A Mississippienne in Yankeeland
Saturday, January 22, 2005
No, I didn't drop off the face of the Earth. I've simply chosen to "close the book", so to speak, on this part of my life now that my NCCC tenure has ended. I got everything I ever wanted, or needed, from this experience, and a lot more. If I had it all to do over again, would I? Fuck yeah.
In case yer curious (not that ya are) you can follow my further adventures here: Mississippienne@Myspace
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Tuesday night I hung out at the Vous all night with my friends, since it was the last night of Americorps. I got a mean 3 hours of sleep, then got up at 5am to start my last day at the Point. We were taken to the theater to eat breakfast, then began graduation. After some guest speakers, all the teams lined up onstage to receive their certificates. I graduated! I made it through all ten months, I didn't give up and I didn't get kicked out. I made it all the way through the year and successfully completed NCCC.
There were lots of tearful goodbyes as everyone started leaving around noon. At 1:30pm I boarded my own shuttle and we drove to BWI to catch our flights. My plane left at 6pm, and I arrived in Jackson at 7:30pm. As I walked out into the airport, I simply couldn't believe I was here again. It feels like I just left. How can 10 months have passed so quickly? My mom picked me up and took me home, and I spent all day today being sick. Joy.
Here's to my friends and teammates, who made my Americorps year so special:
Team Fire 3: Alyssa, Travis, Rose, Jacque, Chris, Sasha, Sarah, and Marcos.
Friends: Sarah Williams, Andrea Kellner, Robyn Shaw, Wanda Grant, Amber Dubrava.
Sunday, November 14, 2004
Things have been pretty quiet and lazy around here for the past few days. Americorps threw a mini-job fair which was kinda interesting. Me and Julien (the French boy from Montreal) have been e-mailing back and forth. Today me, Sarah, and Elisa sat down in the kitchen and made bread for 3 hours.
I can't believe NCCC is ending in 2 days. It's not possible. We're all in serious denial. This has been my entire life for a year. How can it be over? I can't return to the normal, 9 to 5 world, I just can't. Damn damn damn. I still haven't packed yet.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
No, I'm not dead, I just didn't realize how long it'd been since I updated my Blog. Anyway, we left Kingston and returned to the Point for out-processing. I'm still in denial about Americorps ending. It seems like yesterday I was just getting here! It's so painful hanging with my friends, knowing they're going to leave to return to their regularly scheduled lives and, very probably, I won't ever see most of them again.
Today, Americorps sent a bunch of folks to a job fair in D.C. Very underwhelming. In order to get an internship -- much less a job -- in the human rights/public service sector, you need at least a Bachelor's Degree in some shit subject like hydoponic massage therapy. Me and Sarah hunted through the whole damn place and didn't find much of interest. We're underqualified for most everything worth doing. However, we did go to the Tower Records across the street from GW Uni and I bought Nine Inch Nails "Downward Spiral" and "Best of KORN: Vol.1". Later tonight, while chilling in my house listening to Jonathan Davis' inhuman caterwaul, I found myself faced with a very curious Janessa.
"Is that your music?" she asked.
"Yes," I replied, leafing through a Peace Corps book. "That's Jonathan Davis from KORN. Sing it, Jonathan!"
"I feel like he's eating my brain," Janessa said.
"I'm sorry. I'll turn it down if it bothers you."
"That's okay, don't worry about it," she said, obviously amused by my angry-white-girl music.
On a more positive note, I released my first book for Bookcrossing today in D.C. When I got back to the Point, I logged on to list my release info, and discovered someone had already reported it! How fun!
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Habitat has been pretty quiet, not a lot to do, besides putting up a LOT of insulation. I coughed up black bile for days. The team is staying in a 2-bedroom in Woodstock; we're literally living on top of one another. Woodstock is a fun little hippy town, with lots of Tibetan shops and such-like.
I spent my pseudo-birthday in NYC this weekend. Sarah and I went out to Times Square Saturday night, where the lights were so bright it looked like dawn at 1:30 am. She went as a Pirate Queen (complete with gigantic fake boobies!) and I went as Rogue from X-Men. Sunday we rode the Staten Island Ferry and Alyssa took me ice-skating in Central Park. Sarah and I laid out in the Sheep Meadow and cooed over the cute kids, and visited Strawberry Fields, the Lennon memorial.
We're returning to the Point in a few days.
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
So I rode into Grand Central Station Saturday with Chris and Sasha. We immediately got lost in the subways of NYC, but somehow made our way to Ground Zero to view the WTC, which looks suspiciously like a gigantic hole in the ground. I then split off and headed to Little Korea for the Dopedinner with several other Straight Dopers -- delicious! Also, a really nice guy there insisted on picking up the tab for my meal. Too bad he's gay.
Sasha and Chris met up with some members of Kelly's team and everyone proceeded to get roaring drunk. I was bored senseless watching all the stupid drunk people, and Sasha and Chris were acting like idiots anyway. Around 1:30 am I finally said the hell with it and left, making my way to Queens to sleep on Mel's couch. Thanks a lot guys for leaving me to ride the NYC subway at 1:30 am by myself. You're real pals. Anyway, I woke up the next morning and cuddled with my buddy Sarah on the couch. We watched the Winne the Pooh movie and ate bagels before leaving to explore the city.
We hit Time's Square and rode the Ferris Wheel at the giant Toys R Us, then headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Sarah promised to build me a fantastic Egyptian tomb just like the one at the Met when she becomes rich and famous. We got vouchers for free lipgloss (cocoa butter, yum!) and then she dropped me off at Grand Central. Made it home, safe and sound.
I (heart) Sarah.
Thursday, October 21, 2004
I arrived safe and sound in Kingston on Monday night, despite a slight bus mishap. I got on the wrong bus, but the driver kindly went out of his way and dropped me off in Kingston. Yay!
My trip to Montreal was amazing. I toured the city, visited Le Biodome (which looks like a monster that has crawled out of the ocean and is up to no good) and the Basilique de Notre Dame, which was splendid. My hostel hosted a plethora of colorful characters, including Martin the Depressed Englishman, Adam the Paranoid Canadian, and Raphael, whom I'm fairly sure was a Colombian drug lord. So many pretty Frenchiboys! I returned with a "Canada" T-shirt and the digits of Julien, one very pretty young Frenchman.
On Sunday night I went out partying with Raphael, Julien, and about seven Frenchies. We played pool (I won every game, despite having had so much vodka I was having trouble shooting straight at the end), Raphael and I danced a salsa, and we generally lived it up. W00t w00t!
