Site Supervisor

So we had a tour of the St. Bernard Project offices and warehouse the other day, which was pretty neat. We also got to meet a bunch of staff members who work there and they all seem really cool! While we were waiting for our team leaders to determine which jobs we would all get for the next month and a half, us core members went to the warehouse to get a tour and then got put to work putting away all of the new supplies they just got earlier that day. Now, as most of you know, I have many fears. I am basically afraid of everything, especially down here where everything is creepy AND poisonous! Anyways, since I have so many fears, it is my team's goal to help me get over some of them. I decided while in the warehouse that day that I would try to conquer my fear of heights, so I volunteered to climb up onto the top shelf to help put some big boxes up, which I actually did without being afraid! The only problem was that there was a metal piece sticking out of one of the boxes that scraped up my ankle (picture below), but it didn't hurt and it wasn't old and rusty so I was fine, but it freaked out some of my group members so they helped clean me up and stick a band aid on what I like to call my sweet battle wound (it looks more like a cat scratch now). So after that, we found out our jobs, and I am going to be a site supervisor with my teammate Joe. I am pretty excited, because now I will get to work with lots of new volunteers, meet lots of cool people, and learn some handy new trades like painting, mudding, flooring, etc. I am going to become the female version of Bob The Builder (can we fix it? yes we can!) haha. We went to a work site the next day and got to get our hands dirty with some mudding practice. It was actually pretty fun! The person teaching us was named Stephen, but he was a goofy guy and liked to be called Pickles on the worksite haha so it was a fun day. He said that I was a natural at it and made fun of me a little bit because I was so gentile and took my time to do it right, when most people just do it quickly and kinda sloppy. I took it as a compliment, but tried to not be so "girly" with it after that! We listened to music the whole time, which was fun, and there were so many of us there that every once in awhile we would break into a dance party and sing along to the songs--it was a good time! At one point, one of the site supervisors even busted out a rap of his own about drywalling...it was hilarious! The biggest problem of the day was that there was no bathroom facility in the house we were working on...so we had to walk a couple blocks to the local Dollar General store, which was across a very busy main road with train tracks too, and we had to keep asking the manager of the store to unlock the bathrooms for us each time we went in there...we must have been pretty annoying! The highlight of my day was probably when we were just coming back from our lunch break and bathroom break at Dollar General and one of the site supervisors bought a box of ice cream treats for all of us! MMMMM I love ice cream!  
Last night a bunch of us went to Bourbon Street in New Orleans to see what it was like, and it was quite the site...it was like the Old Port plus Old Hallowell Day, times 5! There were so many bars and clubs down one street with people on balconies throwing beads down to people...and lots of Daquiri shops-they even have drive thru daquiri places here, which doesn't make any sense to me! It was neat to see the culture of Bourbon Street last night, but I am all set with that scene and opted to stay in for a girls night tonight instead of going out with the guys again!
We also heard from the owner of the house we are staying in (George) that if he didn't give out free seafood to everyone in the neighborhood, the would most likely kick him and us out, because I guess some past AmeriCorps groups that have stayed here haven't been very respectful of his property and were really noisy, so we have decided to change the neighbors minds! We are baking cookies all day tomorrow and putting them in cute little bags with tissue paper and delivering them so we can introduce ourselves and get off on the right foot! I am excited to continue meeting new people down here and getting an in with the community we will be working with/in for the next month and a half! And there are lots of young families here with the cutest little kids ever, so maybe we will get some babysitting opportunities?!
OH! I also just got Skype today, which is a way to video chat online, my user name for that is MindyLopez, because BrittanyB was already taken...Mindy Lopez was one of my fake "detective identities" from middle school when Heather and I used to pretend to be detectives and "solve mysteries" haha. I got to chat with Nate earlier, which was really great! It was so cool to finally see him and chat with him "face to face" or more like "screen to screen" haha. I gave him a virtual tour of the house I am living in and he got to "meet" all of my teammates :) I am looking forward to eventually Skype with Heather and anyone else who has an account!