Week One :D

WEEK 1 AUGUST 1 - AUGUST 9:
Traveling to Vicksburg:
Thursday night I spent the night at the Hyatt Harborside Hotel in Boston. Thanks to my sister I got a really good deal on a room :D When I got to my room I realized that I had been upgraded to a Harborside room :D I was beyond excited. I definitely tried to enjoy every part of the room considering for the next 10 months I will be sleeping in a twin bed, sharing a bathroom, and sharing a room with 2-3 girls.

Friday morning I work up early to get to the airport for my flight at 8am. It was smooth sailing all the way to Jackson, Mississippi :D When I arrived they had AmeriCorps representatives waiting for us :D Also, a local newspaper was taking a plethora of pictures as well as interviewing a few of us while we waited for our luggage.

Welcome to Vicksburg, Mississippi!!
Once we arrived on campus we were assigned temporary teams for the first week while on campus. The temporary teams serve the purpose of giving us a sense of unity and connection with 10 other people. Upon arriving to campus we were told that a portion of our campus is not ready. For example, there is a dorm hall that is still being renovated. Once it is completed, a portion of us will be moved there. Our pool and tennis courts are also still in the process of being renovated. Hopefully within a month they will be ready for us to use.

Friday night I was also greeted with my first experience of the ever friendly fire ants! We had to do a fire drill outside on the wet lawn at 9:30 at night and definitely could not see what I was stepping in. Once I got up to the dorms I looked at my feet and the ants were swarming my feet. I think I had about 15 bites on each foot. My feet stung so bad that I had to wash them in cold water!

Saturday and Sunday consisted of brief sessions about NCCC as a whole and time for us to unpack, get acquainted with the Vicksburg area as well as with one another. There are 144 Corps members and 20 Team leaders here on campus. It definitely reminds me of a smaller version of a high school. I would say that 75% of us are from the New England area, and the remaining 25% are scattered throughout the rest of the United States. Surprisingly enough one of my roommates, Stacey, is from East Michigan and my suitemate, Kayla, is from Northern Maine. Crazy coincidence for sure!

Monday began our CTI training. CTI stands for Corps Training Institute. The training lasts the whole month of August. Training topics vary from day to day and mini service projects are intertwined between the sessions. In the beginning of the week we received our lovely uniforms and steel toed boots. The combination of my zero balance and the clunky boots makes for a funny scene!!

Because it is too hard to fit the 144 of us in one room on campus for our group training sessions we spent a few days in an auditorium at the Cultural Center in downtown Vicksburg. A fun fact: the Cultural Center is where the scene from Oh Brother Where Out Thou was filmed…specifically the scene where they are singing on stage :D

On Tuesday we were given the opportunity to attend a Block Party in a nearby neighborhood. The purpose of the Block Party was to raise local safety awareness and to pass out donated school supplies to the local kids. It ended up being our first mini project for a few of us because we helped the staff organize and break up school supplies for the kids. It was a bit sad at the end because there were about 20 kids who did not receive any school supplies because we ran out L Overall I had a fun time because we had the opportunity to dance, be silly, and interact with the kids.

On Wednesday we had to travel to Jackson to receive our physicals. Waiting around for 3 hours is definitely a long time! Thankfully my team and I were healthy and we then headed downtown and around Vicksburg for the rest of the day. Our first stop was the coffee shop called Highway 61. It is one of the few “hot spots” in town to go to. The coffee shop is ran by a husband and wife. The husband runs the coffee shop and the wife runs the art gallery called “The Attic” upstairs. The art gallery is filled with an assortment of jewelry, pottery, sculptures and artwork. After the coffee shop we walked down the hill towards the Yazoo River where a cute water park is located :D The park has murals that line the river, as well has murals along brick walls - each one illustrating a different prominent piece of Vicksburg. Definitely is a place that I would like to go back to :D After the park we traveled to the Visitors Center to take pictures by the Welcome Sign as well as pictures of the bridge that connects Mississippi and Louisiana. Our last stop was the Military Base where we learned about the Siege of the Mississippi. Later on a few of my new friends and I walked to the nearby Sonic. I was pretty geeked about going because it was my first time ever going to a Sonic. I’ve seen so many commercials about a Sonic, but there was never one near me!! I was a bit bummed by what I ordered, but nonetheless it was a fun trip :D

Thursday was driver’s training day. Boy was that fun! Spent most of my morning riding around in a 15 passenger van while we practiced driving and parking the vans. After I passed my test I spent the remainder of the day cleaning up one of our tennis courts on campus. I was only outside for a little over 2 hours and I was sweating like crazy and worn out. It’s crazy what only 2 hours in the sun can do to you!! After dinner a fellow corps member, Zach and a support team leader, Mary Molly, and I headed to the lovely Walmart for a few things :D Ended up buying a random green iguana that I named Marvelous Melvin as well as a few other odds and ends. Because the Corps members don’t have access to vans and they aren’t any stores that are within walking distance, we have to rely on Team Leaders for transportation. After Walmart we headed downtown to Highway 61 to the coffee shop because on Thursday nights they have live performances. Today’s performance was a Blue’s duo :D It was nice getting a taste of the south, after all Mississippi is the birthplace of America’s music :D Zach and I also decided to walk down the street a bit and head to a casino that was on a BOAT! Yes a boat! I was excited because it was my first time ever going to a Casino. Needless to say we were quite bummed about our experience. Barely anyone was there, and the boat was stationary!! L Why put a Casino on a boat if the boat isn’t allowed to move!! Oh well, I was happy to just walk around and see more of downtown Vicksburg.

Friday began with our very first PT session. It was oh so fun waking up at 5am!! The remainder of the day consisted of more training at the Cultural Center. For dinner, NCCC put together a nice BBQ for us. After dinner they revealed who our permanent teams would be in the form of a scavenger hunt. I was a little bummed to have to leave my temp team, but I was definitely anxious to find out who my team leader was going to be, as well as who was going to be in my permanent team. NCCC has split all of us into two different groups - River and Delta. Each group has 7 teams and the teams are made up of 10 to 11 people. I am a team member of River 3. My team leader is from Illinois and it already seems like we have a lot in common and that he will be a great team leader.

Saturday ended up being “get to know your team” day. My team and I decided to go to the Jackson Zoo for part of the day. All the animals were adorable :D The only thing I’m bummed about is that we missed out on seeing the penguins L After the zoo we headed to a local chain, Goldie’s BBQ, for our first team dinner. It was definitely nice to get off campus and enjoy some real southern food. Since our campus is not finished, we have received catered food every day. It’s definitely nice to be fed for three meals a day but a little bit of a change every once in awhile is nice too :D

Sunday ended up being a really relaxing day :D Woke up and had breakfast with Salina and Zach (two people that I’ve become close with). I spent the rest of the day just laying low, playing board games and getting to know the people in my dorm and on my team.
The first week has definitely flown by! Overall I’m slowly getting used to the temperature, the early hours and beginning to get to know a few people. I can feel it in my heart that this is the best place for me to be :D