Mississippi Gulf Coast

Thursday we headed out to Camp Victor in the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We went to work on a house with Habitat for Humanity in Pascagoula. It rained for most of the morning yesterday and the whole afternoon today, so we didn't get as much done as planned, but we pushed through and still got some quality work in!  Most of my team stood on scaffolding and put up siding on the house that was about 20 feet in the air, on huge cement stilts, so that if another Katrina-like hurricane comes through it won't get destroyed, but the water will just go underneath it. Its pretty cool how their houses are on stilts, but also really crazy and sad that they have to do that! Since I am a big chicken, I opted to destroy one of the inside bedrooms with a sledge-hammer! Haha, I had to crawl into a closet that was on top of a dresser with the doors still on it, so it was super claustrophobic, and I had to try to bust the ceiling out...it was very hot in there and difficult to hold my weak little arms up so long with a sledge-hammer! But I got about half of it done, was a sweaty mess, and then let my teammate Eric take over and finish it off. After taking the ceilings out, we moved on to sweeping out the room and pulling up the carpet and carpet pad...that was tough too...but I felt so hardcore it was awesome! Then today I worked with Dianca to take out old screws and put new ones in on the staircase in the back of the house. That sounds easy, but it was not...the screw-guns wouldn't work so we had to actually do it by hand (screwdriver and hammer) which was difficult, but we did it! And it was better than the other option of climbing all over the scaffolding like the rest of my adventurous team!
Our on-site Habitat for Humanity supervisor was really cool, a young guy (in his late 20s I would guess) who loves photography and he gave us all his card to check out his website and I fell in love with his pictures...so here is the website if you wanna check them out! www.jkmortonphoto.com

Tonight we are all going out for my team leader's 24th birthday, woo! It's exciting to finally get dressed up and go out to dinner with the team and hang out without having to hammer something while wearing our ridiculously awesome battle dress uniforms :-p 

Another group of AmeriCorpers got to be on the Anderson Cooper 360 show the other night, which we all watched and got really excited, but also really jealous to see our fellow friends and AmeriCorpers on TV! But thats okay, cause tomorrow the groups who didn't get to do that are going to a governor's lunch for volunteer appreciation on the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. 

Driving around here reminds me soo much of Miami, Florida, it's so crazy. There are so many casinos and the beach and other cool things, it's so hard to believe that this area used to look totally different before the hurricane hit (the casinos used to be on the water, and are obviously not anymore). 

Also, the Camp Victor we are staying at is just like a giant summer camp building, with lots of rooms full of bunk beds and shower rooms, cafeteria, and a common room with about 20 couches, a pool table, ping pong table, and 7 computers (one of which I am currently using). All of the walls are decorated with previous AmeriCorps, church groups, and other volunteer group's artwork who have stayed here in the past. I guess the Roloff family from the TV show Little People, Big World have stayed here before too...there is a picture of them on the bulletin board by the door here, which is neat. 

Anyways, sorry this blog is all over the place, it's tough trying to catch up when I haven't blogged for a couple days! 

Busy, Busy

The past couple of days have been really busy, finishing up training and learning more about our individual specialty roles on our teams. My roles are being a Capper (like a recruiter) and the Peer Helper. It has also been difficult to find any free time lately to do necessary things like update my blog and sleep--haha. My head has been pounding all day today, which may or may not have something to do with my laryngitis/swollen lymphnode/ear infection...and it also didn't help that we had to get up super early today for PT.
Thursday we are heading to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to do 3 days of disaster relief/rebuilding there and then coming back to be officially inducted on the 31st before heading to Chalmette, Louisiana for 2 months starting Sept. 1! So needless to say, it has been pretty crazy/hectic around here lately! I am excited for training to be over with and to actually start on some projects, but at the same time I am feeling nervous and a little sad, because I have made so many great friends with people from other teams that I won't get to see until October now! But i'm sure we will be so busy in our new places in the southern region with our projects that time will fly by and pretty soon it will be time to head back to campus for transition again! It's strange and neat to me that I am in such a new place, experiencing something completely new, but at the same time have friends that I feel like I have known forever and am completely comfortable with and will miss so much not being able to see them everyday. It's all really bittersweet.

Laryngitis

So I guess it wasn't just my allergies that have been bothering me lately, I have been getting chills, hot flashes, achy, coughing, and a sore throat since Wednesday night, so I was finally convinced to go to the ER today because the doctors offices are closed on Sundays, because we are in the Bible Belt and everyone is at church of course. Generally I really dislike hospitals and would never go to the ER because of a sore throat and no voice, but since it was really my only option, I had to do it. I was scared because I haven't been sick in a very long time and I have never been to any doctor or hospital place without my mom there to do all the talking/paperwork! I felt so grown up walking in there and doing it all by myself (okay, so my friends John and John helped too haha). All of the secretaries, and nurses that I met with were wicked nice to me. I guess it is true that Southern people are more laid back and not in such a rush like Northerners are! After explaining my symptoms and what medicines I had been taking (children's chewable grape flavored Zyrtec and Children's liquid grape flavored pain medicine-haha, seriously) I went into another room, got my ears and lymphnodes checked...my left side was swollen and my left ear needs drops, but my breathing/chest was fine. Then a another person came in to give me shots since I can't swallow pills...and they had to be in my butt! Ahhh, okay, so I was horrified, but I survived, because he said the only other option would be to give me the shots in my neck-no way! After all of that excitement, I came back to campus, showed off my cool hospital bracelet (that I am still rocking now), told people about my diagnosis and shot experience (everyone here knew I was sick and were concerned about me, so they were glad I finally figured it out--they're so nice :) and then I went to Taco Bell with some friends and enjoyed a cheese quesadilla and some delicious sweet tea :) The only freaky thing about Taco Bell was the huge moth that flew out of the kitchen area and all around us as we were trying to eat....grossss! 
Tonight for dinner all 140 of us got invited to a local church for dinner, because they want to welcome us to Vicksburg and get to know us, which is really nice of them, but I am sure they didn't know what they were getting themselves into, because it is an optional dinner, but of course none of us were about to pass up a free southern meal! But then again, maybe they did expect all of us to come...they are the Hospitality State, afterall. 

Red Cross Training and Birthday Festivities!

Wednesday ( I know, I am really behind on my blogging!) was a day filled with training by the Red Cross for disaster services. It was painful to sit through...seriously...it was nothing new and all common sense, but we made it through! After, we hung out in my friend's room until 11pm, because that would be midnight in Maine, so officially my birthday haha (we cheated, but we had to--we were sooo tired!) and played our favorite game--banana grams again! We also took an intermission of that and people tried to fit into another one of our friend's suitcases....I was the lucky winner who fit--crazy, I know...and then they zipped it up and wheeled me around the room, which was fun for awhile, but then I got kinda light headed because I was head-down and all the blood was rushing to my head!
Thursday (MY BIRTHDAY!) was better....we had CPR and First Aid training with some pretty entertaining trainers. I am now certified to give CPR, but would rather not have anyone make me use it! Then my team made me my favorite dinner meal of grilled cheese, tomato soup and root beer floats! It was awesome! After dinner we had a team meeting where we all shared the "life maps" we made, basically sharing stories from our lives that shaped who we are today and how we ended up at AmeriCorps. It was really cool to get to hear more about everyone and their stories/pasts and understand where they were coming from better. I really enjoy exercises like that. Next I went to the computer lab to update you all on my blog, but I only got part way through before my friends kidnapped me in a big white van and took me to our favorite spot on a hill by the Mississippi river! It was so awesome! It was all of my closest friends here, some from my old temporary team, team leader, and some new friends (I like to call them team wannabe's haha) and they brought out a cake and all went around saying really nice things about me--it was an amazing night :) I told them that back home I am the one who usually plans all of the birthday surprises, so it is a rare occasion when I am surprised myself, and I really really appreciated everything they did for me! But that wasn't the only surprise! When we got back to campus, we went up to my friend's room and it was all decorated with the previous training's first aid supplies (wraps and medical gloves blown up like balloons with "happy birthday" written on them) and we played pin the tail on the donkey! Haha it was an amazing birthday, I've got to say--I definitely didn't expect it to be that good, I had no idea that I would have so many great friends so soon, who would put so much effort into making my birthday so special! Thank you all! I also got cards from Danielle, Aleena, Mikki, Mama, and Auntie Beth, so thank you all!! I love getting mail and I promise I will write you all back soon! Spare time is tough to come by around here!
Friday was filled with a bunch of trainings broken up into 1 or 2 hour segments, which was much easier to handle and we stayed awake pretty well! The only problem on Friday was that my allergies decided to attack me! Not cool! I am still all stuffed up and congested, with hardly any voice :(
And today, Saturday, I slept til about 10am, went to the pool for a good 4 hours (it was a lot cooler today, instead of sweating in the pool, I actually got goosebumps a few times!) It was amazing to actually feel cool outside here! My team is going out to the Cracker Barrel for dinner tonight, which is exciting, but kinda sad, because that is a family favorite and it makes me really miss everyone back home! I love you all!

YMCA Camp

Monday and Tuesday of this week were spent at the Warner-Tulley YMCA Camp in Mississippi. It was kinda of like a mini SPIKE (project away from campus) where we got some hands on experience and a little taste of what we will be doing in the near future rather than just straight up classroom trainings. We rotated stations during those two days and got some quality bonding time with our new teams. My group started out at the high ropes course, which I did not do (because I am a major chicken and there was no time...shucks! haha) but I encouraged everyone, cheered them on, and took lots of pictures! Then we moved on to the low ropes course, which was a lot of fun team building activities that I really enjoyed--they were much closer to the ground! After that we had a much needed lunch break (I have been sooo hungry here lately!) and then we moved onto one of the toughest stations--trail blazing. We literally bush-whacked and created a trail out of the trees and wilderness. It was hot, humid, and torturous, but we survived! I will put a picture of some of my teammates working on the trail on my blog for you to see. I used a fire rake as my tool to chop up roots and such...I felt really tough and manly, except that it was so hot and we had to wear long sleeved shirts, pants, our steel-toed boots, and goggles, so I was way overheated and couldn't take more that 3 swings at a time without needing a water break! Our last station of the day was learning how to use construction tools like hammers, saws, power tools, etc. That was kind of neat, except that my job was to pull down a wall with a crow-bar, and I had no idea where to begin...and then it started pouring rain, which actually felt really good because we were all so sweaty from trail blazing! BUT then the thunder and lightening had to start up and totally freaked me out, naturally I didn't want to be holding power tools out in the lightening! We got to quit that project early and go into the cafeteria where we proceeded to have dinner in the dark, because we lost power! After dinner my team got nominated for clean-up crew (lucky us!) so we had to clean 100 trays, 10 big pots and pans, and a bunch of other kitchen items IN THE DARK! That was quite the experience, let me tell you! At least we still had water and a bunch of flashlights! After dinner we were all incredibly sweaty from being in the hot kitchen for hours (with no AC) so we went to the cabins to shower. We had to shower in the dark too...that was exciting, and right after we got dressed guess what happened....the power finally came back on! It was only 4 hours after it went out, and 2 minutes too late for us to use it to shower...great timing! Haha. Then we journeyed over to a campfire with everyone else who was patiently waiting for us after cleaning the kitchen. After that we were all wicked tired, so tired that I became what my friends here like to call "intoxicated by nighttime" which is when I get so tired that I get really silly and even more giggly than normal (hard to believe, I know!) and I was rambling on, not making any sense, and trying to convince everyone to stay in the cafeteria all night so we could just wake up and be right there for "Christmas," which of course I meant to say "breakfast" haha I don't know why I get so ridiculous when I'm tired, but at least my friends here find it amusing! So we played some cards (which I won!) and then decided to head to bed in our tents. Keep in mind that It had been raining for most of the day...so I was less than thrilled to have to sleep outside in the wet, scary wilderness where there are many types of poisonous critters! We had a million tents set up, 2 people to a tent, and when I went to try to fall asleep I wasn't very successful, because there was a street light that kept going off and on over us, a bunch of people chatting, some people snoring, it was 95 degrees so I couldn't actually sleep IN my sleeping bag, and to top it all off, I got a dud tent that was smaller than all the others, so my head and toes both touched the sides of the tent all night! UGH! Needless to say, I didn't sleep much that night! I woke up at one point and there was a big black bug crawling on me, so I freaked out and flicked it off my arm, then couldn't fall back asleep 'cause I had no idea where it was and I was afraid I would get bitten by it or worse, eat it in my sleep! Ahhh! Anyways, the next morning came too soon and I was exhausted, but had to push through for another day of work. Day 2 started out with roofing, which was really scary, but also kinda fun once I got used to sitting up high and realizing that if I fell off the roof, there was not much I could do about it! Then we moved to painting, which was fun, but wicked hot because we had to wear our awesome coverall suits over our uniforms to keep them clean. Since we were outside working so hard in the hot hot heat, we had to drink lots of water, but the only water they provided for us was cloudy and we all called it "sulfur water" because that's what it tasted like--gross. After painting we did some more team building activities, including a game where you have to act like a dinosaur to the person next to you and if you show your teeth, laugh, or smile, you are out--needless to say, I was out first every time! Lastly we had to clean the bathrooms, which in the daylight we could see that they were wicked muddy and disgusting...so we were actually glad that we weren't able to see how gross they were when we showered in the dark! Then we headed back to campus, which we were all surprised that after only a couple weeks here, campus seemed like "home" to us and we were all relived to be back. OH I forgot to mention the HUGE black and yellow spiders all over the place at the YMCA. I guess they were Banana Spiders, and not poisonous, but they may as well have been by the way I freaked out every time I saw one!

Salvation Army Training

So yesterday was a full day of Salvation Army training, from 8am-5pm. It was actually alright, there were lots of little videos to go along with the lectures, and our trainer was awesome. He kept giving us chocolates and keeping things interesting so we wouldn't all fall asleep. OH I forgot to mention that before the training even started, we got up at 6am to play ultimate frisbee for PT. It was pretty fun, but so hot and sweaty still, even that early in the morning! After training, we had a unit meeting to introduce ourselves, say the new team we were on, and a fun fact about ourselves. My fun fact was that my favorite song is Barbie Girl by Aqua :) woot woot! I got a few chuckles from that one. I also got a letter today from Auntie Beth! It was the first thing I have gotten in the mail! I was so excited, and it made me laugh really hard-so thank you, Auntie Beth!!
After dinner last night we decided to go to the movies. I was really excited because I go to the movies all the time at home, and haven't been since I left Maine! 10 of us went to see The Expendables, the ultimate guy movie, which for some reason I was picturing a completely different movie in my head, a comedy...but this was just a bloody, violent movie! Ahhh oh well, it was still fun to go with everyone and get off campus for a bit.
This morning we had to get up for the last part of Salvation Army Training at 8am...it was rough, we were all soooo tired and the seats we were in are the most uncomfortable ones ever! But we survived, and then I went back to bed until about 12:30! When I finally woke up again, a bunch of us hung out at the pool, which was greaaaaat, cause we haven't actually had much time to be outside and get some sun since we have spent the majority of our time in trainings. I only lasted at the pool for a couple hours before having to go inside for some AC and lunch. It is so hot here, I was even sweating IN the POOL! Crazzzzy!
Also, I am going to go take pictures of the campus sometime soon (when its not toooo hot out) and upload them to my blog so y'all can have a better picture of where I am...the campus here is really impressive actually :)

Catching Up!

So I am finally getting back to my blog...I wrote one the other night, but it suddenly quit and I lost everything I typed so I gave up and decided to continue another time, which is now! Diversity training went really well the other day, we did some fun activities and it was much more interesting than some of the other lectures we have had the past week. We did one activity where we went to the gym, lined up, and when a statement was read, if it was true, you took either a step forward or a step back, based on your answer....it ended up being more positive things that let you step forward, and negative things that had you step back, so by the end of it you could look around and see how we have all come from very different places in our pasts. It was an intense activity, because it wasn't a "feel good" thing at all....no matter where you were you felt bad. If you were way up front you felt guilty for being so fortunate and if you were way in the back you felt bad about yourself because everyone else was way ahead. I ended up being in the front-middle area, taking a couple steps forward, than one back, etc. A lot of this activity had to do with one's upbringing and economic class. After the activity, we split into two groups, one meeting downstairs and the other (my group) meeting upstairs in a classroom to sit in a giant circle and express how we were feeling about the activity. I was surprised by how many people opened up and told their stories about their tough pasts. There were a lot of tears shed in my group, which of course made me teary too. Even after hearing some really sad stories, it was nice to hear other people point out the fact that it doesn't actually matter whether individuals were in the upper, middle, or lower class and what their background was, because we were all in the same room, in the same uniforms, doing the same training for AmeriCorps. So the day ended with a strong sense of growing closer as an AmeriCorps family with high hopes for the future.
So Wednesday was our last day with our temporary teams and it went well, but got crazy around dinner time because everyone was nervous about who their new teammates were going to be! So for the "team reveal, we were each told an animal, and we had to (without talking) act out our animal and find the others in our group. I was a pig hahaha so I eventually found my new team and there were three other guys from my temporary team on it with me! I was so excited, because I had become good friends with my first team, and now I still had them in my group! We then went off on a scavenger hunt to find our new team leaders, and we eventually found ours, Alleigh, who is also from Maine! Woo! She is really awesome and funny and loves to joke around and laugh, so I am really excited and the rest of my teammates are awesome too!
Today we have been getting to know our new team members and getting information on different jobs we will have during our projects. I don't know which one I will get yet, but I am really interested in being the Team Helper, kinda like the guidance counselor of the team. I'll let you know what I end up getting assigned, though! Oh yeah! Today we also found out what our first project will be! My group is joining with another group (who is awesome and has a couple other people from my original team too, so its like a big reunion!) and working for the St. Bernard Project in Chalmette, Louisiana! We are going to be living in a town house and we wil be rebuilding houses and supervising other volunteers. I am really excited, but also kinda nervous to be supervising other people! AH! I don't know what the other groups are doing yet, but I'm sure they are doing some awesome stuff too! And we will only be there for 6 weeks since it is our first project...then we have 3 more! But we won't find out what those are for awhile.

PT Survival

I survived the physical fitness test! WOO! I did 27 (modified) pushups, 42 crunches, and finished the mile and a half run in 14:06. It wasn't that bad, except all day I felt like I was going to throw up my banana I ate right before I ran! While we were running, one of the members had a seizure and collapsed on the ground, shaking, with his face bleeding...it was really scary, we had to call 911 and everything...so I think we all might have had faster times if that didn't happen, because we kinda stopped and stood there, not knowing whether we should keep running or not. He is at the hospital, in stable condition now...thank goodness, poor guy :( After PT, we came back, showered, then had to sit through lectures again allllll day...which is fine, except it was all IN THE SAME ROOM! So it just got really boring and my stomach was growling the whole time because I have much more of an appetite when I actually work out! Haha
So I keep putting off doing laundry, I am gonna have to MAKE myself do it tomorrow or else I won't have anything to wear the rest of the week! Also, I am currently hanging out in the computer lab until this crazy thunder storm passes! I can't believe I had enough courage to walk (okay, I actually ran!) all the way here, thinking I was gonna get struck--I'm not gonna risk it on the way back, that's for sure! Tomorrow we are doing "diversity training" allll day, which is supposed to be really intimate and intense, so that should be interesting.

First Weekend in the Deep South

My first weekend in Mississippi was a success, yesterday we went out again with a good sized crew of AmeriCorpers. We were literally the only people in the first bar we went to, called The Pour House, so the owner was psyched and gave out some free t-shirts because our group of about 30 people drank all the beer they had there (they don't have their liquor license yet, so they can only sell beer I guess). One of my friends bought a bunch of us a round of miller lights, which I actually drank all of! Of course it took me 2 hours, but I did it! After we drank all of the beer there, we moved over to the Upper End again, in hopes of seeing the same drunken 50 year old woman so the other people we were with could experience her for themselves, but she wasn't there (probably because she broke her leg the night before from so much drunken dancing!) There was an empty dance floor there again last night, even though there were lots of people around the bar--I guess people here just don't like to dance? Four of us hardcore americorps members went out and danced for a couple hours though, it was really fun! But kinda awkward 'cause all the other people there were just watching us dance...oh well! We finally left the bar at 3am (they are open as late as people stay here!) and came back to hang out in the pool house, where I rapped Akon for everyone, we sang along to Barbie Girl, and ate hot dog buns and drank lots of water. We finally went to bed around 5am, which is why I slept until about noon today! When we were all up and around, we went downtown, to The Biscuit Company restaurant for a buffet lunch fully supplied with fried catfish (which I did not eat one bite of--gross!) After lunch we played banana grams, a really fun game that's kinda like scrabble (so we should definitely invest in it, mama!) Then my friend helped me figure out how to get internet on my laptop so I could finally upload some pictures! It looks super-ghetto cause I have to sit where there is no computer, but plug the blue chord from the wall into my laptop...oh well, at least it works! Then we had another team dinner and stretched afterwards to get ready for our crazy PT test tomorrow morning! AH we have to get up at 5am to run 1.5 miles, and do as many sit ups and push ups as we can in 1 minute....I mean, thats easy for me, I will do approx 1 pushup if I am lucky....blahhh Okay, it's time to drink some water and go to bed now...hopefully I survive the PT test tomorrow so I can update my blog for Y'ALL :-p

ps-check out the pics I uploaded at the bottom of my blog :)

"Driver's Ed"

So yesterday we all watched a 4 hour video and took notes in a booklet about learning to drive the big 12 or 15 passenger vans here. Yes, I had to do it all too, even though I am not yet a licensed driver...blahhh, but on a positive note, I got a 100 on the quiz after! So if I DID have my license, I would have been able to drive :) After the video and written test, we went out in out teams and the people who are licensed drove around and passed or failed the driving test (luckily my group members are great drivers and all passed and did not crash the the vehicle!) We all had to take turns giving hand signals to back up the drivers into a parking spot, which I did well enough, but I was so nervous!
After the driving adventure, we had some team time and played "hot seat" where each person has to answer everyone's random questions for 5 minutes, then it's the next person's turn. It was really fun and interesting to learn some random fun facts about my team. For dinner my team made the best chicken tacos everrrrrrrrr! We had homemade guacamole and everything! After dinner, we went to the pool house expecting to see lots of people, but we were the only ones down there so we decided to play a game of scategories :) I love that game, but I haven't played for awhile, so I was a little rusty! After the game, we were hanging out chatting, and I got my brand new chapstick out, put it on, and realized that it had came out in chunks all over my lips...I laughed so hard showing everyone what had happened and one of my teammates said "well, that's the Mississippi melt for ya!" I think this could have been something where you just had to be there to fully grasp just how funny it all was...I was dying laughing and kept saying it throughout the night, finding each time even more funny than the one before! While we were chatting in the pool house, deciding what to do for the rest of our Friday night, a bunch of other AmeriCorps members came in at different times, all frazzled, talking about how they were at Sonic and a man with a gun came in and held them up for all their money and they all had to get on the ground so they would be safe and not get shot! AHHHH I love Sonic, but I don't know if I will ever be able to go there at night after hearing about that experience! I was sooo glad that I wasn't there! Somehow hearing about all that excitement made us decide to go out to a bar downtown...I was somewhat skeptical after what I had just heard about, but we went anyway and we found a cool place called the Upper End and they had pool tables, a dance floor, and a second floor deck you could sit at and enjoy the humid, buggy, 90 degree night haha. We sat outside for ahwile until we were sweating and getting eaten alive by "skeeters" then we moved inside to a table near the dancefloor, where we watched a drunken 50 year old woman in a cowboy hat wander over and to the jazz square dance by herself for the rest of the night on the dance floor...it was funny, but sad at the same time. Oh, she also had a broken arm, which my group and I concluded must have been from a previous drunken dancing experience! When we decided we had seen enough of this lady for one night, we got up and came back to campus to go to sleep around 12:30. I slept in until about 10am, which was amazinggggggg, had breakfast, took a shower, and now I am here at the computer lab because I don't know what else to do with my free time! We have some new members joining our team later today, so we will have another team dinner, then they are showing The Goonies, projected on the pool house later tonight, so we can sit in floaties in the water and watch the movie--I might join in, although I am freaked out about the possibility of snakes being in the pool...or we might all go out again tonight, but I will be sure and update to let you all know what I end up doing :)

Spiders and Snakes and Lightening, OH MY!

Today was the scariest day yet...we had meetings all day that went more into detail about the creepy critters around here that we will most likely encounter throughout our stay. I discovered that black widow spiders are not actually that large, which is more scary, because they are less noticeable that way, and there is another kind of brown spider that is smaller than a nickel, but if it bites you, on the thumb, for example, it will eat away at your skin--and I know this because we saw a disgusting picture of it! I learned that wasps are attracted to vibrations, so if you swat your hands around, they will fly around you more and there are like 20 different kinds of wasps, bees, and other bugs with stingers around here. There are also these little tiny bugs called Chiggers that crawl under your skin, usually starting near your ankles and working their way up your leg...the best way to stop them in their tracks (or under your skin) is to put nail polish over the bumps you find...so strange! As far as snakes go, they have 4 types of poisonous ones, little rattle snakes, big rattle snakes, water snakes, diamondback, copperheads, etc. AHH so basically all training is doing is freaking me out and making me want to be back in Maine's safe climate! After all of that scariness, we went to another talk with some local Vicksburg police officers who told us how dangerous it is to walk around several streets near us, that we need to be in groups at all times, and even if we are in groups, they will most likely know that we are not from around here and jump us anyway....greatttt.OH we also learned that Mississippi's lowest temperatures in the summer are at night, and that's when it gets all the way down to the 80s-crazy! And during the past few days we have been here, they have been experiencing a heat wave, so we have been having 113 degree days with 80% humidity! It's so differnt from Maine! During our "History of Vicksburg" talk, I learned that Coca Cola was first bottled here, there are 13,000 unidentified soldiers buried at the Military Cemetary, the biggest one in the nation, Vicksburg is known as the "Art Park of the World", and he just HAD to also mention that they have snakes here that "can swallow you whole!" Awesome. It seems like I will most definitely be seeing one of these deadly creatures in the next 10 months and I just hope that it ends better than the scenarios in my head! As if hearing all of this wasn't bad enough, there was also a huge thunder storm going on...one lightening bolt struck reallllly close to the building we were in, the lights flickered, and the thunder boomed sooo loudly that I immediately jumped out of my seat and flew to the floor like I always do when I'm scared, because for some reason I feel that that is safest...which apparently was very strange to the other 50 people in the room who were staring at me and laughing....it's official, everyone here thinks I am a freak! A couple people who felt bad for me were looking at me sympathetically, reminding me to just breathe...which apparently I wasn't doing because I was still extremely scared and I could feel my face getting redder and my head getting lighter from lack of oxygen to my brain. I'm telling ya, these people must really think I am nuts by now! Anyways, the day ended well with a team dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread with my awesome teammates, so that was good :) and tomorrow everyone else who is normal and has their license is taking the van driving test, so I will hopefully have a less traumatic and stressful day than the past two!

Oh, we also did some skits to teach each other about the policies for AmeriCorps, and my group was doing swimming rules, so I had to act out "swimming with innapropriate swimwear on" in front of everyone....it was not embarassing at all going out and saying "ohhh I loveeee skinny dipping!" in front of my peers haha but it was pretty funny!

First Day in Uniform

For our first day in uniforms it wasn't so bad, except for the fact that they don't offer women's shorts/pants, so the crotch of my shorts was legit 8 inches beyond where it should have been and my belt literally went around me twice haha! But at breakfast they had people come in and cut our belts for us :) That was nice. So after breakfast we went to the gym for our medical check in, where I had to pee in a cup and got stuck with two shots without warning and they are lucky I didnt pass out because I have become super squeemish (spell check?) in my old age! After surviving the shots (my arm STILL hurts!) we had our photos taken (either for IDs or a yearbook) and the photographer told me that our team was the most photogenic haha :) The rest of the day we played those annoying get-to-know-you and waste-time games (some of them were fun, but partner tag was just confusing!) and then we spent the remaining 4 hours of the day in lectures! blahhh it was so hot in there, the chairs were so hard and hurt my butt and my eyes were so heavy, I really thought I was going to just fall asleep! I must say that the last lecture definitely woke me up though, because it was all about creepy creatures like black widow spiders, rattle snakes, water snakes, etc. that live around here and tornados coming through and stuff like that....AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I was totally freaked out, not gonna lie. All I could think was that it wasn't really me that belonged here, but Jonny haha
After eating dinner with my team, we all went for a tour of downtown Vicksburg where we got to see the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers. We went to a place where there was a perfect view of the Mississippi river, a cool cannon on the top of a hill, and a gorgeous pink sunset to top it off! I took lots of pictures, but those will have to wait 'til my laptop decides to work...haha.
OH! I totally forgot to write about how outgoing and talkative I was the first day I arrived here after my crazy morning in airports all over the US...when I finally got onto my last flight, I saw that most of the passengers were around my age and alone, so I figured I would ask if they were with AmeriCorps too...it turns out they were! So it was really neat to meet them and chat with them during the flight, and get to know some people since I had been nervous about not knowing anywhile when I got here. After the flight landed, we had to wait for our shuttle vans to arrive, and I was so overtired that I was the most outgoing and talkative I have ever been in my life! I was chatting with everyone...I felt kinda like a camp counselor or something, like I was responsible for making others feel welcome in a state that I myself have never even been to! It was a side of myself that I have not even seen...which lead to me acting like a complete freak and telling my shuttle-mates all of my crazy childhood stories in about 10 minutes flat! I told the story of how I ran myself over in 6th grade and don't have my license, how Heather and I used to dress as twins and people actually believed us, that I convinced my 3rd grade class, bus driver, and basketball coach that my name was Brittany O'Neal and Shaq was my brother...and even the story of how a kid at the Mall of America thought I was Kimmy Gibbler from the show Full House--which lead to some of those people now giving me the nickname "Gibbler", much to my dismay! SO, overall I am still really enjoying my time here and am getting to know some awesome people, but after that last lecture today I am reallllllly scared to walk anywhere alone because I don't want to encounter any creepy critters or natural disasters--especially alone!

Training Day

Today was training day, where we passed in lots of paperwork and had to walk all over the campus which is very beautiful and fully equipped with a pool, game room with pool table and foosball, a flat screen tv with about 7 leather couches to lounge on, a lot of playing fields, a gym with bball courts and workout equipment (that I will hopefully never have to use!) and lots of pretty buildings for training and living in. My group was supposed to go to medical check in and pee in a cup for a drug test, get shots, etc. but they were so behind we get to do it tomorrow instead--YAY! haha, I am so excited-NOT! It was one of my temporary team members birthday today, so a few of my teammembers and I went to the grocery store to buy a cookie-cake and ice cream for him and I was in love with how many dessert choices they have down here! So of course that was one of the highlights of my day :) I also went to Wal*Mart with a bunch of people and when we got there, we realized that almost everyone from AmeriCorps was there too--it's one of the only places around here! So that was fun...then I came back and tried to use my laptop, but of course it wouldnt connect to the wireless, so I am here in the computer lab...and sadly won't be able to upload my awesome pics that I have taken today (of my steel-toed boots and uniform, which quite frankly look ridiculous on me!) but maybe someday it will work?! Well I am out of time because the computer lab closes at 11pm, so all in all today was a much less stressful day than yesterday, but just as steamy hot and sweaty!

PS- If anyone wants to send me a letter, this is my address here:

Brittany Bourgeois- Class 17
AmeriCorps NCCC
2715 Confederate Ave
Vicksburg, MS 39180

Arrival Adventure: Part 1

So the day started out with waking up at 2:45am to head to Portland and catch my 5:45am flight to Washington DC. My mom, Nate, and Jonny dropped me off, and you could say I was in rough shape...I was crying all the way through security, especially when I would look back and see my loved ones heading back home while I was on my way to Mississippi. What am I doing?! I thought, but then I remembered that this is something that I chose to do and it is my chance to really make a difference. Anyway, that was the normal/mild part of the trip as it turned out! From there, I was sitting in the terminal, reading US Weekly about The Bachelorette finally (which I hope I get to watch tonight somehow!) and my  flight was called, so I got up to board the plane, feeling pretty good--not expecting what happened next. RIGHT before I stepped onto the plane, my left, black Old Navy flip flop did the worst thing of all--it broke! there was no escaping this obstacle, so I leaned over and took it off--now walking half-barefoot onto the plane and as I did this, my ticket flew out of my hand and outside where I will never see it again. So, in a panic, I blush and tell the flight attendant standing there what had just happened and needless to say, she was not impressed, she didnt respond at all, just watched me as I finally took the hint that she didnt care and walked to my seat, being stared at by everyone thinking why is that girl only wearing one flip flop!? After that eventful start to the trip, I thought it can only get better from here, but boyyyy was I wrong! The flight itself went well, and when we arrived all I could think about was finding a store to get some new footwear ASAP. So as I am walking around the Washington airport half barefoot, asking kiosks if they know where I can find some new flip flops, I get all teary thinking gosh, all these people think I am certified NUTS! Eventually I found a store that had one footwear option: thick, pink, bedazzled $15 flip flops that said Washington down the side in rhinestones....ohhh gosh....i have to get these eventhough they are totally tacky and do not match my purple shorts!  So I buy the flip flops, explaining my sad story to the nice cashier who took the tags off for me so I could immediately fix the half-barefoot problem on my hands (or feet, I guess!) when all of a sudden she asks the lady behind me if she is ready to cash out and the rude woman replies: "yes, I am just waiting for HER to MOVE!" All I could do was turn and cry some more, thinking, why can't anyone just be nice to me today?! THEN it gets worse...I get to my check-in desk and the woman replies, "I'm sorry, there are no seats available..." AHHHHHHHHH What do I do NOW?! Of course I called my mom, bawling my eyes out, really starting to wish that I could just go back home to Maine and my comfort zone--and drawing even more attention to myself with tears on top of my ridiculous new flip flops! After about 20 minutes of my mom reassuring me that it it would all be okay between my phone freaking out and keep cutting out/hanging up, I eventually stopped crying and called Nate to laugh about my series of unfortunate events with someone....I mean, it was a funny situation...but when you are alone you would look even crazier to start laughing, so I had to call someone to laugh at/with me about it all...that worked great until the phones kept cutting out, again....So the flight took off--without me and I went to the desk to figure out my plan B, and it turns out I was not alone in my misfortune, but there were 6 of us that got bumped off the flight (I was first on the list, and didnt even get on-AH!) So two of the men who I later found out worked for Microsoft and were going to a huge business meeting (so they didnt mind being late) became my best friends-seriously, they totally took me under their wings after I told them the obscure predicament I had gotten myself into and that I was from Maine and heading to Mississippi for AmeriCorps. We basically exchanged life stories over the time it took the lady at the desk to be nice enough, but absolutely NO help whatsoever to us for 2 hours (she said she got us flights on another airline, but it turns out she just took our tickets from us-by accident, but still-and left us out to dry with no tickets and no hope of leaving the airport anytime soon. Luckily the guys I was with knew their airport stuff and they got us some money back and let my mooch off of their airport knowledge and eventually venture into an airline clubhouse (which none of us were members of) to find the most amazing woman ever to help us get tickets onto an 11:30am flight to Dallas! Seriously, these people I had only met minutes/hours before were quickly becoming my life-savers! After a stressful half hour or waiting to see if we would actually get onto this flight or be bumped again, we all finally got on! And the best part was that I randomly got put in first class! yes! I am currently typing this using the internet on the plane, which is just awesome! Oh, and I am finally eating (delicious warm mixed nuts) and drinking water for the first time in this longggggg day I have had! So, even though my adventure/arrival is far from over, I can honestly say that everything happens for a reason...sometimes you just have to wait a bit to realize what that reason is. :)