Red Cross Training and Birthday Festivities!

Wednesday ( I know, I am really behind on my blogging!) was a day filled with training by the Red Cross for disaster services. It was painful to sit through...seriously...it was nothing new and all common sense, but we made it through! After, we hung out in my friend's room until 11pm, because that would be midnight in Maine, so officially my birthday haha (we cheated, but we had to--we were sooo tired!) and played our favorite game--banana grams again! We also took an intermission of that and people tried to fit into another one of our friend's suitcases....I was the lucky winner who fit--crazy, I know...and then they zipped it up and wheeled me around the room, which was fun for awhile, but then I got kinda light headed because I was head-down and all the blood was rushing to my head!
Thursday (MY BIRTHDAY!) was better....we had CPR and First Aid training with some pretty entertaining trainers. I am now certified to give CPR, but would rather not have anyone make me use it! Then my team made me my favorite dinner meal of grilled cheese, tomato soup and root beer floats! It was awesome! After dinner we had a team meeting where we all shared the "life maps" we made, basically sharing stories from our lives that shaped who we are today and how we ended up at AmeriCorps. It was really cool to get to hear more about everyone and their stories/pasts and understand where they were coming from better. I really enjoy exercises like that. Next I went to the computer lab to update you all on my blog, but I only got part way through before my friends kidnapped me in a big white van and took me to our favorite spot on a hill by the Mississippi river! It was so awesome! It was all of my closest friends here, some from my old temporary team, team leader, and some new friends (I like to call them team wannabe's haha) and they brought out a cake and all went around saying really nice things about me--it was an amazing night :) I told them that back home I am the one who usually plans all of the birthday surprises, so it is a rare occasion when I am surprised myself, and I really really appreciated everything they did for me! But that wasn't the only surprise! When we got back to campus, we went up to my friend's room and it was all decorated with the previous training's first aid supplies (wraps and medical gloves blown up like balloons with "happy birthday" written on them) and we played pin the tail on the donkey! Haha it was an amazing birthday, I've got to say--I definitely didn't expect it to be that good, I had no idea that I would have so many great friends so soon, who would put so much effort into making my birthday so special! Thank you all! I also got cards from Danielle, Aleena, Mikki, Mama, and Auntie Beth, so thank you all!! I love getting mail and I promise I will write you all back soon! Spare time is tough to come by around here!
Friday was filled with a bunch of trainings broken up into 1 or 2 hour segments, which was much easier to handle and we stayed awake pretty well! The only problem on Friday was that my allergies decided to attack me! Not cool! I am still all stuffed up and congested, with hardly any voice :(
And today, Saturday, I slept til about 10am, went to the pool for a good 4 hours (it was a lot cooler today, instead of sweating in the pool, I actually got goosebumps a few times!) It was amazing to actually feel cool outside here! My team is going out to the Cracker Barrel for dinner tonight, which is exciting, but kinda sad, because that is a family favorite and it makes me really miss everyone back home! I love you all!