Last weekend in NOLA

Almost home! One more week before I get back to SD!

This last week and a half have been full of new things! Of course more painting on ladders and scaffolding, but I also tiled a bathroom, nailed in baseboards, patched a hole in dry wall, hung cabinets, used a table saw, chop saw and skill saw! The table saw was a little scary...Especially when I had to make an angled cut and took the guard off.. But all of my fingers are still here!

Yesterday was our last day of work, just fun this weekend and cleaning on Monday, leave Tuesday!

Last weekend we did an ISP at a school that was being condemned. It was pretty sad because they found out on a Friday and had to be out by the following Monday - only 48 hours to vacate the premises. It was 3 stories and did not have an elevator! We packed up classrooms and then moved A LOT of boxes downstairs for the movers to put in the truck the next day. This was a Charter school and they had smart boards (interactive white boards) and brand new Macbooks for every student. Oh and this was a K-3rd grade school...Yeah. Crazy.

I have met so many awesome people who work for Rebuilding Together and I will really miss seeing them! I've worked on about 7 different houses and heard heart wrenching stories from the homeowners. We also watched Spike Lee's documentary called When the Levees Broke. It was 4 hours of the impact of Hurricane Katrina and the following floods from the Levees breaking on the city of New Orleans. Some of the stories were so, so awful - people watching their family members dying before their eyes, the situation at the Superdome and the ridiculously slow response from the feds. People drowning in their attics as they tried to get to higher ground. People dying of heat stroke. Bodies floating all over the place. Homes picked up and moved a block away. Finding your parents or children in your home dead. People dying from not getting their meds. Having to leave your dead relatives on the side of the road because you have to flee. Getting on a plane to evacuate and not being told where you are even going until you land. And so many more stories that the movie touched on. Pretty awful. I couldn't imagine what that would have been like.

It started storming today and the streets are all flooding and we all got SOAKED coming back from Magazine St. The puddles in the street were knee deep! Just imagine another 15-20 feet on top of that from the Hurricane! Insane.

Well, I am hungry and want some dinner. :) So I MISS HOME, and can't wait to be back there!

Drum Roll Please.....

Round 2 in TULSA OKLAHOMA!! Helping low income families do their taxes!!! WooooHooooo! So excited! Not. Well it isn't THAT bad. I would have preferred Tucson, but at least it isn't Wichita Falls.. Our living conditions are pretty good too. We live at a Rec Center with a gym and huge kitchen. We do have to sleep on cots though.. But the sponsor pays for us to have YMCA memberships! That means swimming!! I am actually excited to learn how to do taxes though. It will be a pretty useful skill. The week and a half of training will be painful...

As for my current project, I am in the Salvage Store this week. Not sure if I explained that already or not...But it is a part of Rebuilding Together (organization the we work for). They get things from houses that are going to be torn down that are still able to be used. It is a pretty sweet. The salvage yard reminds me of Monsters Inc. because there are hundreds of doors all lined up. They had me taking off doorknobs and hinges today and holy crap...These knobs have been on the doors for like 100 years and are sooo rusty and painty that it took me an hour and a half to do 2.5 doors...What is nice though is that the salvage store is literally feet from our house, so we get an hour lunch break and something other than sandwiches! *Sidenote* I am pretty sure that I will not have another sandwich when I leave this program... I have eaten one almost everyday.

But anyway, can't believe I will be home THIS month. 18 days people! I know you miss me! :)

Happy Birthday, Shawn! and Happy Birthday Breanna (in 2 days)!

Is it really the end of November????

This has been another exciting week!

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday was more working!! We moved onto another house that was pretty much only reachable by ladders. So more scaffolding and now on 28 foot ladders! A little scary climbing up, but once you are up there it isn't too bad. We have to finish cleaning up all of the lead paint on Monday. Which is an incredibly tedious project where we need to get all the specks of paint off the ground. Yeah.. We have to vacuum and sweep and pick up the pieces. It is going to take FOREVER! But if it doesn't pass the lead test, the homeowner can't move back in, so it is really important that we do a good job.

Thanksgiving was surprisingly good for a bunch of 18-24 year olds who have never really made Thanksgiving dinner before. We had two 18 lb. turkeys that came out pretty well. I definitely missed home-cooking and good potatoes, but it was still nice being with the other teams. There were about 30 people downstairs in the purple house (house 3 doors down with another team). And we didn't even have to clean up because the other team has a dishwasher and did it for us!

Yesterday - we went down to the French Quarter during the day to souvenir shop. The French market is a big open area where vendors come and set up a bunch of stuff. I bought a few things because I just can't resist those markets. It was PACKED down there! But it was a lot of fun walking around and actually getting to see everything during the day.

We are only here for another 2 and a half weeks. I can't believe how fast it is going! I really love this city and I would love to come back sometime.

We find out our Round 2 projects next week! The way it works is a lottery system, so since we were in the first 10 for Round 1, we will be in the second 10 for round two. So that means we get to pick anywhere between 11th-20th.

Our choices are:

1. Taxes in Tulsa, OK (helping elderly people fill out tax forms)

2. Taxes in Tucson, AZ

3. Taxes in Wichita Falls, TX

4. Boys and Girls Club in Freeport, TX

5. Rebuilding Houses in Orange, TX

6. Rebuilding Houses in Galveston, TX

7. Trailbuilding in Tucson, AZ

Not the best choices...We are pretty sure we will get taxes because so many teams pick before us..So we are just preparing for Wichita Falls!! WooHoo! But fingers are crossed for Tucson! Only 6 hour drive to SD!

Pictures

These are some shots of what I have been doing in New Orleans for the past week. :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/kristycoleman86/Round1NewOrleans#

Currently I am on to house #3 for painting - everything we have been doing has been exterior work - caulking, scraping, painting...Today I was on a 28 foot ladder! Little scary leaning back to get under the eaves. Hopefully we will have scaffolding tomorrow - which is sketchy too because it is so high and wobbly.

It is so fun though. We work Monday thru Friday, 8-4, come home, do PT for an hour, dinner, then chill. I really like my team and we are all getting along really well!

For my Birthday, we went to Ralph and Kacoo's and I had Crawfish like 4 ways - super yummy!!

One of the other water teams is coming down to visit us for Thanksgiving (the Dateline Team) - so there will be about 30 of us, pretty chaotic, but should be a blast! I will be definitely missing home though. :)

Check out the pics! (Same as Facebook if you have it...)

Miss everyone!

Round One - New Orleans!

We are finally here!!!!! So exciting! We got here on Monday afternoon and found our nice Bright green house. It is 3 bedrooms and 2 bath. Our TL gets his own room....and then there are 5 of us in each of the other rooms. Nice and cozy! We have a front and back porch and a gorgeous view of the warehouse yard - which is full of doors and windows and other stuff that has been salvaged from the houses that were destroyed by Katrina.

On Tuesday we had an orientation to tools. I got to try a Chop Saw, Circular saw and a nail gun. Pretty Sweet. We also went to the New Orleans Preservation Center and learned about New Orleans history and the effects of the hurricanes. It is pretty amazing the devastation that still exists after 4 years.

Wednesday we started real work finally!!! Yay! We are working on finishing houses. They are already built for the most part, just need to fix some random things, paint, flooring, other things of that nature.

Yesterday and today we worked on a purple and red house. It is huge! I got to paint eaves on a second story from a 20 foot ladder and then on some two level scaffolding! WooHoo! At one point my ladder was against a column, stabilized by two pieces of wood, and tied to the porch! - A little scary...The lady that lives there is really nice. She puts out snacks for us. :) Today she showed me some pictures of the damage after the levies broke from Hurricane Katrina. Crazy... The water was so high, random shit was in people's yards.. She said she was gone for 3 months living in Detroit. I can't believe the devastation that is still there. On one street, there could be more than half of the houses empty...The house across from the first house we were at had plants growing out of it, no windows or doors, just destroyed and has been like that since 2005... The houses all have X's on them - top: date searched, left and right: who searched and if there were any warnings (like gas leak) and the bottom was the amount of bodies found inside. Pretty awful.

_________________________

But I will elaborate later, now it is time for my birthday celebrations to begin!!! Number 23 in the French Quarter!

Leavin' on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again!

Well....actually it is a 15 passenger van and I'll be back on Dec. 17, but you know...

So 3 days in a van! WoooHooo! Maybe longer if the weather is bad.. Should be in New Orleans on Monday night though if all goes according to plan.

I learned that I will be able to get mail at the house, but please remember that I will only be there for 4 weeks, so if it won't make it there before mid-December, send it to Campus. Letters are still fine to come to Campus, because they will just route them to me, but packages have to go to the New Orleans address, which is....

Kristy Coleman

2801 Marais St.

New Orleans, LA 70117

We had our Induction today, so now we are officially part of AmeriCorps NCCC! It was a pretty formal event. We had a keynote speaker and a Corps member that spoke as well as several others. The Keynote was a guy that now works at an environmental reserve in Denver and was a Corps member in Class 1 and a TL in class 2. He is also a sponsor for one of the water team's project this round. AND one of the water unit Team Leaders did a poetry performance - called Slam Poetry - it was really awesome. Sooo powerful! Barbara, the regional Director got a little choked up.

It was really cool to finally be done with CTI (training)!!! I can't wait to start the adventure!

Getting Ready for Spike

We really haven't done a whole lot since my last post, but here goes...

On Friday we had trainings for our team roles. I am a Capper - which is like a recruiter. I help to set up events at career fairs and schools. We have to find the different locations and call the person in charge. Each round we have to do 3 formal events, which will be difficult because this first round is only a month long. We also have posters and brochures to hand out to people. THEN there is a bunch of paperwork that to be completed after the event! Pretty busy. My second job is Yearbook rep. I am doing this with Melanie and she is a photographer so I do not feel as though I will need to do very much for this. Help write blurbs and what not.

Saturday was our first team bonding day - Hiking in Evergreen. It was a pretty hike and around 3 miles round trip. We made our Team Charter at the top of the mountain, which was freezing! Just a bunch of things we can't do that the team agrees upon. Mostly common sense stuff. Overall I really like my team and these next 9 months are going to be pretty awesome!

Sunday - Woke up early to go the Children's Museum to rake some leaves, and by some I mean around 30 bags!!! I have never seen so many bagged leaves in my life. Everyone was amazed that I had never raked leaves before until I explained to them, that in my climate, leaves stay on trees because they don't get cold and die! THEN I came back and stayed in bed from about noon until 4:45p napping and reading. Pretty Spectacular.

Monday - BORING. The whole Corps was in the same room ALL day doing more Red Cross Disaster Training. I can't go into more detail because I blocked it out....
But we did have the talent show - which was super funny. Someone was playing a Taylor Swift song and then this other guy jumped on stage to interrupt (like Jay Z) and then went into a solo of All the Single Ladies. SO GOOD! This other guy did belly dancing and it was amazing and hysterical. One of the guys from my unit whistled and had skits going on in the background. Couple of singers, couple of guitar players, one impersonator... Overall really great. We have another one at the end of the year, and my team is going to do a step routine - Shannon is going to teach us!

And finally today - We had our project briefing this morning with our Unit Leader, Alan (or Hidalgo as we like to call him.) It went pretty well. Checked out some equipment for Spike - sleeping bags, dishes, hard hats, goggles...Had some PT with the Deck from Hell... Basically you go through the cards and Hearts are sprints, Clubs are sit-ups, spades are burpies, and diamonds are push ups. And the number on the card corresponds to the amount you have to do. AWFUL. Oh and our team goal is to run 2 miles without walking by the end of this round of projects (so in 5 weeks.) I definitely have a ways to go. Maybe I will be better not being at this altitude though.

That is about it for now. I SHOULD have internet in New Orleans, but I will know more early next week. WE LEAVE SATURDAY!!!

ALSO - I made it so you don't need to have an account to leave comments, sorry I didn't realize that sooner and I hope it works!

Sidenote: NOT that I am expecting anything, but when I am on Spike I can receive letters, but not packages. So if you want to send me something, just know it takes about a week longer to get to me and it has to fit in an envelope.

Miss you all!!
For those who don't have facebook... http://picasaweb.google.com/kristycoleman86/AmeriCorpsAdventures02#

Verdict is in!

We got out permanent teams finally! We went on a little scavenger hunt around campus. 6 different locations until we finally got to our Team leader. They tricked us on the fifth clue and I thought I was going to be with the Dateline team....SCARY. But I am not. I am with Water 1, my TL is Daniel from North Carolina. He is 23 and is super chill. My team is good and I really like everyone on it. I only get to be with one of my closest buddies, Shannon, and the rest our all over. :( Overall though, I am pretty excited. My team is: Shannon, Ellen, Sarah, Alex, Melanie, Pete, Pat, Nikki, Drew, and Amanda. 11 of us total.

AND my project is easily the best one...My TL got first pick in the lottery and we are going to New Orleans to work with an organization called Rebuilding Together! We are in the thick of it all in the French Quarter. It is going to be sooo fun. We are living in a 3 bedroom (really 2, becasue Daniel has his own room), 1 bath house....which will be trying. More about the project later though when I know some more specifics.

Also, I am a Capper (someone who goes out to talk to schools and recruit) and a yearbook person. But more to come on that later. Hopefully I get to be an ATL (assistant team leader) but we all decide on that later.

But yeah, really excited! Leaving for our projects next Saturday (Nov. 14)!

Long Weekend!

Because of the snow days, we only "worked" one day between Wednesday and Sunday. And that day was Rock climbing! I have never suceeded at this before, but I made it to the top twice! It was about 35-40 feet high and I got to ring the bell and everything! Of course Dateline was there and that was a little eh, but I made sure to only climb when they where on the other side. There were some people there who obviously do it all the time and that was so amazing to watch! They held on to practically nothing and climbed up big slopes. Some of our group tried it and didn't make it very far..

HALLOWEEN!
2 of my friends and I dressed up as crayons! We looked so good! To start the evening off - a bunch of us went down to the Children's Museum and worked at a carnival there. Since we were a group costume, they let us work together on arts and crafts making bats on a stick. The little kids were sooooo cute! Some of the costumes were so good! The museum itself was amazing. I am not sure if "museum" is the right word...It is more of an ultimate playground. They had tons of different rooms, all interactive. There was a grocery store with a cash register, workshop to build cars and things out of recycled material, an ant bull you could crawl down into (we did), a large fire truck, animal costumes to play in the "woods" - plastic trees technically, and so much more! If anyone is ever in Denver, you HAVE to go there if you have a kid. Incredible and only like 10 bucks.

After that we went to Rock Bottom for a late dinner and it was super yummy! Headed off to an Irish Pub called Scurffy Murphy's (also went to one of these in Sydney) and came in second in a costume contest! Stupid boy scouts beat us out ONLY because they had whistles and were able to make more noise. Not cool. The most unique costume prize went to a girl who was "the money you could be saving with Geico." She had the dollars and the eyes on her back. Really funny!

Getting back was a pain because all of the cab numbers were busy... It took FOREVER, but we finally just took someone else's cab becasue they weren't there to claim it.

Sunday-

My first NBA game. A group of us went to Old Chicago (Pizza) and watched football before heading off to the Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzly's game. Apparently Iverson plays for Memphis, but was out with a hamstring injury and none of us even realized. We had noise bleed seats, but it was really fun. The arena reminded me a lot of Cox Arena or Viejas Arena, whatever it is now...It was a really good game, the nuggets won 133-123.















And I am SOO happy I got to blog this morning! OR NOT, because I was awoken to the scariest and loudest sound I have ever heard in my life... They had a fire drill at 5:15a and we were jolted out of bed to the most high pitch squealing you can imagine and got to stand outside in the cold! Good start to the day filled with First Aid, AED, and CPR training that I can't get out of even though I have the certs! Lame. Oh well, at least it isn't snowing. :)

Snow Days

My very first snow day and I got one and a half days!

We basically lazed around today and made our halloween costumes. Nicole, Megan and I are going to be crayons! I am a blue crayon and the costume is super cute. We have a Halloween party tomorrow and then we are working on Saturday at a Children's Museum. So we will get a lot of use out of our crayon awesomeness!

It has been snowing pretty much non-stop for the last few days. Not sure how many inches, but definitely over a foot. We had a snow ball fight and played with a makeshift sled yesterday. Super fun! I am pretty cold a lot of the time, but it is so gorgeous!

Address

Kristy Coleman - Class 16
AmeriCorps NCCC
3001 S. Federal Blvd.
Walsh Hall, Room 136
Denver, CO. 80236


If anyone wants to send me anything... :) But you have to tell me first because I don't check the mail unless I am expecting something because I have to wait in line for it.

ISP - Independent Service Projects

We have to do 80 hours of service projects throughout the 10 months that are independent of our 1700 hours we have to do for AmeriCorps.

The last 3 days we had some pretty good ones...

Saturday: We worked for Habitat for Humanity. It is a super cool program. I didn't realize that the people getting the houses have to pay for them. In both a monthly mortgage payment and in 250 hours of "sweat equity." The work we did was very monotonous because we were fixing other's work... We were making sure that the dry wall screws where all flush against the wall. Super fun! All for a good cause though.

Sunday: Humane Society. The weather was pretty crappy, but we still had the chance to walk some of the bigger dogs. Or should I say, I got walked/run by a dog. My dog was CRAZY. She did not know how to walk at all.. Super cute though. Her name was Jenny, but I didn't know that at first and named her Jo Jo, which I think is way better. I was not too happy when it started SNOWING on our little 2 hour walk, but she seemed happy. We also got to hold a puppy and one of the other girls cleaned poo pans for 2 hours! - Glad I didn't have to do that. :)

Monday: Grant Ave. Soup Kitchen. Today was really great. A group of about 10 of us went to a soup kitchen and worked from 10-6! 8 hours of chopping, serving, and cleaning. We served for 4 hours and it was a line out of the door the entire time. I really enjoyed talking to everyone, but parts of it were really sad. There were a couple parents and their kids that came through the line and that was difficult to see. But most of the people were really grateful and appreciative and really happy. I can't wait to find another opportunity to work at a soup kitchen. Unfortunately this one is only on Mondays and we usually work Mondays...I will have to keep looking!

PT baseline tomorrow! Can't wait!

SNOW!!

I woke up this morning to about an inch of snow on the ground! I must say, my first reaction was, "What is THIS?!?!" But that changed when we were walking to breakfast because it was falling on us. So, so cool. That is only the second time in my life that I have seen snow fall..

After dinner, we went out and had an awesome snowball fight! It kind of turned into boys vs. girls and since it was dark, we couldn't really see the rock balls they were throwing at us. (They were snow, but they packed it so hard!)

Good day after sitting in a classroom for trainings ALL day. Learned all about how to deal with the media though!

I can't believe I have only been here for a week...Nothing but amazing so far! Amazing city, amazing people, and even more amazing adventures to come!

Schedule for the 10 Months

Calendar for 2009-2010 Year

In-Processing/Training Oct. 15 - Nov. 12
Permanent Teams Picked Nov. 5
Round 1 Projects Nov. 14 - Dec. 17
Transition Day Dec. 18

Winter Break Dec. 19 - Jan. 3

Transition Period Jan. 4 - Jan. 8
Round 2 Projects Jan. 9 - Mar. 5
Transition Period Mar. 8 - Mar. 12
Round 3 Projects Mar. 15 - May 7

Spring Break Apr. 2 - Apr. 5

Transition Period May 10 - May 14
Round 4 Projects May 17 - July 16
Transition/Out-processing July 19 - July 28

Graduation Day July 29


**Transition days are time we spend in Denver getting training and and getting ready for our next round of projects**

Boulder, CO

First day off since coming to Campus!!

On Sunday we went into Boulder for the day and explored the town. Super cool area. It reminded me a lot of Berkeley. Lots of little shops and there were street vendors and performers. AND we ate dinner at BJ's! Yummy pizookie! Apparently it is a West Coast thing though because all of the East coasters had never heard of it...

It took us quite a while to get there though - 30 minutes by light rail into Downtown Denver, 1 hour bus ride into Boulder. We had gone out the night before and I put my cash, ID and debit card in a different purse and then left it in my room... AWESOME. I love having people I have known for like 5 days pay for me all day, and I couldn't even have my favorite beer at BJ's!

I wouldn't mind going back there, but it is kind of far and I don't really have the money to be spending in random stores right now, but some with the $300/month stipend! I will be rolling in the dough! :)

If you are in CO, you should definitely check it out!

Uniforms...

I feel as though this warrants its own post just to itself...

~Black or Khaki cargo pants or shorts - sizes are S, M, L, etc... So they fit just spectacularly!

~Gray T-shirt (short or long sleeve) - Men's sizes, Tucked in!
OR
~White Polo

~Black belt

~Fleece Vest - Optional

~Hat - Beanie, Fisherman's hat, or baseball hat - SEXY

You can wear black, gray, or white undershirts, socks, scarves or gloves. But other than that - It must have an AmeriCorps Logo on it.

We have to wear it pretty much all day, everyday. I have to say my favorite is the tucked in t-shirt look...It is so stellar!


I don't have one of just me yet, but you can get the gist from this. I am sure you will then understand why I have not decided to pose for one yet...But this gives you a good idea of all the options we have!!


This is my first team - who I am no longer with because we will be switching 5 times!

AmeriCorps - Week 1

WELCOME TO DENVER, CO!

For those of you who still don't understand what AmeriCorps NCCC is or what I am doing...

There are 3 branches of AmeriCorps that I am eligible for - VISTA, NCCC, and State and National. I am in the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC - pronounced N-triple C). This is a team based, residential program for 18-24 year-olds. My region is the Southwest region with consists of Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Arkansas, Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma.

We will go on 4 service projects throughout the 10 months - lasting about 2 months each. These will be in areas such as, environmental conservation, disaster response and relief, youth development, building homes, and other service projects similar to that. I also have to complete 80 hours of service during the 10 months that is independent from my project. This can be anything volunteer related, except religious organizations or anything with a political affiliation.

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Wednesday, Oct. 14th - I landed in Denver International Airport at around 11a. Totally surreal to see an AmeriCorps Rep and a Dateline cameraman waiting right outside the gate!
**Side Note - Dateline is doing a special on AmeriCorps and they will be filming one team throughout the year, 20% chance it will be my team**

Everything was super organized and we got to campus at about 3p. We are staying at Colorado Heights University, about 7 miles outside of Downtown Denver. Campus -->

We are split into 4 units - Earth, Fire, Sun, and Water. I am in Water!! How fitting. :) This just means that I spend almost all of my time in my unit. There are about 55 people in the unit, which is further broken down into 5 teams of 11. We do not get our permanent teams until November 5th because they like to switch it around and see who works well together and our varying strengths and weaknesses. It is neat that they do that, but I would really like to just have my team and start learning how to work with them...

We have 4 weeks of training and then start our 1st round of projects!!

When we are on SPIKE (alternate living away from camping - could range from a hotel to camping to cots in a gym), I am not sure how often I will be able to update my blog, but I will definitely try to keep everyone updated on all of my wonderful adventures!