downtown Atlanta for a bit and got to see a small part of the city. It was really cool to see the city all lit up in lights and it was exactly what I imagined a huge city to look like with all the tall buildings covered in lights.

After we got back from our grocery and downtown Atlanta run, I took a shower and watched Quantico with Kristina before we all went to bed.


Day 148 - Tuesday (8), We started our last leg to Columbia, SC about 9:15 am. We wanted a late start today because we didn't want to sit through traffic hour.

We drove for about 2.5 hours before we took a lunch stop at the Savanna Rapids Pavilion which is located in Augusta, GA. We got to see the August Canal which was beautiful! (See pics below). We stayed their for about an hour exploring the place before we headed back onto the road.

We finally made it to Columbia, SC after about a hour and half of driving! We are staying at another church. The church is very nice and they're letting us use their in their kids activity center as our housing. It has a fooseball table, ping-pong table, two kitchen, couches, and a cozy feeling to it. Our showers are located in the gym which is just across the street from where we are staying. The whole place is great, but the only problem is that the church runs day care in the activity center where we're staying at so we have to be super clean and can't leave anything out, lock out computers and other valuables, and can't be at our lodging from 9 am - 6 pm Mon-Fri. But otherwise than that, I really like where we're staying at. It's super close to downtown, only a 10 minute walk, and it's way better than Houston. There are a bunch of local stores to shop in and a Starbucks! I really enjoy being close to downtown because there's going to be something to do.

We had dinner at a pizza place called the Village Idiot. Despite the name, the pizza was pretty good. After dinner, we came back to the church and I started to unpack my bags. I couldn't really spread out due to the fact that that it has to be clean everyday. But I did reorganize my bag/clothes.

After unpacking, Kristina and I did a late night run to the store to pick up some groceries since we had none. After that, I went to bed and we have our first day of work tomorrow.


Day 149 - Wednesday (9), Today was our first day at work. The commute is about 30 minutes. Majority of it is freeway and we are lucky because there is no traffic whatsoever.

The building in which we work in is pretty large. It's exactly the office that I imagined we would be working at when I first started this program. It's the typical office full of cubicles.

I got my own cubicle, which is pretty cool. I have plenty of space to spread out and get organized. I am one of the few that has a cubicle. Everywhere else is full, but the rest of my team will get one once other FEMA Corps teams leave, which will be at the end of next week. I also got connected with internet so I could start working. I really like my POC. She is extremely nice, understanding, and always willing to help and answer questions.

After work, we did PT out in a field. We played ultimate frisbee with another team from our campus, Gulf 3. It was really fun and I enjoyed being able to run and be active again.

We did another grocery run because we needed a little more food to get though this week. We bought some frozen meals for the boys and Kristina and I got some frozen vegetables and black bean burgers.

I finally took advantage of our fooseball table and played a few games with Sean. The table was in really bad shape, but as competitive as I am, I was able to pull off a win in our intense tie breaker match!


Day 150 - Thursday (10), We were late to work by 5 minutes today because there was some miscommunication between us. We thought we had to be at work at 8 am but it was suppose to be 7:30 am. So we had a mad dash to get out the door and to work. The beauty of working for FEMA here in SC is that they don't really seem to care that your a little late.

At work I am working on a rather time-sensitive project. I have a huge report that I need to get done by Tuesday. And it's suppose to be really important so I need to start cranking it out!

After work and since we had two hours to kill, we went out to another field to do another round of PT. We kick a soccer ball and threw a frisbee around. As simple as that sound, I actually got a bit of running in from errand throws and passes.

After PT, we dropped half of our team back at the church and the other half, which included me; we went to play soccer with Gulf 1. We played two games. The first one, we won easily, and the second one was a little harder. We were down majority of the game, but pulled out the win before the game ended. I enjoyed it a lot because I got some cardio in and I always have extra energy from sitting in an office chair for too long.

After the game, we dashed home because there was a soccer game on at 9:30 and we wanted to take a shower before watching the game. Kristina and I got to watch the US Women's Soccer team play Trinidad & Tobago. They won easily: 6-0.


Day 151 - Friday (11), I worked my report for majority of today at work. I finally finished gathering all info and started to compile my data into an excel sheet. The excel sheet is coming along nicely but there is just so much information and not enough time. Organization, color coding, neatness, patience, and sanity is definitely required. With luck, I should get it done by the end of Tuesday.

We went downtown for a little bit to kill time before we could head back to lodging. For dinner, went to have a pasta night with Gulf 3 and Gulf 1 at their housing. They have really nice housing - they're living in some student apartments next to a Lutheran Seminary College.


Day 152 - Saturday (12), Today, I lost track of time and slept in really late, but I woke up just in time to get dressed before Kristina's parents stopped by to visit. They are a really nice couple and really interesting to talk to! They also brought us a bunch of food!

After Kristina left with her parent, I took a little trip to Irmo, which is a town north of Columbia. In Irmo, there are quite a lot of stores. Almost everything you could think of or needed. We roamed around in the city for a little bit before heading back to Columbia to have dinner with Kristina and her parents. We went to a restaurant called Yesterday's and it was pretty good. Even after we were done eating, we spent a couple hour just chatting with her parents. There was definitely lots of laughter and smiles, funny and embarrassing stories of Kristina.

After dinner, a few of us took a drive around downtown Columbia. It was really nice to see downtown decorated in lights and ready to celebrate the holidays. 

Day 153 - Sunday (13), This morning was a slow start. A few of us chilled around in the lounge area watching football until Kristina got back home. After she got home, it was go, go, go! We went grocery shopping first. I decided I wanted to cook this week, so I bought stuff to make chili. We bought so much of food, that we almost ran out of room to put it. Our refrigerator went from empty to full. 

After unpacking groceries, I helped Kristina make dinner. She had fried chicken and fries for the boys, but for us, she wanted to make a rice/quiona dish with vegetables so I helped her with that. We both managed to not blow or burn anything and I would like to say that it was a very successful meal. 

After dinner, we did a late night run to a laundromat to wash laundry. It took a couple hours and Kristina and I missed majority of the USWNT's soccer game vs. China, but we managed to watch the last 20 minutes of the game in which US pulled out a victory.

Atlanta, GA

The beautiful Augusta Canal

Locks on the railings of the Augusta Canal

Round 2: We're Going to Columbia, SC!!

Day 141 - Tuesday (December 1), Today we found out where we're going for Round 2! We're going to Columbia, South Carolina! That should be pretty exciting! Summit 2 is going to Sacramento, CA! I told them they would have quite a bit of fun there.

We had a few classes to attend to today. There was a resume building workshop, another wellness class, and a Myers-Briggs class. Easily the most interesting class was the Myers-Briggs because it tests your personality, which I though was pretty cool. There was 4 different categories - Introvert vs Extrovert, Intuition vs Sensing, Thinking vs Feeling, and Judging vs Perceiving. So I took a 60+ question test answering questions and my results are in the picture below! Results are not always 100% accurate because each answer was a forced question.

We wrapped up with our day around 5 pm and had a team meeting going over our briefing presentation for SC that we are presenting this Friday. I talked to TL Alex for a bit today and helped her plan for their Sacramento trip. In addition, I also gave her a few cool places to visit and eat.

We have our baseline tomorrow that consists of running, push-ups, and sit-ups. I know I'll do fine with the push-ups and sit-ups, but I'm not looking forward at all to the running. I just want to get it done with. I have never really enjoyed running. I am more of a sprinter or interval runner which suited my need because basketball requires much interval running and my body is just used to that type of running after doing it for 7 years, so I'm just not used to and don't enjoy longer distance running. We have to get up bright and early, 5:15 am, to do this so I am going to get a good 7 hour shut-eye before I have to do this running tomorrow. Wish me luck!


Day 142 - Wednesday (2), I woke up at 5:15 am today to get ready for today's baseline at the military park. It was chilly and dark when we arrived. We were supposed to do push-ups and sit-ups, but since the ground was wet, we moved it to Friday in the gym. Since we skipped those, we headed straight into running after we stretched for a bit. It was a little hard for me to get started since it was chilly, but after a bit, I got warmed up a bit and started moving a little faster. I improved from my first baseline test, which is something I'm satisfied with.

After baseline, I took a shower, ate breakfast and got ready for the day. We had a community meeting with the entire corps in the morning and in the afternoon we had a diversity class in which I found really interesting. It was lecture by a professor from Ole Miss. She was very engaging about the topic we were covering, which was racism. She brought up many points/angles that most people don't look at or think in that way and made us really think and use our brain.

After that class, we had a driving refresher for colder weather. It wasn't that interesting, just drive slower, and be on the lookout for other stuff.

For dinner, I made pasta for Kristina and I. We also had a short meeting tonight at 8 pm to touch quickly upon our briefing for Friday. After that, I did laundry, hung out with TL Alex and Kristina for a bit until I went to bed.


Day 143 - Thursday (3), Today, we went to Jackson to get an education history tour about Mississippi. We did a self-guided tour through the old capitol museum, which contained information about slaves, black rights, voting and things along those lines.

We then listened to a lecture about the history of Mississippi and we also got to experience some live music. Mississippi is known for being the roots of the blues so there was a special guest performance in which we got to hear some wonderful music.

After that, we took a brief walk to the new/current capitol. The dome part of the capitol was under construction so it was cool to see some of the work that was being done. We were given a tour in which we visited the senate and the house of rep assembly rooms.

After the tour, we went to a farmers market to have lunch. We then traveled to the governor's mansion. At this location, there were 3 stations. One station was called the Lowry House. Inside this house had much info tacked to the walls telling us about historical sites in Mississippi that were saved from demolition, sites that have been demolished, and sites that haven't made progress yet. The second station was cookies and coffee. Lastly, the third one was crafts. I tried to make a Christmas decoration with just a piece of paper and scissors. It didn't turn out too well, but that's ok!

After that, we were technically done for the day, but we heard that there was a music festival in downtown Jackson so we decided to stick around for that. We grabbed dinner at a Thai place called Surin of Thailand and the food was very good! I enjoyed every morsel. We then wandered throughout the music festival going from booth to booth looking at what was being sold. We even saw a camel and I was even able to pet it! Apparently camels are a lot bigger than I had thought and they are really soft! We also got to take a picture was Santa!


Day 144 - Friday (4), Got approx. 5 hours of sleep before waking up for PT at 6:30 this morning. But the cold outside combine with PT was a good wake-up call and got me moving.

Today, Kristina and I were almost late for stand-up because I was helping her with some paperwork. We had to sprint to stand-up and made it with one minute to spare! After stand-up, we had our briefing for SC this morning and it went decently well. After our briefing, we didn't really have anything scheduled for the rest of the day, but I helped with taking the van to get it washed and vacuumed the insides.

I ate lunch after van cleaning and spent majority of the afternoon in Green helping Kristina with some more paperwork and to use the Internet for some of my own personal work and interests.

We also went to Newk's tonight for dinner. I got this delicious salad and a brownie. It was all very satisfying.


Day 145 - Saturday (5), Today was a very long day for me. I woke up semi-early today and did an ISP. We drove to downtown Vicksburg and helped decorated the inside of building in Christmas decorations. We stayed there for 6 hours decorating the entire place. We set up tables, decorated the stairway with ribbons, lights, and bows. We also set out merchandise, and put ornaments in trees. We were given an empty place and in 6 hours we turned in into a little boutique store called the Elf Shop. It was for little kids to come with their parents and purchase Christmas gifts and give it to others. It was really cute once we finished. 

We got finished with the ISP at 4 pm and I crashed after that. I was so tired.


Day 146 - Sunday (6), Slow start to today, especially in the morning. Today I have to pack all my stuff and load up the van. So I did laundry and after that dried, I started packing. I manage to fit all of my stuff in the red bag and was able to cut out my Nike duffel bag that I also used for the first spike in addition to the red bag. So that was nice. My Nike backpack is also ready to go. That has a change of clothes, soap and toiletries for when we arrive in Atlanta, GA for the night. I also put everything I didn't want to bring with me in my black bin so that's ready to go.

I spent the rest of the evening cleaning out our dorm and as of now, the only things I have out are my phones, its chargers, and some toiletries. But otherwise than that, I am all done, ready to leave tomorrow morning! Quite excited to be leaving for another adventure!

My personality test. I thought it was really cool and I liked how I was almost straight down the middle. For me, it all depends on the situation and circumstances present.

The new capitol building

A ceiling decoration inside the Lowry House. Something I though my Mom would like.

Frank the Camel

Our picture with Santa!

ISP on Saturday - all finished! :)

Thanksgiving Break

Day 134 - Tuesday (24), Today was a pretty good start to Thanksgiving Break! I woke up early this morning because I am one of the shuttle drivers responsible for taking other corps members to the airport. It's about a hour drive to Jackson and another hour back. But one of the perks of driving to Jackson is that there is a Starbucks which I will definitely made a stop on the way back.

After arriving back on campus, I hung out with TL Alex for a while before she left for Jackson to board her flight back home. An hour after that, as ATL of the Summit Unit, I went grocery shopping at Krogers to purchase food for this week. It was a little difficult and stressful at first trying to find all the stuff without taking too long but I managed to get almost everything my unit had asked for.

We arrived back on campus and started unloading our groceries. One thing we failed to realized is that we didn't know that Class 21 Team Leaders had left a bunch of food that they didn't eat so now we have a ton of food. Almost too much that we had freeze some bread and other stuff because we had an absurd amount. We rearranged the shelves and refrigerators in a more organized fashion. So we now have a dairy, vegetables, and meat/deli fridges. We also have an frozen foods/ice cream freezer. So we have more than enough food to feed an entire building plus more for the rest of the break. Extremely thankful for that.

After we reorganized the kitchen, I ate dinner with some other members. They had made a quinoa and vegetable dish, which was very delicious by the way. I hung out with a couple of them and watched Mockingjay Part 1 because we are planning on seeing Part 2 in theaters tomorrow!

I got to bed somewhat late, around 1:30 am. It felt weird to have the room to myself, something that I have not had since I left home in July. I can't believe that I have almost been gone from California and in this program for over 5 months. It's a little bit hard for me to wrap my head around it. But majority of the hard part is over. We finished CTI and Round 1, which is the longest round. Round 2 is only 2 months and is the shortest round. It will go extremely quick with Christmas in the middle of the round and then, Round 3 will be done before we know it also. And that leads us to graduation. I'm really going to miss some of the people I have met. But we will most likely keep in touch.

The night is passing by quickly and I have another van to drive tomorrow so I now need adequate sleep!


Day 135 - Wednesday (25), Had to do another shuttle run to Jackson today to drop off some TLs. On the way home, we stopped off at Starbucks again. :)

Since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, a few people that stayed behind are planning a Thanksgiving meal for all of us. We used our budget money to purchase more Thanksgiving foods. So far we have green beans, mash potatoes, yams, stuffing, chicken, ham, and lots of dessert. So no going hungry tomorrow! I'm quite excited and everyone that stayed behind on campus was welcomed to our Thanksgiving feast.

After grocery shopping and doing prep work for tomorrow's meal, a few of us went out tonight to see Mockingjay Part 2. I thought it was a good movie overall, but there would have been some scenes that I would have done differently. I also kind of forgot some of the more minor details of the movie because I didn't have a chance to read the Mockingjay book because I left that at home.


Day 136 - Thursday (26 - Thanksgiving), Today was an early start. I woke up at 6:20 am to get ready for the Salvation Army ISP. I left with a few others and drove to Jackson to help out with the Salvation Army's Thanksgiving day meal. We first started with helping cut pies and boxing them. Another corps member, Laura, and I decided we wanted to help with delivering meals to people because they were short on drivers.

We loaded 88 Thanksgiving meals plus dessert into our 15 passenger van and drove off. We went to two different apartment complexes knocking on doors and dropping off meals. The first location was a little difficult because no one was answering their doors, but luckily there was a lady that helped us with "knocking" on doors. It was more of a persistent bang than knock. At our second location, another lady let us use one of their grocery cart in which we piled a bunch of food in and delivered it through multiple floors. This is the first time I used a stolen object to do a good deed! It took is approximately 3 hours to deliver all the food. About an hour out of the 3 was driving. When we finished, we went to pick up the other two girls from the Salvation Army and drove back to Vicksburg.

I was extremely tired from having a late night in addition to waking up early so I took a nap. I woke up for our Thanksgiving meal at 5. There was a ton of food and I didn't know which end to start. There was ham, chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, mac n cheese, sweet potatoes, a corn and jalapeño dish, and a lot more I couldn't remember. We also had a multitude of deserts - pumpkin pie, muffins, cupcakes, brownies, pecan pie, lemon bars, and much more. Everything was delicious. My favorites was the corn and jalapeño dish and the pumpkin pie. I was very full at the end.


Day 137 - Friday (27), I got a good sleep in today before I was woken up by a piano and a speaker blasting music.

For breakfast, I had desert from yesterday's Thanksgiving meal. :) The pumpkin pie was my favorite so I dived for that first. After "breakfast", I drove the boys to do some Black Friday shopping. It wasn't really Black Friday shopping though. The deals weren't that great and the mall wasn't crowded. I think it's due to the fact that Vicksburg is too small of a town, so it doesn't have many stores, and it's isolated so they also don't get people from surrounding areas. I didn't see much of anything I really liked and online, there wasn't anything I really needed either.

I mostly kept to myself in the evening. I did laundry and worked on some college stuff. Deadlines are lurking around the corner so applications have to start cranking in.


Day 138 - Saturday (28), Slept in as late as I could today before I had an ISP to do. For this ISP, I went to the Humane Society and cleaned two fields full of manure. It took a lot of raking, shoveling, and wheelbarrowing, but we finally got it done.

After the ISP, I took a shower upon arriving back on campus and started the washer. I took a couple friends with me to the National Military Park to see the U.S.S Cairo Museum. There was a huge ironclad ship that we were able to walk onto and a museum full of artifacts recovered from the ship. After that and since it was getting dark, we drove around the rest of the military park visiting the bigger monuments. Some of the sites were quite stunning to see.

After our trip to the park, we stopped off at a Chinese buffet to have dinner. It was pretty good! Not as many vegetarian options as the Thai place we went in Houston, but still enough. We also stopped off at Redbox to rent a couple movies in which we had a movie night in our lounge tonight. Quite a few people stopped by and hung out to watch, which was cool.


Day 139 - Sunday (29), Got a late start to today. I usually sleep in accordance with the weather. Since it was cloudy and foggy outside and not sunny, I slept in.

I woke up to a corps member phone call wanting me to take them to downtown Vicksburg. So I got got dressed, brushed, and drove them downtown and to a couple other places. After that I dropped the boys off at Waffle House and I went to the Tomato Place and got myself some fried green tomatoes! It was really delicious and happy to be back. I really enjoy supporting small business such as the tomato place and the coffee shop.

Kristina got back late tonight so it was nice to see her again and I'm glad that she got a nice break because she deserves it. As much as she loves our team, we do drive her crazy sometime. But I'm glad to have her back.

I've been listening to a lot of Christmas music lately. As matter of fact, I'm listening to it as I write. It's officially after Thanksgiving so I can start without anyone yelling at me that it's not Christmas yet! Christmas music just puts me in a really good mood. I usually associate it with family, friends, warmth, laughter, and happiness so it really makes me happy and excited. And I only get to listen to it for 1 month out of the 12 so I do get excited when that time comes along. I hope my team likes Christmas music because they will be listening to a lot of it soon!


Day 140 - Monday (30), Enjoyed my last day of sleeping in before work resumes tomorrow. The afternoon was very relaxed as corps members started trickling back in. I did quite a bit of driving today. I had to take some corps member downtown and to other errands.

I spent majority of the afternoon and evening socializing with other people. I spent a while hanging out TL Alex and and a couple hours in Kaitlynn's room chatting about break and where we might end up for Round 2. It felt pretty nice to have everybody back on campus and excited that things will start to get rolling again.

Salvation Army ISP

Thanksgiving Meal

U.S.S Cairo (Ironclad Ship)

View of the Military Park

Almost got locked in!

End of Round 1

Day 126 - Monday (16), Today started off right! Liz brought us bagels again for breakfast so it was a good start to a Monday morning!

I spent my morning preparing my portion of the team's de-brief that we will be presenting when we arrive back on campus. It wasn't too hard to do. Majority of it was what was already in the portfolio that I made last week. We just had to take the important parts, put it in a slideshow, and present it.

After work, we had our team meeting discussing fall break and a few other agenda items. We also had an ice cream party. Our team had quite a bit of money leftover from our budget so that's why we've been going out to eat recently and we also had enough leftover to buy ice cream. For those of you wondering why we don't save it, well, at the end of this round which is Nov. 20, all of our money goes away and we start a clean slate for round 2. So our team is trying to use as much of the money possible that we saved in our budget by buying non-perishable items for next round and going out to eat.


Day 127 - Tuesday (17), We had some not so nice weather today for part of the late morning and early afternoon. Some of our team went to Subway for lunch and we got caught in some pretty heavy rain so we waited our time out in Subway. As soon as it started to pour less, we made our way back to work. Probably about 25 yards away from the door to our office, it started to pour again so I ran those last yards. Didn't help me much for trying to stay dry.

After work, we headed to the gym and did PT. As usual, I did my weights in the gym for a bit, then went outside to play some basketball. It's was a little chilly outside due to the rain earlier, but it was still enjoyable.


Day 128 - Wednesday (18), Although we have one more day left, our team is starting to wrap up our first round. Liz took our team out to lunch with a couple other POCs. We went to a Thai buffet which was pretty good for a smaller scaled restaurant. The restaurant itself was small so we got some surprised looks when a group of 11 walked in all at once.

After work, we went to the gym one last time to do our PT. After PT and showers, I drove Kristina around town to do a few errands. Since we had food that we didn't have room to take back with us on campus, we donated those. After dinner, I started to pack my bags because we are loading up the van tomorrow night. I didn't get to bed until midnight and we have a busy Thursday ahead of us.


Day 129 - Thursday (19), Can't believe that today is our last day in Houston and also the last day of Round 1! I'm really looking forward to heading back to campus and finding out where Round 2 location will be!

Work dragged on a bit slowly today. In the morning we took some pictures with our POCs and bosses. As the afternoon wore on, we slowly started to pack up our desk area, clean up and say good-bye to the other FEMA staff that we had worked with. I had an incredible time having the honor to work with the staff and some were the nicest and sweetest people. I hope the Round 2 FEMA staff will be just as good as they are.

We headed back to the hotel and I packed a little bit more of my miscellaneous stuff. The fridge got cleaned out, pots and pans were separated and packed into a box, drawers were emptied and we loaded everything we had into the van except for a personal bag that we will keep with us during the ride back to campus.

After we packed the van, we headed one last time to downtown Houston. We had quite a bit of money leftover from our budget still, so we treated ourself to the Cheesecake Factory. It was very delicious. I ordered a veggie pasta dish (Evelyn's Pasta) and the Kahula Cocoa Coffee Cheesecake which both were very delicious. The Cheesecake Factory always reminds me of winter season and Christmas with my family because we usually eat out at the Cheesecake Factory on Christmas Eve.

We are leaving bright and early tomorrow at 6:00 am to return back to campus. It should be pretty fun! And the next time I write, I will be back in Vicksburg, Mississippi!


Day 130 - Friday (20), Early start to today. I woke up at 5:40 am to get ready and pack the rest of my stuff. We left the hotel around 6 and I slept for a couple hours here and there. We made a stop for lunch and switched drives a few times. I took the last shift back to Vicksburg.

We arrived on campus at 2:45 pm and were one of the first to arrive. We got our dorm keys and started unpacking the van and unloading things into our dorms. As we were unpacking the van, other teams started to arrive followed by lots of laughter and hugs. It was so great to see the other teams again! I spent a good amount of time chatting with other people and catching up before I returned to my dorm to started unpacking some clothes. The black box that we left behind with all of our misc. things we didn't want to take with us for Round 1, well we can't get that until Monday. So it made it a little bit difficult to unpack and organize because I have hangers and other things I need from that black box.

For dinner, our team ordered pizza from Dominos. Since we were all really hungry, it tasted really good. I took a few boys to Walmart so they could pick up batteries to play X-box. I had to get a couple things myself - hand soap and an air freshener for our room. I spent the rest of the night going to different people's dorms and hanging out in the hallway just chatting and talking how their first round went.

I stayed up pretty late and it was a long day for me. I'm heading to the gym early tomorrow to get a workout in so I'm going to get to bed! It feels a little refreshing to be back in Vicksburg for transition and Thanksgiving Break.


Day 131 - Saturday (21), First full day back on campus! This morning was a productive day for me. I did an early run to the gym this morning to get my morning workout out of the way. When I returned, I took a shower, and did my laundry. It felt nice to not have to put coins into a laundry machine to wash clothes.

I ate a quick lunch and drove a couple people to Downtown Vicksburg to get some coffee at Highway 61. Since the weather here is starting to get cold and windy, I order my usual caramel macchiato, but hot instead of my usual iced macchiato. I also got Kristina an ice tea. I made a quick stop by the library to get a few movies for movie nights.

When we returned back onto campus, I went down to the soccer field with a few friends to watch the soccer tournament that was taking place. It was cold and windy outside so all of us were bundled in sweatshirts and jackets and we even had a blanket wrapped around us. The games were pretty fun to watch and I think the championship game is taking place tomorrow so I will probably head down for that also.

While part of my team went grocery shopping, I spent a couple hours talking to Alex, who is the team leader for Summit 2. When my team finally returned home, I ate a canned lentil soup they had purchased. It wasn't bad, but definitely not close to home. I spent the rest of the night hanging out in peoples' dorms.

I also started watching Mockingjay Part 1 with Kaitlynn as a refresher because Mockingjay Part 2 is out and I wanted to see that in theaters, but we ended up getting tired while watching it so we'll finish that tomorrow.


Day 132 - Sunday (22), Today was a very slow and relaxing day. The morning started off slow. I slept in until about 9 am and just wandered around chatting with other people from different teams.

At 1:30, a couple of my friends and I went down to the soccer field to watch the championship game. Thankfully it wasn't as cold and windy as yesterday. The sun was out, but there was still that chill.

I spent about 2 hours in my dorm finishing watching Mockingjay Part 1 with Kaitlynn and then I attended a two hour team meeting. We have our debrief presentation first thing tomorrow morning so we had to practice our parts for that. Based off of tonight's practice run, I think it will go alright tomorrow. We still needed some more practice. I stayed up until midnight just talking to myself practicing my lines over and over again until I got the majority of it down.

After our meeting, I ate dinner and spent a few more solid hours hanging out with Summit 2 just chatting and telling stories. We were joined by 2 members of Gulf 2 so that wass also nice because we got to hear about their team and what they did.

It's getting pretty late tonight and we have one day of work tomorrow before we go on break!


Day 133 - Monday (23),  I know today is Monday, and this blog entry is a day late and I apologize, but Sunday night was a little busy for me with the preparation for my team's debrief presentation and all. Here's the start for today -

We had to present our debriefing presentation this morning to Chris, our Unit Leader. The presentation went much better than I had anticipated. A lot smoother than it went last night and I'm proud of my team for pulling it together. I know it wasn't quite as easy for some members. We also had the ability to sit in for Summit 2's debriefing presentation so it was really interesting to hear all the great work they did in South Carolina for the flooding.

After presenting our debrief and sitting through Summit 2's debrief, we picked up our black box that contained all the things we left behind. The box was much lighter than I had remembered. It didn't take to long for me to unpack the box as I only left behind a few things and shared the other half of my box with another one of my teammates because I had extra room. I was finally able to hang up my clothes and retrieve my bed sheets.

In the afternoon, we had a quick meeting to attend to and then a nice break. After break, we had a community meeting with the entire corps. We had a really fun relay race in which the unit leader(s) of the losing teams got slimed with neon yellow goo.

After the community meeting, I had my specialty role meeting for media. We went over positives, negatives, and even better ifs of Round 1. The specialty role meeting was quick and short. I then attended another meeting after that because I am staying on campus for Thanksgiving Break. I was chosen to be the Assistant Team Leader for my unit, which is Summit and one of the larger units. So I am responsible for helping with the food, making sure everyone get fed, in charge of the van keys and delegation, and the main point of contact for my unit. So it was pretty cool that I was chosen to lead my unit over break

The night went by pretty fast. I hung in in Kaitlynn and Ashley's room for a couple hours and then I moved onto Kristina's room for another couple hours. It was nice to be able to chat with Kristina since she's been really busy  and I don't see her as often as I did when we were in Houston living in the same hotel room.

It's about 12:30 as I'm wrapping up this last entry. I am responsible for being a shuttle driver and taking a group of people to the airport tomorrow so I need to be functioning tomorrow not only as a driver, but a responsible ATL for my unit!

My coffee cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory

A really cool bathroom sink I found during a bathroom stop in Louisiana

Really beautiful fall weather view from my dorm room. Although it looks sunny, it was chilly. It's definitely sweater and blanket weather.

Last Week of Round 1

Day 119 - Monday (9), Still don't like waking up for work on a Monday morning. Almost forgot my badge today so I had to sprint upstairs to retrieve it. Good way to get myself moving and awake.

Part of the office is getting set up for our Thanksgiving meal tomorrow. There are tables covered in tablecloths already set up in the next room. So I'm pretty excited for tomorrow!

We had our usual Monday team meeting today with tacos for dinner. They were delicious and for the last learning activity, we learned about tacos and part of its origins.

After our team meeting, a few of us took a little trip to IKEA out of sheer boredom. My favorite sections were the beds, bathroom counter tops and tiles, kitchen, and the office area. I could probably have slept in the beds if I didn't feel like they were dirty.


Day 120 - Tuesday (10), Today we had our Thanksgiving feast at work. I left with Kristina and Kodiak to pick up all the food from HEB, the main grocery store chain the south. It took approximately 1.5 hours to get all the food and back to the office.

There was a lot of food, but not as much leftovers as I thought. There was 2 turkeys, 4 chickens, 2 hams, 2 pans of mash potatoes and stuffing each, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean/chicken casserole, gravy, pumpkin and apple pies, etc. It was all very good and it was nice because there were tables set up for everyone to sit down, eat, and relax for a bit.

After work, I took a 2 hour nap because I was tired from not getting enough sleep from the previous two nights. I woke up at 6:30 pm with a start, thinking I slept the night away because it was super dark outside. So glad we get tomorrow off, Veteran's Day, so I can sleep in and relax!


Day 121 - Wednesday (11), It was really nice to have a day off today! I slept for around 10 hours and it felt really good.

This morning was a slow one. Just hung out in bed for a bit, then I got up and did a workout downstairs. I took some time to myself and went through and organize my picture folders for AmeriCorps. Looking through pictures that were taken a few months ago made me realize how much time has actually passed even though it seemed like just yesterday. I can't believe all the things we have done in Round 1 and I'm excited for the other two rounds to come. Round 1 is definitely the longest round, 3 months, so I'm really thankful that the other two rounds will be much shorter because 3 months for us is a long time to stay in one place. Plus our team really enjoys traveling and living on the go. It brings a sense of excitement while our lives here in Houston have become a little sedentary. So I'm really looking forward to returning back to campus, catch up with friends, share stories and figure out where we're heading to for Round 2!


Day 122 - Thursday (12), Today was a pretty good day considering that we all knew tomorrow was going to be Friday. The morning went by quickly and we then had to attend a class in the afternoon. It was interesting went by quicker than I thought.

After work, we drove to the gym to do PT. After PT, we showered and went out as a team we to eat. We had leftover money from our budget this week so we were able to go out and have a good time with everyone. It was really fun to chat outside of the office and it was a good time for bonding.

After dinner and back in our room, Kodiak introduced us to a new TV show called Quantico. We only saw the first episode and as confused as it left me, it was a really good show and I enjoyed it. I then packed lunch for tomorrow and got ready for bed.


Day 123 - Friday (13), It's Friday the 13th! Today really dragged on. It was like if someone bewitched the clock to move extra slow.

We did PT today after work. I spent an hour playing basketball outside with some of the boys. It was pretty fun. The weather right now is the perfect condition to play basketball outdoors. It's a cloudy overcasting, not exactly cold, but that refreshing weather with a nice breeze. That's my perfect weather I like to play outside in.

After PT, I took a shower and did laundry. Kristina and I went to get dinner at a place called Salata, which is a salad bar. It was really good and well worth the money spent. There were a lot of toppings in which Kristina and I loaded our salads up. We spent the rest of the night relaxing in our room watching TV shows on our laptop.


Day 124 - Saturday (14), Did not enjoy waking up early, but I drove Kristina to the gym so she could do her classes and I worked out for a little bit also.

Afterwards, I took Kristina with me on a mission assigned by my Dad. I was suppose to find this red button that made a bubble in the bayou and push it. So I drove all the way to downtown Houston, more specially by the bayou area, in search for this big red button. Apparently I passed it and didn't notice it. So we spent a good 10 minutes scouring the entire park for this button before I went onto Yelp to get some pictures as visual cues. Finally I was able to decipher the pictures as to where the location of the red button was. I pushed the red button and ran to get a better view. Guess what I saw? Nothing in the waters. The couple next to me said they pushed it also and thought it was turned off because they saw nothing also. After they said that, then I thought to myself,  "I did not drive all the way downtown to not see this bubble in the bayou." So I had Kristina push it a few more times and suddenly we finally saw the bubble. I took my pictures and videos as visual evidence of proof for my Dad, then we left to start heading back to the hotel and to also get coffee because I have wanted to get Kristina tea for dragging her on this mission.

We got back to the hotel and hung around for a few hours before we headed out for another team dinner. We went to this Thai buffet place and I was pleasantly surprised that they had several vegetarian dishes. It was all very tasty and I really enjoyed it. We ate until we were all stuffed.


Day 125 - Sunday (15), Today was a very lazy and chill day for our last Sunday here in Houston. I mainly stayed in our room just relaxing, watching some videos and working a little bit on an essay. We also cleaned our kitchen trying to organize non-perishable items that we can take with us back to campus and for Round 2. Everything else that we didn't store in our black bin will either have to get eaten or will get thrown out on Thursday. So Kristina and I are trying to get the boys to eat as much as possible so we don't have to throw away much of the food.

Thanksgiving Meal

My delicious salad from Salata

Found this violin sculpture in Downtown Houston

Found the red button!

The Most Uneventful Week (Seriously)

Day 112 - Monday (2), Another rough Monday start waking up. Everyday I tell myself to get to bed earlier, it just simply doesn't happen. I need to fix this issue.

We had another pizza party at work today. Totally out of the blue. Our boss, Liz, decided that since it was too quiet at work today (well it's a Monday), she said "ok guys, we're having pizza today." She's just a genuinely nice person and she's fed us so much food already. Plus she's planning a Thanksgiving dinner for the entire office next week. No, not a potluck, she's going to buy Thanksgiving dinner for the entire staff! Turkey, stuffing, green beans, mash potatoes, thanksgiving food. What kind of person thinks of this stuff?! But thanks Liz!

Low key evening when we got home from work. I helped Kristina cooked dinner and we had our team meeting today. We went over a few things from our agenda and then for the learning activities, I learned about the solar system and art therapy. I really enjoyed the art therapy; it was an interesting and enjoyable subject. We had to chose 6 of our favorite colors and then write down six things that was important to us. I put down family, friends, traveling, basketball, food, and my background/heritage. Then we had an outline of the human body where we colored in our six things that was important to us. We then had a discussion on why we colored where we colored. (See pic below)

I'm also trying to finish up the wraps on the Houston portfolio and slowly attacking some of my college essays at the same time. I haven't heard back from some schools if they'll waive my application fee yet, but I think I'm just going to start and apply anyways. Especially to the schools I that I could see myself at.


Day 113 - Tuesday (3), Another busy, busy day at the office for me! I can't wait until I am done with this portfolio. The Houston one is almost done. About a page and a half to go! But that will get finished tomorrow since I haven't received all the information yet.

After work, majority of the team went to the zoo. I found out later that they went to the mall instead because they didn't make it to the zoo in time before they closed the booths for admission entry. I stayed behind so I could finish up some final touches on the Houston portfolio and start the Austin one. We're on a pretty good track right now as to getting in done if there are no unforeseen circumstances tomorrow at work.

I finally was able to get to bed early tonight! We had dinner, then I watched the newest episode of Blindspot, packed lunch, showered, and got into bed by 9:30. I checked my social media, wrote in my blog, then went to bed. Can't believe tomorrow is already Wednesday. This week so going so fast. And on Thursday, that marks two weeks remaining here in Houston.

Day 114 - Wednesday (4), After a long day at work, I finally finished the Houston portfolio and have one small section left of the Austin one which I'm waiting for the rest of the info to finish it. I still have to go through and proofread all of it, but for the most part, the designing of the portfolio should be finished.

After work, we went to the gym for PT. I went outside with a few others to play soccer on the field. It was kind of a bad idea. As much fun as I had playing soccer, I got bit by so many mosquitoes. I have approximately 21 mosquitoes bites. You can bet that I took a shower as soon as I got back at the hotel to wash off. I then put some calendula on it to help with the itching. When these Texas mosquitoes bite, they don't leave a little welt like the one in CA does, they leave a huge welt. I've had some as big as my entire palm. The bites are a pain in the butt. Some don't itch, but some of the welts will itch like crazy to the point that if even the slightest amount of air brushes by it, it will itch like crazy.

I have a scholarship deadline coming up just around the corner so I worked on the the essay before dinner. I also watched the Country Music Awards (CMAs) on TV.

Day 115 - Thursday (5), Today since the portfolios are for the most part 100% completed, I got the chance to work on some college essays and scholarships. Like I may have mentioned before, I have one due on Monday so I have to get a rough draft done by Friday night, have it reviewed and edit it on Saturday and Sunday. Hopefully it will get submitted Sunday evening.

After work, we did PT at the gym. I did some weights in the gym first, then played basketball outside. I got bit by a half dozen more mosquitoes so I'm not to happy about having big, red, itchy welts right now.

I made dinner tonight which was Pad Thai. It was a quick and easy dish. It tasted alright - I felt like I added too much rice vinegar although I did add as much as the recipe asked for. I don't have that magical touch my parents have whenever they touch food and it turns into something spectacular.

Today also marks two weeks left of Round 1. I can't believe we're a more than 1/3 of the ways done with this program. I think it's like 167 more days left!

Day 116 - Friday (6), Today was a quick Friday at work. I had a write a few paragraphs summarizing Round 1, then I worked on the scholarship essay that was due on Monday. A little bit behind on the essay, but with a few good hour tonight and plenty of it tomorrow, we should be good.

After work, majority of the team went to go rock climbing. I chose to stay behind to take that quiet time to work more on my essay. It was quite nice to finally have some quiet time where I was able to work undisturbed for the most part.

Day 117 - Saturday (7), Woke up a bit earlier than I wanted to today, but I wanted to go to the gym. I always enjoy working out in the morning because you can just get it out of the way and have the afternoon free. In addition to that, it increases your metabolism and just makes me feel better when I work out in the mornings.

Today was another one of those cloudy and rainy Saturdays, but I didn't mind much. I dedicated most of the afternoon to writing my essay and its seems almost done for the most part. And thanks to my parents for helping me out with it.

Day 118 - Sunday (8), Today was a very quiet day. I had the room to myself for a good 5-6 hours. Part of the team went to the mall to set up an AmeriCorps recruiting table and afterwards, they went shopping. So with that good 6 hours of pure quiet, I was able to complete and submit my essay with the help of my parents.

There was really nothing much more to today. It mainly consisted of me sitting in my bed, typing away. Hopefully, these next few weeks will be more interesting especially that we will have less than two week before arriving back onto campus. There will be plenty of stories to share and listen. I'm quite excited for that.

I threw away the original one I did, but I made another one. This is as close to a replica as it will get. If you click on the picture, it should enlarge so you can read the text.

Found this at the mall. This is for all you wine drinkers at there! 

Disclaimer: this does not apply to my Mom because she already is smart and has all the wisdom in the world.

Pad Thai - didn't look too bad, but it could have tasted better in my opinion.

FARE Walk for Food Allergy - they promised us doughnuts for last Saturday morning, but since the event got cancelled, we never got doughnuts. But on Wednesday, they kept their promise and delivered us doughnuts, which was so nice of them!


Sorry for the lack of pictures this week. It was pretty much an uneventful week for me as you can tell by all the work needed to be done for the portfolios and essays.