McClellan Air Force Base

So we are living on an old Air force base about 15 minutes outside of Downtown and Old-Town Sacramento. Americorps has a little corner of the base that consists of an office building (922), a cafe (943), and three dorms (941, 945, and 946). I live on the first floor of 946 in a suite. For those from Salisbury reading this the dorms are like St. Martins. They are two bedrooms that share one bathroom in between. I have one roommate and three suite mates in the other room. Ironically, two of my suite mates ended up being on my team...



Last week we went on a scavenger hunt to find clues about what team we were on. I am proud to say that I am on Team Green 2! Teams are made up of 11 or 12 corps members and a Team Leader (TL). We use abbreviations all the time, so get used to it. My team has 11 members and our TL is Mary. I'll try to get some pictures up on here or another web site and I'll show you who my team is. We have only been with our team for about a week now, but I already know its going to be a lot of fun. We all seem to get along really well and work off of each others strengths and weaknesses. This Thursday our team has been challenged to a laser tag game against Team Green 4. I told my team if we lose I'm quiting Americorps so hopefully they will step their game up.



To explain teams a little more... There are five different colors: Green, Blue, Red, Silver and Gold. Each Color Team is then split into six numbers: 1-5. As of right now there is no real reason for the colors that I know of except for pride and to build bonds with other colored teammates. The numbers on the other hand delegate who you eat with and cook for. There are 6 different kitchens and every number has a certain kitchen. In other words once a week Team Green 2 will cook for all for the other team 2's, and every other night the other team 2's will cook for us and everyone else. Cooking for 60 something corps members is going to be different but I'm excited to see what we can do. Some of my team members have already expressed an interest in cooking, while others want nothing to do with it and said they will do the dishes afterwords. We are planning on making some sort of homemade pizza's on Friday when we cook for everyone else.



Yesterday was the first day we started cooking. Up until now we have been catered by a local restaurant. The food was alright but could easily be compared to high school cafeteria food and half the time they would run out of one thing or another. The first day I went to breakfast they had run out of cereal, milk, and all the fruit. All they had left were some stale cinnamon buns with massive amounts of sugar icing on top. I kind of felt bad for them because they definitely didn't seem used to cooking for up words of 500 people and everyone would give them a hard time. But at the same time I'm happy we finally get to make our own real food that will hopefully taste a little better.



Across the street from our dorms is Holmes Field (where we have PT), a SAFE Union Bank (my west coast bank) and then behind that is the Base Exchange (BX). You have to have a military ID to get in, but there is no tax on anything. It is kind of like a really small Wal-mart that is run by the military. It's the closest store and it's in walking distance which is nice, but they don't sell any food. There is also a Burger King, but I haven't eaten there yet either. Every now and then one of the TL's will get a van and drive a group of kids to the actual Wal-Mart, Target or Whole Foods store down the road.



It's almost time for Lunch so I'm going to have to end this here, but I will hopefully start writting at least every other day to keep everyone up to date!



-Matt