I am in a new place, and have also made a new blog.

Ok, blog attempt number 3. I will try my very best to keep this one up to date. Which will be hard, because as many of you know I am now in sunny California for 10 months of service with Americorps NCCC. Its day 3 and I am only just now getting to putting this thing up. I'll try to catch up.

I had to leave my house at 4 in the morning to get a 7am flight out of LaGuardia. The bad thing about having a government agency pay for your flight is that theyll pick the cheapest one possible. After a few mishaps trying to find the right terminal, I slogged through security and made it to the plane just in time. There was a stopover in Chicago. I met up with a lot of people on that flight; it seemed to be the congregation point for everyone coming from the northeast.

The flights were smooth and had minimal delays. The whole thing took about 8 hours. I got a window seat on the plane out f Chicago. It was cloudy most of the way, but there was a break just in time to see some of the Colorado desert and the Rockeys. It was breathtaking, and Im sorry I didn't have a camera.

California is an alien landscape. Its a dry 80 degrees every day. What I have seen so far has been absolutely flat, mostly farmland, with very few trees. It will take some getting used to. But the weather is nice, and I hearing that its already snowing back home makes it even nicer.

Campus is another story. It was fromerly McClellan Air Force base, and was turned into a business park in 2001. The rooms they stuck us in make college dorms look like luxury suites. The bathroom is litereally just a toilet and a shower...not even a shelf, rack, or hook to hang your towel. And its shared by 4 guys. The sink (you know, for washing and brushing teeth) is out in the bedroom. The beds are lumpen. Theres only one lamp, and its on the opposite side of the room as me. There isnt even a desk or table. The food has been terrible. But I guess the point is that we're not going to be there that often, once projects start.

The surrounding area is a suburb of Sacremento, called the North Highlands. I haven't done any real exploring yet, but it looks like theres some OK places to hang out. Must be careful with money, though. We only get paid ~$80 a week.

So far, we have been busy getting to know our temporary teams, going to Corps-wide meetings, and filling out paperwork. The real training starts on Monday. They call it CTI (corps training institute) and it lasts for about a month until we head off to who-knows-where for six-week projects called spikes. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes.

Thats it for now, I guess. Updates might be sparse for a little bit, because they're in the middle of switching over to new wireless routers, which is good because computers running Windows Vista tend to not like the one they have now. I'll upload pictures whenever I can, although I havent had an opportunity to take that many.

I miss everyone and will see you all soon!