First week in Vinton, IA

Well I made it through the first week of training for NCCC. I was the last person to arrive on campus Wednesday out of 140 so I kinda missed a lot of the important meetings and mingling time but I’m quickly catching up. For some reason once I got to campus they had me sit in on the remaining part of the all girls floor meeting, which was kind of an awkward introduction and I was worried I might be assumed to be the token transsexual of campus. Most of the weeks training has been sitting through long sessions about policies and rules for the year but on Monday we get assigned to our team for the year and start learning skills needed for our projects.

It’s really strange feeling being almost 24 and moving back into the dorms. I feel like a freshman at SPU again awkwardly trying to make conversation with people so you don’t have to eat alone in the lunchroom. I thought doing this once was enough. I have one roommate and his name is T.J. and he’s from Jersey and is currently obsessed with the “Cats” soundtrack and loves Humphry Bogart movies so we get along just swimmingly. Most people hang out in the lounges and you’re always sure to find a game of apples to apples to jump in on or an episode of Flight of the Concords to watch. On my first night I met a girl named Emily who is just as obsessed with the show GLEE as I am which was a relief because one of my biggest fears in coming was that I would have no one to share my love for GLEE with.

Yesterday we all got our physicals at the local hospital, which turned out to me more fun than I thought it would be and it was a great place to meet people. I mean you grow pretty close to a person once you see them carrying a bottle of their own urine across the hall 3 minutes after meeting them. I was slightly concerned I wouldn’t pass the urine test considering all the drugs I’ve been taking to kill off my sinus infection and you just never know anymore if you’re taking an essential ingredient to meth these days but I totally passed and I’m still waiting hear back on the tuberculosis test so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

The town of Vinton is quite small and there isn’t a whole lot to do but the people are ridiculously sweet and kind. On Friday night what I assumed is the local senior center invited all of us corps members over for Five Dollar Fish Fry Friday. It was definitely a party in the U.S.A and the walls were hung with oversized beach towels that had pictures of planes, warships, and flags all depicting scenes from the Air Force or Army. They really do love America here. Everyone there seemed to be pushing at least 70 and they all told us how happy they were to have us here in town and how they want us all to come back for Bingo night, which would be an absolute hoot.

This morning they had tryouts for the firefighting team, which in the beginning of the week sounded like a great idea to me but by yesterday I realized it probably wasn’t my calling. For the tryout you had to power walk 3 miles in under 45 minutes which may not sound that hard but most people told me they had no feeling below the waist by lap 4 so I’m thinking I made the right decision to sleep in.