Welcome to CTI

This is my first time blogging in months, but hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this one!  I just got into AmeriCorps NCCC a week before I had to report, and I arrived in "sunny Sacramento" on Thursday.  Never a dull moment I guess!  It's been great so far, different from what I was expecting, but I've learned that such is life in AmeriCorps.  I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone, and I love traveling, so this is a great opportunity.  Plus I get to explore the Pacific region while helping people, and I think it'll open a ton of doors for me.  Win win win win...  I definitely had to get used to this lifestyle though.  Everything is pretty regimented, including room inspections and the uniform (although truth be told, I'm psyched to wear the uniform tomorrow).  And it'll sound strange I'm sure but having only a week to get ready didn't give me a lot of time to get mentally prepared for some things.  It didn't occur to me until I got here that I was starting from scratch...  for some reason the fact that I wouldn't know anyone didn't hit me until I was in a room with over 300 people and I realized I knew one person, Ed, from Fairport, NY, whom I met in the airport on the way here.  After establishing friends through all of the things I've done in the past, suddenly having that disappear was strange.  Making some new friends haha.  For the most part, everyone here seems pretty great.  I really like my neighbors in the dorms, and I've gone to Harvey's two nights in a row now, at the expense of my sleeping hours lol.  I'm anxious to find out who will be in my official team, who my team leader will be, and most of all.... where I'll go!!!  That's been a big challenge- being flexible and patient.  I was hoping for a little more structure right off the bat, but it took a few days to settle into the organized chaos of CTI (Corps Training Institute, which I'll be in for the next month).  My roommate is nice, but she's 19 so she can't join us at Harvey's and I think this is her first time out on her own... it's interesting to be brought back to those days hah.  I'm cheering on a few friends today at the 45 lb, 3 mile Pack Test for the FMT test, and then I'm going to go downtown later!  Winner, winner.  More will come later, I'm stealing internet from a cafe that is currently closed and ze battery, she is dying.  Later gators.