Team Assignments!

On Sunday night we received our unit assignments. There are four units here in the Sacramento campus; silver, gold, blue, and green and each encompass around 7 teams. The FRT teams are all in the Silver unit.

Getting an official unit was bitter-sweet. An outstanding number of people I talk to are really sad to leave their PODs and form teams (the temporary teams we've been on thus far). My POD was absolutely amazing and I was hoping that I got on the same team as at least one of them. Luckily for me, I wasn't as worried about the POD break-up because, so far, everyone who I've met who is on FRT is pretty cool. Thus I am in the minority of people who are eager to get their team assignments.

After a pizza dinner, which was inevitably disappointing compared to NY standards, we were all given clues to find our respective units. It was a scavenger hunt all over campus, which is lame but cute at the same time. As the group of us approached the stoic straight line of team leaders (TLs) we knew right away that we were in 'Silver.' (Though I was extremely excited by this outcome, I wasn't exactly shocked because I had already figured that they would take almost every girl into FRT seeing as so little of us actually tried out.)

Monday night, we were given another set of clues that would lead us to our Team Leader and subsequently our team. Now THIS was nerve racking. As we all compared clues corps members were faced with both escalated excitement and grave disappointment as we quickly deduced who our long term team mates would be. In my case, I was really happy to find out that I will be on the same team as Michelle and Matt, two former POD members of mine. All the TLs for FRT are really cool, so I wasn't too worried about who I'd end up with.

My official TLs name is Vlad. He explained that he has five main goals in life.
1) To be a good man/son/husband/father....
2) To build a log cabin with his father
3) To live a completely self sustained life where he created his own energy sources and food etc (in his log cabin I assume)
4/5) I can't really remember but it had something to do with eco-friendliness and reducing his carbon footprint.

At first, I was intimidated by how intense he seemed to be about compassion towards the environment. For example, the first thing we did as a team was head to Trader Joe's to grocery shop. I asked Vlad if he wanted us to hold off on buying the items that are clearly overpriced in comparison to a supermarket. He reasoned that the prices of the cheaper food at Trader Joe's balanced out the prices of the items that are more expensive. In addition, the Trader Joe's headquarters and warehouses are based in Northern Cali, so we significantly reduce the harmful effects on the environment that processing and shipping cause and we are also guaranteed fresher food.

Impressively progressive right?!

Now I am really happy about how having Vlad as a TL because of the way his values will shape the next ten months of my life. I always knew that environmental conservation was something of extreme importance on a global scale, but I was always disappointed in my own lack of effort and failed attempts to make myself more 'green.' In a sense, it is kind of a relief to know that I will inevitably reduce my carbon footprint just by being on a team influenced by such strong positive ideals.
Also, one of my original reasons for committing to the FRT team was to become more environmentally aware. As a team we plan to shop at organic stores, farmers markets, and always choose local stores over supermarkets. Group consensus is to work hard, play hard, eat right, and exercise to keep our bodies and minds in tip top shape! We are also going to work with Vlad on his campaigns to try to get recycling and compost options more prevalent on campus.

My team is made up of 10 corps members (including myself). The more time I spend with them the more I anticipate working with them. Everyone seems to be really great, and we are getting closer by the day. The group is unanimous in the desire to live in the woods at some point. Listening to the ideas and anticipations that my team has really opened my eyes to the possibilities that lie ahead of an FRT team. Don't get me wrong, I knew what I was getting into when I signed up, its just that the reality of the types of work and living arrangements I am about to encounter is just setting in. For example, It is likely that I will be living in a tent or in other similar close quarters with my team for some extended period of time. It is also highly likely that I will be sent somewhere without Internet service and possibly out of cell phone range. Access to food and other resources may be limited by community resources as well. My life is almost guaranteed to change drastically and I am so pumped!

On Saturday, we plan to do our first ISP at an organic farm (Vlad's idea, go figure). ISP stands for individual service project and each corps member is required to complete 80 hours of ISPs by the end of July.

Also, the Silver Unit will be headed to complete a service project at Camp Mendocino on Nov 1- 4th. I'll explain more about it later, but I'm just mentioning it because it looks like I'll be away form civilization for my 21st birthday... Don't say I never sacrificed anything for my country...Cell phone service may be spotty there too, so just keep that in mind...

Sorry there are no pictures yet, but I'll be sure to keep you posted!
PeLoHa