Garfield Ridge

Mount Lafeyette


Briana and her puppy Griffin and Jessica in red



A group of us (4 corp members and 4 senior corp) went hiking yesterday. My first New Hampshire 4000ft mountain -- Garfield Ridge. Couldn't tell if it was snowing at the top or if the misty rain was just freezing and falling to the ground. Needless to say...it was bitter cold. It was a great hike and a beautiful day. All the trees have turned bright red. Wish i had some better pictures of the leaves, but I broke my digi-camera before the sun really came out. Luckily, i was able to get these pictures off of the broken mass. I hope i can make it back to this area in the winter for some snowshoeing.

So my hunches turned out to be true. This week, two of our members quit City Year. One of them was on my team. So now we are down to 4 corp members and our fearless leader. We still have enough people to be a strong presence in every grade of the middleschool, but now one less mind and body to help plan and implement our programs. He never seemed very committed to City Year from the beginning, so maybe this is actually a blessing in disguise --- before it gets any later into the year.

I cancelled my old T-Mobile service. My new (free!!) service is 603-233-6969.

Miss you all.

Sandwich Mountain

Yesterday a group of us went up to Sandwich, NH at the base of the White Mountains and worked on a trail up to sandwhich mountain. We dug out drainage and cut some tress back. It's a wilderness area and out leader from the Student Conservation Association - Neil - was educating us about trail building and trail maintanence as we went. I was sick and was consistently swigging on a bottle of dayquil. Thankfully the rain was non-existant for most of the day. When we got back to base camp, there was a band called State Radio (guitarist is the former guitarist for Dispatch) that played an acoustic set for all us volunteers before heading off to Plymouth for a show. The video isn't that good, but there was a guitarist, a guy playing a trash can, another guy playing a metal wash basin, and another guy keeping timing with a ping pong ball and paddle.



Today I am feeling better and am trying to finish my speech for opening day tomorrow.

Love, C

Opening Day

Had a blast last week at Basic Training Retreat up at Camp Berea. We got to play on the water toys that they had (slide and water trampoline) before packing them away for the season. Bonfire's each night, billards, fusball, yoga, and an awesome talent show. I spun my devil sticks (to some Justice beats) for one part of the talent show, joined another recruit Avrum juggling pins and rings, and did a short improv skit with Kirby and other Chris. But the most exciting part of BTR was finding out what team i will be serving with for the next nine months. Seabrook Timberland Ubuntu Team serving in the Seabrook Middleschool!!! (with a lot of parnership with Timberland service partners and mentors). After observation period, I will be working with an entire grade (either 5, 6, 7, or 8th) tutoring and supporting all, mentoring a single student, and planning and executing afterschool programs (among other things).

Tomorrow we get our uniforms and go to an open house for our middleschool. Friday and monday are our opening day ceremonies. I am representing City Year on monday with a speech to our VIP guests - corporate sponsors, NH govenor, Portsmouth mayor, and other special guests. I just found out yesterday and am kinda freaking out, even though i shouldn't be.



The picture is of our team helping Grace to cross a swinging log (team building at Camp Berea). The goof on the right with the red bandana is my roommate Clay.

I'm off to work on my speech.....

First Batch

Here is the first batch of pictures - the harbor behind out house, the beach, the lake up at Camp Berea.

More to come

Sleep Deprivation and Perspicacity

Last night we worked a middle leg of the relay race....checking runner's numbers and times, directing traffic, crowd control, and making sure everyone was well hydrated. I got the chance to do some bonding with my direct supervisor and some City Year alumni. Over the course of the last day and a half my team and i did a total of 20 hours of volunteer work for the Reach The Beach relay race (not including 7 hours of travel time). Have only slept about 4 hours each night because the shifts started really early. By the time we got back last night i was so ill and tired that all i could do was fall asleep for about 15 hours (with a few trips to the bathroom). I am getting over a stomach bug a few of us caught friday up at the starting line in Cannon Mountain where we checked in 365 teams of runners for the 200 mile trek.

I talked to some locals and learned that cannon mountain was one of the best resorts in NH....kinda disappointing, so I don't think ill be doing much (if any) snowboarding up here. Beautiful rolling hills though. I'll have to get in a few days when i come back for Christmas.

Tomorrow we head to our Basic Traing Retreat at summercamp lake about 2 hours away from Stratham. In addition to helping the camp directors close the camp up for the season, we will be finding out what teams we have been placed on (we filled out preference sheets a few days ago) and doing some team building activities (ropes courses and such). We will be up there for 3 days and 2 nights.

So today was our only off day for this week. I have been layin low, reading, and sleeping. I have to get some laundry done for camp and maybe a little food shopping if i can get motivated. I have a feeling that sundays will be when i get the majority of my sleep for the week.....

Goin to the "mountains" !!!!!!

Hey all....i got a bunch of timberland shoes for wicked cheap today. $5 a pair....i got 4 pairs. No sales tax!!! Every year around this time, timberland has their "sample sale" where they sell off all their sample designed shoes that may or may not have made it to the final manufacturing cut. A lot of them were real ugly...but some were cool. I got a few pairs of aqua hiking shoes (shoes that you can walk through water with and will drain and dry quickly) and a pair of these strange hiking slipper contraptions with smart wool lining the inside. Very cush.

Yesterday at the United Way Day of Caring event my team and I went to the Seabrook Hospice in Seabrook and painted a barn for them...saving them a bunch of money.

O... we are leaving and i must make this brief.

We are now leaving to drive a few hours up to cannon mountain so we can be ready tommorow morning at 6am to send of the first groups of runners for the Reach the Beach Relay.

More to come...

Love C

Welcome to New Hampshire

Hampton, NH.

Yesterday we went down to the CY HQ in Boston. We talked with Michael Brown (who started CY) and a few other prominent members of HQ about the direction and importance of national service. Pretty inspiring and passionate stuff. Toured the facility....which is definitely top notch and learned about some other events that happen throughout the year.

Today, we are going out and meeting up with United Way for a service day. Not sure where or what we are doing yet...we are all going to be broken up and put into random teams (we don't get put on our actual teams until mid sept) and taken to different parts of New Hampshire. We actually got to sleep in a little later today (8:30!) but that means that we are working till about 8pm. Very excited to be going physical service though, most of these first days have been policy, history, and lots of sitting in chairs.

Most everyone is engaged and committed, but there are a few that are obviously not going to make it the entire 10 months. Most of us all get along real easy, but others stick to their initial group and don't mill around much. I'm sure it will just take a little more time to get to know those. I hope to get some pictures of my town up for yall soon (the beach, the tourist stores, the nuclear power plant, the harbor, my housemates, etc etc etc).

On Friday and Saturday we are working the Reach The Beach Relay race (http://www.rtbrelay.com/) with CY Boston. I signed up for the morning race start crew, which means that a group of us and a senior member will be going up to the mountains (Cannon Mountain - i think) tomorrow night and staying there so we can be ready to organize, sign in, and send off the first teams of runners around 9-10am. We will actually be staying at one the ski resorts and i'm pretty stoked to see what a NH "mountain" really has to offer.

Shower time.