Days passin' by...

So we had a three day weekend...Saturday was our first day off in 26 days. My three day weekend was spent to the best of it's ability. Friday night was just a day of relaxing and laying around, Saturday I was going to go out with my team to Piedmont Park for a "team bonding time" but decided to sleep instead. Of course I woke up, took a shower, got ready for the day out on the town, and then went back to bed. (I was exhausted.) After going back to bed, I literally slept all day. I woke up for good at 6:00 p.m. After getting my energy back, I felt rejuvenated. Sunday was another just lay around day that consisted of doing some laundry and sleeping some more. We didn't have work Monday due to Columbus day, which was very much appreciated. Our team decided to take another trip to Piedmont Park which is about an hour from our hotel, it is located in downtown Atlanta. It was a beautiful park with tons of fields, trails, and water fountains. While out on the town, we went to a Thai restauraunt where I had Thai vegetarian eggrolls. (They were delicious!) After a long day out at the park, I came back to relax before another week of work.

Going back to work was actually quiet nice. It was wonderful to have down time this weekend, but I missed the office and fantastic people around the Region IV campus. Today I started working with one of my co-team mates Malinda on her project at work.

My new project consisted of working under the branch for Disability Integration for Region IV. Our goal is to update the contact list for the coalitions throughout the southern region, (each state is in a different spreadsheet on excel) so my job consisted of calling these businesses and making sure their contact information was correct, and a few other simple questions.

I've enjoyed getting to reach out and actually make a difference. Everyone is very appreciative of us wanting to update their information and keeping them in contact and up to date with FEMA. Tomorrow and the rest of this week will consist of the same type of work.

As far as now that's all I got! Will keep you posted as time flies out of my sight.

The picture below is me walking across a bridge at Piedmont Park in downtown Atlanta, Georgia.

10/5/12

Hello again! So here I am and it's Friday! I'm definitely excited for this weekend for the simple fact I haven't had a day off of work/training in about 25 days. PLUS, it's a three day weekend because of Columbus Day on Monday, so stoked!! Needless to say, I plan on sleeping in until noon.

Yesterday was a very eventful day at work. Like I said previously in my other blogs, I've been taking online courses from the Emergency Management Institute and got three done yesterday, go me! I also got a package in the mail yesterday from my Dad. He sent me a pocket knife for protection and a little card that made me tear up. Thanks Dad! After work I went to Wal-Mart with a few members from my team and that was about all my  night consisted of. Oh, and I made French Toast for me and Cherae! Just so you know, it was delicious.

 I've been a vegetarian going on two months! I have to say, it's become a lot more easier since the first few weeks, Haha! August 12th was the last time I had meat.

So this weekend is going to be pretty fun. Our team is planning on going to a Greek Festival, City Fair, and a few other things. Maybe the mall and movies or something like that. We are also trying to plan a weekend that we can all go skydiving, but were not 100% sure on that yet.

I'll keep it short and sweet today because I know I will be writing a lot over this weekend.

<3 :) <3

October 3rd, 2012

Yesterday passed by very quickly. Work lasted a little bit longer than expected, but it was definitely for a good cause. We got to sit in on a conference call here at the FEMA Region IV Office. It was very interesting to here them discuss current issues and specifics about what's going on with FEMA out in the field. After training I drove my team back to our hotel, (YES I DROVE A 15 PASSENGER VAN) believe it or not! Then after I got back to the hotel two friends and I choose to go out to dinner at Applebee's. Having a nice dinner was nice after a long day of work, plus it was within walking distance! After dinner I ended up playing some frisbee with some fellow team mates, until I got tired and went to take a shower. Soon after I called family members, checked facebook, and started winding down and got ready for bed.

Today has been pretty eventful here at work in Atlanta. I started and finished my project I was given yesterday. I made a brochure about how to deal with the media and what to say and not say. It was very simple because all of FEMA Corps members had already gone through that specific training upon arrival here. After finishing the brochure I started on another project that was basically just writing a paper on how the Region IV staff can better prepare themselves for the next FEMA Corps members they get, and what specific training we have had, and how a general first day  here to us would look like. I spent about two hours on this project.

After both projects I was given for the day I started on an online class through Emergency Management Institute. These classes are open to the public and are completely free. All you have to do is go to Google or www.fema.gov and look for Emergency Management Institute courses. There are over 700 you could take! You do not get college credit for it, but it does look fantastic on a resume, or if you are looking into going into emergency management or working with FEMA in the future, its a step up! Today I started and finished the course Deployment Basics for FEMA Response Partners. So technically if they wanted to deploy me, I would be prepared and ready! At least more than I was before I took the course. Each course takes a different amount of time and consists of different things throughout, although each course is followed by an exam that you have to make a 75% or better on in order to get the certification for the course.


Anyways, this is all the news and fun stuff that went on yesterday and today! Will be updating hopefully again tomorrow. Stay safe and have a great rest of the day!

Transitioning from training to work!

Finished with training, ready to work! October 2nd, 2012


This last Sunday, September 30th, we departed from Anniston, Alabama. My team Summit Five, got stationed in Atlanta, Georgia! After arriving here in Atlanta at our hotel we will be staying at for the next month, at least, I got very excited. There are ten people on my team and two rooms for all of us, which means it's five people to a room. The living space is small, but it's definitely better than what I was expecting, and it could be a lot worse. Our hotel is actually in a city outside of Atlanta called Suwanee. Our hotel is within walking distance of almost anything we could possibly want. Dunkin' donuts, Applebee's, Outback Steakhouse, a movie theatre, walmart, tons of restaurants, and it's a beautiful scenery as well. I have a feeling I will be spending too much money here, but hey what do I have to loose right? Another ironic thing that happened yesterday was we were under a tornado watch for quiet a few hours. We found out about it while still at work, and had an hour drive home to the hotel. We get home and the rain started getting really heavy and wind was picking up as well. I just decided to take a nap because I knew there wasn't anything I could personally do to make things better. Needless to say, I took a nap from 5 pm to 9:30 pm.

After settling into our hotel room's Sunday night, we all started getting ready for our first day of work out into the field the next morning. We are currently working out of the Region Four Headquarters office for FEMA. The office is about an hour drive away from our hotel so mornings creep up on us. Monday morning was our first day of work/getting to know the FEMA staff here at the Headquarters office. Everyone was very welcoming and was so happy we were here to help them for the next month or longer. Each corps member has a designated office space where we will be working on our assignments for the next few weeks. We were given a list of assignments that were open to us to work on. A few examples are media package, social media monitoring, private sector, tribal, etc. I was put in the media package section as of right now, which means I will be working on a variety of things to inform and relay the message on how we can handle the media out in the field and what exactly is okay to say, and what is not. I could do this by making a PowerPoint, doing a role play activity, or whatever came to mind to make the lesson creative. Today we will actually be starting on our assignments here with FEMA!

This is my first blog post since I left home, I apologize. I will try to post one at least once a day now that I have WiFi access. 

To all my friends and family, you know I love and miss you like crazy!