I started on Wednesday the 9th. The first three days were lots of training, orientation, and paperwork! It was really nice, however, to meet all of my coworkers and my two bosses. They all seem really great! Nancy is runs the office and is pretty cute. She also always has her boston terrier with her, Zoki, who is totally awesome. My other boss is Ryan. He runs the conservation program I am a part of. He is 6' 8'' and a little intimidating at first, but is a pretty cool guy. My other coworkers consist of 4 teams of crew leaders and mentors. There is also one other ACLC (same as my position) and we get along really well so far! We are also both currently living in Denver, so we've been able to carpool and switch off driving days, which is really convenient and money-saving.
This past week started with two training days in Denver for the ACLCs and mentors. It was interesting to be at the head office and meeting a lot of new people, but the training wasn't too exciting because it was mostly what we had already covered in our office. Wednesday was the first day with the crews! There were three crews (33 people) to meet. I think I know everyone's name already! I'll have to test myself again next week. There is one more crew that is based in another city, Pueblo, that will be trained in later. Although sometimes I feel a little left out because of not being in a crew, I'm really excited to be able to jump around and work with all of the crews.
Wednesday and Thursday were similar to the same days in the previous week. We went through almost all the same paperwork, but we had to help the big group figure it all out. Luckily, my fellow ACLC and I got a little break because we got to lead some activities during paperwork breaks and we got to distribute all the uniforms. The uniforms are mostly a green t-shirt and khaki work pants. And, lots of PPE/ safety gear as well. The uniform distribution went smoothly, but we did have to deal with some pants issues. The pants are these really thick work pants and they are basically designed to not fit on anyone! They are also incredibly unattractive and uncomfortable!
On Friday, we had a full day outside, which was a great change! We went to a really beautiful park in Colorado Springs and had some outdoor training. We learned about basic trail building and maintenance, safety practices, and got introduced to a huge number of tools. The hardest part about that is going to be remembering all of their names! After those lessons, we took a nice educational hike up to the top of a big hill (small mountain?) and had a great view of the city and mountain range. We all got very hot and sweaty (we practiced hiking while carrying our tools) and also found out that breaking in our work boots is going to take a while! Meanwhile, we'll have to work through those blisters. Here's a group photo of everyone. I'm on the bottom left along with my fellow ACLC.
Next week, I'll be camping with all of the crew leaders (in gray) and mentors to do some more training! I'm thinking that it will be a lot more fun than what we've done so far.
Meanwhile, things a home have been fairly quiet. Bill came back from Hawaii, and both he and Ben have been working really long days (from about 5 am to 7 or 8 pm). They've been working this job all week, including today (Saturday!) and will be working at the same place through at least most of next week. We all feel like we are never home! We get home from work, eat take-out or left overs, and go to bed soon after. I also have been getting home late because of my commute. We have all just been too tired to do much of anything, but I think we are going to REI and/or the mall tomorrow. Otherwise,what we have done lately has been before we all stared working so much! We went to the Zoo last Saturday. We saw the new Asian exhibit which is going to be very cool! We got in with our free tickets that we got from the car dealership. Everything is done being built, but not all of the animals were in yet. But the elephants were there and they were enjoying checking out their new homes. An especially neat feature to the exhibit is that the rhinos, taipirs and the elephants are going to be rotating habitats each day. They get to have a little variation in sights and smells, which is pretty neat. The rest of the zoo was also awesome- as usual! Bill hadn't been there since October, so I had fun showing him around. After the zoo we went to dinner at Dave and Busters (Ben and I had never been before) and then we went to to see the Avengers again, but this time in Imax and 3D! It was just as good as the first time, but bigger and louder!
Thanks for reading! I'll check back in after camping next week.
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