I am now about a month into my new VISTA position as a Member Outreach Coordinator at Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration (MAVA). I can’t believe it has been this long since I last posted, but the last couple months have been packed full with packing to leave and then unpacking and trying to get adjusted to being back in MN and away from my Ameri-family. It's been a rough transition and really hard to get used to not being surrounded by tons of people my age.

Hmm… what has happened since I reached that Three weeks left mark in New Orleans? Well, Lousiana wrapped up very fast and the heat never let up. One of the best weekends was a trip I planned for 9 of us to rent cars and drive to Jackson MS so visit our the great Abe Wallace (he was on my team but had to leave a few weeks into our last Spike because his mom got sick. It was such an amazing day and I think a highlight for many!! I also got the chance to see my aunt and uncle twice while being in New Orleans which was amazing. They are such wonderful people and it was a great chance to be with family down there.

We were on our way to Denver and our last SPIKE travel experience which was really sad. I was very excited to get back to Denver and see the rest of the corps members to catch up before leaving them all. The weeks in Denver went very fast from what I remember. It was full of paper work, equipment turn in, packing and cleaning, along with fitting in fun things with each other. I don’t really remember at the moment what fun things I did… I went to an open mic night with some ladies, enjoyed the park next to our campus, went to Boulder to visit one of my supervisors from my two months with Open Space and Mountain Parks which was a ton of fun to see him. My parents and sister came on Saturday (we got back to Denver the Saturday before) which was very exciting. We went to Boulder where I showed them our house we lived in, went on a hike and did some shopping around Pearl Street. Sunday we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park which was beautiful…we were in the car most of the time but saw tons of beautiful views and got a lot of pictures. We drove the “Peak to Peak” route which is all up in the mountains and so breathtaking… we pulled over A LOT to say the least. Monday I had stuff going on so they went to Vail and then we went to Thai Basil with my cousin Eve which was a lot of fun… I really love that restuarunt and can’t wait to get it once I get back to Denver someday. Americorps NCCC has really opened up my variety of food I have eaten and like to eat. I have tried things I had barely heard of which was awesome.

Tuesday oh Tuesday… Graduation Day. Well, they woke us up at 5 in the morning to get us out of our rooms. So after very little sleep we were off the breakfast with the last of our bags. Once we got sick of sitting in the cafeteria we all moved out to the lawn under the trees to take a nap/or at least try to. After some relaxing in the grass it was off the graduation rehearsal and lastly the big event. It was so surreal to be sitting in the audience watching people cross the stage… not realizing this was the end of this experience. After graduation we were all forced to say goodbye and disperse within about 15 minutes. It was FULL of tears and pictures of us looking like crap since we had all been crying so hard. Driving away from the campus and that life was so hard and strange. Not knowing the next time I will see any of those people and knowing that I will never be with them as a group for a long period of time ever again. A long weekend is probably the most chunk of time we will ever see one another. A lot of these people have come to be some of my best friends and it has been really hard not having them across the hall or next door anymore. Thank goodness for the phone and internet!

I am really enjoying my new job... it's an Americorps VISTA position so it's August to August. I don't mind that fact one bit because I hope to move back to CO shortly after... that's my plan as of now! I am learning A TON and the ladies I work with are very helpful and want to give me as much as experience as they can which is amazing. I never thought I would get to learn as much as I already have and it's only been a little over a month. I only had about 3 days off before starting this job so it hasn't been the smoothest of transitions but it's getting there. I didn't realize it would be this freaking hard to be back here. Taking it one day at a time. I really love being able to be with my family and go to my cousin's soccer games... I can't wait until they play each other in high school varsity soccer as seniors. Should be a blast (it's in October). This job is also helping me get over my fear of calling people I don't know! haha I'm totally not comfortable doing it but welp here goes nothing :-) I am doing everything from social media, volunteer management to planning events and setting up/running online and silent auctions. Wowsers I am so thankful for all this year is going to teach me.

I am already planning a trip to meet up with these five girls from NCCC who I became very close with (Megan, Catie, Kristy and Shannon) for this Spring. We're thinking about heading to San Diego, where Kristy is from, and camping on the beach or even just staying at her house. I plan on going to Denver hopefully soon to see some of my loves that moved out there. I am also already very excited for my teammate and really good friend Beth to turn 21 (Kelly and I are planning on going to Austin for it) however, it's not until January 2011. I miss my roomie Molly and my whole Water Three family so much. They are all such amazing people and I can't wait to see them again. It's just so hard with everyone being broke and getting settled into the next chapter of our lives.

Well until next time,

Love,

Nicole "Misses Americorps NCCC class 16" Burg

Songs I have been listening to on repeat for a while (I only listed the slow ones):

"To Know Love" Little Big Town (My song of all songs :-)

"God Gave me you" Dave Barnes

"Home" Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

Three weeks from TODAY

Ahhh we start our road trip home three short weeks from today... so bitter sweet and mixed emotions. So excited to regain my freedom and be home; but SO not excited to leave all of these amazing people not knowing when I will see them next. Eek.

Well, this past week and a half for week I worked with DECON the rest of last week and this week Beth and I thought we signed up to do exterior painting but ended up doing very little painting and mostly lead removal from a house site. We had to vacuum so many tiny peices of lead from the dirt and on the concrete. Then we washed this toxic stuff over the concrete and pushed it into the grass with a broom, followed by some weed control. It has been a pretty low key week but not very exciting at all.

Thursday night/Friday morning a bunch of us went to the midnight showing of Toy Story 3 which was soooooo good. It was pretty darn scary and I can't imagine a little kid seeing it. I highly reccomend it though. It was really fun to get to go to the midnight showing too. Then Friday during the day we did an ISP at the Children's museum where we worked at the different exhibits, I worked on getting the arts and crafts ready for Saturday's Father's Day at the Museum which was pretty relaxed,

Friday one of the guys that is an Americorps for Rebuilding Together had a little get together so a bunch of us went there which was fun. Then Saturday I finally got to hang out with my Aunt and Uncle!! It was so fun and wonderful, I really hope I have enough time to do it again. It was so nice to be with family and get away for bit, all while getting to see the sites with them. We went to Bravo! a wonderful Italian restaurant which was delicious, then got to ride a street car and Auntie Zulma showed me where she lived at one time and where she liked to hang out. I got some Roman taffy from this horse drawn carriage stand and then it was off to see Uncle Mark's office building. It is right on the river and has a great view. Then we walked down to the River Walk which is a shopping mall type thing on the river with a lot of restaurants (we got some delicious ice cream :-)). Then sadly it was time to be dropped off, but I plan on hopefully having another day with them.

Sunday Beth and I went to church at THE CHURCHS NAME which is the beautiful big basilaca in Jackson Square. After lunch a handful of us went on a walking tour of the Garden District and learned about the different massive homes. We saw Eli and Peyton Manning's childhood home where their father lives, along with John Goodman's house. On John Goodman's fence there was a note left from a delivery service written to "Mr. Goodman" which was pretty neat.

Nothing too exciting so far this week, but tomorrow we are going to the Barnum and Bailey circus which I am really excited for. I have never been to a circus... atleast I don't think I have haha. I don't know how I feel about the animals being caged and all but I wanted to experience the circus.

I can't believe we leave 3 weeks from today!! It's so insane that my ten months are almost already over. WOW has there been so many amazing and tough experiences throughout it all but dang I don't regret anything about joining this wonderful program and I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone 18-24!!

Well, time to clean a little!

Love,
Nicole Marie Burg

Time for a new chapter

Well, I have really been neglecting my poor blob and so I have so time to make up on here. Partly I blame not having enough time because by the time we eat dinner it's sleepy time and I hate losing any time from that. I also blame my darn computer who's "N" key doesn't work the best and it is missing the "L" one... well more like I have yet to put it back on so with two keys missing this would have been a very interesting post.


This round since I posted last:

I spose you could say I am getting used to the heat, more so getting used to the fact that by 8:30 a.m. I will be dripping sweat and at times covered in dirt. As for work I have worked in "DECON" which is the area that collects old wood/bricks/windows/doors and sells them back. Working with that team means moving a lot of stuff, cleaning bricks, shoveling dirt, pouring cement, building things, just random things they need done around their yard. Last week Kristy and I volunteered to install these historical plaques on people's homes throughout New Orleans. We were banking on that entailing us driving around in the air conditioning listening to music and putting up plaques. Well with this place being so organized... Monday we were told there was only one to be hung that we would be painting the outside of a house for the week instead. DANG what a change of plans haha, I kind of enjoyed painting (as long as it was in the shade, since last week the heat index was up to 110 ICK). The extension ladders were pretty intimidating and I only went on the 28 foot one once, I stuck to the 20 and 16 foot ones plus painting on the ground, someones gotta do it right?! :-) I was able to somewhat fade my arms farmer tan so that they are less drastic, although I have now gained a boot/sock tan. It's pretty bad: a severe line from tan to white (kinda looks like my dad after a summer of golfing) I'm kinda excited to give him some competition for worst tan :-) Well Thursday we were able to hang the one plaque which was supposed to only take about a half hour, but we were not giving proper instructions and we also didn't know what we were drilling into. This lead to us driving fifteen minutes back to the warehouse twice, so all in all the thirty minute job took us about 5 hours (not our fault by the way!!) It made for a really funny story!! Oh and not to mention when we arrived for the first time the homeowner and another lady were waiting for us and mentioned how we were both female, how they were expecting some guys. BULL CRAP!! haha Then they took pictures and watched us on our first try of putting it up, talk about pressure, thankfully they were unable to meet us back at the house after our first of two trips back to the shop. That was last week, an interesting one to say the least.


This week I am working with DECON again, which is ok. The day goes by pretty fast for the most part and we are basically working in our back yard if we could call it that so we are able to come home for lunch and to use the bathroom and such. We are switching off working every other Friday with the other team here so it's our turn this week which is VERY exciting!!


Fun things we have done during the weeks but mostly on the weekends:


Beth on my team lead us in a walking tour of the French Quarter which was a lot of fun because we were able to interesting facts about different houses and buildings. I think we saw about 35 different places. After eating my first Poboy for lunch (a catfish one) we walked right into a protest against the oil spill and BP, which turned out to be on CNN.com so that was pretty crazy.


We went to a New Orleans Zephyrs baseball game last week which was a lot of fun. It's like the Saint Paul Saints but for down here, it's kinda weird how they don't have an MLB team.


We went up to Baton Rouge for a crawfish boil. It was pretty fun, quite the experience.


On Saturday a few of us went to an Irish pub to watch the US/England game which was a lot of fun but a little too packed for Melanie and I so we left the guys there and went to a more low key bar. Reminded me of how much I miss soccer!! Like wow I miss it.


We also did some service learning a couple Fridays ago: we went to see the levees (where the barge broke through it), Musicians Neighborhood thing which is a neighborhood with really fun colored homes where mostly musicians live, the Brad Pitt houses where we were lucky enough to go in one of the homes and hear the story of the first guy to move back to the lower 9th.


I went to see Sex and the City 2 the other day. A couple guys went to the A-Team and I wanted to see my movie so I went by myself and it was AMAZING. It was such a great get away from being around so many people and reality as a whole.


Other than those things we have mainly been hanging out, enjoying our last few weeks together with each other.


I GOT A JOB!!! YAYA I am so excited for the next year of my life and I feel so lucky to know what I will be doing after this NCCC ten months is over. WOW I still can't believe my ten months is coming to an end. Joining this program and couldn't believe how long it was going to be but wow has it flown by. Anyways I GOT A JOB :-) It's an Americorps VISTA job with MAVA in Maplewood, MN. MAVA is the Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration and I will be the Member Outreach Coordinator. It's kind of a long description of what MAVA is so you can go the website and check it out for yourself!! It's a year job with regular work weeks which I have never had before so that will be really nice. The ladies who work there seem very nice and I am so excited to start. I have training August 3-6 and I graduate NCCC July 27th so it will be a very short break, but I am so thankful to have a job lined up. I am so excited to get my foot in the door and experience with nonprofits because that is what I have found to be what I would like to do in the long run. Plus something with volunteer coordinating so this will give me a lot of wonderful experience.


I plan to save some money by living with my wonderful parents :-) and then hopefully move out to Denver after this next year is over. That is my plan as of now but who knows what will happen. All I know is I am so ready to have my ability to drive to Target in my little green Honda with the sunroof open and K102 blasting, without having to ask for permission!! I can't wait to go out on the lakes and up to the cabin every weekend!! I can't wait to see my family and friends and Bailey bunny and Macers!! I don't want to have to say goodbye to my Ameri-friends and family!! I can't wait for my brothers wedding!! I can't wait to have my own room back with my big bed!! I can't wait to NOT be dripping sweat the second I walk out the door!! I can't wait to be back in MNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!

I hope to get to see Auntie Zulma and Uncle Mark VERY SOON!!!

We leave NOLA 4 weeks from Thursday so I am going to try not to look to far ahead and enjoy this all since I know I will miss it when it's over.


LOVEEE
COLEY BURG

Humidity, Heat and more Humidity

WOW the temperature down here in New Orleans is insane!! Like the second I step outside no matter the time of day (unless it's like 10 at night) I am instantly covered in sweat. Apparently a couple of days ago the heat index was 100 degrees... in the shade!! GROSS!! Especially when we are moving big boards and bricks outside in it.

We have officially been in NOLA for a week, we are working with Rebuilding Together a nonprofit that has branches all over the country including MN. I like it so far in the way that each person on my team gets to stay at the same project for the whole week, that way we are more able to finish a task. I have been working with "Decon" this week. Decon is the deconstruction team which is newly added to the organization. They take donations from people or clean out homes being demolished in order to resell or make new things out of the material. Monday and Tuesday I worked with a couple other people on my team making donation runs... well the same house that had a ton of bricks/doors/windows/tubs. We made numerous trips from the Decon yard to the house and back loading and unloading the goods. Yesterday was one of the most strenuous days I have had in a long time; Kelly and I loaded and unloaded thousands of bricks along with many other things in the heat and wow was it tiring. But I am very thankful because I had an interview today (crossing my fingers) for a VISTA position after NCCC so I decided to take a Life After Americorps day. We get two throughout the year and three personal days and I have yet to take one. So, I thought what the heck. I got to prep for the interview, relax and catch up with some people from home which was wonderful. I am going to see if anyone o my team wants to do PT today at a park so I can get out of this house and go for a lovely walk in Audubon Park, which is beautiful.

Saturday we went to the Bayou Boogaloo, which was a festival type thing with music, food and booths of art, clothing, jewelry (kind of like an art fair). Then at night we went to Olive Garden for my bday which was great... although I never seem to eat as much with anyone but my sister. I guess no one else downs ten bread sticks so I don't feel like I should!! haha Then Sunday we slept in and relaxed, then went to Audubon Park which is very beautiful with lots of trees and a lake thingy with about a 2 mile walking/biking trail. It surrounds a golf course and is across from the zoo which we are planning on going to soon. I hope to go to that park today as I said earlier.

We live in a two story house on the second story, the office to Rebuilding Together is downstairs. Our house is bright green with purple doors (I'll try to put more pictures up soon), it is right next to the salvage store ad warehouse which is nice if you are working there for the week... decon is also across the street from the warehouse. We live in a pretty unsafe part of New Orleans so we are unable to walk anywhere which makes me feel kinda trapped at times, not being able to go for a walk around the block to get away. There is a large fence with razor wire o top of it to protect us which reassures me but also wish we were in an area that the fencing was not needed. It is such a huge change from being in Boulder with tons of space and surrounded by hiking trails.

There is so much to do down here so hopefully that will keep me busy and content in the heat. I am getting really excited to come home and enjoy what will be left of the summer on the lakes. I miss that so much, my cabins, the lakes, all my friends and family. Bahhh only a couple months then this will sadly be over. I try not to think about it too much cause I have such mixed emotions. I can't wait for my brother's wedding, to see my other brother and Nicole's house, and not to mention Macers and Bailey. But most importantly my family (both immediate and extended) and friends. Well, time to convince the team it's a good idea for them to go back into the heat to head to the park :-)

Love,
Coley Burg

Back with the Water Three family

The last week in Boulder was amazing, such a great ending to a wonderful round. We were scheduled to work Monday and Wednesday. We worked Monday with the FEMP crew again so that was awesome, then Monday night was crazy windy all night long and was still whistling in the morning. We were suppose to do invasive species removal (med sage) which we all dislike with a passion but with the 50+ mile per hour winds we were able to do exit interviews with our amazing supervisor Craig, hang out at the library (where I was able to apply for a couple jobs) and go to a tour of Eco-Cycle (the recycling in Boulder). Then Wednesday we got the chance to go out birding with one of the best birders in the country and then on a hike in the afternoon. We saw amazing sites with breathtaking views. We were even able to see most of the Continental Divide from a distance. Thursday was used for cleaning of the house, which included being pampered with amazing pizza and pop. Thursday night we went out with our supervisors which was very enjoyable. Our last day in Boulder was spent getting ice cream and heading up to the little mountain town of Nederland up a beautiful drive of winding road, then Megan and I headed to Pearl Street for the last time. Friday morning was a little more hectic than we had planned for due to the flooring guys coming an hour early. But, we were able to be out by 9 and headed to the farmer's market and a flea market of those moving out from CU Boulder's graduation. I was able to try these amazing dumplings... I have tried so many new foods while being here in Americorps.


Transition week is always fun/boring/long/short. haha It always seems to go by very slowly and we think it's because most of the time we are wasting time before our next not very interesting meeting. Thursday we got free tickets to the Rockies game which was a lot of fun, we were upper deck behind home plate which was good since we were under an awning and it was raining pretty hard the whole game. They went into a rain delay halfway through the 8Th inning so we thought that was our cue to head back to campus. Paul and I were able to go to dinner Friday which was a lot of fun to get to spend time with just him. Saturday I did a lot of researching jobs, cleaning, laundry and a short nap. Last night we went out to Thai Basil was mine and Melanie's birthday. We both were born on May 20th but she is a year older... we were planning on going out in New Orleans together since her team was supposed to be living a few houses down from us. However, they got called to disaster relief in Mississippi from the flooding so they are going straight there and don't know how long they will be there for. We are hoping it will only be a few weeks so we still have time to work and play with them in NOLA.

I am VERY excited to get to see my aunt and uncle who live right out of New Orleans... I don't get the chance to see them much so it will be wonderful to be so close for a few months!! I have making progress with the job applying and am just waiting to see what happens while looking constantly online. Welp, it's almost time to start loading the cargo van for tomorrow so I better get going to double check I have everything packed I need. I am really looking forward to spike travel, the van relaxation, team bonding and staying in hotels. The heat and humidity is going to kick me in the ass for sure but I am looking forward to not having to wear/pack jackets and bulky things. Can't wait for this last adventure of my NCCC year... can't believe it's almost over... 4 days till my bday!!!

Miss and love MN
Coley Burg

April 29th 2010

This week has been awesome, everyday different and hard work. Before I get into this week I’ll do a little recap of last week…last week was a lot of ditches. We did ditches everyday. Part of the Silver Lake Ditch runs right behind our house so we hiked back there in order to fix a few areas that were leaking by adding a bunch of rocks and dirt. Tuesday we laid some seed stuff along one of the trails in order to make the soil better for growing vegetation. That was something different and kind of exciting because there were cows put in the area to “cut the grass” and when our bosses truck drove up they thought she was feeding them so twice they all came jogging towards us in hopes of food. I have never been that close to a cow before, wow they are big animals. Friday Megan and I had our first Capping event. We went to Fairview High School here in Boulder and talked to about 25 kids about Americorps NCCC, we figured about a third of them would actually apply, which was a pretty good number. We set up a table during their lunch periods in a common area and people would walk up to our table. We found it so interesting to sit and watch the kids in the hallways. It was like a movie, in many funny ways.

Last Monday we had training for this ISP we did with Climate Smart this past Saturday. We were put in pairs and given a rolling cart full of energy saving tools and supplies (drying rack, low flow shower head/hose nozzle, CFL’s and many more things). Then Claire and I were given a route of houses to go to. We went up to the door and asked if they were interested in this free service of changing out up to 20 light bulbs from old ones to new energy saving bulbs. Most of the homes we knocked on were not home, or not interested. We were able to go into one home of a very appreciative older couple. They were so nice and even gave us presents of frames with words in them. We were pretty discouraged before getting to their house, but they really made our day. What I thought was going to be nerve racking and stressful, turned out to be really fun.

Saturday was the light bulb volunteering and then Sunday Megan and I walked in the Boulder Earth Day 5K which was a lot of fun. I really miss being able to walk everyday, and the scenery was beautiful as it always is here. We then went to the Earth Day fair thing they had down town and were able to meet up and get lunch with some of our friends from the team that is based in Denver. After a relaxing movie afternoon at the mansion Paul and I went for a walk and then to The North Face store… my weakness to the max. I bought this really nice jacket that was on sale which I love. But, I also got a lunch bag and a laundry bag (I had neither) that were made out of old tents that were defective and factory mishaps. They are so awesome, and a dollar goes to a kids organization aimed at giving kids more knowledge about our natural world. They were also surprisingly really cheap (surprising coming from North Face).

And that brings me to this week…as of now I am sitting in my bed because we were planning on leaving at 8:15 but we woke up to it snowing so we aren’t leaving until 9 now. Crazy Colorado and its’ weather, yesterday after work we ran to the store and I was in shorts and now… snow!! This week has been a lot of hard work. Monday was one heck of a day. We worked with the IPM team removing Mediterranean Sage, which is what we did more of at the beginning of the project. We walked a few miles that day in our steel toes, with a shovel in hand and our back packs on… not to mention a mile back to the car up and down hills. The ground was also very uneven which made for people on my team to get blisters like whoa. Man oh man were we tired at the end of that day. Oh and we saw five rattlesnakes and one non rattle snake snake. Only one rattled because they said they were sleeping and sunning, so they moved slowly which made for a good view on our part.

Tuesday we built a rock wall made out of railroad ties, cement, all sizes of rocks and our sweat J. We carried the massive railroad ties, 60 pound bags of cement and all of the tools down the trail over and over again. It was another very tiring day, we even worked a longer day by choice in order to get the job done. The outcome was great and the wall will hopefully keep the expensive houses belong the ditch from getting flooded for ten years. So the soreness of our bodies continued. It was a beautiful day weather wise in Boulder which made it a lot more bearable carrying the 60 lb backs of cement on a trail for about a half mile over and over again. It was a great team bonding day that's for sure. I am going to miss people on this team so much next round when we go back to our original teams a week from tomorrow.

Yesterday was amazing, we FINALLY got to work with the FEMP team which works on forest restoration. They cut down trees and do controlled burns to control the size of the forest in Boulder. It was another beautiful day here and thankfully it was pretty high winds to keep up from overly sweating. We hauled a bunch of scrap, that they had cut prior to yesterday, into piles that we later hauled to the chipper which was so cool. It was raining wood chips and smelled wonderfully. We also cut down a bunch of smaller "only" 25 year old trees with hand saws and hauled those up to the road to be later chipped and returned to the forest floor. It was an amazing day, hard work but still a ton of fun. Not to mention all of us ladies were excited to work with the good looking FEMP crew... none as good looking as Paul thought :-) Jocie and I then made 5 amazing homemade pizzas for dinner with a dessert of course (they all know my sweets addiction). After dinner Michelle and I dropped people off at the Internet and YMCA before setting off to many different stores to find the perfect presents for our TL Daniel's bday tomorrow. I really like to plan these kind of things so I took it under my wing to collect to money and find the perfect gifts, which we were able to do. I love knowing that the present receiver will love their present and can't wait until tomorrow to give it to him and decorate the house.

Well, here I am... now at Barnes and Nobles since there is still snow on the ground we are not leaving the house until 11:30 to head to a tour of the National Center for Atmospheric Research which should be pretty interesting we hope. Then one of the OSMP staff we have been working with (Bob) is giving us a presentation at 1:30 and we are calling it a day!!! So wonderful, then tomorrow is Daniel's 24th bday so we are getting a cake and heading to dinner with him. After dinner most of the team is heading to Denver and staying in the dorms since Saturday we have the Walk MS volunteer day long event. It will be a long day but should be a ton of fun!!

Well, I need to use the rest of my Internet time to look at jobs, places to live, and canine friends.

Miss and love MN,
Nicole Marie Burg

p.s. I can't believe: I am almost 23, how amazing/challenging this experience has been, how fast it has gone by, it's almost time to head back to MN for an amazing Burg wedding!!!

April 25th, 2010

I still think its mighty crazy that it’s already 2010… can’t believe how fast life is moving. Especially this amazing experience, since it has only a few months left. Coming into Americorps I was nervous for being away from home for ten months, it seemed like such a long time. Now we are almost done with our third spike and finding it hard to realize it’s almost over. This last week was really hard in the sense that we are all really burnt out of the whole cleaning ditches job. I wish they would throw in some invasive weed removal, and when I am hoping for a day of weed picking you know it’s getting bad. I’m excited to be back with my original team, but love this one too. It sure will be weird heading back to Denver in July thinking we are back for another transition week then off again, just to realize that we are graduating and they are sending us home. I don’t want to think about not knowing the next time I will be seeing all of these people… my “Ameri-Family”. I just can’t wait to tell everyone I know about this amazing/challenging/life changing experience and recommend it to all.


Well, I'm not feeling the best... think it was the tacos for dinner. I'll be writing hopefully tomorrow then posting it next time we get to internet.


Funny/creepy things recently:

Today I was playing a whole lot of Tetris on Super Nintendo (I just may have played for a few hours…no regrets) and Max was going upstairs so I asked if he was coming back down and he said yes
So, naturally I asked if he would bring down my Blankie and phone from on my bed.
He comes back down with my phone and my whole bed spread… I laughed so hard I started crying. Haha I attempted to tell him in my hysteria that I meant my little Blankie and he was like “Oh, you mean your yarn?” haha he went up again and came back down with… so nice of him!! J

The other day Michelle saw these pretty “yellow flowers” which were, of course, Dandelions (I guess they don’t have those in NOLA).

When we were working on Thursday it was really bad weather outside and we were working in the afternoon in a ditch that was right beside many cows. The sky was really creepy, it was windy, raining off and on and can’t forget about the cows. To of course we began talking about scary movies. I'm not a big fan of watching scary movies but we ended up watching The Shinning that night and then Identity yesterday afternoon. Well, Saturday night all of my teammates and I left either to drop people off or go out on the town. Well four of us stayed in a watched a movie. When we got back to the house Daniel was surprised to see me come in the door cause he thought I was upstairs since he kept hearing noises. SO CREEEPY!!!

lovelovelove
Nicole