We left the hotel around 8:45 am. We are doing our NDOS at Harbison State Forest working on some trail maintenance - parts of the trail got affected by the flood so we helped build some new paths and covered/destroyed the pre-existing trails that were affected by the flooding.
We worked on the trails for a few hours before heading back to housing and getting cleaned up.
I spent the rest of my night watching TV in the background while working on the portfolio which was due at midnight. I took a short break to go work out to relieve some stress and pressure that had been weighing on my chest for the past couple days.
Day 190 - Tuesday (19), Today is the first day of our last week at work in SC. South Carolina has treated is very well, but I'm excited for a new change of pace. Excited to head back to campus, see friends, and find out where our last round location will be. As long as it somewhere new, I'm fine with it. I'm either hoping for Washington DC or NYC. I've hear DC is not the best place for FEMA Corps members because HQ staff apparently doesn't seem to like FEMA Corps very much, but it'll be fun to explore DC, which I have always wanted to go. I wrote a persuasive paper and even made a brochure in 6th grade on why I wanted to visit DC. It hasn't happened yet! Maybe later this year depending on where I end up choosing to go to college.
I finished some media stuff at work today - deadlines were due this Friday. I submitted a report and designed a yearbook page for our team. After work, we did ultimate frisbee with Gulf 3 for PT. It was slightly cold outside making it difficult for me to catch the disc at some moments. I missed so many easy catches and I couldn't believe that I didn't get.
I took a shower when I got back to the hotel and started my laundry. We went out to dinner tonight - Olive Garden. We had quite a bit do leftover money from our budget so we're trying to spend as much of it as we can before it expires. I haven't been at Olive Garden for quite some time so I ordered my usual eggplant parmesan. I forgot how good it all was with the salad and breadsticks. We also stopped at Starbucks which was across the lot from Olive Garden. I got a coffee and put that in the fridge to save it for tomorrow.
Day 191 - Wednesday (20), Today was a slightly shorter day for me at work. One of my teammates wanted to go the post office so I took him to the post office that was located in downtown Columbia. Little did I know that it would take him roughly around 3 hours for him to complete it.
After work, we played soccer with Gulf 3. It started to hail (really tiny though) and rain. It was cold, but refreshing to play outside although it was a little muddy.
After PT, we went out to dinner at Smashburger with our leftover budget money. I got a black bean burger, sweet potatoes fries, and a vanilla shake. It was all very delicious!
Day 192 - Thursday (21), At work today, I had a couple meetings to attend. I thought they went relatively well and they made some forward progress. We had a conference meeting with campus today - they just wanted to know what we were working on so we gave them an update.
Work went by relatively quick. After work, we made an trip to CVS so Kristina could pick up her epi pen. Hope she never had to use it, but just in case she runs amok into mold, we have it as a precautionary measure. Took a lot longer to obtain the epi pen than we anticipated, but she got it nonetheless.
The evening was low-key. I watched some TV, ate dinner, and relaxed. We been having some not so nice weather lately.
Day 193 - Friday (22), This morning was a good start to today! I woke up at 6:40 am to get ready for work until I learned that it was a "snow day" so I turned off my alarm, rolled over and fell back into deep sleep for the next 4 hours. It felt so nice to sleep in.
When I woke up, I looked outside and it wasn't even snowing! FEMA might had been worried about the bad weather so they made it a half day for us. I for one actually got to eat breakfast in our hotel and not at my desk at work.
We arrived to our last day of work at noon. It was an extremely short day for us since it was only 4 hours. I worked on the finishing touches of the portfolio for a couple hours, had to get a check out sheet filled and signed by multiple supervisors, said our goodbyes and we then departed.
After work, we had so many errands to do and I drove around more than I anticipated. We first dropped a couple people off at the hotel, I went to change quickly, and then I drove the boys to drop off some bikes, dropped Sean off at his game store, and then stopped by our old housing (the church) to pick up some papers. Everybody decided to get a haircut all on the same day around the same time so I dropped Drew off at his, then Alex and Madeleine at their hair appointments. Kodiak and I popped over to Moe's, a Mexican restaurant, to grab some food. We stayed and ate for about a half an hour before we had to go pick everybody up. By the time that we finally returned back to the hotel, we had been running around for 4 hours! It felt extremely nice to take a shower and fall into bed.
Day 194 - Saturday (23), Got a late start to today. I was hoping it was going to snow today and it "snowed". It was more like a flurry. I was hoping for a white blanket but that didn't happen. DC, NYC, and the northeastern states got hit really hard by this weather.
Today was a relaxing day. I kept to myself mostly. Madeleine was on her side of the room, and Kristina was gone so I mainly got the room to myself. I watched my usual Saturday's Law and Order and worked on my team's debrief for when we got back to campus.
I also had to pick up Alex tonight at the bus station at 1:40 am. He went to visit his family for a day trip in Charleston.
Day 195 - Sunday (23), Slept in for a little bit today. I was a little tired from being up so late last night.
Today is our last day in Columbia. I have really enjoyed Columbia so far and it's been a lot of fun, but I'm ready to head back to campus!
I spent a little under an hour packing my red spike bag. I managed to fit all my work and personal clothes in that bag along with soap, shoes, and miscellaneous stuff. I have gotten a lot better at packing that bag. I'm able to cram more stuff in a fashionably timely manner For next round, I will definitely be leaving some more clothes behind. After I finished, I looked at my bag and I realized that all my belonging that I really needed to get by was in this red bag. It's quite something to realize that I can fit all the things I need in one bag and survive off of it. It really puts things into perspective for me. At the beginning of the year, I didn't think I was going to be able to live without a few things and/or not have options of a wardrobe selection. Now, I realized that is like a luxury and I just don't care as much anymore. I have found that my standard of living has decreased quite considerably.
After I finished packing the bag, we went out to dinner at iHop. Drew has been begging since Day 1 to go to iHop so we finally gave in. I ordered some chocolate chip pancakes with a side of hash browns. All the boys ordered unlimited pancakes (no surprise there!). Drew and Kodiak had a pancake eating contest - Drew won by 2 but just the two alone ate a total of 22 pancakes. I ate 3 and was done after that! I had to give away my last one! We stopped by Starbucks after iHop and a few of us ordered some drinks with our leftover budget money on the card.
After our outing, I worked on our team's debrief presentation on making it look "pretty". Apparently making presentations and portfolios look "pretty" is now my thing/area of expertise to my team. I prefer the terms of making it look cool, modern or sophisticated.
I finished packing my personal bag for the trip. My personal bag is my overnight bag. So it has a change of clothes for tomorrow night, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc.
I got to bed quite late after making sure everything was in order before we left tomorrow morning. Didn't hit the pillow until about 2 am.
My future (is going to look like this I think)
Our NDOS at Harbison State Forest with Gulf 3
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