The first week for the Year of 0 is complete!!!

The first week for the 2010-2011 WRC(Washington Reading Corps)team is complete!! We survived orientation, the weather(no sun) and we're still considered the "year of 0".. For those of you wondering why were called the "Year of 0" its because WRC has never began a year with 0 spots left to fill, and never completed a year with 0 people leaving. So we've started the year with a full team of 26members and Kurt, our supervisor, is determined we will complete our term of service with every member still standing.
Some other facts that might be interesting to all you readers out there.. There were over 400+ applications submitted for our teams 26 spots.. as kurt put it "You are the chosen." You'd have to know kurt to truly understand how he says this stuff, he's got a very dry sarcastic humour and literally says things like an opening to a book.
We will be serving over 700+ students throughout ESD112(Educational Service District 112) region. Mostly low income etc. Every school we will be working in had to write a grant in order for us to be able to come and serve their school. Washington State does has their school systems set up slightly different than TN. Every BOE for every system is under and Umbrella(an ESD office) and every superintendent, of the school systems, answers to the man incharge of ESD. So in essence there are other reading corps throughout the state working under other ESD regions. But WRC's job is to sole serve the ESD 112 region.
So far I've really enjoyed being in WA!! Its amazing!! The first day of orientation was a little nerve wracking.. but everything went smoothly and I really enjoy everyone on my team. For lunch on Wednesday several of us went to "Burgerville" which we were told was a must try if we had never been. I gotta say it wasn't bad. Yesterday during lunch most of us went to eat Indian food, which was surprisingly really good, I gotta admit I was a little worried.
I've been sick since about Wednesday night, so its made the past two days of orientation interesting. Though I must say when you get 26 strong individuals in a room together, it can get semi loud. Kurt mixes our orientation stuff up into segments.. so we go through some important information and then we get to do some type of game, not like any crazy ice breaker type games, but just fun games that everyone enjoys. But even with being sick I made it through, and enjoyed it. After orientation most everyone went to Mcmenamins down on the Columbia. http://www.mcmenamins.com/299-mcmenamins-on-the-columbia-home
I didnt get there until a little later, here's the recap of why:
I'll back up a bit to give you the back ground info needed to understand everything.. Katie and I went inquire about food stamps on Thursday afternoon.. they said we could do our interview over the phone after we applied for them online, I had already submitted my application online but katie hadn't yet. So I called the phone number they gave us to figure out the best times etc to do the interview and if we could get in if we came really early in the morning. They said we could come at 8am the next day and probably get through fairly quickly or do a phone interview seeing but seeing as how the phone system had been acting funny our best bet might be to go in inperson. So long story short katie and I went a little before they opened got in line and got through the line and approved for food stamps and on our way to orientation with time to spare. But we had to come back later on to pick up EBT cards. I wanted to go pick mine up that afternoon since they are closed on monday due to the holiday and closed tuesday due to budget cuts. and I'd rather not have to spend extra money, I could be saving, on food. so I picked up my EBT and headed to school, since it dawned on me I still don't have my access card for the gated parking area nor do I have one to actually get in the building my room is in... there are 3 entrances into that buidling though and they've been leaving the middle one open for me so I could get through and up to my room. well.. since its a holiday week end, they actually locked it, which is what I was afraid of.. so I went scrambling around to make sure the side doors hadn't automatically locked yet.. luckily they hadn't.. I knew the Superintendent of the school had left the 3rd floor door unlocked for me since I didnt have my access key, so I ran to the 3rd floor to make sure it was still unlocked! Awesome it was!! So I did some research on places to get my windshield fixed, still not any luck.. so I headed to meet everyone at mcmenamins.. of course I left a rock (like the superintendent told me to) in the entrance door to the building, so I wouldn't be locked out..

Never thought I'd be so excited to have one of these!!