October 16, 2011-Docent at Haile Homestead

4h

Docent at Haile Homestead

Today was the single largest amount of people who ive ever witnessed at the Homestead. There was a group of 10 people following each of the 3 volunteers here. There were also a large amount of small children. I was volunteering with Caitlyn and and older volunteer, we had to work together to make sure the kids were contained and kept entertained while we gave the adults information. Me and Caitlyn handled a large amount of people while the other volunteer kept the other segment of people occupied in a different area of the house to prevent over crowding. Throughout the time I spent there, I noticed that I was getting better at extemporaneous speaking and making my info relevant to the audience accumulated. The only thing I was not very good at was greeting the guests and being as personable as my female counterparts. I have noticed this in other volunteering positions. I have learned that being personable and friendly to strangers starts with the assumption that everyone is there to be treated nicely and that you have to approach them as guests and not strangers. It helps to pretend that you've known them for a long time so that you are more comfortable. 

October 16, 2011- Golf at Ironwood.

6h

I played golf today at Ironwood. This all started yesterday, I first baked brownies for my golf buddies, it took me 2 h to finish baking the brownies. Taylor came over and we made 2 batches of brownies for everyone to enjoy during the course. When we got there the next day, we were disappointed to find that we were not allowed to rent a golf cart on account of our age. We found it both amusing and irritating that we are allowed to drive 2000 lb hunks of metal at 70 mph down the freeway, but we are not allowed to pilot electric powered carts around a scarcely populated course. Regardless, we enjoyed ourselves playing a game of 4 holes. It took us especially long to play the 4 holes because we were 4 people trying to play with the same clubs. It was my first time playing golf and while I was not very good at using a driver, I was able to hit the ball further than all my experienced friends while using the irons. I practiced my swing with help from my friends and was able to consistently hit it far with the irons. We resolved to go to the driving range next time inorder to hone our skills.

I was surprised how fast I picked up the golf stroke. My perceptions of golf were also changed, I always knew it required skill, but it really struck me after I attempted to hit it. Its much more difficult than it looks. My friends were amazed by my ability and I resolved to play more golf and continue to develop my natural skill.

October 15, 2011- Ronald McDonald House

2h
I volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House today. The Ronald McDonald House is a very unique place to volunteer. The goal of Ronald McDonald house is to provide the pediatric patients and their families a place to stay and eat while they children are being treated at the hospital. A big part of the Ronald McDonald house is the volunteers who provide support by spending their hours to cook and help the patient and their families. Today, we baked brownies at the Ronald McDonald house. This was something I have not done before. However, I found the task really easy, because I opened up 2 boxes of brownie mix, added the indicated ingredients (oil) and then baked them for 40min in the oven. The brownies were ready and they were delicious. I felt that I may have brought a small bright spot in someone's day when they eat the brownie with milk. This task was so easy that I decided to come back home and bake another 2 boxes of Brownies for my Golf buddies, whom I am going to meet tomorrow morning.

September 24, 2011-Haile Homestead Docent

4h

I was a docent today at Haile Homestead. It was a beautiful day in general, however in the morning there were not many people who came out to the Haile Homestead. Although, it was a bit warm outside the Haile Homestead is always cooler by 10 degrees. I learnt that the way the home is designed, if you open the doors on the front and back of the house, cross-ventilation really cools the home down. In spite of the slow start to the day, as the day progressed some families came to visit the Homestead. I gave them tours and talked about the history of the Homestead.

I am always amazed by how different people ask completely different questions about this Historic home. Most people are very intrigued by the talking walls. The Haile family had a habit of writing on their walls. I think that is an excellent way of leaving your mark and thoughts for your next generations. Most people ask about the date of the oldest writing on the wall. The oldest dated writing is from 1859.

Overall, it was fun volunteering today. Every time I am a docent at the Homestead, I realize the value and importance of history. When you study history from a text book, the feeling is very different than actually being a part of that history.

October 2, 2011- Sarasota 5000 in Osprey, FL

3h

We participated in Sarasota 5000 in Osprey, FL. This is a head race of 5000m. Head races are time-trial races, where you row a certain distance (in this case 5000m), in the fastest time you can. Typically, we launch at the dock and row at least 2-3 miles before launching from the start. So, the skill that has to be learned in the head races is to take it easy till you actually reach the start line. Usually, 4 of the 8 rowers row at one time to conserve the stamina of the whole team. Usually boats are seeded, and the top-seed boat launches the first. After 15-20 seconds, the next boat starts and so on. We were seeded second for this race behind the Sarasota Scullers. This is a really tough team to be competing against, the Sarasota Scullers were the National Champions 2010-2011. They also have more money and recruits compared to Gainesville Area Rowing. I was rowing in the Varsity 8+. I had not rowed with some of the team mates since my novice year. So, this was a whole new team, and in rowing it is really important to have the chemistry with your teammates to do well. So, I was really nervous to be on the same team with Jared, Ben, Alex and Peter. And, also really nervous to be rowing against Sarasota Scullers. The other obstacle was the course, which was quite treacherous, we also had no clue what the exact course was because it was so poorly marked. When we launched our Coxswain was like wait a minute where are we going. It was really hard for the cox to keep the course. Sarasota Scullers had an advantage because this is the Lake they row on for practice and they already know the nuances of the course and the shortest route. Anyways, I think we did pretty well, because we came in 2nd. This was also the first medal of the year for me, so it was special. All in all, my take from this race was that the more obstacles you are put up against, the better you perform because you now have to work really hard to overcome those obstacles. Epiphany: More obstacles = Better performance! Can't wait for the Head of the Hooch on the Chattahoochee river in Chattanooga, TN.

March 20, 2011 - Indian Festival Holi Celebrations

4 h

Indian Festival Celebrations:

This is the most fun Indian Festival that exists. It is called Holi (festival of colors). Growing up in an Indian family has its advantages, because you still get to experience the culture of India, while still enjoying the luxuries of America. I have been involved with this festival all along, however, this was the first year that this was celebrated at my best friends back yard. So, we get there in our clean clothes, and soon find ourselves doused with every possible color and colored water that anyone could lay there hands on. Soon, I realized I was ill-equipped and had to devise sleazy ways of putting color on other friends and family. This was a great learning experience for me because I had not played Holi like this before. I understood the significance of the festival for the first time: after you color everyone with the same color, everyone is EQUAL. The Indian society is very class conscious and everything in India is based on Caste and Class. So, this is one day where everyone forgets what class or caste they are from. This is also a spring harvest festival, where the previous night there is a bonfire and some of the new crop is offered to the fire. After 2h of being wet and colorful, we played the Indian drums to entertain the people and ping-pong to entertain ourselves. Overall, this was the most fun I had in a while. And above all, my parents were happy and I was happy at the same time.

July 10th, 2011 - 2nd Annual Crossfit Swamp Challenge

2h (9-11am)

The event involved the following: Teams of two athletes were to take on the challenging obstacle course put forth by CrossFit, Gainesville. It was guaranteed to test the limits of fitness, and we were asked to be prepared to row, run, climb and be victorious. I was still debating whether to participate and whom to pick as my partner. However, our coach Julianne, convinced Brandon and I to participate in the challenge. So what did it entail, we were to row 500m, followed by squats to the stadium, followed by running up and down the stadium several times, followed by lifting 40 pounds and running down the stadium, more burpees, pushups, etc. We do CrossFit workouts as part of our rowing conditioning and we decided this Challenge would be a good way to keep ourselves in shape and have a goal over the summer. We trained 4 times a week for the event, but the day of the event Brandon was not feeling well. Consequently we were lagging in our ability to compete efficiently. It was still fun because we took it very lightly and enjoyed the feeling of athletic competition.

The Challenge itself was pretty hard and there were parts where I did not want to continue, but it was easy once we passed the half way time. We also tried to win best costume by wearing our girlfriends clothing and pretending to be 70s athletes, our costumes recieved praise but we lost to the Casey Anthony Justice League (dressed as superhumans). First lesson learned: You can do whatever you set your mind to, however hard it maybe. Second lesson learned:  it is difficult to compete in women's clothing.