One hell of a ride...

Graduated from AmeriCorps NCCC today!

In the last ten months...

I have slept in 14 different rooms.

Lived in 4 different "houses."

Drove in a 15 passenger van for over 10,000 miles.

Lived with 11 other people.

Worked with 4 organizations.

Had 223 bug bites.

Traveled through or lived in 10 states.

And made life long friends.

I am anxious to get home to my beloved city, friends, and family! But, as I knew it would, it all ended so quickly. I have a ton of newly acquired skills and a million memories and inside jokes. And I want to end my LAST blog posting about AmeriCorps with this:

To my Ameri-family:

I love every one of you and I will surely go through withdrawls of not making meals for 12 people or sharing two bathrooms. I will miss the company and conversation and the comfort to talk about ANYTHING (oh, you know...) with you. Today was not goodbye, but only temporary distance until we can all meet up again. I will keep in touch and I hope you do the same. As much as they will try, my family and friends will not be able to truly understand the experience we all just had. I am so thankful for the last year and I owe it to the people I spent 24/7 with. I will miss you!! And I love you!

Home next week! And don't worry, I will be there awhile. :)

Back in NOLA

We are almost done! My team and I will leave for Denver in a week and two days. Time has flown by! I will be back in San Diego in less than a month. My official last day with AmeriCorps is on July 27th, but my mom and I are road tripping it back home from Denver and plan on stopping where we want for however long we want, so there isn't an exact date for when I arrive in San Diego - sometime around August 3-4...probably. It is bittersweet though. I MISS the crap out of home and cannot wait for ocean sunsets, mexican food, a soft bed, and seeing all the wonderful PEOPLE! But this has been an incredible and life changing experience. I am pretty sure with all the people I have met I can road trip across the US and not even have to stay in a hotel. These are life long friends and I am so happy to have shared this experience with them. I am not sure what I am going to do with myself without a house full of twelve people, sleeping in bunk beds, nursing bug bites and cuts, wearing my steel toe boots and uniform, and driving a 12 passenger van... But I am sure everyone at home will be able to fill my time. :) And now I can satisfy my travel addiction for pretty cheap around the US!

For now though... I am back in NOLA, working and sweating. Here are some pictures of this round...

SOOOOOO Pretty. I WANT TO LIVE HERE!

Sarah, Aaron, Alex and I hanging out by the river

Trying to save the Salvage Store from flooding.

New Orleans from the Ferry

Sarah and Amanda building a lean-to