I departed Minneapolis last Thursday, bright and early at 7:35am. I landed in Phoenix for my layover only to find out that all eight of us Minnesotans had missed our connecting flight. The flight that we were on from Minneapolis was on time, but we had been sitting on the tarmac for a while waiting for other planes to clear. We had a forty minute layover in Phoenix which isn’t much time, but I thought I would at least be able to make it to my next flight. I must have jinxed myself in my last post saying that I have a tendency to miss connecting flights cause’… that’s exactly what happened! It was now 10:00am in Phoenix and we had some time to kill before our standby flight at 1:35pm to Sacramento. We decided to get something to eat and get to know each other. Nobody made it onto the standby flight at 1:35pm, so we got rolled over to the next standby at 4:45pm. We had some more time to kill, and we got to know each other even better. One person got onto the 4:45pm flight to Sacramento and she got all of our baggage that flew into Sacramento with the flight that we should have been on. The next option for us Minnesotans was a flight at 8:10pm into the Oakland, CA airport, which was a two hour drive to Sacramento. We all ended up getting on this flight and getting into Oakland at 12am!! So that makes for a grand total of about 12 hours in the airport that day! We missed all of in-processing that day, which I found out wasn’t all that important. We got to Sacramento at 1:30am to find everybody all asleep in their dorms. We got our luggage and found our rooms. I got into my room to find two of my roommates sleeping and the top bunk left open for me. I had to figure out how to get all my things in the room, my blankets out, and get up to the top of the bunk that had no ladder without waking my roommates. I managed to do it, and as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out! This was definitely the start of my adventure!
I was up bright and early again Friday morning. It was a tough day for me going to bed at 1:30am California time and waking up at 6:00am. I was very tired to say the least. I found out what POD I am in. PODs are groups of around 7-8 and we have about 35 of them. These are not permanent and will be switched around in about two weeks or so. As a POD you go to trainings and you also cook as a POD. I really like everybody in mine. I feel like we get along so well, I really don’t want to switch. Both my roommates are also in my POD. We started the day with breakfast at 7:00am and finished up more in-processing and paperwork. We got our uniforms as well, and I have to say they are stylin’! NOT! They are really not that bad. They are men’s sizes and so they don’t fit very well. I will post a picture of me in mine soon. We also had a few trainings that were hard for me to stay awake in, but I managed. Before I knew it was time for dinner and then off to bed for me to catch up on my sleep.
Saturday was more training. They talked about what types of projects (also known as SPIKE) we would possibly get to do and we also went over more of the policies. That took up most of the morning and then we were off to our physicals. We got a tetanus shot (which still hurts by the way), a tuberculosis test, and a drug test. I checked out good on everything! That evening they had dinner and a movie for us. It was hot dogs, french fries, and they even popped popcorn for us. We got to watch The Sandlot, but the audio was really poor so I decided to leave. I went back to the dorms and played the game apples to apples. That is becoming a very popular game here, and it’s becoming a favorite for me!
Sunday was pretty much a free day for everyone. I decided that I would sleep in and catch up on my sleep, considering I had been staying up pretty late the last few nights. I got up around 10am, my normal time back home! A few of us decided to walk to Subway for lunch. We got to see what was around the area. There really isn’t a whole lot around; a couple gas stations, a 24 hour Mexican restaurant, and a Russian restaurant. Random, I know. We also played a couple games of kickball. That was a lot of fun, I hadn't played in a long time. Later that night we just hung out and watched a movie. It’s really cool sharing a dorm building with people. Everyone kind of joins in on what everyone else is doing.
Monday we officially started wearing our uniforms! It was nice to see that everyone else looked just as ridiculous as I did in them, haha. We had more training today! We did our American Red Cross First AID/CPR/AED training. That was a really long training! It was from 8am to about 3:30, and yes, I managed to stay awake in this one too! Tomorrow is the Disaster Services training and it is just as long! After training we went to get fitted for our steel toed boots that we will be wearing for construction projects. They really do complete the uniform! There will be a picture of me in those as well. Our POD leader, Chika, took us to Jamba Juice later that afternoon for a delicious smoothie and we were back in time for dinner. I am in my dorm typing this up, just laying low tonight. We have our physical training baseline test tomorrow at 5:30am, bright and early again. I’m starting to see a pattern with the schedules here! It’s now 8:45 here and I’m going to be going to bed soon, believe it or not! I will post again soon. I’ve been busier than I thought I would be out here! I will also start uploading some pictures soon.Sorry this is so long, I will try and post more often so there isn't so much to read at once. Miss you all!
♥ Kristen
This is a picture of me and my POD at our boot fitting today!!
