Hollywood here i come!

Monday I leave for LA, and i'm not even packed yet! I have to pack even less than i packed to come here! At least I have a lot less to choose from this time! We are leaving early monday morning and following another team that has a project on Catalina Island. We are sharing a cargo van with them, so we can take a little more stuff. Which means I can take my guitar, and this i am excited about!
Thursday was our final day of training, and Friday was induction day. We had another baseline test for PT (physical training) friday morning. That is what we did way back when i first got here and had to do a mile and a half run, and max sit ups and push ups in 2 min each. I improved my sit ups and push ups. Once again, rocking the sit ups. . .with 95 in 2 minutes. I'm a beast. .. ok not really. The running part was not as much fun. My asthma choose not to cooperate, but i got through it. Everyone here has been sick, living together and doing everything together is not the most conducive environment when someone gets sick. So most of us had worse times on this baseline.
We had our induction ceremony friday morning as well. After that we had a long reflection activity and then they had a cookout for us. Part of the reflection activity was a massive hug chain. We were standing side by side all the way around the room, so one person hugged the person beside them, then that same person hugged the next person. The first person that was hugged then followed person A. I hope this makes sense, because it was one of the coolest things i've done. I hugged over 100 people in about 5 minutes. I love to hug, so i had a lot of fun with this activity.
The cookout was really nice since it was the first food in 3 weeks that we didn't have to cook for ourselves. Later friday evening we had a talent show, which was hillarious. One team did a modern civil war reinactment. . . one of the craziest things i've seen. Another group did the dance to Joyful Joyful from Sister Act II. That was amazing.

Today was Museum Day in Sacramento, which is one of the coolest ideas. All the museums (including the zoo!) were free today! I did another Independent Service Project, with some others here where we rode on the big charter busses that took different routes shuttling people around. Heather and I were on the Old Sacramento route, so we just told the people who got on and off what museums were there and how to reach other places. It was actually kinda fun. This afternoon some of us went to the Sacramento Zoo. It was about 1/4 the size of the NC zoo, and i'm glad it was free today. They didn't even have Elephants! The girafes were pretty cool though. Being out and about in the big city, just like when we were in San Francisco, reminded me again how I am definitly not at home anymore. Seeing all of the homeless people begging on the street, and also the people here with me that are so focused on the worldly things that never fill them up, makes my heart ache. I have been so blessed to have gotten Heather as a roommate here and found some awesome friends. These past few weeks have been great, and i'm definitly not looking forward to being away from everyone and with the 8 other people on my team all day every day. It's definitly going to be a lot harder.

Tomorrow a few of us are going to try a methodist church nearby, and hopefully it will be a much better experience than the last two we have gone to! I think i'm gonna get some Carl's Jrs on the way as well. . .which apparently is the same as Hardees, but it's what its called on the west coast. It looks the exact same with the star and colors, but it's called something different. Looking forward to a gravy biscut, hopefully it'll taste the same as well. No Bojangles, but it'll do.
I am not sure how much internet/computer access i'll have once i leave here. The computer labs have been down here off and on, but it's better than nothing. I'll do my best while i'm down there to get on and update ya'll some but feel free to call me (i'll try to do MUCH better about calling ya'll back) and or talk to mom and dad to find out what all i'm doing. I am praying for all of you, wherever you are. (Mebane, Hickory, Gboro, Scottland, Peru, etc).

I can not end this blog w/o mentioning ACC bball. I actually was able to catch the final 2 min and OT of the Duke/VA game and was extremely saddened by the outcome. However, today my spirits were lifted while eating at Applebees and watching sportscenter and seeing the highlights of the UNC/State game. . . it's only fair that if my boys receive an L, so does UNC! It makes me feel a lot better! I am going to do everything in my power to find a place/way to watch the game wednesday . . . So all that's left to say is . . . .

GO DUKE!! =)