So Yeah…I’ve Been in DC

This whole past round has been a complete bust for this blog. I never even mentioned i was heading to DC, much less write about it at all while actually here. I’ve simply been going about my life here in Washington and blissfully ignoring the fact that this blog exists. I may have even forgotten about it a few times. But clearly that cannot go on. I cant leave people hanging and gloss over this past month and a half. So here is what I hope is a decent summary of my time here.

Being in DC has been incredible! Overall. At first I was bummed out about it (when we got the news) because I was pining badly to go out west, to the other Washington. I wanted the chance to work on a real disaster in the field, and I wanted to see the west coast damn it! But I got sent here. I quickly got over my disappointment because it was still a new place I had always wanted to see and I was going to be living with some good friends of mine on another team.

They set us up in a three story house on the edge of a somewhat sketchy neighborhood in Prince George’s County (PG for short) just outside of the city. It was big and empty and had nothing too special about it besides a decent kitchen and a working laundry closet. We lived with two other teams and split into shared rooms. It was a refreshing change after being cooped up alone in that hotel up north. A few items of furniture were eventually added to make a decent living space but we slept on our cots the entire time. Cleanliness was a recurring issue that led to quite a few heated moments, but no one died so I think everything worked out fine.

Working out of the FEMA headquarters was less than exciting. It was a great opportunity to meet important people and observe big operations, but I did not love it. I didn’t care about most of those things. I appreciated what they were and what they meant, but that didn’t make me enjoy it. We were very lucky once again when it came to our supervisors at FEMA. They were very kind to us and worked to see that we got good work, and for the most part we did. They really wanted to help us grow and develop our skills, and I can easily say they were the best part of working here this round.

DC itself has endless opportunities to see and do cool shit. It was always easy to get into town either by grabbing a ride or taking the metro in. Once there, DC is incredibly easy to walk around in and a lot of the museums and things are free. We did exercise in the National Mall multiple times and I got to check out some of the cooler monuments while running (running to the Lincoln memorial and back quickly became one of my favorite things to do). I got to check out the White House of course and got a tour of the Capitol Building and the Library of Congress. The Capitol was cool but not incredible, unlike the Library of Congress, which was awesome. I also definitely made sure to check out as many museums as I could, even if it meant spending my lunch hour walking around the Air and Space Museum. Besides that I went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and the Holocaust Museum, a very heavy and enlightening experience. We had the chance to hear a survivor tell her story and were even showed her tattooed ID number, very intense and very humbling. Don’t do genocide kids, it’s bad for you. I recommend visiting all of these places, for your health.

On top of all that I was able to go hiking and canoeing in Virginia, volunteer at races and school events, check out the zoo, go kayaking in the Potomac River, and go to a freaking TRAMPOLINE PARK!!!! That’s certainly something off my bucket list.

Being in DC really felt like being in the heart of civilization (most likely not actually the case, but it’s how it felt). Foreign embassies and huge museums made the place feel regal, and there was so much culture to take in at once. One day I was walking through the National Mall to meet people for lunch when I stumbled upon a troop of Japanese drummers and dancers performing outside of a museum. They were incredible and I ended up watching them for 45 minutes (I was late to lunch). One weekend I went to a huge Science Expo at the massive DC convention center wherein I saw BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY TALK ABOUT SCIENCE!!! (Another thing off my bucket list) The whole thing was like a massive science fair with a futuristic prototype Walmart Truck (which was actually pretty awesome) and 3D printers galore. We got to see a few science shows and Mike Rowe (that guy from Dirty Jobs) awkwardly interact with a robot (the robot sucked so bad he eventually gave up and answered questions from fans for the rest of the time). I even ended up meeting someone I didn’t even know was one of my childhood heroes, Jon Scieszka. He’s a children’s author that wrote The Stinky Cheese Man, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, and my personal favorite, the Time Warp Trio series, all books I adored as a kid. Anyway he was there promoting his new book about a kid scientist, and I had no clue who he was until they said what he had written, and then I was so excited! After his presentation I grabbed a free preview of his new book, and I had a chat with him. He was incredibly nice and we had a great conversation, and afterwards he signed the preview I had picked up. It was an awesome day!

Then about halfway through our round a legitimate disaster stuck. Tornadoes tore up a lot of the Midwest and a bunch of teams were scrambled to go help. Not us though. We weren’t the right kind of team, so while we got a spike in our workload, we never left DC. My friend’s team on the other hand was sent out almost immediately. It was good for him because they had nothing to do in DC to begin with. Plus he was able to out and make a real difference. But that sucked for me! I was getting used to having him around! Now what was I supposed to do? Hang out with my team? Horror! I joke, but it did get far more boring back at the house. It did get cleaner though. I spent the rest of my round drawing and watching an impressive amount of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to stave off the boredome. Joss Whedon is my hero.

So I think that’s an apt description of my third and final round with Americorps. DC was an incredible city that I am very thankful I got to experience. I had some great times there with my team, with my friends, and by myself. It certainly wast my most productive round, especially when considering this blog, but I feel like it was a great way to wrap up my year of service. I only have a few days left until I’m done with all this and on my way home. I’ll write at least one more post to reflect upon this year as a whole. It may not be finished until I get home, but it will be done, and so will I. Thank you for reading, until next time.

The Grand Journey of the Motivation Station

I had a couple of fairly busy days last week, and this week, and probably next week. Things have picked up quite a bit lately since this round is coming to an end. We’ve been busy wrapping up our project with the Red Cross, taking care of special events, and getting ready to roll out. This past month seems to have rocketed by, especially after the long slow crawl of febuary, and now I really have to start worry about getting packed up and taking care of all of the excess crap that I’ve accumulated up here in New Hampshire. It wont be easy, bbut onto the events of last week.

Last thursday started off like a lot of our mornings have recently, piling into the van for a quick trip into Boston to meet with our FEMA POC. While we were in the office I took the chance to talk with an employee who had gone to one of the schools Im interested in going to in the fall. We talked about her experience at the school and our shared interest in stories and writing. I seem to remember grabbing a pretty awesome bagel on the way out of the city as we headed back to Nashua to finish up our work day. I hadn’t had coffee yet that morning and trips into Boston usually require getting up at the ass crack of dawn, so when i got my chance i chugged it down like a junkie (my addiction s in full force, but I can quit whenever I want I swear!). Work went on at the office as usual. I sent out some emails and updated documents and watched a ton of Achievement Hunter (shout out), but later in the afternoon there was some drama outside. The cops shut off the street outside and stopped the flow of traffic. Why? Because a couple of idiots were walking down the street with shotguns! This sounds worse than it is. Don’t get me wrong, we were concerned and we went into a bit of a lockdown, but a. nothing happened and b. nothing was going to happen. You see its not really illegal to carry guns around in New Hampshire, they have open carry laws, but these dumbasses were walking by a school! Which of course is goinng to cause some concern! So that was really all that came of that drama.

Once things died down a bit we had to get out of the office. The Red Cross was hosting a blood drive and our supervisor had invited us to come and participate, so we did. Only two of us ended up donating though, and I was one of them. I had never donated blood before so I was a little apprehensive. Im not the biggest fan of needles, but I’m getting over that because I get myself worked up about it for no reason and it always turns out to be nothing. In the end my dumb apprehension gave way to excitement. I’ve had blood taken before and I’m not grossed out by my own blood at all, so it was a fun experience. I rewarded myself when we got back by making a big pot of chili and watching Rock N’ Rolla with some teammates.

We never got to finish the movie though, because halfway through the fire alarm went off and everyone had to evacuate the hotel. No one knew what was going on, but I threw on my boots and a jacket and anything I didn’t want burned up and started out. When we got in the stairwell we heard this woman screaming for help on the floor above us. My teammate and I ran up to help. It turns out that tis woman’s son had locked himself in their room and she was hysterical, thinking he was unconscious or dead (in the end officials thought he had pulled the alarm). I never saw any fire, but there was a good amount of smoke on that top floor. It was scary listening to this woman panic as my teammate called 911. She kept trying to kick down the door (which wasn’t going to happpen) and kept asking me to check the windows to see if her son got out on a ledge (I couldn’t see anything). Eventually hotel workers showed up and fire fighters were on the way, so there was nothing left for us to do and we went outside. It wasn’t long before things cleared up and we were allowed back in. Nobody was hurtt, the boy got out, and things went back to normal. It amounted to one long, strange day.

Over the next weekend I got a unique and exciting opportunity for something that I probably would not have gotten if I weren’t in this program; to be in Boston for the St. Patricks Day parade. Boston has a huge Irish population and lot of unique culture surrounding it. St. Patricks Day is always a big deal. I’ve always wanted to be there to experience the celebration, and now I have. We didn’t go to get drunk out of our minds like everyone else. We went to volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club of South Boston and help host a 5k race. My team leader was running the race. The rest of us helped sign people in and hand out numbers, and then we went to man what I like to call The Motivation Station. A few of us went out onto a street corner and cheered people on as they ran by. We were louud, obnoxious, and totally into it. I yelled so much my voice started to go, but I didn’t care, I was having too much fun. Anytime I got someone to smile as they ran by II knew I did my job. At one point while we were yelling a couple of young punks yelled at us to shut up, so I just turned and kept yelling even louder, right at them. I guess after that they felt the need to 1-up us at our own game, so they started giving runners high fives as they ran by. I didn’t stop theem, as long as they were cheering people up. When the last runner made their way past us we headed back to the start and helped take things down. Then it was off to the parade!

We got out of uniforms in the cramped van and changed into our normal clothes, donning new shirts given to us at the race (designed by the Dropkick Murpheys no less). Once we all piled out we made our way to the parade. The crowds were huge and mostly made up stumbling frat boys and girls that “Woooo!” at everything. We found a nice spot next to some particularly annoying drunk people (that way if we got lost we would be able to find our spot again) and we waited for it all to start. An interesting thing about Boston on St. Pattys is that, of course, everyone is drinking but there are open container laws, so it is illegal to carry booze out in thee open. Naturally this forces everyone to get “creative” with their drinking. I saw so many plastic water bottles filled with vodka and Dunkin Donuts cups filled with Godknowswhat. There are cops everywhere at the parade and nobody is fooling anybody, especially as they get more drunk. The police are completely aware, but they will let it slide as long as you’re not causing any chaos. The people next to us, or at least one woman in particular, seemed to think they we’re so clever and badass and that the cops had no clue. Of course they knew lady. You were stumbling around speaking nonsense and shoving vodka in your boyfriend’s face so hard he had to step back. I have no problem with St. Patty’s Day drinking, but have some respect for the unspoken rules, put in place by Saint Patrick himself.

The parade itself was pretty cool, not spectacular, but pretty cool. I mean its a parade. Ive never gone to a parade and walked away with my mind blown. Several high school bands played some decent tunes. Men in kilts blasted on bagpipes in a fairly awesome manner. We saw a nice float for the survivors off the marathon bombing. Not to mention all sorts of police and fire fighters. My favorite part by far though was when a big group of people dressed as Ghostbusters walked by having the time of their lives. Never thought I’d see that. Now that I think about it, though, I can’t imagine going on having not seen that!

We left the parade after a little more than and hour, mostly due to tiredness but slightly due to our neighbors increasing in obnoxiousness. We went on the hunt for food and then a way out of the city. I’m pretty sure the rest of the day was filled with napping and Netflix.

On actual St. Patricks day we visited a FEMA response center in Wayland. I drove us there and had a good time weaving through the entire town because we could not, for the life of us, find where we were supposed to be! We finally got it. The center was located in an old bunker and had some cool corridors that reminded me of Aliens and The Thing (both quality films if you’re interested). We only went there for a tour, but some high school kids were there too, so we ended up having to give them a presentation on FEMA Corps. I was tired and entirely unprepared to present, so I’m sure our pitch came off as more of a cautionary tale and less of a recruitment speech. After the tour we were taken out to some lunch. It was St. Patty’s so made sure to get as much Irish food as I could. Afterwards we headed back to Nashua and finished working.

Since then we have done a lot of traveling around New England. We went to Providence again to man a booth at a career fair. I hadn’t showered in a while and I looked absolutely haggard compared to all the clean college students, but I made it work. I also checked out the rest of the fair, grabbing as much free stuff as I couuld. Other than that we’ve made a trip to New Hampshire University for presentations and we took part in an emergency exercise at a school in Massachusetts. We mostly just manned another booth, but there was free pizza, so I didn’t mind.

That about sums up the adventures of the past week. We did pop into Portsmouth New Hampshire for a little bit and were blown away at how beautiful it was. I wanted to go back yesterday but I overslept and missed the ride. Oh well.

Its time to get into wrap-up mode. I need to start packing up all my crap and ship some things home that I don’t have space for. I always get stressed out around these times. It’s going to take another three day drive to get back to Mississippi, and transition is going to hectic as all hell. It will be great to see some of my other friends though. I’ve been stuck all alone with my team for too long. Death threats between my roommate and I are much too common. I probably wont post again until transition is over because its going to be too busy and I plan on just having some fun. A lot of us are taking a trip into New Orleans and I’m very excited!

When I get back I’ll do another overview of my round like I did for Atlanta and I’ll probably have some news as to where I’m going next. Thank you all for reading. Until next tiime…

All things New Hampshire 2014

I need to get it together. It’s 2014…

Hello there, it has been forever. Ages have dawned and diminished since I last wrote in this blog. That is a shame, and it’s entirely my fault. It’s good to see you. Let’s catch up.

I’m not entirely sure where to start this post off since it has been such a long time. I certainly couldn’t run through everything that has happened in the past month in one post. That would take too much time and be way too boring.

To be honest I’ve been feeling really cooped up here lately. It’s a combination of things that are made worse by the winter. I’m stuck inside most of the time and time to myself is practically nonexistent. I don’t have my own space like I did back in Atlanta and sometimes I just really need time by myself. I didn’t think I would miss the church, but I’m feeling it a bit after being stuck in this hotel for over a month. All it has done for me is make my bad eating habits worse and allowed me to nurture an already crippling Netflix addiction (I’ve discovered and blown through House of Cards (incredible), Orange is the New Black (also incredible), and I finally finished Breaking Bad (so good I was emotional when it ended), and it all gets harder to get away from since my roommate is just as bad)

When I was in Atlanta I had a lot of options when it came to things to do outside of housing. Even if that was just going to the park or going on a run. Here there are options, but it is mostly reduced to either the movies or getting frozen yogurt (my tl has developed an addiction). That being said there have been some interesting times.

One night we went to a music night at a local coffee shop the tweet hang out at pretty often. The place was pretty small, but these guys rocked out as if they were in a stadium. It was pretty impressive. The acts ranged from one short guy with a guitar to a guy called Johnny Earthquake who wore a pirate hat and screamed into the microphone. It was fun to sit back and behold it all. Each show was it’s own spectacle, and on the way out I’m sure I saw one of the band members smoking weed out of a hobbit pipe.

Other than that the only other excitement has been getting lost driving around this winter wasteland. More than once I’ve tried to pick up my team leader from a YMCA that doesn’t exist on a map and gotten horribly lost.

I feel like there are too many people up here, and they all volunteer. We have had very few ISPs since coming beyond the wall. Everything we try to set up is completely booked for months. People in New England are far too selfish with their giving! We worked in a soup kitchen one day, helping carry boxes for people coming for the food pantry, and that went very nicely. We wanted to do it again, but refer to previous rant. Other than that all we’ve had is a few days volunteering at a thrift shop, which isn’t bad, but it does give me flashbacks of working at Old Navy, and finding a bad of dirty panties almost made me puke.

The days we can’t schedule ISPs we try to fill with what’s called service learning days. Usually we try to find a museum or an organization we can visit. One time we went to visit an art gallery. It was going to be a full day affair. When we got there we were slightly surprised to find that it was just one little room. There might’ve been 10 paintings in it.

Our best service learning/ISP was when we took a trip up to providence Rhode Island. One of my teammates served there in City Year working with kids for over year. We went to visit the school she worked at and speak to kids. I got to talk to them about what it was like for me trying to decide what I was doing after high school. This blog is titled to demonstrate said issue. It was an inner city school with a lot of problems, and the students there didn’t always have the best options, so when I told them about how I ended up taking a year off to serve they actually listened and took it really well. I got applause! Twice! It was a good day, but we couldn’t stay in providence much longer because, as it turns out, they all drive like maniacs! Which, as I turns out, is why my teammate left in the first place.

Working with the Red Cross has slowed down a lot. We don’t get out as much as we used to and the Chinese place down the street is only open at weird times! Things were looking great when we finally got our own vehicles. I got an ambulance! Its a big diesel mammoth complete with a grill in the back and enough switches to fit the batmobile. I was really excited the day I got it. I drove it back from headquarters and marveled at the adventures I would have. The next day we were thrilled to learn that the battery is shot and it won’t start again. We tried jump starting it several times, but it refuses to wake up. The hotel won’t let us plug it in where it’s parked and we cant start it to move it! So the glamour of the ambulance quickly faded.

A lot of the glamour has faded, but despite all my complaining I am really glad I’m up here. I joined this program to experience more of the country, and each place I go is different ant unique. They all have their ups and downs, and it takes time to find the good in all of them. Back at campus they told us all that round 2 would be rough. It’s the long stretch of work where things really start to weigh on you. They warned us all that it would happen. I thought I believed them. I thought I was prepared, but next thing I know I’m spending too much money and eating too much fast food. Why does Chipotle have to be right down the street?

I know I ranted a lot in this post, but I really am finding ways to keep myself busy and keep my spirits up. I haven’t stabbed my roommate yet…yet, and that’s always a plus. There will be another team here soon, and then we’ll be the grizzled veterans here to train the newbies. I’m excited to foster a bitter rivalry between us. Not to mention it will be nice to interact with different human beings for a while.

Thank you all for reading. Until next time.

This is New Hampshire

So a lot has changed since last week’s post. A lot, and it feels like lifetime already since I first got here in New Hampshire. It took 3 days of driving up the East Coast, moving into a new space, 3 trips into Boston, and setting up in a brand new office to get here. So I would hope it’s needless to say that this has been a hectic week, but I’m actually love it here. Nashua is a great place filled with people who are suspiciously polite. I like our hotel, our office, being so close to Boston, and our new team leader.

I don’t expect too many people that are unfamiliar with the program to know that changing team leaders halfway through your year of service is a pretty big deal. That’s a soft serve. It’s actually a huge deal. I made sure not to talk about it here, but a lot of people on my team had problems with our team leader. Admittedly, I was one of them, but I didn’t have nearly as many problems with him as some of my other teammates. Long story short we had a meeting with the campus councilor during transition that brought a lot of these issues to light. Afterward management decided that he be switched to a different position and that we get a new team leader. This was sprung on all of us very suddenly, as is the MO of this organization, but I think we have all dealt with the change very well.

We’ve had a brand new TL for just over a week now. Her name is Samantha and she’s, how do I put this, awesome! She’s from Seattle and has a degree in emergency preparedness. On top of that she is incredibly funny, quirky, sarcastic, and se has excellent taste in music. With her as team leader I have seen a noticeable change among my teammates and I. I think a big issue with the previous TL was that he thought very differently from the rest of the team, but now, with a leader who is very likeminded to us, we are able to be ourselves, do work, and have fun at the same time. I am really glad that she is my team leader, and I am excited to be here this round.

Nashua is great! Not only does it contain all my favorite food options (Chipotle, 5 Guys Burgers and Fries, Taco Bell, Ruby Tuesdays, Chile’s, Subway, Chinese Food, Sushi, the list could go on but I swear it will never, ever, stop) but our office is great and the living arrangement is definitely a step up from last time. As I’ve mentioned it took 3 days of driving to get here. II don’t know if you’ve ever done that or not, but it sucks. There was nothing interesting about the first few travel days, other than driving on the highway past DC. I swear, when you are driving in that traffic, you are waist deep in pure insanity. On the last day we had the great opportunity to hop into NYC for a few hours and have lunch in Harlem. What sucks about that is for once I’m close enough to visit my sister in Brooklyn and she doesn’t come back from vacation until the day after, also I got pooped on by a pigeon.

What is incredible about this program is that in the span of 2 days I can be in Harlem having lunch and then take a day trip into Boston, which just so happens to be one of my favorite places in the US despite the horrid wind chill (it’s bad). Of course my golden luck gets me sent to New England in the dead of winter, but other than the cold, the ice, and random Yeti attacks it’s absolutely lovely up here. We are staying out of an extended stay hotel this time as opposed to a leaky old church, and while the church got much more of a bad rep than it deserved, I would definitely call this a step up. Each room has it’s own kitchen and bathroom, and while the space is small, we have heating, tv, outlets, and wifi, so I am very grateful to be here.

We technically have two offices this round, one in Boston with FEMA, and one here in Nashua with the Red Cross. We’re primarily working with the Red Cross so we stay here most of the time. Our office here in town is out of an old Victorian house with plenty of hidden staircases and dark, claustrophobic hallways. I love it. The workspace is cool, the people we’re working with are great, and our project is pretty sweet. Our job is to help evaluate businesses in the area on their disaster preparedness and their plans on how to get things back up and running if they were hit by a disaster. This means we actually get to go out to the businesses themselves, and that means we get vehicles, big ones apparently, I’ll let you know when we get them. It’s possible we could be going all throughout New England, and more than once has a plan to escape to Canada been suggested, so don’t be surprised if I disappear and change my name to something French.

Things are going well, and I’m feeling really good about his round. Sure it’s as cold as the ninth circle of hell up here, but I’ve always been a northerner, and we don’t fear the winter. I hope to really accomplish things this round, both personally and professionally. I’m excited to be so close to a place that I want to be going to school at and that I have the opportunity to learn more about it. It has been a pretty crazy week, and I don’t expect it to stop. Thanks for reading. Until next time.

Farewell Atlanta, Round 2

Hello everyone, and welcome to the first blog post of the new year (halfway through January)! December was an incredibly busy month, what with us wrapping up our FEMA work, leaving Atlanta, and then going on our holiday vacation. I’m not going to go into detail about my break. All I will say is that it felt incredible to be home for almost two weeks and getting to see everyone again.

I was planning to write this post the week I got back from home, but in between rounds we have a period of transition where we do more training and get things out of the way that we need to before the end of our service. Long story short last week was hectic. Once the weekend came around it already felt as if I had been away from home for another lifetime, but now transition is over and we have our brand new assignment.

I’m headed to New Hampshire! Nashua New Hampshire to be exact. Not the the place I would have chosen to be stationed during the winter round (especially since California was on the table), but I’m actually pretty excited to go. We’re going to be working with the Red Cross, an organization that I have always looked up to. The work we’ll be doing is something very different than what we’ve been doing, so I’m interested to see how it works out.

But before I get far ahead of myself daydreaming about my future adventures living above the wall, I need to acknowledge the place I have just come from.

Atlanta was an incredible experience all around, good bad. Being from a small town in the heart of New York and going to live in one of the biggest cities in the South was a huge change for me, and while I’ll admit that city life might not be for me, I will be forever grateful for the chance to find out for myself. The city was my home for nearly 3 months, so I think it is only fitting that I talk about the things I loved, the things I hated, the things I’ll miss, and the things I won’t.

Things I loved:

-The Atlanta Gay Pride parade was just an awesome spectacle to witness. It was so great to see a city come together just to celebrate people being themselves and have a good time while they were at it.

-Habitat for Humanity. We did Habitat twice while we were in atlanta. Both times were so fun and even more rewarding. I would recommend that everyone do it at least once in their lives.

-The MLK Jr. center. Seeing the tomb of Martin Luther King jr. was one of the most powerful experiences I had in Atlanta.

-The Georgia Aquarium. Seeing a massive tank filled with whale sharks and spending a day with my dad was certainly one of my favorite moments from last year. (Plus that dolphin show).

-THE ZOO! They had a nice zoo.

-Netherworld haunted house. Around Halloween we went to check out one of the biggest haunted houses in the nation. It took 2 hours of waiting in line, but every second was worth it (not to mention that being the best line I’ve ever stood in. IT
HAD A DJ!).

Things I hated:

-Chambers of Horror haunted house. Netherworld wasn’t our first try at a fun Halloween night. This haunted house was so awful that I won’t even talk about it further (that is a story for another day).

-My room flooding.

Things I’ll miss:

-My FEMA supervisors Phil and Nancy. We really lucked out when it came to our bosses at the FEMA office. Phil and Nancy were two of the best people I have ever worked for. They were both funny and charming, they guided us when we needed and let us be inn charge of our projects (they didn’t hover over our shoulders).They were a pleasure to work with and they constantly gave us food! Plus they liked us, so that’s always a step in the right direction.

-Chipotle. So many late night runs to Chipotle, so many.

-My magnificent twin sized matress. There were a lot of things right about the church we stayed at, but that bed was my pride and joy.

-Bottle Rocket, the sushi place that played The Walking Dead every sunday night.

-Grant Park. A beautiful green only a few blocks away from where we were staying. It had playgrounds, a zoo, and on weekends it hosted an awesome organic farmers market.

-Little 5 Points. A great section of the city filled with hipsters, coffee shops, pizza places, and a fantastic comic book store where I spent a lot of my time.

-The Village Theater. This great little venue that always had great improv comedy on thursday nights.

Things I won’t miss:

-The Traffic.

-The Rain.

-The bathrooms (cramped, dirty, and forsaken by God).

That about wraps it up. We ended on a bit of a negative note, but overall there were a lot more things that I liked about Atlanta than things that I didn’t. It was a fun place to live (at least when you don’t need to pay rent). I have friends headed back there again for their next round, and while I’m glad that my team is moving on, I am going to miss living with them and I hope they do great. Thank you all for reading! Next time I write I will be in Nashua, typing from inside of a taun taun. Until next time.

Hinduism, Leaky Ceilings, and Martin Luther King Jr.

So here I am laying on my magnificent mattress, dim lights seeping in through the other rooms. Since I last wrote I have gotten a heater, a spacious living area, and waffles. How did I accomplish this? What lovely fortune came upon me to grant me such a great set up? Well I’ll tell you.

My room flooded. It straight up flooded. Apparently I had a leaky ceiling that no one thought to mention, and it seems that Atlanta’s winters get very rainy, very rainy. So after a full day of pouring I can back from work to find a nice little puddle covering my floor. At first I wasn’t too concerned. I was upset that a lot of papers that I had on the floor were now ruined, and to get around in my socks I was forced to parkour myself everywhere, but I got over it and I made due, that was until my team leader found out. My TL is the definition of a worrier and tends to blow things out of proportion, so when he started raving on about mold, mildew and my certain death I was skeptical. I had had a very long day and all I really wanted was to sleep in my bed, but he wasn’t going to let me. I argued. Oh man did I argue, but in the end I came to realize that he had a decent point, and that I should move out into the big room for at least that night.

My TL demanded that he talk to the church about this, and he kept reassuring me that he was going to get it straightened out. By that time I didn’t care anymore. I was half asleep by then. It took me about a week to realize that I wasn’t getting my room back. I dragged out my prized bed (No one as taking that from me. They would have to pry it out of my cold dead hands) and moved all the furniture around so that I could set it up next to the heater. Originally I planned on setting up an elaborate mattress fort as my room (because who wouldn’t absolutely love that?). Sadly, in the end, it would’ve taken up too much space in order to fit my bed inside (*see previous comment on losing bed), so I scrapped the idea and traded my privacy in exchange for sleeping comfort. Worth it.

Moving on. Two weekends ago I had the incredible chance to go and visit an actual Hindu temple. My team had had it planned for over a week as part of our required diversity training. I didn’t sleep well the night before so I almost opted out, but I am so glad that I didn’t. The temple we visited is the sixth largest one outside of India, and one of the biggest in the country. The entire thing is made out of marble, and nearly every surface is intricately carved to show religious idols and cultural symbols. I was completely blown away by the interior worship chamber. I would’ve taken pictures except they weren’t allowed. We did get the chance to sit in on a worship though.

It was incredible to watch. Being immersed into an entirely different culture that way was something I was not expecting. I felt like Kevin Costner in Dances With Wolves, or Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai (insert Avatar joke here). The men sat in front while the women sat in the back. A row of big doors opened up like the Chamber of Secrets, revealing robed men swinging incense and chanting in what I’m assuming was Hindi (sorry if that’s misspelled). Then more robed men walked into the kneeling crowd, saying more incantations and letting people kiss their feet (I do not partake). When they were done everyone got up to do their own prayers, which involved a lot of walking around, kneeling down quickly to bow one’a head, and then getting back up to repeat. It looked like they were exercising. It was absolutely awe inspiring to watch the worship. Afterward we went to a buffet close by that served temple-goers vegetarian Indian cuisine. It was certainly not home grown Indian specialties, but the potatoes were good.

The next weekend we had yet another awesome diversity experience. Atlanta is the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr, and the city has turned his old neighborhood into a big museum and tribute to his life and accomplishments. I wasn’t really planning on visiting it when we first arrived (saying that now I could never imagine why). MLK is one of those rare historical figures that absolutely deserves the praise that he receives today. He may not have been a perfect man, but he devoted his life to helping others and he helped changed the history of this country for the better (and let’s be honest his voice was beautiful).

It was great to tour the museum and learn more about his life. It was even greater going inside the house that he was born in and see where he was raised, but without a doubt the most impressive part of that whole day was visiting the actual tomb of Martin Luther King Jr. The weather was rainy and cold, and there weren’t many people around, but I walked along the long stretching fountain and past the eternal flame to go and stand in front of where the legend was actually buried. There in the middle of the fountain were two graves, one for him and one for his wife, each carved with their very best quotes, and I just stood there and took it all in. It’s a moment I don’t think I’m ever going to forget, standing there in the rain. I don’t know how else to describe it, it was such a powerful feeling. We didn’t linger around it long, but we didn’t have to to feel its impact.

As if that weren’t a heavy enough experience for one day, we immediately went to a holocaust museum (I’m not even kidding). We wanted to get all our diversity taken care of while we had the free time to do it. We took a tour around the place with a Sunday school group. Every wall was full of black and white pictures and propaganda posters, telling the story from the start of the Nazi regime to the liberation by the allies. The tour guide gave us the history lesson as we went, I had heard it all before, so I spent a little more time looking at the photos, but she had good things to say. At one point she asked the group to give an example of a ghetto. One of the girls from the Sunday school group said, “like near Grant Park?” We all started laughing uncontrollably (take a wild guess as to where we’ve been living. Did you guess near Grant Park? Good guess, and no, it’s not a ghetto. It’s just full of poor people). It was, again, very humbling to tour a place with so much history, and despite it being the greatest atrocity to ever be done by human beings, I always find genocide fascinating to study. I’m sad to admit that, but it’s true. At the end of that day I was absolutely drained, so I stumbled back into my “room” and passed out for the rest of the day. I had seen a lot.

The week after ‘diversity weekend’, as I’m calling it, we had a very big ISP planned. Every day after work that week we would be visiting an elementary school to help tutor children that were all refugees from all over the world. Our job was to assist the teachers and help the kids with their homework. The first day we went I paired up with my teammate Sara and we helped out a class of third graders. It did not go very well. The kids were all very quiet and not very vocal about the help they needed, and once we did get the chance to help we both realized that 3rd grade was a lot harder than we remembered. Their math already had letters in it! Letters! I knew most of the material, but for the life of me I could not explain it in a simple way. It definitely didn’t help that they didn’t speak English well. There were kids there from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, all over the place.

The next day we decided to switch up and work with kindergardeners (something more on our level). It went far better. The kids were all crackhead hyper and loud, but they gladly asked for our help when they needed it and seemed to enjoy us being there. I helped kids with their spelling and reading and watched them all peddle Pokemon cards like they were drugs (We did that in my day too, but in those times Yu-Gi-Oh was the good stuff. I miss those days). Over the next several days I continued to help the kids out, teach them about Nelson Mandela, and impress them with paper airplanes. I was the boss. On our last day we spent some playground time with the kids and I rediscovered how awesome monkey bars are. Then we helped several different classes as they did a workshop with Home Depot, putting together different wooden toy kits (it was like Legos but with nails). One of the kits was a little wooden truck. I got to lead the kids in a bunch of races across the gym floor, they basically threw the trucks half the time. Afterwards the kids all said goodbye and we helped put all the heavy furniture away. I kind of miss being called Mr. Alan.

So it was a very interesting two weeks, filled with a lot of diversity and small children. I’m so glad I’ve had the chance to see the Hindu temple and visit MLK Jr’s tomb. It was all an incredible experience and it makes me so glad that I am in this program (other than my room flooding, damn it). I get to head back home very soon for my Christmas break. I’m extremely excited to see everyone again and to play my xbox (the withdrawal is killing me. The struggle is real). Until then I’m going to wrap up my work at the FEMA office and yell at people when they come into my new “room”. Until next time.

My Day with Stephen

Merry late thanksgiving everyone! Happy turkey day! And a good satanic worshipers appreciation day to all! Remember, if there’s a satanist in your famlily, be sure to give them a hug. For those of you all preparing outrageous feast with your families today, I would like you to sit back and appreciate that you are lucky to have all that. Not everybody does. For the first time in my life I won’t be able to be at home for thanksgiving dinner, and it’s turning out to be harder than I thought (on the bright side I also don have to work another Black Friday shift, thank Christ).

This post is about last Wednesday, when my dad came down to visit me here in Atlanta. He had business that he had to do in the area, and since he knew that I would be al alone on thanksgiving, he figured a family visit would be just the thing, and it was.

I requested the day off on Wednesday. While my team all packed up and went to work, I slept in like a champion. Dad arrived around 11:00 am. I was already up and dressed, finishing my breakfast and reading in the fellowship hall. I got his text and went outside to meet him. There he was to meet me with a smile and a hug right next to his big rental car. He had been so excited to show me the rental they gave him, a black dodge challenger. What I already knew and he was soon to find out was that those things are everywhere down here. I’m fairly certain it’s a state requirement to have one at this point. You get it at the border. After hopping into the Georgia-mobile dad immediately asked if there was anywhere good to eat nearby. I didn’t really know of anywhere other than fast food places, the closest “restaurant” was like a mile away. He decided to turn into a southern fast food place for some “Southern Food”. Now, I’ve officially been in the south for three months now, and I had never eaten in a place like this. Basically what “Southern Food” appeared to boil down to was grease and cheese smothering every possible thing it could. I wasn’t too hungry, so I nibbled on some chili cheese fries while my dad and I caught up. We hung around the place for close to an hour before we set off toward our destination for the day: the Georgia Aquarium.

I’ve been in Atlanta for a while, and I had heard light tales about the aquarium, but I’d never been. Dad was meeting someone who volunteered there the day after, so we both figured that it would be worth our time to check it out. That would later turn into an understatement. At first the place seemed rather ordinary. We purchased tickets to get inside and then addition ones for the dolphin show (because hey…dolphins). Once we walked into the main room though, things changed. I can only compare it to what it must be like to walk into the Natural History museum for the first time, or Hogwarts. The main area was a massive, open room, made even more impressive by the giant light up snowflakes hung for the holiday season. It was fairly full of what must be the normal mix of schoolchildren, teenagers, and older couples.

The first few rooms that we looked at were cool, if pretty standard. There was a small pool where you could pet some stingrays, and beyond it a series of rooms full of fish tanks and aquariums with smaller fish and turtles, pretty cool. The next… “exhibit” I guess you’d could say, had some more impressive tanks. They filled up entire walls and some of them even went into the ceiling. The fish inside were mostly Georgia basics I think, with one section holding some very docile, albino looking alligators, pretty cool. Things started to pick up around the cold water exhibit. Walking in we saw a few more small aquariums, all of them immediately forgotten, for all of the attention in the room gravitated toward a big two story tank at the front. Inside it, three huge beluga whales swam around playfully, running their sides along the glass every so often. They were incredible to watch as they went around in circles, soothing orchestral music playing in the background. We watched them for quite a while, a little awestruck, while they jumped in and out of the water. Once we could pry ourselves away from the whales we spent a little too much time waiting for an octopus to make some time to pose for pictures (that self righteous dick). Then we checked out the other parts of the exhibit. There were sea otters, sea horses, oh, and penguins! Little penguins just waddling around. Pretty goddamn cool!

Afterward we checked out a couple other tanks. We saw some piranhas and some more otters, not bad. Suddenly the time of the dolphin show was getting close, but we had time to check out one last thing. We saw a big light up sign next to a tunnel that said “Ocean Voyage”. We had no clue what it was, but there was time so we went to check it out. While we were chatting on our way in we peeked through a small little window previewing the exhibit, and through it we caught a glimpse at a beautifully huge undersea landscape absolutely teaming with aquatic life. Now incredibly excited, we hurried down into the plexiglass tunnel that led under the whole thing. Massive fish and manta rays swam overhead and we walked through. Dad had a mini panic attack because he was so distracted by what was above him he never thought to look down and notice that he was on a conveyer belt. After touring through the tunnel that went around the tank we stopped in the room displaying the whole thing with one giant window. We would later learn that Ocean Voyage is the biggest man-made aquatic tank in the entire world! It houses manta rays, sting rays, reef sharks, sand sharks, and even whale sharks, four massive whale sharks! They were some of the most beautiful things I have seen in my entire life. Needless to say we stayed and watched for quite a while. Incredibly, unbelievably cool!

Soon we had to pry ourselves away. It was dolphin time. We got ahead of the crowd and made our way over to the special dolphin theater arena. We got ourselves some nice seats and watched as a ton of people poured into the place. Soon it was all full and a quick documentary played describing the story of how the arena was made and how they got all the dolphins there, and then the show started. Now stop for a moment. I want you to picture what you would normally think a dolphin show would entail. You see trainers coming out to talk to the audience, telling you all the names of their dolphins as they do insane tricks and hand out fish like it was crack. The audience “oooo’s” and “ahhh’s” as a ton of people in the front row get all kinds of wet (heh), and of course that’s what it was, right? Wrong. When the lights dimmed and the announcer spoke out, what we first saw wasn’t dolphins, it wasn’t penguins, or a great white shark, no this was something far more terrifying. Out onto that stage bounced a singing man in a sparkly rainbow cape! You see Dolphin Tales is a full fledged stage musical revolving around the dolphins and a singing male lead known as The Star Spinner. It involved sea battles, special effects, and as I’ve mentioned, singing and dancing. It could be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever laid eyes on. Strangely though I’d say it’s worth your time, especially if you got sold kids who are all into that Disney On Ice bullshit. The dolphins were seriously impressive once they got some stage time. They launched their trainers in the air and did all sorts of crazy backflips, posing on the glass and snorting down as much fish crack as was thrown to them. I enjoyed it once I could get past “sparkly cape dude”, and it really got me thinking, “how hard can it be to get a job feeding things at this place?” Dolphins need their crack. I’ll give it to them.

After walking out of the arena in the throb of people marveling over that guy’s sparkly cape, dad and I went back through Ocean Voyage one more time. We sat in front of the plexiglass window staring at the magnificent sea beasts inside for another solid hour. While there we found out that the aquarium has fucking sleepovers that you can do right in that room. You can sleep in front of the fucking whale sharks! Not only that, but you can go diving with them, in the tank! We watched people go in there! And yet another item has been added to my bucket list.

Finally stumbling out of the aquarium, we decided we were hungry. This was supposed to be my “early thanksgiving”, so dad told me to pick anywhere I wanted. We ended up deciding on The Hard Rock Cafe, because hey, I had never been. Having vegetarians on my team has made my meat consumption a little limited, so I loaded up on a barbecue entourage, oh and mashed potatoes of course. We sat and had a really nice meal. It was great to catch up with dad after so long. I had really been missing everyone from back home, so having him there felt really nice. I told him of all the stories I’ve already built up in the sort time I’ve been in this program, the places I’ve been, the people I’ve met, and the food I’ve eaten. After dinner we had a quick cup of coffee and listened to the waitresses sing YMCA, then we left.

Dad took me back to my housing around 9 o’clock. I introduced him to my team and my team leader and I showed him up to my little room. I made sure he met my new friends from outside of my team. Together, Danny, Cat, dad, and I stood around in the hall and chatted for a little while. Then it was time for him to go. I took him out to the Georgia challenger and we said goodbye, deciding to meet up one more time for lunch before he left the city. Pretty great.

So that’s my late thanksgiving family time post! It was really great to spend some time with my dad and see some badass things at the aquarium. It’s been getting harder and harder being away from everybody, but I feel better knowing that in just a few more weeks I’ll be back home for Christmas. Now that is going to feel incredible! I hope you all enjoyed this special post, and I hope you all had a great thanksgiving and that none of you died on Black Friday. Until next time.

ISP’s for Days

Yes I realize that it has been a while since I’ve posted anything. The past week wasn’t that great for me, but petty excuses aside I have a brand new post for you all. Are you excited? Yes? No? You better be!

*(If you’re not, just remember that google maps is a thing that exists, and I could find where you live easily if I was really dedicated…but I wouldn’t worry about that. I’d much rather get what we in Atlanta call a cake-shake. That’s a milkshake with an entire cupcake blended up in it. An entire cupcake. Sounds amazing right? Of course it is! Far more worth my time than hunting you down. It’s not all about you you know.)

But anyway, on to the post! Since FEMA work has been very meh lately, I will be talking about all my recent ISP’s. If you are new to this establishment or you just really don’t like paying attention to me, ISP stands for individual service project. Got it down? Gonna remember it this time? You better! (If not refer to the previous threat*)

We shall begin a long long time ago. Last Wednesday to be exact. We we’re “given the day off at the office” because someone’s retirement party was going on in our workspace, so really we were just kind of pushed out of the way. Still wanting something to do for the day, we volunteered at a local community garden. It was located down the street from the community center we volunteered for, wrapping around a soccer field so torn up it made me regret ever saying that the ones back home were shitty.

We worked for an incredibly nice woman named Mariam who instructed us in all our work and even stepped in to help from time to time. While we worked she shared with us bits of her life story, growing up in the city but spending time at her grandparents farm in New York caused her to get a degree in agriculture and work to educate inner city kids about clothe benefits of growing your own food. She had us working to build a special kind of compost garden that I forget the name of (something German). It involved a lot of piled logs, mulch, compost and soil. It was good hard work and not all too complicated, and besides a few ant bites it was pretty fun. While digging up some Georgia clay for the garden I joked with my roommate David that we were all digging his grave, and that it would be rude of him not to help (it was for him after all).

ISP #2 was, yet again, Habitat for Humanity! I was very excited for the chance to work with habitat once again. My first experience working with them was so fulfilling and fun that I would gladly do it 100 times. This time was a little different than the last.

For one it was a day one build as opposed to day two, so we had different work to do. This time our jobs consisted of building and putting up the frame of the house. Part of it was already constructed (it was like the organization’a 800,000th house…or something. It was already partly built for some event) so it resulted in a serious lack of work to do. So many people had shown up to volunteer that there just weren’t enough jobs for everyone. You would feel like you weren’t really helping if you did nothing, but you felt like you were in the way if you stepped in on a job. I ended up wandering around trying to snag any job I could before someone else took it. When I couldn’t do that I just had to look busy. Other than that the only thing I have to say is that the contractor in
charge was annoyingly good looking. The girls on my team wouldn’t stop talking about him. I didn’t see what the big deal was, I’ve seen way hotter guys. Overall my second habitat session wasn’t as good as my first, so as a result my after-habitat nap wasn’t nearly as blissful, but I was still ok.

My last ISP was on Veterans Day. My team took the day off from our FEMA work and joined up with that other team staying with us to honor the veterans the best way we knew how, cleaning soap. We volunteered at the Global Soap project for the day, it’s an organization that takes in nasty old soap from hotels, cleans it up, grinds it together to make new soap and then gives that new soap away to third world countries and government organizations (the cdc gets a lot of their soap from them). After touring the plant we set to work cleaning off the old nasty soap for the day. Mostly it was pretty disgusting. I can’t tell you how many big clumps of hair I had to get off that soap (don’t worry we wore gloves, didn’t keep me from gagging though). It was a pretty nice ISP though, we were helping out a seriously nice cause, and I got to throw soap at my roommate David. Afterward we took some pictures, said our goodbyes, and then got some Taco Bell (I still stand in my belief that Doritos Locos tacos are the greatest things on earth).

*a note from the dumbass writer:
This is pertaining as to why this blog post took weeks to write. I’m sitting in the FEMA office, my normal work all finished and my energy from the 12 cups of coffee from this morning dissipating. I’m reflecting on my horrid bout of procrastination and eager to put this phone down to watch some more Doctor Who (which I now just remember that I watch on my phone…). I believe I owe it to you all who have been asking for the next post to apologize. It seems that every time I manage to put out a new post it has to start with me giving excuse after excuse for being late.

I don’t exactly know why it’s been so hard for me to keep up with this blog. Originally the idea was to have a post almost every other day, and I think that’s part of the problem. I have this bad habit of piling on too many projects or trying to do too much work at once, and instead of doing it all I make myself flustered and I dont end up doing any of it, instead all I want to do at the end of my day is sink into my bed and shut out everything else. I think that’s been the problem here, so to give myself a bit of a deadline that I can better handle, I am going to aim for one post a week from now on (I know I have a bad track record, but just bare with me). If specific things happen that I want to write about then there may be more. I always did have back up things to write on so if I have a boring week I’ll try to fall back on that (this blog was originally going to involve more than just Americorps stuff, I’d like to bring in some of the other elements).

Things you all have missed in my long absence:
I have lost yet another teammate, though this time they didn’t leave the program, they just switched teams. I did gain two teammates recently however, and so far they’re fitting in just fine. I did go visit the CDC headquarters and toured the museum, that was cool. One team moved out of the church and one from our campus just moved in, so I have people around that I should remember but didn’t exactly know all their names (the key is to wait and listen carefully for someone else to say it (winky face)). Oh and I found out today that there’s a leak in my room, so that’s fun.

It was just Catherine’s birthday! (I know she’ll probably be reading this, and she is always so excited when she gets attention. Yes, hello Catherine). Happy birthday!

My dad was just visiting last week and we had a great time. I’ll make a nice Thanksgiving post about it since I missed the Halloween one.

That’s all folks. I hope you enjoyed this long awaited/long delayed/oh dear god why blog post! I’m glad to be mostly caught up and I hope that I can keep a better handle on it from now on, but hey, I’m slightly human. Until next time.

Habitat for Humanity

At the FEMA office my team works for 4 out of the 5 work days in the week. For those 4 days we work diligently reading courses and updating files ( 😀 ), so what do we do on the fifth? Is every weekend a 3 day weekend? Do we spend the day meditating or practicing our spells for defense against the dark arts class? Nope. We do ISP’s.

Now for those of you who may be new or just forgetful, ISP stands for Independent Service Project. They are the extra work projects that my team has to seek out and do in our own time, and they count towards our hours. Basically we call up volunteer and nonprofit organizations and ask, “hey, want some free labor for a day?” Of course they say yes, because who doesn’t love free labor?

This past weekend we did something that I have always wanted to do. We volunteered with Habitat For Humanity. If you are unfamiliar with “Habitat” just know that it is a volunteer program where people get together and build houses for those less fortunate than themselves. It’s a great idea and a great progam, and I’m so glad I finally got a chance to work with them.

We showed up at the build site earlier in the morning than I was used to. The air was incredibly cold that morning (for Atlanta at least) and my team shivered quietly in the back of our van, waiting for the others to arrive. I felt awful from the lack of sleep and, more importantly, the lack of coffee. Luckily the Habitat people showed up shortly, with breakfast, with coffee (score). The breakfast was from Chic fil A, a famous fried chicks chain that is all over here in the south. Now I’ve tried to stay away from buying Chic fil A as best as I can since the company is fairly evil (they’ve been known to fund anti gay groups all over the world. It’s fair to say I don’t agree with that). Unfortunately for my morals, I had not had breakfast that morning, and I was pretty damn hungry. So I begrudgingly ate a chicken biscuit sandwich. It was delicious, and I hated it.

We were on a day 2 build, meaning that the frame of the house was already built. The jobs to be done on day 2 involved roofing, siding, window, and door installment. I like being up high, so I did roofing. After a quick overview of what had been done, what needed to be done, and how we were going to do it by Jason, the very nice, very friendly build director who always (ALWAYS) had a cigarillo hanging out of his mouth, we got to work. I climbed up into the rafters and started nailing plywood in for the roof. I felt perfectly safe up high on the roof, but that changed slightly after I was told by the contractors that the safety catches on the sides were really just for show (thanks for that btw). It didn’t stop me though.

The work that day felt really good. There’s something satisfying about hammering a roof all day (that is, when you aren’t hitting your damn thumb!). We got plenty of water breaks (which was good because that cold morning weather disappeared FAST) and even lunch (not from Chic fil A thankfully).

After lunch things wound down a bit. We nailed in the last of the plywood on the roof and I enjoyed sliding up and down it like a fool (inadvertently making my pants filthy for the whole rest of the week, limited laundry trips and all). By the time we started putting the tar paper down my fingers killed from hammering all day and the sun was starting to get to me a bit. I kept going just fine and we got the tarpaper down, but soon it was time for us to go, and I was glad for it. Before we left they had me sign my name on the tarpaper, showing that I was a part of it all. We then said goodbye to the homeowner whom we were building for, grabbed some soda and headed back to base. It felt incredible to have done a full day of labor building a home for someone who really needed it, and to see the look of gratitude on her face as we left, but what felt even better was the nap that I took later that afternoon. That nap. Oh man that nap. I could write beautiful poetry about that.

And what makes it even better is that we went out for milkshakes, and then Taco Bell, where we had a run in with a sketchy guy, but I was over it by the time that taco hit my lips. I swear, whoever came up with the Doritos Locos Taco should have their own statue somewhere, because they’re a genius.

So that was my second ISP, and my favorite one to date! Thank you to my teammate Genise who put it all together. I’m so glad I did Habitat For Humanity, and I would recommend it to anyone! Thank you all for reading, until next time!

~Atlanta PT. 2~

So here I am again back in fellowship hall, writing some more. This time my team is cooking behind me while I listen to my alternative rock playlist. They’re not all cooking so don’t think I’m a lazy dick (but I am).

So where did I leave off? Monday? Monday was not all too special. I went running with some of my teammates around our motel and spent the day doing something that I can’t remember. My roommate David really wanted to go to the movies, and we’re not allowed to go out by ourselves (buddy system and all that). So I went with and we saw Captain Phillips. It was alright. Tom Hanks is one of my favorite actors, and the story itself is good, but the movie was anticlimactic. No ones to blame, it’s just hard to make a movie about that situation.

The next day we started our real work. The real actual work that we’ve been building up to for over a month. We arrived at the office bright and early for our orientation. It’s a big government building with tight security and a complex of other locations nearby, and it was also a ghost town. Thanks to that lovely government shutdown that we all had to endure for several weeks, there was barely anyone working in the whole place, and of those who were, some weren’t even being paid. There were other Americorps teams there from other campuses, and it was nice to meet the people we could turn into. The future is dark. Fortunately there were enough people to give us a formal welcome. We got to meet the people we were to work under, and they’re great! My POC is named Nancy, and she brought us cookies, and suddenly everything felt alright.

The shutdown ended shortly after we got settled in, and the building started to fill in a bit each day. Soon the place was bustling again. I actually don’t mind working in the office for now. The people are nice, the work is manageable, and there is an unhealthy supply of coffee (just the way I like it).

That Tuesday was a little tough. We finished work at the office around 4 in the afternoon, our stuff packed up and ready to move into our permanent housing. There was just one problem. We did not have housing yet. To kill time while we waited to hear where we were staying we drove around the local area doing “demographics”. Really we just drove in circles for a while, living out of the van. Later in the afternoon we stopped in the local neighborhood, an interesting blend of all things Asia and Latin America, while some of my teammates checked out local shops. I was in no mood for it, so I remained in the van with some others playing Pokemon. My Torchick evolved!!!

It was dark before we learned where we were staying. I believe I mentioned Woodland Hills church in part one. When we first arrived we got a quick overview of the rules and the place itself by a young college intern with a voice so thick you could barely understand her, let’s call her Jessy (not sure why because I won’t really mention her again, but for future reference, she is Jessy). The first night was a little rocky. I didn’t have much of a problem with the place at first. We sleep in dorm rooms attached to a small common room that has some cabinets for clothes. It’s not bad, but there are some issues. Immediately many members of my team were concerned about the lack of locks on…everything, and the fact that there were going to be missionaries coming in and out. There isn’t a lot of storage space, and the bathrooms are pretty nasty, but as long as the people who run the church aren’t keeping the corpses of sinners in the closet, I think I’ll survive. (The more skeptical members of my team had someone from campus to come inspect the place. He basically told us all to deal with it.)

I squeezed into a room with the two other guys on my team. We were the first ones there so we got first pick of everything, so we found what was good and snagged it. Now to understand my next move just remember that at this point I had spent 4 straight days living and working and breathing with my team, I needed to be alone. So I left our cramped room and moved to sleep out in the common area (there were beds there). Before falling asleep I wanted to look out the window and reflect on my life (as Jack Donaghy would), in the room I chose I found something. I found something magical and rare…something that made me forget those long days, forget that I was far from home, and that people can’t get over the fact that Ben Affleck is going to play batman (it’s going to be fine people!). I found a queen sized bed, an OPEN queen sized bed! You can bet a million dollars that I slept there that night, and it was amazing. Even since moving rooms and having more teams move in to stay, I still have that magical bed. It’s my one luxury, the one thing that I can hold onto no matter how bad it gets, and if anyone takes it it will be over my dead and bloody body!

We’re still there and we’re still kicking. Work is moving along fine and I’ve since had some friends from campus move in with us (hey Catherine :D), so things have been ok. Unfortunately I’ve had 2 teammates leave the program since we got here, bringing the toll of lost teammates to 4. They left for financial and personal reasons (really they just got better jobs), so to Sarah, Lauren, Jessa, and Emily, if you’re reading this I wish you all the best and I hope you’re doing alright (you still owe us cupcakes Lauren!). I’ve been exploring more of Atlanta and loving what I find (artsy coffee shops galore!).

I hope you all enjoyed the Atlanta updates. I hope to have more for you all on the way! Thanks for reading, and until next time…