Biloxi Mississippi 2008
1-13-08
So this morning I woke up to a 6:30 alarm instead of 7. It was the first day that I set my own alarm for church, and I forgot my phone is still set for home time. Still, I didn't mind being up because I had ample time to do things like eat a bagel and cheerios for breakfast. One boy at breakfast who is always playing guitar (Fred) let me mess around on his and tried to teach me bar chords to play 7 Nation Army. It was to no avail. After breakfast I was stupid enough to reformat my memory card and erase all my pictures trying to make room for New Orleans. I'm pretty sad and upset about it, but I figure I did make lots of room and there's plenty of time to take more pictures. The priest at church suprisingly had an Irish rather than southern accent. Church was very similar to back home aside from the dude singing being hard to match and the warm welcoming recieved during and after mass. After church we got a tour of Biloxi. I didn't get much out it aside from seeing the memorial, but it wasn't a bad time. After the tour we went to some restaurants for lunch. I naturally had to try the Sonic which is a restaurant chain Dave had told me about which is mostly in the South. The waitresses are on rollar skates, and I got an excellent bacon cheeseburger and strawberry smoothie. After lunch it was off to New Orleans for the evening. We got to see the Ninth Ward. It was pretty sad. We saw the areas were the levies had failed and the memorial nearby. They set up pink tents to represent the houses lost. After that stop we got dropped off in the city. We browsed the markets first. I was with Chris, Marisa, Andrew, and Matt. Andrew and I enjoyed the hat selection. We saw lots of cool jazz bars, even a dude with an accordian. We even saw a stripper in one shop with a skimpy outfit. Some of the shops were particularly interesting. One where we stopped to go to the bathroom turned out to be a gay bar. There was a dance floor, flourescent lights, a video of a man dancing in his underwear, and no door on the men's bathroom. It was pretty scetchy. I found Dave a postcard and some playing cards at one of the shops. For dinner we went to Bubba-Gump's Shrimp which was based around the movie Forest Gump. It was pretty neat, and I had fish n' chips and one of Andy's $20 stack of ribs. The waiter was missing teeth and drunk. He fit right in. After dinner we walked by the water then got some coffee at a famous cafe. It was pretty cool to be able to say I was on Bourbon Street, and it was an awesome day in the city. I even got to talk to Dave on the way home. Now I'm ready for the week of work ahead.
1-14-08
Today was probably my favorite work day so far! I got put at a house with a special team. It was Andy, Tom, Chris, Katie, Phil, and I. The lady whose house we were working on told us she was only given FEMA money if her house was built at the right height, and so the first floor was basically a story up. She showed us a tree limb where she said the water had reached, and I agreed with the FEMA restriction. The house was also really cool. It was almost like a tree house. Our job was to insulate the floor. We got to climb on the scaffolding and swing on the supports. Andrew was a real monkey. Chris taught me house to use a saw. We put in insulation cut at the right measurements with a staple gun. Then we covered that with netting so animals couldn't get in and finished that off with wood strips and a nail gun. The job basically took all day, but we finished right as Matt was pulling in to pick us up. We also moved a car over so nobody would rob the house at night. This dude who came by let me play with his puppy. I ran a couple miles with Marisa, and my group got into a pretty heated argument over whether they would bring a map or a photo album in the event of a hurricane. I'm pretty sure I'd bring the photo album but maybe I'd change my mind in the actual situation. We had fried chicken for dinner, and I was a little amused by the fact that they got it from Walmart.