FEMA Corps: 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.