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.