Monday, September 12, 2005

AmeriCorps good so far...

Hey mom, your last two emails got deleted (9/9, 9/11). can u resend them?

Well, I have only been here a few days and it seems like so long. I have been to the beach 3 days, including the day i got here and the last two. The waves were big from the hurricane and it provided for some really big surf. I need fins though to catch deeper waves. The next big piece of news is that there are women everywhere! I am on team Blue 6 with 11 people, one of those being our team leader Ryan. Other than Ryan, the only other guy is Tristan...meaning I will be spending a lot of time with 8 girls over the next 9 months. They are all super cool chicks too, who want to be involved with the firefighting crew...which is good because our team got selected! We had to wake up this morning for a 5:30 am hike, which we thought was going to be a prelim test to see which teams were good enough to be fireteams. turns out that all the team that were there had been selected, so I am super stoked about that. There are 4 units and about 7 teams in each unit. we are the only one from our unit to get this opportunity. We will be spending a week in GA next month training for that. As a prize we all got lighters and atomic fireballs. did I mention that the ratio in AmeriCorps is like 1:4 in favor of the guys!? Its exactly the opposite for the coast guard, who is also stationed on this base. Federal Law Enforment Training Centers runs the base, and they dont like me riding my bike around in certain places (they stopped me once already). Otherwise this is a mountain bike trials begginner paradise. I have been riding a few times already and there is another guy who rides with me. This has been my primary excitment as so far all we have gone over is procedural stuff and policies (we cant have alchohol, knives, or sex on property, but loud music is allowed). Meals have been really good and I am gaining weight...especially when weighed with our new boots that we got. We also got all our clothes and BDU's. Whenever I wear my boots with my black pants and white polo everyone tells me I look like someone who is in charge. The mohawk has also helped me to stand out and I have met many people who remember me, even if I cant remember the 50 or so people I have formally met. Havent played any ultimate yet as its been two windy...which is good because the mosquitoes here are like tigers and they acutally remove flesh when they bite. The fire ants get you to. Man I hate fire ants. Enough of my free flowing thought for now. No time to put this into actual order and make it good writing. hope you enjoyed the reading...send candy and cookies! missin' y'all, --DAlen

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