Just Like Before

As I stated before on my blog, this is the second time doing this. So a lot of what I'm currently going through is stuff I've done already. But there's enough things specific to the campus to keep everything interesting.

I arrived yesterday at about 12:30 to the small Eastern Iowa airport. It was only one terminal, extremely simple to navigate, and it was suddenly flooded by my entire plane unloading all the new FEMA Corps members. We collected our bags and hopped on a shuttle bus that drove us about forty minutes to Vinton, Iowa itself. Once there we checked in and immediately began inprocessing. We got fitted for our romm assignments, filled out some paperwork, and received roommates. My roommate's name is Teresa, and so far we've gotten along wonderfully. She's an awesome person to talk to. We actually met at the airport and then sat on the bus back to campus, so we'd been able to talk beforehand. I'm one of the lucky ones. The building we're staying in, Palmer, has all the girls in two-person rooms. (At least I think they all are. Haven't seen more than two names on each door.) Some of the other rooms have up to eight people, so we're pretty lucky. Not only that, but we also have the only Wi-fi on campus, and our room is directly over the computer lab, so we get a pretty decent connection here instead of going downstairs to the lounge. Oh, and we apparently have the best AC. It's still really hot here, just like in Missouri. I didn't much get to enjoy it though because we were all really busy.

After inprocessing, we had to go to what's called an All-Corps meeting, which I think is pretty self-explanatory. By that point though I had a headache because I'd only gotten about three hours of sleep and hadn't eaten for eight hours, so I was really ready to go to bed. But when I got back to my room and laid down, I was just too gross to sleep. But somehow, the girl's shower on our floor flooded! So after talking to a TL, I found out that there was a bathroom downstairs with showers in it that we could use temporarily. So Teresa and I went down there and were able to go to bed feeling refreshed.

Today was a little different. I met my temporary team, which they are only calling groups, for the first time. We met twice throughout the day, to get a more thorough tour of the campus, and then to discuss food shopping for the next few days. I also had Residence Hall Orientation, which was just an overview of what you can and can't do in the dorms, and what kind of things they have here on campus that we can use.

And now it's time for dinner. Right now they're catering food for us from Iowa City, but tomorrow night two people from the groups are going to go shopping for the next few days and then we're going to start cooking for ourselves. Can't wait for that. It's going to be interesting.

Need to work on running

We're at thirteen days now, and I know sometime within the first week we'll be doing our baseline test, which is a 1.5 mile run and how many sit-ups and push-ups we can do in a minute each. I've been running maybe...once a week? I know, I'm horrible. But I've been riding my bike too, and I think that's helping me. I just hate running thanks to an accident when I was a kid. So my knee is messed up and it really likes to protest sometimes.

But I'm going to get better! The whole point of the baseline is to see how you improve throughout the year, and I'd really like to do a lot better by the time we finish the ten months.

As for the sit-ups and push-ups...ehh. I have okay upper body strength thanks to working freight and merchandising at Kohl's, as well as carrying around my younger sister and niece for several years. I would be surprised if I did more than 20 push-ups though. And sit-ups just kind of annoy me. I mean, I can do more when someone is holding my feet down, but I don't like when people do that. Is that weird? I guess I'm weird. Those will be a lot easier to work on over the next two weeks though.

But two weeks! We're down to two weeks! Less than two weeks actually. Thirteen days seems so long yet so short at the same time. I have a good number of things that I need to get done, but I still feel like there's going to be a lot of extra time as well, and I hate not having anything to do when I'm preparing something. We'll just have to see how things go.

Flight Itinerary

St. Louis to Chicago: 8:40AM to 9:50AM. Leave from Lambert International at Terminal 1, arrive in O'Hare at Terminal 3.

1 hour, 35 minute layover

Chicago to Cedar Rapids: 11:25AM to 12:15PM. Leave from Terminal 3, arrive at Eastern Iowa Airport.

I'm anxious yet excited that I'm leaving so early in the morning. I'm not a morning person so I'm afraid I'll sleep in late, even though I'll probably end up getting up the same time I have to when I go in for work. But it'll be great because then I won't end up getting there right before dinner starts like last time.

It feels so much more real now, with the flight information in hand. I already know one or two people who will be flying with me from Chicago to Cedar Rapids, and more will probably pop up as the week goes by. Not everyone has received theirs yet, and frankly, I was afraid I wasn't going to get mine until Friday. That's just my luck with things. But I can't wait until we all have ours and we can figure out who is going to be on what flights with one another.

Got my bag!

I was actually asleep when it got here, but it's here nonetheless. It's bigger than I expected. I could probably fit inside it if I tried, although I don't think it'd be very comfortable. There's plenty of room in there I think for everything that I plan on bringing, plus I'll have my backpack with me. Need to find my TSA lock though, wherever it is, or buy a new one.

But now I can start working on packing!

Three weeks left exactly!