Habitat For Humanity

So we are back at good ol' Camp Victor in Ocean Springs, MS! It's pretty cool here, like a huge summer camp. They turn the lights out at 10pm every night, so I have been getting better sleep than usual too! We were surprised/excited to find out that the house we are working on this week is the same house that we worked on while we were here for the Katrina anniversary weekend! At that time we were just working on siding:

And now the house is almost done! 

Most of my team laid sod for the whole day yesterday, while Drew, Neva and I worked on cleaning the inside of the house and prepping it for flooring. Today Neva, Dianca and I stayed in the nice air conditioned house and laid the bamboo flooring, while the rest of the team went to another site and shoveled rocks to make a pathway...looks like I lucked out! The rest of the team was kinda bitter, because they have been outside in the hot October sun, sweating in the high 80 degree weather, while I was literally freezing wearing my sweatshirt in the 63 degree house! 

It has been interesting transitioning from being a site supervisor with the St. Bernard Project, to being a volunteer again with Habitat for Humanity. Flooring is one of my favorite parts of construction, because it is like a giant puzzle and I find it really fun and awesome to see the progression of it move along through the house, so the 3 guys we were working with today (Supervisors working with Habitat), were laying this kind of flooring for the first time, so I ended up actually giving them a lot of lessons and pointers, which was great, except I felt kinda awkward telling my supervisor how to do something! It was neat to see how much I have learned and how I can now look at something I have never done before and still apply what I have previously learned and fix a potential problem! One of the guys, Michael was really impressed and kept joking with the other guys about how I knew more than them! Haha, yeah right. Michael is a 23 year old tall, lanky guy from Biloxi (so he's a local) with a strong souther accent, but he also uses a Jamaican or Australian accent sometimes, which is fun. He is really relaxed and reminds me a lot of Squirt, the little hippy turtle from Finding Nemo! Haha, anyways, the guys we work with are really fun, so it makes the day go by fast :) 

AmeriHalloween

First of all, here is a picture of my new Nike sneakers:

This has been a really long week, not in a bad way, it has just felt like we have all been here for way longer than a week! Time goes by a lot slower when you aren't doing physical building work, I guess!
Yesterday was the National "Make A Difference Day," so we went to the Jackson Zoo and volunteered for the morning. My team worked with some local volunteers to clear all the vines off of the fence around the zoo...it was crazy how many there were and how entwined they were in the actual fence!

This is the overwhelming first sight we had of the fence we had to clear! 

And here is a picture of how well we did with the 3 hours we had!

I was so proud of our group for doing such a great job clearing the poison ivy-infested fence! (We were literally pulling poison ivy off of the fence with our hands, but we had gloves on and washed with Technu afterwards and so far I have no signs of it, thank goodness!) It was a fun day to go help out the community, but it was pretty hot out and we were all exhausted afterwards! We had the whole afternoon after lunch to roam around the zoo for free! It was pretty fun to look at all the animals, so here are some pictures of my favorites :)

We also had an AmeriCorps Halloween party the other night, where I changed costumes numerous times...I started out as a "gangsta" 

Then went on to a Cupcake costume that I purchased at Wal*Mart (last time I will ever do that!) so it didn't actually look anything like it did on the package! Ahh it was so bad, I no one knew what I was and asked if I had made it myself, that's how bad it looked! 

So one of my friends said he would switch Halloween costumes with me for awhile....which was hilarious! Not only did he look ridiculous in the cupcake costume, but I also was freaked out by how much I really resembled a man in his cowboy costume...I looked a lot like Kid Rock or Brett Michaels haha

Anyways, it was a fun night, but I really prefer to just be myself and wear my own normal clothes I think! 

This morning a few friends and I went to Brunch at Waffle House, a southern favorite. Three of the six people there had not been before, so it was quite a treat. I got chocolate milk, a chocolate chip waffle, and scrambled eggs...yummmy :) It was pretty delicious and definitely filled me up! After that, we came back to clean and pack up our red backpacks for our next round projects that we are leaving for tomorrow morning! My team is headed to Biloxi, Mississippi, which is about a 3-4 hour drive. I love roadtrips in the team van, because we usually listen to my ipod and I get to sing along to the songs for everyone...some people enjoy it more than others (the people sleeping probably don't enjoy it haha). 

Pink and Purple NIkes!

This week of "Transition" has been really slow-paced...we have had a lot of classes and meetings, which is fine, except that after doing physical building work for the past month and a half, this is kinda hard to get used to again. On the up-side, I have had a lot of time to chill and hang out with all my friends from other teams, which has been amazing!
Earlier this week we were all invited to H.C. Porter's huge, classy apartment in downtown Vicksburg. From the outside it doesn't look like anything special, just a typical gallery, but the three floors above it were absolutely stunning!

This is just half of the second (main floor) of her awesome home! She had a lot of delicious desserts AND live music/local musicians playing for us! 

Here are a few pictures of my friends and I at this awesome event:

Another fun event we did one morning, was create a team mascot, which my team chose to be the "Gangsta-Saurus" inspired by my awesome t-shirt! And then we went on a photo-scavenger hunt to a bunch of places in Vicksburg as a team-bonding event and sightseeing around the area. It was really fun! Below is just one of our many great pictures, from our "favorite spot" on top of a hill, overlooking the Mississippi River :)

So the title of this blog is inspired by my two new pair of Nike sneakers that I got today! (Picture coming soon) The blue Nikes that I came here with (featured in the picture above) had seen better days, were stinky and muddy, so I went to the mall today and purchased a pair of PURPLE NIkes and a pair of white and pink Nikes to replace them! Needless to say, I love the color purple AND Nike sneakers, so it made me really happy and I am currently wearing them and have already gotten lots of compliments on them! 

Running in the Dark!

So this morning was our second baseline test for PT, and I am proud to report that I improved my stats in each event! My running time was 12:06 (I knocked off exactly 2 minutes!), I did 52 crunches, and 30-something pushups (I can't remember how many exactly). So that was awesome, the only thing that was not awesome about this morning was the fact that we had to do everything in the DARK! The sun didn't even start to come up until we had all completed the whole 1.5 mile run! It was alright doing the pushups and crunches in the dark, but running in the dark with over 100 other people was pure madness...it's a good thing I had white sneakers on, otherwise I wouldn't even know where my feet were! I heard that a few people who were wearing all black while running kept getting run into because no one could see them!
After PT, my team had our debriefing from our first project, which went really well. Then we spent about 3 hours cleaning our van to perfection, because there is a new guy working here now and he is being super-strict about the cleanliness of the vans, and if he doesn't think it is good enough, he will keep sending you out to work on it again and again! Luckily my team had heard this from previous teams, so we gave our van a good, deep clean and got passed on the first check!
For dinner tonight we had a "Fish Fry" provided by some community members in our gym, which was pretty fun. Most people had fried catfish, but I stuck with the chicken fingers and desserts of course :) They also provided us with the most amazing sweet tea ever, so I am pretty jittery from so much sugar right now! Besides the sugar high, I am exhausted from getting up and working out so early this morning, and my legs hurt pretty bad and will be really sore tomorrow I am guessing...so I'm planning on going to bed fairly early again tonight (last night I went to bed at 11, which is the earliest I have gone to bed in awhile!)

BALLIN' 8-)

I am back on the NCCC campus in Vicksburg, and having a great time catching up with all my AmeriFriends who I haven't seen in a month and a half. We actually had the whole weeked FREE for once and it was amazing! Saturday I slept in until 11am, went to the pool for a few hours (yes, I chilled by the pool in mid October!) which was crazy, because it was 80 degrees here and only 50 in Maine! After the pool I went to play some bball with the guys for the first time in a long, long time...I was really nervous, not having shot the ball in months, but I actually played pretty well! I had 5 three-pointers and a hook shot, and my team won 2 games out of 3 :) The guys were all really impressed with my shooting ability, which cracked me up as usual, 'cause they knew that I played in college, but they were all still doubting my athletic ability until they saw me in action, I guess haha. I tend to play a lot better with the guys, because first of all it is just for fun, and the pace is much faster so it keeps the game moving and gives me a good workout, and they really know how to move the ball around and get it to me when I'm open. Anyways, the best part was after we were done playing and my friend Joe said "Brittany, I gotta admit, you are actually really good for a girl!" He had said before we started, "you better actually be good, cause you talk about basketball all the time, but I have yet to see you actually play!" And coming from him, that was a huge compliment, because he would straight-up tell me if I sucked! After bball, about 20 of us went out to dinner at El Ranchero, a delicious mexican restaurant, kinda like Margarita's restaurant, except everyone who worked there was legit hispanic/mexican and struggled speaking english. It was really fun though and nice to get off-campus and go out to eat, which we rarely get a chance to do in AmeriCorps.
This morning I slept in til 11ish again, then went to the Mississippi State Fair in Jackson. It was a good time, it was really nice out and we just walked around, looking at everything, went to the petting zoo, and even watched some of the state championship cheerleading/dance competition. After that I just came back and changed into my sweats and relaxed, hopefully going to bed early because we have out PT baseline tomorrow morning at 6! Woo! I'll let you know if I improve from my first baseline...hopefully I do!

Last Week in Louisiana

On Sunday I volunteered at a breast cancer awareness walk, welcoming people and then cheering them on as they finished their 5k run/walk, which was pretty neat, we also got free t-shirts for that :) And some sweet stick-on tattoos! (As you can see below--my arm is twig-like compared to a normal arm haha)

There were a ton of people at this event and it was a beautiful day, so it was really nice to get out there and support a good cause. 

After volunteering there, we had a big bbq/picnic at the local park with a couple other AmeriCorps teams in the area and some SBP people, which was awesomeeee! We had lots of food, and I ate 2 hot dogs! Ewwww, I am so ashamed that I actually liked them! So much for being a vegetarian! Haha

I also got to Skype with the fam (mama, aleena, jonny, auntie beth, dew, landon) and nate on Sunday, which was soooo awesome! I loved seeing everyone! It was so sad though, because I really miss everyone and wish that I got to see them in person...can't wait til Christmasssssssss! I love you all :) 

This week started out fairly slow at the worksite, because we had no volunteers show up on Monday. This week had a theme of "Women's Rebuild" and we were supposed to get a group of "Tattoo Ladies" but one of them got sick that day, so they all bailed :( 

So Eric and I started mudding the house by ourselves, because this house was in the roughest shape I have seen! Whoever mudded it previously obviously had no idea what they were doing....it was all wrong, there was even one closet where someone put the drywall in backwards! Tuesday we got some volunteers, so that was exciting, I especially enjoyed the company of the gay couple from Toronto haha, they were in Louisiana for vacation and just decided to take a day to volunteer with us! We also had another couple from Connecticut, who were down here for a wedding and had an extra day before their flight, so they decided to use it by volunteering with us at the St. Bernard Project. It was really neat to meet some new people who hadn't planned on volunteering, but just kinda stumbled upon it and decided to use their free time like that. Tuesday night was also our last "Taco Tuesday" which is really sad! The people who put it on for us are wicked sweet and we will all miss them (and their amazing food) a ton! Wednesday was the most fun day of the week, because we had 2 great volunteers and 3 AmeriCorps States who were with us for the day. One of the AmeriStates, Katie, had just gotten done NCCC from the Denver campus (the one I originally wanted to go to) and she shared lots of AmeriCorps knowledge with us and was just a really fun person to work with. She was really easy to relate to, because she knew exactly what we were going through and made our day really easy and fun for us :) She is also from Minnesota, 10 mins from the Mall of America, which is flippin sweeeet (I have been there 3 times!). The other AmeriState, Nick is from Maryland and said that his mom makes the best cookies ever and if we give him our address of where our next project is, he will send us some when she sends some to him...sweeeeeet! After work we had 3 different meetings, but they were pretty cool because one of them involved cake and ice cream for us as a going-away party-type thing, where we got certificates and free t-shirts! Wooo! 

After that, we played football with the other AmeriCorps team that is down here and some SBP staff members, which was really fun! I have been playing a lot of football lately! Mom, dad and Nate, you should be proud haha I caught the ball twice (out of 2) and almostttt got a touchdown! Also on Wednesday, Eric and I walked to the Los Islenos Museum like we had been doing all week, to use the port-a-potties (for the record, they were the most clean and good-smelling bathrooms I had ever used!) and on our walk over, the man in charge of the museum came right up to us as if he was expecting us, and shook our hands and thanked us for what we are doing in their area. He then invited us into his office where he gave us the history of the area and info about the museum (Charlie would have enjoyed it!) and then gave us a tour of the cute little museum, emphasis on the little--it was legit one room worth of displays. But it was really nice, just the same. 

This picture was taken outside of the museum/fountain, and I was attempting to be graceful...

And that brings us to Thursday, today, our last day site supervising for SBP, which was really bittersweet (go figure)! We had 4 volunteers and 2 of them brought us out for lunch at Penny's Cafe today, which was really nice! I got grilled cheese and the largest order of onion rings ever, which I shared with everyone else. Since it was our last day of work, we decided to have a "mud fight," which I gladly started by throwing my mud on Joe, who then gave me a big hug, rubbing the mud all over me, then he threw his mud on Eric, etc...after that we decided to put mud under our eyes, like football players , but it didn't stop there! They then put a "mud mustache" on me, and we took pics, but I look angry in all of them because I was not able to move my mouth to smile with all the mud around it! 

*I forgot to mention that I have been getting up at 6am every day to run with the boys to get ready for our next baseline PT where we have to run 1.5 miles, hoping to beat my previous time! 

Spike 1 coming to an end

I apologize for my lack of blogging this past week...we worked another 6 day week and I am actually volunteering at 7am tomorrow morning too, so I am really working 13/14 days! I am utterly exhausted as our first spike is coming to an end. It's really bittersweet, just like everything else related to my life and AmeriCorps lately, it seems to be the theme lately! I am loving being a site supervisor and working with the St. Bernard Project, but it is so time consuming and such hard work that there is no real down time to relax at all, which is really starting to wear me down. Monday-Friday this week we had the most amazing volunteers ever. They were a church group from Pennsylvania, 5 women and 2 men in their 40's and 50's who are the hardest working volunteers I have ever met! They were up for any challenge and really wanted to get the house done while they were here. They were also really fun and liked to joke around with us, which was a perfect balance between work and fun every day. They even brought Joe, Eric and I each a bag full of delicious treats because they quickly realized how much we like to snack...or how much I like to snack and didn't wanna leave the boys out haha. On our last day with them, we brought them to get Sno Balls because they had never had them like our previous group of volunteers, and they loved them too!

I am telling you, the sno ball industry has AmeriCorps (or maybe just yours truly) to thank for keeping them in business ;) 

As a team activity one night this week, we decorated cupcakes based on something we learned or how we were feeling this past week. My cupcake was a picture of me (with blonde hair because the sun is making it so light!) with the texturing hopper, and getting big muscles, because mannnn that thing is a workout! 

It was a fun activity, and delicious! I also got to eat 3, because my teammates who didn't want to eat their donated them to me :) (Have you noticed a theme of everyone realizing how much I love food down here?!) 

I had a capping (corps ambassador program) event, kind of like recruiting at Chalmette High School the other day, which was an experience. 

I had forgotten how difficult it is for high schoolers to actually show that they are interested in their future or "nerdy" things like AmeriCorps, even if they walk by 15 times, staring at the flyers, they are too embarassed/afraid to come up and talk to us or take one! It was still a fun event and I got to make a sweet AmeriSlide Show, which was awesome, because y'all know how much I love pictures :) We talked to a few kids who were really interested, and gave flyers to some others who probably weren't, or were just too young to think about life after high school just yet, but overall it was a good day. 

So last night we worked the Daniel Tosh comedy show, which was really fun and hilarious, the only downside was that it didn't even start until 10:30pm! We got back home around 2am, went to bed and had to get up at 6:45 for today's full day of work....oh man, I was so exhausted today there was a portion of time where my words were all jumbled together and I didn't even make any sense! Our volunteers were a group of 8 youth group members from a Lutheran church in Alabama, so they were mostly 15 years old and it was really fun to have some youngsters on the worksite for once. I am glad that they had lots of energy, because I sure didn't! They even knew how to do flooring, which was awesome because I don't think I would have made any sense if I had to teach them how to do it! We also got to see the Vanderhoff family (they are the owners of the house we are working on) all day, because they were painting some of the rooms, so it was really neat to spend more time with them and work alongside them, especially because today was our last day site supervising at their house :( Next week I will be doing sanding and mudding with Eric at a new site, and Joe will be doing texturing at a different house as well (I was originally supposed to be where Joe is, but he was kind enough to switch with me so I wouldn't have to be along/kill my arms with that machine!) 

Also, here is a picture of me and Drew, sporting our newly purchased St. Bernard Project t-shirts--I wanted the purple one, but they didn't have my size :(

Texturing

Yesterday I got to sleep in, but was only able to sleep until 9:30am :( It's sad when I am used to getting up at 6:45 so 9:30 is considered late! I remember not too long ago when I would sleep until noon with no problems! Anywho, after waking up, we got ready to work a double at the theatre for the last 2 shows of Cirque Dreams. I really enjoyed working during the day for once, the people were really friendly, maybe because they were mostly families? Who knows, but whatever the reason, I liked it :) People were coming up to me and starting conversations with me, instead of the other way around! I even got a few compliments on my hair before I was able to compliment them! One man came up to me and beat me to saying "how y'all doin tonight?" and when I replied, he responded with "where ya from? I know ya ain't from 'round here!" Shucks, I thought I could fool everyone, but he beat me to saying "y'all"! We got to watch the afternoon show, which was really cool, I enjoyed watching all the crazy acrobatics and light show tricks (I have always fallen for those types of tricks, I am so amused by them and have no idea how they do them!) My favorite part of the show though, was when they pulled random people out of the audience and made them do a little skit--so funny! After the first show got out (around 5pm) we went to Subway for dinner (YUMMY!) and then we got to hang out by the awesome water fountains for awhile and just chill. Below are some pictures of the park by the theatre, the beautiful chandelier inside, and me with my awesome ticket scanner!

So we got done working around 8pm and came back to relax for the rest of the evening, we were all exhausted from our busy weekend full of work!

Today we got 7 new volunteers who are awesome...they are so hilarious and make us laugh a lot, which I can really appreciate! I fell kinda bad though, because they came ready to be put to work and we are at a point in the house where we don't really have that much for them to do...so I think they might have to get moved to another site or else we really have to stretch our imaginations to keep them busy! 

I learned how to texture today! It's pretty fun, except that the air compressor is really loud and the hopper is really heavy! I only textured the walls of the laundry room, but my arms are wicked sore already! Below is a picture of me with the texturing hopper :)

After work we had a meeting back at the office with everyone, then we came back to the house to do some hardcore PT where we basically did a baseline practice (ran 1.5 miles, did 1 min of pushups/crunches) to get ready for the 2/3 we have to do back on campus during transition time. I did alright, but it is so cold down here now (mid 70s--crazy, I know) that my muscles never warmed up! I actually had goosebumps all over my body when I got finished, instead of sweating! Oh man, I thought I could handle winter down south, but now I am not too sure! 

Okay, time for dinner--Alleigh made us homemade buffalo chicken pizza (which reminds me a lot of my Gordon crew! miss y'all!) 

Working All Weekend

We worked a full day today, starting with site supervising at a different house than normal with Eric, and then Joe joined us later, because he didn't end up getting any volunteers. We got there around 7:30am and the volunteers arrived around 9:30am, a crew of 4 girls and 2 guys from Tulane University's Alpha Phi Omega. It was fun to finally work with people our age, or at least I consider them my age, and actually told them that it's strange that I just graduated, because I feel like they are all older than me, to which one of the guys said "did you just graduate from high school?" Hahahaha I was like "umm, no, college...do I really look THAT young?!" It was funny, mostly because everyone down south seems to think I am about 16 years old (which is how old I feel!) while everyone back home always thinks I am older than I really am...so strange. Anyways, we did lots of mudding in the house and it was such a change from working with senior citizens that we just about ran out of work for them to do! After work, we volunteered at another Cirque Dreams show at the theatre, which was fun as always. I got to scan tickets again, this time with my friend Mitch, who is hilarious, so the time went by really quickly! We are working a double of the show tomorrow, so I will stay and finally watch the whole show :)
I skyped with Heather tonight! Woooo! Got to see her, benny boy, and their awesome new apartment! Heather informed me that she just changed her license plates to Nova Scotia plates...bye bye Maine plates :( which is really bittersweet to me! She also informed me that she just got a nannying job for a 4 year old girl, yayyy for finding a job and finally making money! Gah, all my friends are growing up and moving all over the place, its crazy! I can't wait til Christmas time when I will hopefully get to see all of my friends and family back home!
We found out that our next SPIKE project is going to be working with Habitat For Humanity in Biloxi, Mississippi, starting October 25-December 20 something. We are pretty excited, because we will be staying at Camp Victor, where we have already stayed once while we worked with Habitat on the Gulf Coast earlier this year. I am also excited because Nate is going to come visit me during Thanksgiving break! Yayyy! My team is really excited to meet him and I told them that he likes to cook, so they are hoping that he can be our Thanksgiving meal chef :) haha
Another random observation I have made lately is that children here play outside ALL THE TIME! It's not like back home where kids are practically forced to go outside and play every once in awhile, but they actually want to play outside...our street is filled with happy, laughing children every time we get back from work, and it's actually quite refreshing. Also, I don't think anyone here works, because every time we take a break from work and go outside for some fresh air, all of our neighbors are outside too, just hangin out, drinking beers, smoking, and chatting with each other...interesting.
Well thats my update for now! Love and miss y'all!

Levee Tour/AmeriPuppy!

Today was an amazing day. We didn't have a normal day of work site supervising, instead all of the AmeriCorps teams that are in the New Orleans area got together (there were 5 teams, so 50 of us) and went on a tour of 3 different levees around Louisiana. It was really fun to get out and do something new, even though I do really like site supervising and working with volunteers. It was also really fun to hang out with a bunch of other AmeriCorps members from other teams that we don't normally get to see. The first levee was just basically a big wall, and we weren't there for long. The second one was awesome though! First of all, we had to wear construction equipment because it was being worked on while we were there (it's new, so they are still in the process of building it) we got to wear some awesome reflective vests, hard hats, and special sunglasses...all of which looked amazingly flattering on me, obviously...just kidding!

We also got to hike up some creepy unstable steps to get on top of the levee, where this picture was taken...and there was an awesome view! (pic below) 

We also got some yummy electrolyte popsicles up on top of the levee, because it was really hot and sunny today. That doesn't sound too surprising, but it has actually been kinda cold here lately! It's been in the 80's instead of the 90's this week, and this is gonna sound really wimpy to all you New Englanders, but I have been freeeeeezing down here in the 80 degree weather! I have literally had goose bumps at work every day this week--so ridiculous! So much for being a tough Mainer! I am absolutely going to FREEZE when I go home for winter break in December! The 3rd levee tour we went on was pretty neat, we got to see more pumps and the computer side of the levees, which we hadn't seen at the other two. Oh, we also had a lunch break at a beautiful park right by the water with palm trees, which I like to refer to as "Southern Foliage" these days, because I miss New England's color-changing leaves so much! But it was still beautiful, I just feel like I am in Florida or something, not that it is October in Louisiana. 

When we got home tonight, I decided to skip our ISP at the theater and just relax for the night, since we have to work all dat Saturday and Sunday this weekend. It was a great decision, because I got so much done! I got to talk/skype with Nathaniel, and run to Subway for dinner and it counted as PT! Also, we had a surprise visitor in the form of the most adorable chocolate lab puppy everrrr! It didn't bark or make any noise the whole time it was here, just followed us around and sat down and drank the water we gave him. Our team leader, Alleigh went door to door around our neighborhood trying to find it's home, but no one seemed to want to claim this adorable, perfect, little pet! We were all really sad when we couldn't find the owner and we wanted to keep it, but obviously we can't, so we had to let him go outside...hopefully it will find its way home soon! 

One more thing before I go to bed...I just want everyone to know that when I get back from AmeriCorps, I will be able to build y'alls houses for you...seriously...it's crazy how much I have learned in just the few weeks I have been here...I have noticed so many little details around the house we are living in, like how the bedroom door frames are way uneven, and the floor boards are too far apart in the hallway...that the mudding on our bedroom wall was not done very well, because you can see where the taping was done through the paint, etc. CRAZY! I didn't know anything about any of that stuff before I came here! I'm pretty excited that I have learned so much here, because it's all really useful stuff to know for life and just goes to show how much easier it is to learn in a hands-on setting!