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New Assignment!!!

Well we finally found out where we're going next. Drumroll please.... We are going to Silverton, Oregon (right outside of Salem) and we'll be working on a garden, a very big fancy one. Check out their website (www.oregongarden.org). I'm not quite sure what we'll be doing exactly, other than gardening of course. And we don't really know where we're staying except that it's probably at the Silver Falls State Park.  We might be in tents or cabins, we will find more out as soon as our team leader knows. Speaking of team leaders, Tiffany is no longer our TL. She couldn't handle us, for her own reasons that she has yet to disclose. So now we have Jenny, the person we were hoping for. And now I'm so so so excited for our new TL and our upcoming project-it's closer to what I had imagined in the first place. It may rain a bunch and be cold, but it's my first time in Oregon, and of course we'll have to hit up Washington while we're so close. I really can't wait, just thinking about it makes me giddy.

So at school we took on the challenge of painting a world map on the playground, even though the state map is not as finished as we want it to be. (Though we found out today that there will be another team coming in to FC Joyce, so they can always finish it for us). On Monday we spray painted the stencil, then it was foggy yesterday so we didn't do anything. Today we started painting, we're getting there. Hopefully we'll be done by mid-next week. Tomorrow and Friday we're going to pull some kids to help us paint, though that is always more of a hassle than a help, but we want them to feel involved in the project too.

I feel bad but I've come to realize that I can't promise anyone anything at school. So many kids ask me if I'll play with them, it's hard to pick what to do, which of course is a better feeling than if no one came over to me. I am pretty popular at school, which is fun. And today, Ms. Johnsen had a meeting in the afternoon, so she had one random woman come in and make sure they were behaving before recess, and then Mr. Allen (the VP) came in after recess. He was asking the kids what they were going to do, but I stepped up and took charge in the end because I knew what they had to do. So while they did their "math masters," I was in charge. They talked a little more than they usually do with Ms. Johnsen, and if Mr. Allen had left they would never have listened to me, but it went pretty smoothly with him there. It was fun, and now Mr. Allen is impressed by how well I handled the kids. So that was a major ego boost, not that I need it at all. Adriana, my snotty nosed girl told me today that I'm her favorite AmeriCorps. And Megan, a fifth grader of mine, included some information I told her about her president (they are doing speeches on presidents, her's is George Bush Sr., who was the person who came up with the idea of AmeriCorps. She basically said how great Bush is because without him, I wouldn't be at school with them.) I really do love my kids, though some of them try my patience all the time. I'm sad that this project is coming to an end, but I'm so ready for Oregon!

Last weekend my whole team went to Lake Tahoe. And yes, it is extremely beautiful. We got there late Friday night (we could only rent for two or more nights) and stayed in a cabin. It had two floors, three queen beds, two twins, one pull-out couch, two bathrooms, etc. It was really nice, considering it cost us each $50 for two nights. We also had twelve people in a cabin made for eight. I went skiing on Saturday at Sierra at Tahoe. It was so much fun, though I took it really easy in the morning, I challenged myself more in the afternoon. I even went on the terrain park and went up one of the crazy jumps (though my skis stayed on the snow, no jumping for me). I was the only person on my team to not fall at all, though I came very close several times.  I was almost taken down by a clumsy snowboarder getting off the lift -he fell, I didn't. Then I almost fell on my own accord, but I regained balance somehow. There were a few other near misses involving snowboarders, why wouldn't I hate snowboarders? Though four of my teammates are snowboarders... Sunday we checked out and went for breakfast at a bavarian place that served "waffles, salads, and omelets." Then we stopped at the lake and took loads of pictures. It was so blue and beautiful, it's definately somewhere everyone should go. They practically had to drag me away it was so pretty.

Two more weeks in California!!!

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