let em know

boy, howdy! What an interesting past nine days it has been. Last Tuesday I went down to the river and hung out with two of my favorite people here, just talking and taking in our experience. We ended up jumping into the Yazoo River...which was absolutely disgusting, but a memory I am so thrilled to have. That night was so fun. Many things changed that night... for the utmost better.
The next day was absolutely horrendous though. We had PT in the morning at 5:30 and our day didn't end until a CPR training that lasted until 9pm. Well.. those were the plans for the day, at least. On my way to CPR I got the most ridiculous pains in my lower abdomen. My team leader, Nora, ended up taking me to the hospital where I found out I just had a UTI. I reacted very badly to the pain medicine they gave me and spent the entire next day in bed, hating my life.
The weekend came, though, and life was fantastic again. I hung out with Brit (one of my roomies), Teddy, and my team member Grant (see previous post for brief description). We ended up having a lot of fun down by the River. Grant and I have formed a connection that I cherish so much. He knows exactly how to cheer me up and make me smile, which is something that I have needed a lot of lately. Bonus: he is from Arkansas so he has the southern gentlemen innate quality within him... meaning he is fabulously nice to me, quite the change from those midwestern fellas. I like him... and am very excited to have him in my life. :)
My team had a meeting this afternoon where we worked out a lot of our built up issues. We are trying to communicate better as a team and let out frustrations that we might have with each other. We did this exercise where we wrote down things that were bugging us that each other was doing... it was completely anonymous so we couldn't write our names or the name of the person we were frustrated with with; so when our team leader, Nora, read them aloud I just listened as though all those things pertained to me. It was a compassion builder for me. I knew who most of those things pertained to though, but still listening to them as though someone was saying those things to me made me feel alienated, even though I knew I wasn't the one being called out on annoying behaviors. I made a decision that I'm going to try to be more of an understanding and accepting person. I think that I have a pretty open mind to alternative lifestyles, but I know that I can be very judgmental on people who have annoying quirks or act differently than I do... and that is something that I would really like to work on and change.

in summation, I love my life right now.


"I just think if we keep our hearts together; just think if we build on this trust that we have for one another, baby we can make this last a lifetime"

cause I'm a bear!

oh what up.

Let me start with our service project that we did on Monday! We went to Rolling Fork, Mississippi to clean up the town! This town is one of the most (if not the most) impoverished towns in the deep south. for real. We split up into groups and worked on fixing up the hospital, cleaning up the graveyard, and fixing up the gym in the high school. My group was assigned the hospital and we did a LOT of painting. My friend Britt and I painted this overhead thing outside one of the doorways. It was a pain in the behind for sure. I had to spend a good 45 minutes bending my back in as close of a 90 degree angle that I could get just to paint underneath it. It was one of the best experiences ever. The people in the town were so excited to have us there. The lady, Susan, who worked in the hospital was absolutely amazing. A lot of people got together and baked us a lot of goodies to snack on during the day and even made us goodie bags to take with us that some awesome random (like huge calculators and dry erase boards) stuff in them. It was really awesome. The rest of the week was just more training. Yesterday we learned the basics of taking off and putting a new roof on a house. I loved it. My friend Alliegh and I got to just bang nails back into the roof after the shingles were taken off and we got really into it. Money.

I've gotten to know my team better and I just have to say........ I love them! We get along so well and I can tell it is going to be a very, very fun 10 months. I feel very blessed to get to work with these amazing people. We got the dets for our first round projects! We are going to restore an old campground on a water reservoir. I think it is going to be totally legit. We get to make horseback riding trails and help restore parts of the campground that still have drastic hurricane damage from Katrina. I think its going to be eye opening actually seeing all the damage that is still left from Katrina that a lot of people have forgotten about; but on the flip side its going to be great actually being able to DO something about it.

I'm so excited to get things done!

learning to adapt to change. accept differences. overcome difficulties. and basically just get over it when things bug me. learning to let go. learning to hold on.

today probably isn't the best day to update because i'm kind of grumpy and a tad homesick. but grumpy updates are better than no updatses, yeah?
we got put into our permanent teams yesterday and I'm not too thrilled about it. There is one girl who I've been friends with from day one, kat, who i'm glad is in my group; and then there is grant who is really nice and funny so he'll be a good asset. I don't not like these people, its just right now I don't know them. I knew my old group. We bonded. And it just sucks being ripped away from a group where I fit in so well and had so much fun to a group where I'm unsure and uncomfortable. But thats all part of the experience.
I miss home a lot today. I miss my moms cooking. I miss Hailey and Landon climbing all over me and begging me to help them with puzzles or get them drinks; and I miss gracie yelling at me from somewhere in the house to come look at whatever it was that she would be working on at the time.
I miss my life in edwardsville. Classes are going to start in a few weeks and I still can't believe I won't be there. I miss living with Andrea. I cleaned my room and bathroom today just because cleaning would be the thing that she would have done, and it felt like she was there with me just a little. I miss sitting in starbucks for hours talking about a million different things, chatting with a lot of random people, and getting nothing done we had originally gone to accomplish. I miss Shenanigans nights with all of my friends. I miss just sitting around dancing to the music and trying to name 61 different sports. I miss doing the most random things with Mike. Going to see movies. Picnics in the park. Frosty runs.
I think when you take things for granted you miss them ten times more when they are taken away from you. When you don't realize what you have until its gone, it breaks your heart when you realize you can never get it back; never get the chance to really appreciate it for what it was, what it meant to you.
see, i'm grumpy today.

but i will be alright. things are still ok. my friends here are being supportive and awesome as usual. I do love it here. We get to do our first service project on Monday. We're traveling to a nearby town and doing painting and restoring of some parks and sidewalks. I'm really excited about it!

Ameri-Lovin my Ameri-Family

I'm here! We don't have wireless in the dorms yet so I've been MIA on the internet front. Right now I'm sitting in this fabulous Italian restaurant eating tiramisu and drinking coffee with some of my loves. We are sitting at this ginormous table with our computers. being lame. and being happy. :)
So far this experience has been more than I ever expected it to be. The people I have met have been my saving grace. Without internet access and limited time to use my phone I've felt very disconnected from my life in Illinois which has been hard to deal with. However, the people that I have met (mainly my roommates hailee and britt, and the boy who lives across the hall Brian, and well.... everyone else!) have made me feel so at home.

Ok. SO. It started on Friday when I got to Mississippi on zero sleep for over 24 hours, super scared, and no roommates. I sat in my room. Cried. And then fell asleep watching Friends. After I got some sleep I ventured outside and found some people talking about a Harry Potter closet. I asked them what they meant and they showed me to this closed that looked just like the Cupboard Under the Stairs. it was hilarious. and I fell in love with them. One of the people there was Brian, a boy who lives across from me. He is FABULOUS. We insta-bonded and I was much happier. After eating a gross dinner, we hit up Sonic with his roommate and another friend we had made, Kat, and became a family in one short night.
When we got back my roommates had FINALLY arrived and I was super nervous about meeting them. I just have to say... they are AWESOMEEEEE. We have so much in common and we get along so well. I never could have asked for a better match up. Saturday we had a bunch of schtuff to do. I can't remember what the entire day entailed right now. But I do know it had something to do with getting out temp. groups
I also remember going out on Saturday night. We went to the AmeriStar Casino and Bar on the river and saw this awesome Jazz band play really random pop songs. It was the perfect Mississippi experience. We then traveled to a local bar and met some awesome townies and had a really, really fun time. It was great getting to bond with all of my new friends!
On Sunday we all slept in and then went on a girls (plus andrew) breakfast to Waffel house. then we went to the local pool and just hung out for most of the afternoon. At night we just had a movie night and had a butt-ton of people chill in our room. It was fun. And Fabulous.
I wish I could spend more time right now letting everyone know what is going on. But my time is limited in this Italian cafe. Just know that I am doing well. I miss you all. I love you even more. And I think about you every single day.