life in NOLA

OKAY so i have been real bad about writing on this blog site recently. It has just been soooo busy. Lots to do and in our free time we sleep. Not complaining though. Living down here is great and I wish we could stay longer than the 2 months. We had today off from work because of a crazy work schedule this week.

We also had saturday off. That was one of the best days down here. We usually work Saturdays. It was a gorgeous day, we bought snowballs (this really good slushy/snowcone type thing....but better. and u can get them filled with ice cream. so good! and there goes my plan of getting in better shape...), and we went to the Crawfish festival at night! they even had some of those wonderfully creaky old carnival rides. reminded me of the Quincy Carvnial haha. There were crawfish races at this festival. People choose a crawfish that has a number on its back. then they bang the table to try and get the crawfish closer to them.... it's a lil odd. but hysterical and fun to watch. I am writing this late at night and should be in bed. sorry if this makes no sense! There are alot of festivals down here, all with delicious food.

There is a whole bunch of stuff going on! i just can't write about 

it now because i am falling asleep. Oh 3 of my team members got tattoos today. that was memorable. and no DAD it wasn't me. yet. : ) they each got a fleur de lis symbol.  

lets seeeeee, what else is new. OHHH, how about that this past week was depressing because i officially have taken on Leanne's role of losing things.

Here is my list this past week.... AmeriCorps sweatshirt (that i wear all the time), my favorite green necklace (the blown glass one from UNH. i am SO MAD), Digital camera (with all my pics thus far. this is why u haven't seen much.), my sunglasses (yup. the aviator ones i fell in love with and didn't care how much they were.), and my water bottle (which isn't a big deal, just something else to add to the growing list).

i had to vent about that. i am a little upset with myself and i am hoping those things turn up. i think someone stole my camera instead of turning it in to the front office at Camp Hope because I went back to where I left it and it was gone. ohhh well. That's communal living for ya. i really should go to bed now!

Badger 5 van rides

I just found this video the other day and it made me smile.  This is what happens on our van rides.  Billy Joel songs have become, along with many other songs, Badger 5 anthems for the year. 

 

in NOLA!

I don't know where to begin because so much has happened over this past week. It feels like months since we left Perry Point, MD. It was really only a week ago. haha. My team is living at Camp Hope in St.Bernard Parish. It's basically a middle school that was turned into a housing facility for volunteers and people serving like americorps nccc. I think this week coming is the largest group of volunteers, reaching around 1,000 living here. 40 of us are living co-ed bunk style. We share a room with 3 other AmeriCorps teams. two of the teams are from the sacramento, CA campus. it's cool to meet other campuses. The showers are nice and cold everyday and the food is always an adventure. This month is a huge spring break time for colleges which is why it is so crowded here right now. and will be for a few more weeks.

Given all that.... it's been AMAZING! We are working with Habitat for Humanity

in the Musician's village. if u don't know habitat, look it up. it's a great non-profit. i will prob explain more later but i am so so tired right now. It took us 2 10 hr days to drive here. Unfortunately i was sick from the day we left until now. Luckily, I am finally recovering! Camp Hope is probably not the best place to be sick in. I will definitely update again soon. It has been a crazy week. Hopefully everything will settle down a lil bit.

New Orleans has so many great things to see and there is always something new around every corner. the people here are all so interesting as well. it's just a great place to be. Though there is still soooo much that needs to be recovered. It's sad when Habitat, a non-profit, is the leading means of construction and re-building in the area. and that is over any profit based companies as well. I need to get some sleep, but it has been great so far. Roofing a house was a highlight from last week. i enjoyed it. So Dad if u ever need some help roofing anything... : ) love u all. miss u and talk to u soon hopefully!

New housemate!

Oh yeah, and i got another roomate about a week or two ago! forgot to mention that. Her name is Seven. yes, like the number. Just thought i would add that. There are now 8 of us in the house! and 5 of us are going to New Orleans! the others have cool projects in other places. We had our presentation today. it went well. and i just remembered i need to go finish an assignment for something. 

Above is a picture of everyone in our house.  Chloe also joined our house a few weeks after i made this post.  Now we have a full and crazy house. We are in our formals because this was at our official AmeriCorps Induction Ceremony. 

badger 5

This past week and weekend has been real crazy. We went on a mini spike for three days. this was to get an idea of what the spike trips are like and working together as a team. though it's kind of silly cuz 3 of our team members weren't there. one was at chain saw training and the other two were at fire fighter training. The rest of us went to a Girl Scout campsite that needed our help with lots of clearing of brush and logs. basically lots of manual labor. it was fun! and i got to ride the gator! (not EXACTLY a tractor A. Annie. its more of a mini dump truck hahaa but it was fun). wicked tiring but a good time. When we got back we had a TON of paperwork and power point presentation stuff to do.

There are 8 of us and a team leader on my team. we are called Badger 5. there are 3 units 

and all are named after animals; badger, raven, and wolf. then there are 6 teams in each unit.   My team consists of.... ( i do this stuff mainly for my own benefit later, i know many of u find this to be boring info haha) Tyler is our TL from Florida, Erik from Jersey (with family in the quincy area! and his mom is from dorchester! craaaazy), Andrew from Iowa, Tawna from Montana, Jordan from Minnesota, Julie from boston/brooklyn, and two of my roomates Beth from Maryland and Julie from Ohio. we are an interesting dynamic. we have a good time.

This weekend kind of frustrated me though. Lots of written work and it seemed to take forever. it is hard coordinating 9 people to put a slide presentation together. and other stuff as well. Oh well, my head will hopefully be cleared tomorrow after the presentation.  It's probably because I am getting sick.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO EVERYONE I KNOW THAT HAS HAD A BDAY RECENTLY! there are many of u, including my own sistah! i didnt forget about any of u! it is just impossible to find a quiet and isolated time to call anyone. I will get better at that.

If anyone has been to New Orleans and has suggestions of things to see then let me know!!!! it's going to be such a fun (and ridiculously long) van ride down. If there is anything i missed let me know! i'm getting some sweet music since being here. it's nice. okay i am exhausted! miss u all! i looked up my house on goodle maps the other day. made me say awwww i miss it. oh and i can't BELIEVE uncle mike made the pasta?! whaaaaat. of course when i am gone.

NEW ORLEANS!!!!!

Our first spike was revealed yesterday and we are going to New Orleans for two months!! My team will be working with Habitat for Humanity and staying at Camp Hope. I AM SO EXCITED!!! AHHHHH! each team gets placed in a different area. Some people are in NJ, some in Georgia, Connecticut, West Virginia, basically all over this side of the country. We were one of the lucky teams to go to New Orleans on the first round! I am pumped. We were kind of crazy all day. If you are unfamiliar with Habitat for Humanity, then look it up! It is working together to build houses for the local community. There are Habitats all over the country. There are many other programs in New Orleans that are geared toward this. For example, some of my roommates are going to work with a St. Bernard's project down there, doing similar stuff. We just happened to get placed with Habitat. and i am psyched!!!!!!!!

Yesterday day was a crazy and busy day. We also found out our specialty roles for our team. Each team member holds a role. There are a few different roles but i won't bore u with that. if u are really interested in knowing what they all are let me know! cuz i love talking about this stuff. Our Team Leader (TL) had us write a few paragraphs explaining why we wanted a certain role and what our second choice was. I'm the SLI (the LOVE the acronyms here at NCCC) Service Learning Initiator and working with my teammate Beth. Basically, i am coordinating service learning opportunities for the team while we are working on a project. We make sure everyone is understanding the purpose of what we are doing, how to look forward when done with the project and not just put it away and move on, and to just reflect on what we've learned or experienced etc. There is a good amount of written work, but it's definitely something I am very interested in. It's making sure that we look at the big perspective. This could be a long discussion but I will limit myself right now. : )
Also, each round there is a new Assistant Team Leader (ATL). Someone who just takes on a lil more to help out the TL. so i'll be doind that for the first round. My team is fun and we all have been getting along great. Once we go on spike we will be in very close quarters all the time. sleeping, eating, working, living together. but i think we all have the same idea of what we want out of this so as long as we keep an open communication we should do ok. There is a mixture of ages. about half are 19 and the other half are 22-24. AmeriCorps NCCC is definitely a program i wish i new about before i went off to college. i don't even know how i heard about it! i think just from searching online. Anyways, I am WICKED EXCITED!!! NEW ORLEANS IN LESS THAN A MONTH!!! (and i'll be there for my bday, woohoo!)

what am i even doing this month?

So i realized that alot of people are probably wondering what the heck i am doing down here besides PT and silly v-day parties. This whole month is a lil long because it is as if we are back in the classroom. We have training classes on a number of different topics each day. Once we cover everything we need then we will go on a mini spike with our team. I'm hoping our first official spike will be in the gulf somewhere doing construction. We have three focus cities for the year" baltimore, D.C., and Camden NJ. though we are not limited to those areas.

Sometimes it gets a lil long right now...waiting for us to just get started on our projects! but we need the training to be ready for everything. esp. if we get any sudden disaster relief calls. This is why the ISP (independent service projects) are good to do around this training month. It reminds us why we are here. Right now I am thinking about going to the local library and seeing if they can use my help there at all. Mulitple people can go on a planned ISP sooo we are all trying to help each other with finding projects that interest us. Everyone's tastes are different of course. Some people want to go help outside with the local parks and such while others would rather be in a school etc. u can guess what i'd like to do! but i am really up for anything.

talk to u all sometime soon. i hope u all had a wonderfuuuuul president's day! wooo!