Throughout the round, my team lost a few members. One girl went home permanently for personal reasons, and we lost two other individuals because they were chosen for disaster relief in Georgia. Talk about a small team! Eleven teammates that quickly changes to eight teammates in a matter of days definitely gives the team a different feeling and overall dynamic. My team noticed right away just how comfortable it was to have to only sit two to a seat in the van instead of having to squeeze three. It felt like we were traveling in luxury!
For Halloween, a group of my teammates and I headed to the nearby town of Ocean Springs to meet up with another team for Halloween. I went to Walmart earlier that day and picked up a cheap "rock star" kit and a Miley Cryrus t-shirt so that I could turn myself into an "AmeriRocker". The rest of my teammates dressed up as a Pumpkin Fair, a Home Wrecker, a Scarecrow and a Weekend Warrior.
One weekend while living in Biloxi a group of us traveled to New Orleans for the weekend. We left early Saturday morning and once we arrived in NOLA, our first stop was Cafe Dumonde where we partook in hot coffee and their beignets which they are known for. Fun fact - while waiting in the take out line for our food, we saw Tom Hanks sitting and enjoying his breakfast at the cafe!! We were literally 5 feet away from him! Thankfully for me, I was the only brave one to actually take a picture of him! Throughout Saturday and Sunday I walked throughout the French Quarter and checked out the different shops and restaurants. It was quite entertaining to see all the live performers cluttering the streets throughout the day and night. Lucky for us, my team found a hotel to stay at that was located right around the corner from Bourbon street! Saturday night we spent all night walking around Bourbon street. Goodness Bourbon street was full of energy! I almost felt like that one night of celebration made up for all the nights I didn't go out back in college. I definitely enjoyed sightseeing around New Orleans. The people were wicked friendly and the architecture was beautiful!
On weekends that we stayed around Biloxi, my teammates and I would travel often to Ocean Springs. Ocean Springs has a really nice downtown area. The town reminds me a little bit of Holland, Michigan. There was a neat gelato place as well as a pottery painting place where a few of my teammates and I painted pottery. I ended up painting a mug that had peace signs carved into it. I painted it bright colors and wrote "peace begins with a smile" on it. It definitely made for a great hot chocolate mug! On Sundays, my teammate Becca and I traveled to the local non denominational church with one of our supervisors Jimmy and his wife. It was definitely a new and neat experience and I'm glad I made myself branch out!
For Thanksgiving, I traveled to Alabama with my teammate Becca. If I had it my way, I would have flown home for Thanksgiving.. especially since the whole family would have been together. Looking at plane tickets for Christmas break made me realize that I had to be realistic and choose a cheaper route for Thanksgiving. Lucky enough, I had the opportunity to Skype with my family on Thanksgiving. Goodness was it an enjoyable time. I wish I had the chance to Skype with them more often! Friday after Thanksgiving was the Iron Bowl football game which I guess is a very important game in the South. Being the nice person I am, I wore one an Auborn t-shirt and rooted for the team throughout the game. On Saturday I had the opportunity to partake in Becca's family tradition of cutting down their Christmas tree. After picking out the perfect tree, we brought it home and I helped Becca trim the tree with lights and family ornaments. Once the tree was decorated to our liking, Becca and I baked one of her traditional chocolate chip recipes and went out for a pedicure. Talk about one eventful day!! Sunday, before heading back to Biloxi, I went to church with Becca's family and sang in the choir with them. Becca lives in a small town where everyone is warm and welcoming :D Going to Alabama for Thanksgiving was definitely a good idea :D
After Thanksgiving I found myself getting into the habit of reading. It took me joining an organization where I am secluded from Internet, television and phones to finally understand why people enjoy reading. I can finally say that for once in my life I enjoy reading!! From Thanksgiving until the middle of December I read eight books! I was definitely on a role up until I left for Christmas break.
Overall my second round in Biloxi was an enlightening experience. Personally I was very happy that I had the opportunity to learn new interior construction skills and perfect the skills that i had learned prior to joining AmeriCorps. I am also thankful to have met Jimmy and his wife. I believe that the world would definitely be a better place if there were more people like Jimmy and his wife living on it.
The end of the round marks the half way point for my term in AmeriCorps. Time truly does fly by while you are participating in an activity that you whole heartedly enjoy. Week by week the project feels long, but as I look back on it month to month I realize just how quickly the days add up! I am so proud of myself for getting involved in AmeriCorps. It truly has been a challenging five months, but these past five months are a part of my life that I would never trade for anything. I feel like I've already grown and matured in the past five months which makes me very anxious to see where I will be after ten months.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Round 2: Biloxi Mississippi [Part One]
October 29 - December 17
Once arriving to Biloxi, my team and I discovered that Biloxi is a "miniature Las Vegas" of the South. The strip where our housing was located was full of casinos and resorts. It was definitely vibrant and showy to say the least. We noticed as we pulled up to our housing that we were going to be living right across the street from the GULF! That's right, the beach was literally at our finger tips! The only thing int he way of my team and the beach was a simple four laned road! Talk about being the best housing location yet!! My team and I had been told by previous groups to not go into the water in fear of receiving staph infectsion, so I'm very sad to report that I enjoyed the water from afar. For sleeping quarters, we lived in dorm styled rooms. Each room had eight bunk beds and a bathroom that consisted fo two stalls, two sinks and two showers. The only thing I was worried about was the fact that the beds were a little too soft for my liking. Oh well, I quickly realized that I should have focused on being thankful that I didn't have to sleep on an uncomfortable cot for two months! For food, we had a tiny kitchen that was located in the Casey Center which was a big room where the church probably held weekly meetings. The only drawback of the center was that there wasn't a comfortable area to "lounge". We either had to lay around in our bunk beds, sit on chairs in the center, or sit at picnic tables outside.
Each week we worked Monday through Friday and had the weekends off. The majority of our time was spent working in two homes. One home was a home that was going to be used to house volunteers once in the interior renovations were completed. My team and I installed insulation, dry wall, mudded, textured, and painted the walls. I spent the majority of my time mastering the skill of mudding. More or less you mud by spreading a thick putty like substance along the taped seams of a wall where the two pieces of dry wall meet. It sounds like an easy process but it takes a lot of patience and a lot of skill.
The other home that my team and I spent a lot of time working on was at the house that was built from start to finish by Hope CDA (organization that we were working with). When the house is complete, the house will be used as a rental home for individuals that in the process of finding permanent housing in the Biloxi area. The Hands on Gulf Coast team of people began working on the house back in August. Once my team and I arrived in Biloxi, our main task was completing the interior work. I spent the majority of my time painting and tiling and bathroom and kitchen floors. I practically painted every surface in the home including walls, window trim, ceilings and doors. By the end I was a professional at cutting in around the ceiling and corners without making any mistakes. I also had the opportunity to tile the kitchen floor by myself after only having instruction on one floor prior to the kitchen floor.
Overall each home that we worked on provided a great work environment. Our supervisors at each of the homes taught us each task with much detail and gave us enough room to complete each task. I never felt like they were peering over my shoulder waiting for me to make a mistake. I believe that they truly had confidence in the skills that we obtained throughout the weeks. I definitely feel confident in teaching others the tasks that I was educated on while working in Biloxi.
PT time was definitely enjoyable while in Biloxi. We had many of our sessions on the beach. A favorite for my team was soccer while a least favorite was trying to run on the sand. Goodness it's definitely a work out that's for sure! We also tried a game of basketball on one of the local courts. Surprisingly this theatre girl really enjoyed basketball! Granted I didn't exactly know what I was doing most the time, but I at least found myself having a lot of fun!
Once arriving to Biloxi, my team and I discovered that Biloxi is a "miniature Las Vegas" of the South. The strip where our housing was located was full of casinos and resorts. It was definitely vibrant and showy to say the least. We noticed as we pulled up to our housing that we were going to be living right across the street from the GULF! That's right, the beach was literally at our finger tips! The only thing int he way of my team and the beach was a simple four laned road! Talk about being the best housing location yet!! My team and I had been told by previous groups to not go into the water in fear of receiving staph infectsion, so I'm very sad to report that I enjoyed the water from afar. For sleeping quarters, we lived in dorm styled rooms. Each room had eight bunk beds and a bathroom that consisted fo two stalls, two sinks and two showers. The only thing I was worried about was the fact that the beds were a little too soft for my liking. Oh well, I quickly realized that I should have focused on being thankful that I didn't have to sleep on an uncomfortable cot for two months! For food, we had a tiny kitchen that was located in the Casey Center which was a big room where the church probably held weekly meetings. The only drawback of the center was that there wasn't a comfortable area to "lounge". We either had to lay around in our bunk beds, sit on chairs in the center, or sit at picnic tables outside.
Each week we worked Monday through Friday and had the weekends off. The majority of our time was spent working in two homes. One home was a home that was going to be used to house volunteers once in the interior renovations were completed. My team and I installed insulation, dry wall, mudded, textured, and painted the walls. I spent the majority of my time mastering the skill of mudding. More or less you mud by spreading a thick putty like substance along the taped seams of a wall where the two pieces of dry wall meet. It sounds like an easy process but it takes a lot of patience and a lot of skill.
The other home that my team and I spent a lot of time working on was at the house that was built from start to finish by Hope CDA (organization that we were working with). When the house is complete, the house will be used as a rental home for individuals that in the process of finding permanent housing in the Biloxi area. The Hands on Gulf Coast team of people began working on the house back in August. Once my team and I arrived in Biloxi, our main task was completing the interior work. I spent the majority of my time painting and tiling and bathroom and kitchen floors. I practically painted every surface in the home including walls, window trim, ceilings and doors. By the end I was a professional at cutting in around the ceiling and corners without making any mistakes. I also had the opportunity to tile the kitchen floor by myself after only having instruction on one floor prior to the kitchen floor.
Overall each home that we worked on provided a great work environment. Our supervisors at each of the homes taught us each task with much detail and gave us enough room to complete each task. I never felt like they were peering over my shoulder waiting for me to make a mistake. I believe that they truly had confidence in the skills that we obtained throughout the weeks. I definitely feel confident in teaching others the tasks that I was educated on while working in Biloxi.
PT time was definitely enjoyable while in Biloxi. We had many of our sessions on the beach. A favorite for my team was soccer while a least favorite was trying to run on the sand. Goodness it's definitely a work out that's for sure! We also tried a game of basketball on one of the local courts. Surprisingly this theatre girl really enjoyed basketball! Granted I didn't exactly know what I was doing most the time, but I at least found myself having a lot of fun!
October 26 - October 29
Monday began very early because the whole corps had to participate in a second Base Line test. I definitely was not looking forward to running the mile and a half. My team and I hadn't worked out together in a over a month. Normally we do some form of work out three times a week but when you're on disaster PT is not considered mandatory. Even without working out for over a month I managed to shave off time from my run! Goodness I was happy. I wonder how much time I'll be able to shave off the next time I have to run after I've been actually participating in PT each week. The remainder of the day consisted of a few follow up sessions relating to our personal roles in our team.
Thursday was definitely a blur!! I stayed up really late trying to finish the portfolio. I felt like I was reliving my days of pulling all nighters! Even after only getting three hours of sleep Monday night, I still have more to do to finish the portfolio. This I guess is what happens when you put an over achiever in charge of a project! I also tend to take on more than I can handle and not ask people for help when I know that I need it. I hope that over the course of the year, I can work on taking on smaller loads, and actually asking for help!! Today my team and I also had our Clearance meeting for Biloxi. My team and I can't wait to travel to Biloxi and tour a new city!!
Surprise!! Wednesday I still spent most of the day working on the team portfolio! While stressing over it, I took a break to repack my lovely small red bag. I don't know how I'm going to be able to part with the red bag at the end of the year.. it truly has become a large staple in my AmeriLife!! On a fun note, our campus hosted it's first ever Talent Show. Only a few people partook in the show but all of them were very good! I had I would have had more time to prepare, I would have possibly sang a song or acted out a monologue of some sort. Who knows, I may just participate if we have another one.
Thursday morning definitely did not start out well. I had to submit the portfolio via email to our Unit Leader before my team and I could leave for Biloxi. Little did I know, I had created the portfolio in a format that would not be recognizable by any other computer. It was a huge headache trying to figure out how to change the format. Thankfully my mid morning I had solved the problem and my team was finally able to head to Biloxi where new and exciting adventures awaited us!
Thursday was definitely a blur!! I stayed up really late trying to finish the portfolio. I felt like I was reliving my days of pulling all nighters! Even after only getting three hours of sleep Monday night, I still have more to do to finish the portfolio. This I guess is what happens when you put an over achiever in charge of a project! I also tend to take on more than I can handle and not ask people for help when I know that I need it. I hope that over the course of the year, I can work on taking on smaller loads, and actually asking for help!! Today my team and I also had our Clearance meeting for Biloxi. My team and I can't wait to travel to Biloxi and tour a new city!!
Surprise!! Wednesday I still spent most of the day working on the team portfolio! While stressing over it, I took a break to repack my lovely small red bag. I don't know how I'm going to be able to part with the red bag at the end of the year.. it truly has become a large staple in my AmeriLife!! On a fun note, our campus hosted it's first ever Talent Show. Only a few people partook in the show but all of them were very good! I had I would have had more time to prepare, I would have possibly sang a song or acted out a monologue of some sort. Who knows, I may just participate if we have another one.
Thursday morning definitely did not start out well. I had to submit the portfolio via email to our Unit Leader before my team and I could leave for Biloxi. Little did I know, I had created the portfolio in a format that would not be recognizable by any other computer. It was a huge headache trying to figure out how to change the format. Thankfully my mid morning I had solved the problem and my team was finally able to head to Biloxi where new and exciting adventures awaited us!
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