First Week

So I just finished my 3rd day at the youth center. It has been a whirl wind of events, but a pretty good time. On Monday (My first day) I began the day by doing some paper work so i can get my ID batch, got a tour of the cdc's (Child Development Centers) basically the day cares, met a ton of people and still trying to make my way around this place. Everything is an abbreviation or a number. All the buildings aren't named, but numbered. So I work at buildings 3110, or can't remember the others. Anyway I learned how the daily activities ran after school in the SAC (School Aged Children)and the youth and teen programs. The teen center we have has every video game system. 2 XBOX 360's a wii, play station 3, XBOX Kinect, which is soooo fun. The guy I work with, the teens and I have heated battles at track and field. Starting at 5 basketball practices start. I am basically doing what I did in Pullman. Overseeing practices, coaches. I also have been coaching a couple teams of all sorts of ages. The second day the T&C (Training & Curriculum Specialist)put me through a bunch of trainings. I got certified in a bunch of things which i can put on resumes. So that was good. Again did basketball practices and learned more about the system. Today, my 3rd day at work I got my first project. I updated the youth centers slides that are shown all over the base on t.v. They tell everyone about activities, clubs, etc going on in our center. I also spent about 3 hours shopping at staples and best buy today. The boys and girls clubs give us money to use in order to supply the kids with things to do in the center. We got money to buy stuff for kids and the office. So far it has been pretty good. Longer days than I am used to, but I don't have much to do outside of work so its alright. I'm looking forward to getting more involved

Welcome to the midwest

The long journey is in the near future. Mom and started our journey Sunday morning. Map quest, an atlas, and the GPS (Richard aka. Rich) in hand we began. The morning was filled will lots of rain, but no snow thankfully. We made it to Rapid City, South Dakota the first day. It was about a 13 hour drive. We got up early the next morning and went to Mt. Rushmore. We were just about the only ones their at 8 a.m. It was blue sky and sunny. Perfect setting, for a perfect place. We spend an hour or so wondering around the facilities there. Then head out.. Next stopping spot was Grandma and Grandpas in Traer. With stops at Wall Drug, and Mitchell S.D. we finally made it at about 9:30. It was great to see them, Grandma has not changed one bit. We got up and visited for a while then headed to Madison WI. A 4 hour drive seemed easy after the previous days. We got to see Susie, Dave and Christopher. It was great to see them all.

After mom left this morning I headed to downtown Madison. It is a pretty cool place. I went to the capital, a museum, and The University of Wisconsin football stadium. I then met Chris for lunch at a local bar and got a brief tour of the massive campus and what they call state street. It was a good day, and fun to see a big 10 campus. Defiantly a little different than Pullman. Tomorrow I am hanging out and going to the Wisconsin vs. Indiana bball game. Friday morning early I will head to Great Lakes and start the new adventure.

Back from D.C.

The past week I have been in Washington D.C. for my internship orientation. During this week long orientation I learned all about military families, children and how child development centers work on Navy, Army and Air Force bases. My week started with a cab ride through the city getting to see the sights from a distance. I was greeted at the conference center by the people who I have been emailing for the past few months about this program. The first night there a group of interns went out on the town. Found a bar called the barking dog where we watched the national championship football game. The next day everyone was so tired from the night before we played card games, air hockey, pool and an array of video games. It was a great chance to talk with people from all over the United States and world. We met people from France, Brazil and Japan. That same night, a few people in our group got to see snow for the first time in their life. We had a huge snowball fight, with a bunch of 16 year old French kids. They thought I was a big professional baseball player. To say the least, it was a fun time. Wednesday night the same group went into D.C. Here I got to see the white house, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial and WWII Memorial. I saw the Capital, Arlington Cemetery, The Pentagon, and Jefferson Memorial from a far. All very very cool. Vietnam was one of the most somber, moving things I have ever had the chance to see. Lincoln is way bigger than you think too. We took city buses, and the D.C. metro which was another experience in itself. The final night we were there we went out again to a place that had dollar beers, and dollar drinks from 10-11. It was a great time to bond with the other interns and have some fun while doing it. Overall it was a absolute blast over there and I want to go back and see more.

Tomorrow Mom and I begin our journey to Chicago. We will be driving over 12 hours to Rapid City South Dakota. It should be a good time. Will keep everyone updated on the journey and experiences in Chicago and the life on a Navy Base.