Halloween 2010 @ Voodoo Fest

First weekend in Nawlins was one for the ages. I'm pretty psyched to spend 2 months working in "Who Dat Nation".  Going from one extreme following to the next, Alabama and Saints fans both are highly dedicated to their teams.

Voodoo Fest was an all weekend event starting on Friday and going until Sunday night at the City Park which is about 2-3 miles from our housing.  Although Cain and myself went there all 3 days, it was not until the 3rd day that we actually were able to get into the park buying tickets off craigslist at a nicely discounted price.  Fun Fact, this was the first concert I went to that did not have DMB in it! Paul Oakenfold, Deadmau5, and MGMT preformed like no other. It was fun to see lots of people dressed up for Halloween in ridiculous costumes; some of my favorites included Oscar the Grouch, Gumby, a giant Frosted mini-wheat, Yoshi, and Predator.  There were a ton of Drew Brees jerseys and Waldo's roaming around, ironically making waldo the easiest to spot out in the crowd.

Fortunately we were given a 3 day weekend and have Monday off. On top of that Friday we have half day work days and have a bbq in the park for the second half of the day which is awesome.  Could not ask for a better start to my 2nd Spike!

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?