Home for the Holidays!

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

Grave Diggers

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

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

The Last Hoorah

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

Congratulations Nathaniel!

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

See you in a few days!!! Woooo! <3 

Falling in Love with the South

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

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

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

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

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

Next Stop, Memphis Tennessee!

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

Feeding the Hungry

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

Stained

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

Beautiful, isn't it? 

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

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

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

Landscaping

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

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

Frosted Christmas Trees

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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