~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…

~Atlanta~

So I realize that not only have I dropped the ball this week, but the ball has bounced far from my feet, down a flight of stairs, out a window, and fallen several stories to shatter at the feet of a homeless man named “My Productivity”. Why is he homeless? Because it’s an unfair system, that’s why. Usually his good friend “My Creativity” is around to help him out, but he’s been on vacation this week. Throw all of that together and you end up with with one very blank blog.

In all seriousness though, this week has thrown me a curveball, and I hate baseball. Transitioning from living on campus to having no real housing for 3 days, starting work in a FEMA office, finding new housing, meeting new people, and exploring a new city all while having no time to yourself and trying to fulfill your normal duties (such as exercise and team meetings) has been incredibly stressful to say the least.

According to Stephen King’s “On Writing” a good writer must learn good description and the only way to do so is through reading and writing a lot of it, so excuse me while I practice. I am currently sitting in the fellowship hall of my new home for 2 months, Woodland Hills Church. It’s not an extensively large room, but not small either. It holds a sea of round and rectangular dining tables, resembling my old high school cafeteria. To one far side of the room sits a small stage, to the opposite a bible quote hung onto the wall in large, faded letters. In between them I sit, munching on a bagel smothered in creamy peanut butter and trying to get all my thoughts on the same page. They don’t always cooperate. Now I would be lying if I said that this past week was the worst of my life, definitely, but I can say that it has been one of the busiest and most trying. With that out of the way, I’ll try to catch you up.

We drove out to Atlanta last Saturday. I don’t remember much of the drive since the I had gotten no sleep he night before. I chose instead to be with some friends I thought I was saying goodbye to. I seemed to come to around every rest stop, making the trip feel really segmented and kinda blurry. Fortunately I woke up just in time to see us roll into our new home, Atlanta (best known of course for being the setting of AMC’s The Walking Dead). I have to admit, despite the lack of zombies, this place is beautiful. I wasn’t too thrilled to come here at first, but now I’m glad it went the way it did.

Our first night here started off with some dinner at a Persian restaurant (our team leader thought it would surprise the Pakistani member of my team). I learned 2 things that night: that I don’t much care for Persian food, and that a restaurant with a solitary belly dancer jingling around the room between all the tables is more than a little awkward.

We didn’t have permanent housing yet, so we went to go stay in a motel. At first the place seemed fine, but the further in we went the more likely it seemed that meth deal was going on somewhere in one of the rooms. We got settled in nonetheless and finally felt at ease…Nope, not at all, because our first rooms were all teeming with little black monstrosities commonly known as fleas. After the initial freak out and some arguing with the concierge we got new rooms. They were alright. Later the older members of my team went out drinking while the rest of us hunted down a local diner in our tired delirium, and let me tell you that at 12:30 all mozzarella sticks taste good.

The next day was far better. My teammates and I drove into town to check out Atlanta’s massive gay pride parade. The streets were teaming with people dancing, laughing, and wearing costumes. Some floats were great, some were weird, but they were all fun. It was awesome to see so many people come together and just celebrate who they are and support others. There were some protesters in the mix holding anti gay signs about how everyone was going to burn in hell, but the parade had the perfect response. No one bashed the protesters or did anything harmful against them, no, instead the parade had people designated to hold giant paper flowers and simply stand next to them covering up their hateful signs. It was beautiful.

At the parade we were given a handful of coupons to Chipotle. It was tough to pull the girls on my team away from the firetruck covered in male strippers, but eventually we began our quest for Mexican food. It was a pretty long walk and the sun had suddenly decided to get hotter, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t worth it. I had never had Chipotle before in my life, but after that massive beef burrito I will gladly go again, and again, and again, and again until my bank account is dry and I am ready to die happily.

After Chipotle we wandered around the city a bit. The parade had unfortunately ended, but we still checked out a few thrift shops and local coffee places. We walked through downtown and looked for what was fresh, noting some places that looked like a good time. We were getting settled down with some coffee, reflecting over our nice day when my roommate David came to a terrifying conclusion. We had to find somewhere to watch the premier of The Walking Dead! (Tragically our motel did not get AMC) So we looked up somewhere where they might be having a screening. Turns out there was a nice little sushi place on Walker street (heh) that could oblige us. So long story short I end-capped my day by having sushi for the first time and watching zombies get shot in the face. Overall it was a very nice day.

I can tell that this is already getting pretty lengthy, so I’m going to chop this up and release it in a few pieces. It’s usually pretty good to end on a good note. I hope you all enjoyed, and again I’m sorry that I keep falling so behind on all this, it’s tougher than I thought it would be. Anyway, keep checking in for new Atlanta updates all this week. I won’t be getting to anything else until these are out. Until next time…