I'm southern

What a day!  It's been, again, a wave of emotions from overwhelmed, happy and upset all in one.  In the morning, we met up with our teams and did an exercise to determine our leadership styles based on a compass.  Each cardinal direction was assigned a type of leadership style.  There were boards with  descriptions of each type of style and we were supposed to go to the one we felt we most identified with.  I identified most with the "South" which was the empathetic style, which is concerned with other people on the team and how the decisions we make affect others.  It was interesting because almost every point on the description of the south was me, whereas the people who went to the north were so blatantly north (competitive, don't have trouble saying no etc).   The whole time, I could see the team leaders taking notes and writing things down, which was kind of nerve wracking since I knew they were taking this all into consideration when picking what team we'll be on for the year.

I think the best part of the day came when we went to lunch.  I was walking with two other girls and we were all in our khaki and white uniform.  As we passed by a restaurant, a group of three people were sitting by an open window in the restaurant and saw us walk by.  They started to clap and say "yeahhh City Year!"  It was so cool because I've literally been working there three days and haven't even entered the school.  It's really awesome being in the founding City Year city because people know City Year and all that we do.   It was just a cool experience to happen on day three.

Then, in the afternoon was the "school fair."  First, we had presentations on each of the different schools we could be serving at by the team leader(s) and the program manager that is at that school.  Afterwards, each school had a stand and a display board for the school and we got to walk around and talk to the TLs and PMs which was really helpful, but very overwhelming.  Tonight, I ranked the schools based on my preferences of where I want to go. It was so hard, especially knowing that this was for the rest of the year.  I think I have a good list, so let's hope it works out.  

Right now, I am struggling with the distance.  I am feeling how far away 11 hours actually is.  Even though I never went home for weekends during school, the option was there.  I could go home if something exciting was happening, whereas now, it's basically holidays and maybe a long weekend.  Also, when I left for school, so did all of my friends, so it wasn't like they were hanging out without me.  Now, everyone is back home/together and I'm far away.  It makes for lots of situations where I'm missing things that I would have been at.  I guess it's just something I'm going to have to get used to.  Plus, once I find a group here, it will make missing things at home less difficult. 

Anyways, I'm excited for the rest of the week.  We find out our schools on Friday afternoon, which will be so exciting, but I'm sure the rest of training before that will be fun as well.