Home for the Holidays!

I have arrived safe and sound back in Maine! All of my flights went well and were on time even! It was a much better flying experience than the trip down to Mississippi, that's for sure! I was hoping to get back to Maine in time for Zac's bball game, which we were on track for, but it ended up getting canceled due to weather :( So now I am just hanging out in Richmond with Mama, Chas, Nate, Jonny and Aleena while dinner is being cooked :) It is great to be home! Can't wait to see everyone else and celebrate the holidays with y'all!

Grave Diggers

This past weekend was pretty slow, as you could probably tell from my blogging craze, but today we got back at it starting with our debrief of H4H. My team walked in wearing our AmeriTuxes and tie dyed boxers on over our pants...the panel seemed confused, until Drew called out, "alright, DEBRIEF!" and then we all pulled the boxers down! Hahaha it was awesome!

After that, we went to Beulah Cemetery to rake up leaves for a few hours of service and who do you think found some bones...yup...ME! Of course it would be me, the super-scaredy-cat-chicken who would rake up a fresh spine and leg/hip bones, because I am not afraid of that kind of thing at all....riiiiight. I scremed and called over some teammates who actually DO enjoy that kind of creep-out session and they determined that it was probably a cat or skunk...but who knows...I just hope it wasn't some poor innocent child or something! AHH it was so freaky, but anyways, after that we had 'van cleaning' which is really quite tough because the guy who checks is a real stickler. But no need to fear, River 5 pulled through with a, and I quote "perfect" job and got outta there after an hour and 15 minutes, much better than our time of 2.5 hours last transition! Woo! Tonight for dinner we were all invited to a Holiday Party in the gym, with catered food that was magnificent! And lots and lots of delicious desserts too :) I am probably hyped up on all of that sugar right now, because Colin, John and I skipped right outta there after eating to come to the computer lab for a "blogging party!" Alrighty, well I will add some pics soon, time to clean and pack my room up because I will be back in Maine: the way life should be SOOO SOOON!! I cannot wait to see y'all! XOXO :)

The Last Hoorah

So I realized after I wrote those last 2 blogs that I never really told y'all about the final work days with Habitat, just how I loved my overall experience...so here is what we did those last few days (sorry for the blogs being out of order!) The last two and a half work days, my team was at 1008 Tucker Avenue in Pascagoula, working with Jamie on a new build! We built and put up the flooring system (giant beams of wood nailed together that were super heavy!). It was cool to finally do some more work on a new build and switch it up from doing touch-up work. It was also nice to be working with the whole team the last couple days instead of being split up on different worksites, although I am always happy doing whatever work, wherever they send me :) Our last work day, Thursday, was a half day and then we headed to the bowling alley for a HFHMGC Holiday/going away party with the entire staff there. We were all split up in different lanes so we got to meet some people from the office and it was really fun! We also got lots of free pizza and soda which was amazing! It was a great way to end our working period with Habitat, but it also made me really sad, because that was the last time I was going to see them for awhile. It was, as always, a bittersweet day.
That night, there was also a Holiday/going away dinner for us at Camp Victor, with turkey, potatoes, stuffing, gravy, casseroles, and a ton of delicious dessert choices! Later that night, my team put a giant mural of our mascot, the Gangstasaurus on the wall, leaving River 5's mark for all to enjoy. It was a pleasant ending to an amazing round :)

Congratulations Nathaniel!

Shout out to Nathaniel G. Munzing for graduating from the police academy yesterday! He also received the Iron Man award for being such a buff macho man ;) haha, but seriously... Also, a big thank you to my mom for going and supporting Nate since I couldn't be there and to Lisa for taking some awesome pictures!  Thanks y'all and great job Nate, I am so proud of you!!

See you in a few days!!! Woooo! <3 

Falling in Love with the South

Yes, it is true, I have officially fallen in love with the south. Everything about the lifestyle, from the work I have been doing, to the people I have been working with, to just the area that I have been living in, nothing falls short of amazing. I love learning new tasks, like bamboo flooring, punch out work like caulking and painting, building railings, and even learning how to start a house from the ground up, it all captured my interest and has made a lasting impression on me. I have also learned a lot from my site supervisors, not only about the tasks at hand, but about life and how we all have choices that lead us down different paths and bring us to places we may have never thought we would end up. Two of my site supervisors, Jamie and Joe are both originally from Maryland, came down to the coast to help out with Katrina relief right after the storm, fell in love with the place, people, and work they were doing and fast forward to today where they are working with Habitat for Humanity, inspiring young minds like my own and making a positive difference in the community every day J Now, don't get me wrong, I definitely miss my family and friends back home, and am still planning on moving back to Maine after my 10 months in AmeriCorps, but my heart is telling me that my work here is still not done and I hope that I will be able to come back sometime in the future and do even more to help out. One difference in lifestyles is that down here, I have been fortunate enough to make friends with some awesome local people (shout out to the Nation aka Biloxi crew) who I have hung out with a few times and they have taught me to really just enjoy every ounce of life and accept people as they are. While we were hanging out, there wasn't the usual gossip and complaining about a lack of things to do that night, but rather a happiness and enjoyment of just being around one another, enjoying each others company, and really living out the phrase “sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.” I was shocked by how quickly I was “accepted” into this group of people, and welcomed with open arms, quite literally…with warm hugs each time I saw them and before I left. The culture down here is much more relationship-oriented rather than task-oriented…like, it didn’t matter what we were all doing, as long as everyone was together. Having experienced this, I am now working on really enjoying the moment, the sheer happiness of just being around other people, and trying to incorporate more of that attitude into my everyday life. I know that I am a pretty optimistic and friendly person anyway, but there is always room for improvement, right? My AmeriCorps experience so far has just motivated me to strive to be the best I can be and not worry so much about, well…everything! Haha

Anyways, I could go on and on about how much I loved this last round, but I gotta save some stories to tell y’all in person! I just wanna give a big shout out and THANK YOU to my new friends who I really have only known a couple months, but feel like I have known my whole life: Jamie Morton, Joe Stowell, Michael Logan, Donald Jones & Co.  I really appreciate all that y’all have taught me about construction and life, being my friends, and reassuring me that this is not “goodbye,” but “see ya later,” because one way or another, sooner or later, I will be back in the area and I can’t wait to pick up where we left off!

Joe, Jamie, Neva, Michael Logan, Me (Bamboo flooring crew!)

New friends! (they are all so pretty! I felt like such a "Maine bumpkin" next to them, as my mom would say haha)

Night out (photo taken by Jamie with his amazing camera!)

Next Stop, Memphis Tennessee!

Sorry I keep forgetting to tell ya'll that our next round will be spent in Memphis, Tennessee working with the Wolf River Conservancy doing landscape-type things! I am really excited to go to a new place and be doing something new, even though it's going to be freeeeezing outside while we are working! I have to toughen up a little bit I think, which being in Maine again for Christmas break should help out with! After Christmas we have a couple weeks back in Vicksburg for some new trainings and briefing for our new projects, so we will head to Tennessee on January 19th until mid-March...3rd round is our longest round. I'll let ya'll know more details when I get them :)

Feeding the Hungry

Yesterday some teammates and I went to the Edgewater Mall in Biloxi and did a capping/recruiting event. We set up a table and were there for 2 hours and only had 4 people approach us for more information...fail! Haha, it wasn't too successful, but at least we put ourselves out there and maybe people will Google "AmeriCorps" now, out of curiosity. Last night I was super tired, so I took a nap after dinner, woke up to brush my teeth, then went to bed early haha it was wonderful! Today I got up at 8am with some teammates and we walked over to the local soup kitchen and prepped food boxes to be sent out and then we left and went back to serve lunch to about 20 people. One man came through the line, stopped and pointed at me and said, "this is a pretty girl right here, I wish she were mine!" and my face got super red and I got really awkward and just looked at my teammates and they were like "well there ya go, got your compliment for the day!" Then another man came up and said to one of my teammates, "Has anyone ever told you that you are vertically challenged?!" Which was also really funny and we all got a good chuckle out of it, considering she is the shortest on our team, being 5 feet even. After we served food, we got to sit down and eat some with a couple people who were asking us where we were from and why we decided to spend 10 months volunteering. "Was it court-ordered?" one man asked, which we found pretty funny....cause nope..we CHOSE to live this low-budget lifestyle, crazy for some to believe haha. We also met Irma, a 100 year old woman who looks no more than 65, with her makeup all done and navy blue velour suit on, cane in hand, because she "took a bad fall recently and got all bruised up, which is why you have to be careful when you get old!" She was adorable, and absolutely inspiring, still helping out the needy at 100 years old! She said her biggest job there was keeping everyone in line, making sure they only took 2 napkins and brought their cup up for refills, because cups are getting expensive and they don't want to waste them! :) It was a good experience, everyone who came to get food and the people who worked there were all really nice and thankful for our help...we felt really welcomed and appreciated, which is always a good feeling. Tonight some of us are going to the movies to see Tangled, a movie about Rapunzle and then I will probably go to bed early again, I am soooo tired!

Stained

Yesterday and today my group that was landscaping went back to the site in Pascagoula to help out with finishing the railings because they were hoping to get them done by today (Saturday). I worked with Mollie, staining all of the freshly built railings and I must say, we have quite a good system now! Stain is really messy, so it might be surprising to some of you, but I actually kinda like doing it, minus the nasty smell and how sticky my hands get! I seriously have not found one thing that we have learned to be boring or something that I can't stand to do...I have this theory that I shared with some teammates earlier that it doesn't matter what task we are doing, it's all about your attitude and company while you are working...for me, as long as I have some music to sing along to, and/or other people/teammates/friends/volunteers to chat and laugh with, I will most likely have a great time! I just can't express enough how much I have been enjoying learning to do new things and throwing myself even more outside of my comfort zone. Anyways, here is a picture of the railing that Mollie, Joe and I made the other day, nice and stained this time...finally finished!

Beautiful, isn't it? 

Here is another picture of the whole crew that we worked with...my team, AmeriCorps State members Ali and Stephen, and Habitat for Humanity Site Supervisors Mark and Greg. 

It was a really fun crew to work with, and we were all kinda sad today that we won't be working with them again :( But next week we are supposed to be working with Jamie's crew on a new build, so that will be exciting! 

Again, I am really sad that we only have 2 1/2 work days left here, but I am so ready to be home for Christmas!!! I can't wait to see ya'll!!! 

Landscaping

Sunday night Jamie had another bonfire for our team and it was super fun, even more fun than the last, because even more of my teammates and Habitat site supervisors came this time :) It was also one of the AmeriCorps State's birthdays, so that was fun...I got him a giant cookie-cake that was delicious! Monday was my teammate Norah's 24th birthday, so we got another giant cookie-cake and Mollie decorated it with a zombie (one of Norah's favorite things) and we ate it with ice cream which I of course enjoyed! Other than the bonfire and birthday events, this past weekend was spent relaxing and watching a lot of movies, which is always fine by me! Tuesday and Wednesday and probably the rest of this week, I have been working on landscaping (digging huge holes and planting trees in them) with Joe and Michael Logan's crew...it has been a lot of hard work, I haven't actually used my muscles much until now, so I feel every bit of shoveling! But it has also been a lot of fun working with a few teammates who also chose landscaping over drilling and building railings. Today it was freezing out though, which made it difficult to get started digging into the semi-frozen ground, but we did it! We had to fill in a few holes yesterday because we would dig and come across a water pipe, which was really frustrating because it was so hard to get that far and then have to fill it back in and start again, but at least we didn't actually strike the water pipe and have it spray all over us like our supervisor Joe did! Hahaha.
On another note, I feel as though our team morale has been all over the board lately...ever since we got back from Thanksgiving break I felt like our team was on a high and getting along really well, which has been great until the past couple days people have been getting testy and on each others nerves. I think it could be that we are all just ready for Christmas break and more focused on seeing our friends and family back home than really spending time with each other here, which is understandable. I, myself, am feeling bitter-sweet as per usual about leaving this project next Friday...it seems like these past 2 months have just FLOWN by and I am not mentally prepared to leave this amazing area, project, and new friends that I have found here...I am truly shocked at how attached I have gotten to this place and how it is even possible that I like it more than my first round project in Chalmette...but another part of me is of course ECSTATIC to be heading north soon and finally getting to see and hug my friends and family back home!!! I just know that those 2 weeks are going to go by too fast and it is going to be even harder to leave than it was in August though...gahhh this whole AmeriCorps experience has been so amazing, even more amazing than I ever imagined...which is awesome, but messes with my emotions too much from moving around and switching locations so frequently! Overall though, I feel that I am in a really good place in my life right now..like I am finally doing what I was meant to do all along, serving and traveling and making more and more friends along the way. I personally have been pretty overwhelmed with just how amazing God is and how he works in mysterious ways and how each new day brings a new life lesson and fun adventure. I honestly never expected to love what I was doing so much, especially construction work! But I guess the phrase "don't knock it 'til you try it" is a good one for me to keep in mind now! It is about the halfway point of this 10 month adventure, which is sad, but also exciting, because if I have enjoyed it this much so far, I can only imagine how much better it will get the next 2 rounds!

I'll leave ya'll with a picture of my landscaping team chillin in a hole we dug to plant a tree in today :)

Frosted Christmas Trees

"Yes", is the answer to "do they have real Christmas trees in the south?" Not only do they have real Christmas trees, but they also have the option of getting them spray painted white, so it looks like snow...which I like to call "frosted." It looks kinda good, but mostly terrible, but maybe that is just because I am from Maine, where we have real snow on our pine trees outside, and why would we want snow on our trees inside?! Silly southerners :-p Anywho, this past week I started and ended at the green house working with Jamie's crew again at the house where I did the bamboo flooring which is done now!

But this time I worked on doing "punch out work" like touch up paint on the walls, baseboards, and doors. I enjoyed it and it makes the days fly by for some reason, which is way better than being at a site where there isn't much to do, watching the clock tick by really slowly. The middle of the week I worked with my team at a site doing railings and we finished making them from scratch! It was pretty cool working in small groups getting the railings done and seeing just how much you can accomplish in one day. 

The first railing we all worked on, and the second just me, Mollie and Joe did on our own :) We decided to test out the sturdiness of it in this picture! Don't worry, it is very safe...no one fell off :) 

Thursday nights here are our "team nights" so this week we went out to dinner at Applebees, paid for the government, which was awesome and then we went to the park down the road where they were having a little Christmas festival and Santa was there, but we didn't want to wait in the ginormous line, so we took turns sitting on Drew's lap, because he was wearing a Santa hat that night AND has a beard...so it was pretty legit haha. 

In this picture I am also wearing my amazing purple winter hat that Mollie made for me :) She had to make it child's size for my tiny pin-head, because the regular adult size was way too big haha. 

There was also a day this week where the team split into two groups and my group went to a duplex that future AmeriCorps teams will be staying in since Camp Victor is closing soon, and set up bunk beds all day. Now this doesn't sound too difficult, but it was rough getting started...and we realized after we set them up that they have a 150lb weight limit! I don't know how many AmeriCorpers will actually be able to sleep on them! They ended up being child-sized haha Oh well, hopefully it will all work out alright...

Neva tested out the bunk beds for us...and if you look closely at the bottom bunk, you can see the imprint from her head and butt....they didn't go away after a little while either...they stayed like that all day...safe? We shall see!

My favorite part of the week was probably PT on Friday, because the team all walked/jogged/ran across the Biloxi bridge into Ocean Springs, where we live and it was a 1.7 mile bridge, and total of ~4 mile walk back to Camp Victor, but it was so worth it because we went during the sunset and even though we were walking the wrong direction (it was setting behind us) I still turned around every minute or two and got some amazing pictures! Enjoy!

This was definitely my favorite sunset here yet...and I am so glad I could capture some of it on my camera, but trust me...it was way better in person! 

A Southern Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving for me was spent eagerly awaiting Nate's arrival in Biloxi, MS. He arrived around 4pm at the Beau Rivage Hotel/Casino, where I took a super sketchy cab ride that was only a few miles, but ended up being $20 to meet him there.

I was so nervous and excited to finally see Nate after 4 months...it was like I was used to just hearing his voice on the phone and seeing him occasionally on skype, but seeing him in person and being able to give him a hug was amazing! Thursday evening, we went over to Joe's house (one of my site supervisors) with a couple other people who didn't have any real Thanksgiving meal plans and he cooked an amazing turkey, mashed potatoes, and green beans for us! He even had some sweet tea and a few delicious desserts too :) I've gotta say, just Nate being with me was all I needed for Thanksgiving, but having a real home-cooked meal, including an actual turkey made it that much better and more like a true holiday :) On Friday, we started off our day eating breakfast at Waffle House, a southern version of IHOP that is on ever corner. Nate got the traditional southern biscuit with sausage gravy, he's so good about trying all the true southern things down here that I, myself am too grossed out to try haha. After breakfast we did a little shopping in the $10 boutique in the Beau Rivage, where Nate bought me a new watch/bracelet because I keep breaking mine! We then had a couple's massage, which was the greatest thing ever...Nate totally spoiled me! We finished the day with dinner next door at the Hard Rock Cafe

and started watching Eat, Pray, Love in the hotel room until I accidentally hit the wrong button on the remote and we lost the $15 movie 45 minutes in :( Ooops! So we switched to watching Everybody Loves Raymond instead. Saturday was quite an adventure! We made up for our laziness the day before by spontaneously getting a rental car and going across the bridge to Ocean Springs so I could show Nate around Camp Victor, where I live down here and we also went to the beach I run to almost everyday and put our feet in the warm water :)

We then went to lunch at Hooters, because Nate had never been to one before, and I have gone several times, so it was only fair that he finally got to experience it haha. Next we drove 45 minutes to Pascagoula where I showed him 3 of the houses that I have been working on, doing flooring, touch-ups, and starting a new build. It was really exciting for me to actually get to show sometime from home what I have been doing, not just telling them about it, so I loved it! Nate commented on how great it was hearing me be so excited about what I do down here, it makes him feel better that I am enjoying what I'm doing down here, even though I am far away from home. We also went over to the beach there, where we walked down the super-long pier and looked for dolphins, but didn't see any.

We then headed 2 hours to New Orleans to walk through Bourbon Street, so Nate could just see how crazy it is, even at 7pm then we headed to the safer part in the French Quarter for a nice southern dinner, where Nate got the waiter-recommended "bayou bowl" with cajun shrimp---yuck!

But he really liked it, so that's all that matters! Then we hit up the famous Cafe du Monde and waited in line for at least a half hour so Nate could try one of their famous beignets. Needless to say, it was a very eventful day/weekend and I enjoyed every minute of it! It was so awesome for me to finally have some of my home life and AmeriLife collide :) Nate left at 9am on Sunday, which was really hard...but at least we have the comfort of knowing that I will be home for winter break in just a few weeks! We don't have to wait 4 months again!

Southern Charm

So I have gotten a few new nick names while being here in Mississippi that I will share with y'all.
The first was of course, Julia Roberts, which I have heard from multiple AmeriCorps members, as well as one of our site supervisors, Ken, a couple weeks ago.

I have also heard this from a lot of people back home and at school...it's all in the smile :)

The second, was from a man who works here at Camp Victor, and it was this morning at breakfast...he said "you know you look like Cindy Crawford, don't you?" And this one surprised me...because I have never heard that before. Then he told said, "there's some yogurt over there for breakfast, Cindy." I was like umm okay...then a bunch of my teammates came in and he told them, "french toast for breakfast!" Does that mean that guys can have french toast for breakfast, but since he thinks I look like a super model, I can only have yogurt?! Crazy. 

I don't see any similarities, except for maybe the eyebrows and the nose a little bit...but i'll take it as a compliment anyways! Next time I would like to be offered french toast, though :-p 

The last new nickname I have been given here was from Mark, another site supervisor, who just decided the other day to call me "skinny" every time he saw me, and make fun of me and tell me I need to eat more...which was shocking to me and my team, because they know how much I eat! But again, I guess I'll take it as a compliment?! 

As far as work goes, I worked at a site drilling hole in posts for hand railings on Monday and Tuesday, which was kinda slow and not much for all of us to do, but it was beautiful weather in the high 70s both days, so it felt great to be out in the sunshine! Today we only worked a half day, and I was back doing finishing touches on the house that is going to be shown at an open house sometime next week. I was basically scraping all the paint off of door knobs and hinges...exciting stuff!
Oh yeah, WLOX Channel ABC 13 came to our site yesterday! I was filmed for a second, so I might be on the news when it plays on Sunday, which would be super cool :)
Anddddd NATE IS COMING TOMORROWWWW! yayyyy! I am so excited! The only problem is that I don't really have any plans from now until he gets here tomorrow evening...and most of my team is leaving for their Thanksgiving destinations tonight, so I have a feeling that time is going to go by really slowly and I'm going to get super antsy for him to arrive! Anyways, I hope y'all have a fantastic Thanksgiving, and I miss everyone sooo much! Eat some extra dessert for me ;)

Weekly Update

This past week was spent doing more touch-up work, like we have been doing the past couple weeks. I don't mind this kind of work, but it gets kind of old when there isn't that much to do and so many of us to do it...so the team has been kinda bummed lately that we haven't gotten to work much on framework like we originally thought we would. We have been working with the funniest souther older gentlemen ever though! His name is Ken, but I like to call him Kenjamin for fun, and he has the greatest accent/voice ever and he always jokes around and teases us, especially us girls, because we are afraid of creepy critters and those are his favorite things! So although the work hasn't been too exciting lately, at least the company/supervision is fun! All week we were doing touch up work in a house that is being shown at an open house this coming week...the only problem is that it has so many problems there is no way it will be ready in time! All of the work on the house was contracted out, so professionals did it, and it is horrific...like it is seriously the worst work I have seen yet, and it sounds like Ken thinks the same thing...so my team and I have been busy working to undo and all of their work and then redo it the right way, which is a lot of responsibility, but cool that we are giving a chance to fix what professionals did wrong and we are just learning how to do the stuff! We have also been doing a lot of caulking, which is what this picture is of us girls looking fierce with the caulking guns!

We also survived working one of our days with a different site supervisor, Don, who is known as the most intense and hard to please supervisor with Habitat. We were all a little bit nervous to be working with him, in fear that we wouldn't do things right, but when we got there he was super nice and excited to be working with us, and said that we could take our time because the house will be done soon and it's a month and a half too early! Neva and I painted first and second coats on all of the baseboards all day long...

It ended up being an awesome day, much better than we had thought it would be, which was awesome!

So this past weekend, Drew, Mollie, Neva and I rented a car and traveled the hour and a half to New Orleans, where children basically come out of the womb wearing Saints jerseys, to visit with our friends on other AmeriCorps teams there. It was really fun to stay in a hotel and hang out with all of them! I can't believe it has been a whole month since I saw them last! It was also cool to see the area where we used to be last round again..and the weather was amazing! It was probably 80 degrees out and I was sweating while wearing shorts!! Crazy! 

This is a picture from the French Quarter area, where we ate lunch, hung out by the river, and walked around the shops all day. We also got to see the lovely Christmas decorations that are up, which actually look pretty funny and out of place, because it is so unnatural to see a Christmas tree in 80 degree weather where there are also palm trees everywhere and no snow in sight! 

New Build/Dolphin Sighting!

After spending most of the week doing touchups, painting and caulking, washing windows, basically making the house look pretty and ready to be moved into, we finally got to start a new build on Saturday! This picture is of a hallway that we went through and put blue tape on every little scratch or mark that needed to be touched up...it looks like the hall had chicken pox! But no need to fear, we fixed it all up and rid of the blue tape :)

The new build was at a different site (obviously) than we had worked on before, and with a new site supervisor and crew than we had worked with before too. It was really fun and a true learning experience, because the lead site supervisor, Mark made sure to take his time and explain everything to us before we did it. He said that he doesn't have a new project to work on after this house, so he is taking it slow, making sure that it is perfect, and that we all understand what we are doing. This is what the site looked like when we first got there:

The giant stilts are what the house has to be build on, and we didn't help put those in, but we did set up a bunch of scaffolding, which I had never done before, and then we looked at the blue prints, got a lesson on reading a measuring tape correctly (which I really struggle with sometimes, I prefer to say something like, "it's 4 inches and 2 little lines!" haha) some practice hammering in nails correctly, and I even got up on the scaffolding to help some of my team measure out and mark where the trussells go. Overall it was a pretty chill day, and beautiful 78 degree weather made it nice to be working outside again! We even went to a beach near the house in Pascagoula for lunch and walked down the huge pier and saw dolphins swimming around! It was amazing! 

The Return of Briterella

Today was the return of Briterella, the nickname I have gotten over the years for cleaning the house. We were finishing up the finish work so fast that all there was left to do today was clean the windows, cupboards, vacuum, sweep, wash the siding, and I even cleaned and vacuumed out our team van because there was nothing else to do! It was a really slow day, because we didn't really have any hard work to do, but it was also kinda relaxing and fun at the same time, because the whole team was feeling pretty useless and bored, so we were all kinda goofy and giggly, which is always fun! We also went to Taco Bell for lunch, which was an awesome switchup from the usual dry sandwiches I have to eat! After work Mollie, Drew and I walked to the beach and watched the sunset...it was so beautiful! I brought my camera this time and finally took some pictures...they are pretty good, but really don't even do it justice!

I am loving the area we are living in more and more each day we spend here. It has been extra nice lately because it is finally starting to feel like fall, and is still decently warm, although I am a complete wimp and am always chilly still! We were supposed to go to trivia tonight, but they were all full by the time we got there :( So I spent that time calling some friends/family to catch up, which was awesome :)

Caulking

Sunday night our previous site supervisor, Jamie, had a bonfire at his house for us as a goodbye since we are now working with a different crew. It was really fun to hang out with them outside of the worksite, they are hilarious guys!

Monday was a super lazy day spent sleeping in, relaxing, watching The Office and Friends on TV, and then going to the movies to see Due Date, (which was funny, but not as good as I thought it would be) and then out to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. Overall it was a quality day. I also received two more packages! My mom sent me some toiletry necessities, and an adorable little hedgehog stuffed animal that is right next to George, my build-a-bear wolf that Nate made for me last Christmas :) They have become best friends already! The other package I got was an awesome pair of Prada sunglasses from my AmeriBestFriend, John Rienzo, because long story short, he was wearing my sunglasses one night and lost them...haha Of course they were just cheapo ones from TJ Maxx, but he gave me an upgrade, so it's all good :) Thanks Mama and John!
Today we were at a different site than normal, working on caulking all the trim and doing touch-up paint. We got a 2 hour lunch and got to leave early, so it was a great day in my book! It was fun to work with the whole team again too :) After work we ran to the beach for PT and saw a beautiful sunset! I will hopefully get to take pictures of the sunset sometime soon, but I don't dare to run to the beach with my camera based on my track-record of breaking 2 already this year!

Museum Opening

This past week Neva and I stayed working on flooring with the same crew we have been working with..and it was awesome as usual :) We went out to lunch with them most of the days and really got to know them well. They are such a fun group of guys to work with, I'm sad that next week we start working with a different crew :( But I'm sure it'll be fine and it will be nice to work with the rest of my team again. This weekend River 4 (another AmeriCorps team from our campus) came to visit and stay with us at Camp Victor. It was really fun to see them and hang out with them! We went to dinner at Mellow Mushroom, an amazing pizza place where Mollie and I shared a cheese and avocado pizza that was delicioussss!

I also got some exciting mail this weekend! I finally got the articles about Shaq from Nana and Pepe :) Yay big bro is now on the Celtics! And I also got some great letters from a previous volunteer and one from Heather!! Then I got a giant box from the Cheesecake Factory with a whole, 12 piece chocolate peanut butter cheesecake in it from Nate for our 1 year anniversary (Nov. 8)!!! It was so delicious! My team helped me eat it, cause of course I could finish it myself, but it's much more fun to share! And they all keep telling me how amazing my boyfriend is...which is nothing but the truth! Thank you Nate!! 

Today River 4 volunteered with our team at the grand opening of an Art Museum in Biloxi. 

It was really cool! We split up into different groups/tables and did different arts and crafts with the kids that were there :) The kids were all super adorable and it was so fun! My table did coloring/painting.

This was one of my examples that I did, so good, huh? Haha, it's funny 'cause every time we do something fun like this all I can think is how much better Aleena would be at it than me! She should totally do AmeriCorps after college too ;) 

There were other stations where kids got mustaches painted on their faces, and made crowns...those were awesome stations that Mollie and I definitely participated in! It was a great ice breaker for the kiddos at our table :)

Random Update

First of all, remember how I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs (from the Katrina anniversary weekend at Camp Victor) that the Roloff family from the TV show, Little People Big World had stayed here? Well I found the place on the wall where they signed their names!

It's a tradition here for every group that stays to write their names and be creative by decorating the wall in whatever way they want. I am excited that my group will be able to do that, but it's kinda sad/pointless because Camp Victor (as of right now, but hopefully it will change) is going to be closing in a few months :(

Next, remember how I was working on the Vanderhoff house with the St. Bernard Project? Well I was looking at some of their pictures last night, and noticed that the house is just about finished! Here is a picture of the family, the kitchen/living room, and one of me sanding the living room.

Lastly, and most recently, the living room and kitchen floors at the new Habitat for Humanity house we have been working on are complete! Here is a picture of the bamboo floor with our team's Gangstasaurus mascot enjoying it :) 

St. Bernard Project made the top 10 list!

http://politics.usnews.com/news/slideshows/10-americans-making-a-difference/5

I'm so proud to have been a part of this!

Haunted Trail

Saturday night my team went to help out at a haunted trail at the Flint Water Park in Wiggins, MS...yes, it is a rinky-dink town and beautiful area in the daytime, but super creepy at night! 

We all dressed up as scary creatures (I was a witch/zombie-ish thing) 

and split up in different sections of the haunted trail. I was with Mollie, Neva and Drew in the first section, where everyone entered. Our task was to hide in this cage and when the people walked by, I would shake a milk jug with rocks in it to freak them out and get their attention, then Mollie and I would jump to the crowd and glare at them...then they would scream and jump backwards, where Neva strategically would come out of the woods from that direction and cackle at them, then they would run away, where we had drew in a tent, being super creepy...it was a good system, and we were told by a few people that we had the scariest part of the trail :) 

I have to admit, I was totally freaked out to do this, and didn't know how I felt about scaring little kids, because I, myself would be totally scared and wouldn't want someone to scare me like that! But then again, if they didn't want to be scared, why would they go to a haunted trail?! So I scared them, and it was actually really fun, except I did feel bad when a few little kids started crying :( So we worked the haunted trail from 6pm-11pm with no bathroom breaks, no dinner, and freezing in the 50 degree late night weather! Granted, I was still having fun, but I didn't know if I would make it the whole time, and then.....dun dun dun....I wanted to make a video of the people screaming to prove that I actually COULD scare some people (not just myself) and my camera fell about 1 foot into a pile of leaves and broke :( I was so annoyed with myself! But I bought a new one last night...with a 2 year warranty. After the haunted trail, we spent the night in a lodge there, because we didn't want to drive that late at night and it was an hour away from Ocean Springs, where we live at Camp Victor now. 

Oh, that reminds me...for this project round, I can get packages at this address:

                                    Brittany Bourgeois c/o Austin Sabatttini

                                    1636 Popps Ferry Road Suite M-13

                                    Biloxi, MS 39532

As far as work goes, this past week was amazing. Neva and I floored with Michael and Joe, who are so hilarious, it is just a blast working with them every day. Not to mention that they love taking breaks and we got to go out to lunch with them a couple times :) That is extra exciting when we are used to eating sandwiches everyday, which eventually lose their taste because we eat them alllll the timeeee.