Weekend Warriors

First week working with Phoenix New Orleans (PNOLA) is complete! Again we are put into mini teams; my team consists of myself, Ashlyn, and Ruth with Will being our site supervisor.  PNOLA has their stuff together for a small nonprofit organization and a lot of AmeriCorps NCCC  alumni work there which is pretty cool.  So far we've done demolition which is awesome. Crow bars + hammers + elbow grease = watch out walls. 

As you can see above I have some before and after shots of the demolition site we were working at, along with a classic shot of the Super Dome of course. Our housing situation is pretty sweet, we live midtown and less than a mile from bourbon street.  Yesterday for PT we ran along the trolley lines and made it all the way to the end of the Canal Street down by RiverWalk.  Awesome environment to run in, getting to see the city and all different people really spices up the run compared to getting chased by dogs back in Alabama! The run is a good 3 miles there and back which wasn't too bad, however my body was not too sure what I was doing to it when I ran past 1.5 miles.  Also, I found a gym not too far called the French Riviera Fitness which I'm probably going to join for 2 months.  Gyms are pretty pricey around the city and there's no chain gyms like Golds, or LA Fitness, so I'll end up paying a pretty penny but it will be worth it.

Last night my buddy Cain and I walked down to the city park where Voodoo Fest is going on, although we didn't get in we were able to hear Weezer and MGMT from outside... on the railroad tracks.  After that we met up with some good friends from River 3 downtown.  Having so many AmeriCorps teams in New Orleans is amazing, it's nice not to be so secluded from everybody all the time.

My sister Kaitlin is in New Orleans! Which means I get to reunite with my twin for the first time in too long on Monday. Looking forward to that.

Transition numero uno

Transition is officially coming to an end as I set out to embark upon Spike #2 tomorrow heading to New Orleans.  The pictures are pretty randomly placed as a lot has happened this week so let me give you some settings to explain them.  Yesterday for "National Make a Difference Day" all of AmeriCorps went to the Jackson Park/Zoo to help restore it to it's natural beauty.  River 7 was the turtle group and we had a group of volunteers help us do some trail clearing where we got to use axes, chainsaws, rakes, machetes and other various tools of the trade to help us take down trees and bushes. 

Other fun places we went over the past week included the train yard, coke museum, local farm stand, Vicksburg military national park, Mississippi River, the Bridge between Louisiana and Mississippi, HC Porter art gallery, oh and lounged out by the pool of course.

I really thought I wouldn't have to update this blog much over transition but a lot occurred! I would also like to thank my Aunt Barbara for the awesome card and generous donation, my family is too good to me!! Also my Grandparents for mailing me a new financial book to read (A Colossal Failure of Common Sense) about the Lehman Brothers debacle. Looking forward to reading this and hopefully walking away with some new insight.

The last week has really flown by getting to see everybody on campus again was pretty awesome (also distracting me from updating the ol' bloggero). The pic above this is Brittany, Colin, and myself dressing up as Jersey Shore for Halloween! haha I think we pulled it off pretty well to say the least which was not too hard of a feat.

Time to pack the red bag up with all my clothes for the next 2 months... Did I mention how much I hate packing?

Sweet home Alabama

Last day in the Bama, and what a day it was. This morning we went to the Habitat warehouse and supervised High school Sophomores building blue jay bird houses.  I can't believe how young these kids look! man it makes me feel old.  They did a pretty awesome job though I had these two girls at my table who were perfectionist, crafting what appeared to be 5 factory finished bird houses.  I acknowledged their perfection suggesting a career in engineering to which one girl replied "My Dad is an engineer." How appropriate. That first pic up there is the "model" birdhouse I crafted myself to show the kiddies how it was done... did not compare to the one those girls did though!

As you can see from the pics the Habitat warehouse is pretty big, this is the first time I've seen this place since arriving in Mobile. Overall the kids finished somewhere between 150-200 houses and primed them a nice neutral white to prep them to be painted by younger kids in a Christian elementary school.

After the bird house extravaganza we went to our last Habitat house dedication event (which can be seen in the last pic).  Pretty much a short ceremony officially giving the keys to the new home owners and these people are always beyond grateful for Habitat's help. 

Leaving tomorrow 7am.... I should really be packing and figuring out a way to get all this stuff in my red bag...

Hasta la vista, Habitat

Welp, last day working with Habitat for Humanity. Threw up a bunch of pics from the final day of all the work we've done including but not limited to removing carpet, installing "wood" flooring, putting up foundation, installing fascia, and demolishing rotted wood.

Tomorrow we go to the Habitat warehouse for our debriefing.  I really hope we work with Habitat for Humanity again this year, truly an amazing organization.  Site managers, workers, community volunteers and everything associated along with Habitat was enjoyable, and smoothly run.

Heading back to Vicksburg, Mississippi on Friday I'm already dreading packing especially after acquiring some Bama gear I will have to figure out how I'm going to fit everything...

Almost forgot, heard a sonic boom today (most likely from a military/coast guard plane over the gulf) and it shook the house we were working in! Pretty awesome, too bad I couldn't see it happen so I'll add a picture of what it probably looked like ^^

Oh, and I ran today but increased 30 seconds back to 11:20 on my 1.5 mile. Didn't have my running buddy Mac who sets a pretty fast pace so for me so I'm pretty sure that's probably why.

Last full day in Mobile tomorrow... bittersweet indeed.