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.