Rainy Day in California

Heller,
I am soaking wet. Decided to go outside for a bit and relish in the environment, the pouring rain environment. We are off duty for Columbus Day, and the only thing we had to do was get out TB test results checked. My arm is still sore from the Tetnus shot, but no more hives and allergic responses from the numbing shot. It is easy to wake up early here because I still think my body is still adapting to the time change. I woke up at 6:30, ate breakfast and went to the gym across the parking lot. I think today is going to be the day to start researching and writing my theory of everything. That does sound a bit intense, but it is something that I have been thinking about since I was a kid. You get to spend a lot of time in personal reflection, reading, writing, talking to people from all around the country. I guess I could equivilate being here to being in high school. You have your groups, the same groups that you saw walking the halls in school. The nerds, jocks, loners, smokers, and uncatagorized people. I tend to relish in places where everyone is different because I consider myself to be a mixture of all the groups. Maybe that is why I tend to adapt well in new situations. It is interesting to people watch, and I still tend to find everything and situation has something funny hidden in it. I am not sure my plans for the day, but yesterday was quite the adventure....
My roommate Sara and I wanted to go to downtown Sacramento. We met up with three very nice girls and walked to the light rail with them. The walk to the station is a mile and a half, in which we passed a Cargo Largo, men honking at us, and had to traverse through an underground sewer tunnel. The ride downtown was about 20 minutes and was interesting to say the least. Sacramento is a strange down. Nothing was open except a mall, which we explored. Sara and I had probably already walked 5 miles, and we were all hungry. A local I talked to told us to go to Old Sacramento. It sounded neat, so we crossed the interstate and found our destination. Once I saw the Joe's Crab Shack, I realized everywhere in America seems to have the same tourist traps. People in Sacramento are not modest either. I probably saw three moms changing their kids' diapers in public. There were a lot of old time photo stores, caricature stands, and German sasuage booths. We found a mexican restaurant in a neat old building. Food tasted the same there as everywhere. After eating a guacamole tostada and drinking a margarita, we left clueless as to what to do next. We decided to head back to the mall, and on the way the we had the pleasure of finding ourselves in a very awkward situation...
The sidewalk we were walking down was over the interstate, and there were a couple of on ramps. Sacramento has a very large homeless population, and there was a lady in a wheelchair weighed down by about three duffelbags being pushed by her man friend. They were trying to get the chair down a curb to cross one of the on ramps. I had a feeling the next few minutes were bound to happen. It was almost in slow motion when I saw the lady in the wheelchair fall backwards. I tend to get myself involved in situations without thinking, so I ran pretty darn fast to help the lady get out of the road. My friends followed, and we saw about 6 cars and a bus stopped in the lane while we feverishly tried to lift the lady and her chair. The dufflebags broke, and Lord behold tons and tons of alcohol bottles fell onto the street. We ran around, picking up the bottles to get them off the street to evade people getting their tires flattened by Smirnoff vodka glass. I distinctly remember the lady yelling, "Help me! Help me!". We got her on the sidewalk, and were thanked by her friend. Traffic continued and we stopped, looked at each other, and started laughing. The rest of Sacramento was uneventful. I was also surprised to see the capital building's dome was not centered, an architectural blunder I assume. We took the train home, walked the mile and a half, crossed through the sewer, urine reeked tunnel, and got to our dorms unscathed. If this is just one of the many random adventures to come, I can only get more and more excited. I love randomness because it is in situations like that where I find humor.
Tomorrow is the beginning of our training. It will consist of a mile and a half run, 2 minutes of push ups and 2 minutes of sit ups. It is interesting because majority of the girls are worried about the push ups and pumped for the sit ups. I tend to be the opposite. We get put into our permanent teams Wednesday, which is going to be hard. I have become really, really attached to my roommate, and now I have to pack up and room with someone else. Sara and I have given nicknames to the unique people here and are discussing situations in which we will room with either Yoga Dancer, Lady Swag, or Princess Anal Retentive. The possibilities are endless. I hope to find the comfort I have found so far in my new team. People still laugh at my jokes here, and find me to be entertaining, so I hope to find that in the new group of ten people I will live with for the next ten months.
I hope this post gives some indication of what I am witnessing and encountering while in California, though I can only promise you more stories to come.
I love and miss you all,
Mary