November/December in the South

I'm really bad at this apparently. But luckily I haven't been up to too much anyway. Since the last post at work I helped to organize our Christmas Party. I had the pleasure of calling around 100 parents to find out what their children wanted for Christmas, then go shop for about 90 of them (about 6 hours at walmart and $1,000 later). It was kind of fun, but stressful at the same time. So that was most of my month of November at work. Then I was able to go home for Thanksgiving :) it was so nice to be there I didn't want to go back, but then I realized I would be back in 3 weeks anyway (now it's only 3 days away!!!!!) Had a fantastic Thanksgiving and got to see a bunch of people and had a nice time relaxing (I needed a little break).

I was able to go to the Portland Tree Lighting
and see the lovely Whitney and Beth :)

Once I got back it was go go go to get this Christmas Party ready. Good thing I'm such a master shopper and wrapper! My silly useless skills have come into play (maybe not as useless as I thought)!! yay!! The party went really well, we had the largest attendance in the history of their Christmas Parties so that made me feel good that my hard work to get people there worked! And we had a bunch of food, a step team from Boys and Girls Club (not to be confused with Big Brothers Big Sisters like it always is), a gospel rapper, and a ShutterBooth, one of those photo booths that you get to take 4 pictures and it comes out on a strip, so the Bigs and Little were able to get some pictures taken to take home :) everyone really enjoyed it. And then we handed out the presents apparently the fastest and smoothest they ever have before (I am good when it comes to organization as well) I don't have any pics of the party yet but I'll try to remember to post some when we get them...can't promise anything cause we all know my memory is completely awful....

BUT as for fun stuff this weekend we had our Ugly Sweater party with all of the VISTAs

Yay for ugly sweaters!

Then we headed to downtown Greenville which is 30 minutes away and a much bigger city than Spartanburg and this is the first year they have had an outdoor skating rink. So of course I was in my element and only the best skater of the group! Everyone was shocked that I live down the street from a pond that I can walk to and take my skates to and skate as much as I want to (Which I miss a lot...maybe next year).

Ice Skating in downtown Greenville,SC

Last night I went to karaoke, but the thought of getting up on the stage terrified me...that's a fear I have to work really hard on before I even DARE get up there and sing. I can barely sing in front of a couple people let alone a room full of people...although I like to sing, I don't want anyone to hear it but me...

And last but not least! Friday at 7pm I will land in good old Portland, Maine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait. Sad thing is it might my last time there until I leave in August....we'll see if I can really last that long, it'll be a test for me for sure. But I will be home for over 2 weeks and leave on Monday, january 2nd. SO if you wanna hang out, let me know, I will be carless most of the time and don't have a lot of definite plans, just play it day to day! I cannot wait. 2 1/2 more days in this office. Then off on another plane! I should have gotten frequent flier miles a while ago...oh well. Happy Holidays to all and see you Mainers in a couple days!!

Halloween Weekend and Such

Hello! Been fairly busy lately which has been good.  A few weeks ago I got to go to an amusement park normally called Carowinds, but on weekend nights they decked it all out with haunted mazes and everything scary and called it Scarowinds.  I had a lot of fun, but...I now get sick on rides...and that's no fun.  The first thing when we got there we went on a roller coaster called the "Intimidator" (for those of you who have been to Six Flags in MA, it is similar to the Superman (now Bizzaro) roller coaster.  So it taked you up 232 ft. and you go down about an 80 degree drop and go around 80 mph on this roller coaster. Love it.




The Intimidator



Shayne, Snoopy, Veronica, myself, woodstock and Andy at Scarowinds



Margaret, Nicole, Me, Veronica, and Kaitlin



We attempted to go apple and/or pumpkin picking, but it turned out it was too late for either.  So we just spent some time walking around Niven's Apple Farm

Nicole, me Liz and Veronica on a tractor at the farm!

Veronica, Margaret and I enjoying our walk in a park (obviously we're taking a break from the walk)

Had a pretty laid back weekend last weekend, didn't do much, enjoyed the beautiful South Carolina fall weather.  Veronica and I attempted to drive to the mountains to be leaf peepers, but as we were getting to the pretty part of the mountains, my car decided to not go 70mph anymore but decides it won't go anymore than 50mph, smell awful, and sound awful. So we were about 5 or 10 miles from the next exit, but I decided to turn around then cause who knows what the heck the car was going to decide to do.  It made it back, a week later its still running, should probs get it checked out but...well..lets face it, I'm lazy and don't want to know the diagnosis.



This past weekend was the weekend to celebrate Halloween! We started by volunteering at a local Zombie Crawl.  Don't know if I have talked about the Artist in Residence(AIR) program here in Spartanburg, but there are 4 artists who are given a place to live and room to work on their art, and they are here for a year to work with the community and introduce and promote art.  So we've become friendly with the 3 current AIRs and they were the ones putting on the Zombie Crawl so we thought it would be nice to help them out a little bit.  I had gone in earlier on Friday to attempt to help them set up (I'm not all that creative, but can follow directions).  Later on we went early to become zombies and take our places to help out.  People came and paid money to support the AIR program and in return we provided a bloody wardrobe (I was helping at the dressing room area) as well as zombie makeup and a video as to how to become and act like a zombie.  After that we (in the cold rain) started to march down to downtown Spartanburg and had about 50 zombies overtake downtown (kinda freaky).  We at one point went up to a building that was having a get together (all fancy shmancy) and went up to the glass doors moaning like zombies until the security guard came out and told us we have to leave.  We stopped by the local Hub-Bub Bookstore and had someone do a zombie reading.  Afterward a dance party was had and it was a good time.



Kristi, Shayne, Liz, Veronica and I "attempting" to be zombies...



Zombie crowd listening to the reading at the bookstore downtown



Vistas as zombies!

Veronica, Me, Liz, Shayne, Andy and Kristi in front of the fountain downtown
(it is supposed to be pink for breast cancer awareness...just happens to look like
blood for the zombie crawl!)

Me and Veronica's awkward zombie prom picture

Zombie attack at a fancy party (note security guard coming out to shoo us away)

Then on Saturday night we all got together (Vistas) in Greenville at the home of two ex-Vistas and had a potluck and went downtown Greenville to celebrate Halloween!  Greenville is about 30-40 mins west of Spartanburg and is a bigger city.  We had a bunch of delicious casseroles and cider and desserts before heading downtown

Me (Rapunzel), Kristi (artist), Nicole (Black Swan), Veronica (TopGun dude), Shayne (Cat), Andy (punk),
Kaitlin, Liz and Margaret (Skittles) at the potluck

Then we headed downtown to a bar called the Velo Fellow which was really neat.  There were 2 dudes playing some sweet 90's tunes and we all just sat around and talked for a while.

Me, Nicole and Margaret at Velo Fellow



Then we headed to a place I honestly never found out the name of for some dancing (until 2am...) I've been staying up way too late these past couple weekends, but it's all for the sake of fun! And Sunday I was able to relax in my bed for 90% of the day. Love those days!

Rapunzel and Skittle dancing!

The side affect to dancing for Rapunzel...she lost her hair..

"Put your hands up!'



Punk and Rapunzel havin a good ole time

So that's my past couple weekends wrapped up into a blog post.  No plans coming up anytime soon.  Just a countdown to home! 18 days! Can't wait, I am definitely in need of a break. Well..that's all I've got for now...send me Fbook messages or emails if you want to comment and can't comment on here! Love to hear from people and how much they enjoy my blog! I'm keeping up with it for those of you reading, so let me know who you are! :) <3

Life in the South

Hello!  My time here has improved a lot.  I have been busy every weekend and had something to do on of the two weekend days.  I went to the International Festival they had which was a smaller version of Epcot at Disney.  In a park they setup a bunch of tents and a bunch of countries had a display in them.  Then they had the food section which was awesome because there were so many options to choose from!  I ended up having food from Laos, chicken on a stick and egg rolls (delicious) and then for dessert I went to Bethlehem for some baklava!  Nom nom nom.  But it was a fun experience all together!  It's neat that in Spartanburg all these people can represent all these countries. 

We then got together and watched football.  It is so interesting that I am getting into football a little bit.  I don't mind watching it because it's a good way to get together with people and socialize.  So Saturdays we tend to watch some college game and it's fun to just get together and bring food and hang out.

On Friday night there was an event called Auction for a Cause in which different non-profit organizations recieve the profits made from this event.  It was really nice to get out and be surrounded by the community members.  There was delicious free food and a silent auction followed by a live auction.  I was tempted to go for the 4 disney world passes but I figured I don't have hundreds of dollars to spend right now...

This weekend I'm going to an amusement park that is open till midnight and it's all Halloween themed and scary stuff everywhere, but I'm very excited to finalyl go on a roller coaster! I've been dying to go on one for the longest time.  And then we're going to go on a hike the next weekend.  And then the next weekend is Halloween weekend and I'm going to help at a zombie crawl on Friday and probably go out Saturday night.  I still have no idea what I'm going to be so I could use some help if anyone has any ideas!!! 

But I thought I'd update you on my life.  It's been packed with fun cultural things and I'm enjoying myself! AND I got talked into flying home for Thanksgiving and will be home November 18-26!  My boss was nice enough to let me have the week off since there won't be much going on here in the office.  SO keep an eye out for me around that time and let me know if you want to do anything!  I won't have a car so that will be kind of annoying but we'll make it work!   

The reason I am writing this while I'm at work is I'm observing a parent/child interview and don't want to look creepy listening in so I am looking busy by typing a whole lot.  :)  Hope all is well, if anyone wants to send mail-

Annie Cavallaro
1465 Grant Circle #11
Spartanburg, SC 29307

More than welcome to send me a nice little letter :) I always love surprise mail.  Love to all.  <3

Spartanburg, SC

Well hello! Long time no talk! I didn't think blogging would be interesting while I'm here, but I realized that you people still want to know what's going on with me!

So I've officially been here for a month.  I had flown down to Atlanta for training, then flew to Spartanburg to partially move into my new townhouse.  After another training on Monday I flew back home to Maine to finsh up some loose ends and to get my car.  I took a 2 day journey driving from Maine to South Carolina.  For the first part of the trip my brother Brian and his girlfriend Lindsay were with me and I was able to drop them off in Maryland near DC, spend the night and continue the journey on my own from there.  It was a long drive simply for the fact that the air conditioning in my car doesn't work and I was driving through the south.  But I made it.

So now that I've been here for a month I'm getting a lay of the land.  Have some good friends who are VISTAs here as well.  They all work at different non-profit organizations around Spartanburg.  I live with another VISTA and two others live in the same townhouse complex, so that's convenient.

At first the job was slow going and there wasn't much for me to do.  With this job I am recruiting volunteers, interviewing them, interviewing parents and children and making those matches.  So a lot of the work I can only learn by seeing them happen first.  So now I am able to go out to college fairs and recruit volunteers on my own, I can now interview a volunteer on my own, I can now interview parents and children, so the work is starting to pick up.  It was just earlier thi week that I had seen my first interview with a parent and child, and it is heart wrenching.  It definitely made me realize why I'm here and doing what i do because these kids are in situations that aren't their fault and just need a positive role model in their lives.  So I'm enjoying the job somewhat, sometimes it can be slow if there isn't much to do but I try to keep myself busy!

As for my social life here in SC it has been going really well.  We've generally found a lot of things to do that are fun and cheap.  This past weekend I did something that I neeeeever would have everdone before.  I went Contra Dancing.  We drove out to this middle of nowhere place, were surrounded by college kids as well as older adults and you learn the basic moves, then similar to line dancing learn a specific dance, have a partner that is a stranger and get to know them by sweating on them and getting very very dizzy spining in so many circles.  But I had a great time and talked to strangers (that sounds bad, but was a good experience) and went out of my comfort zone and became comfortable with it.  A couple weeks ago we also decided to go test out the local "dance club" Rome.  It was quite interesting, a great place to go if you really enjoy dancing to techno music and have creeps around you at all times.  But once again was a good experience to have.

I have gone to a couple events downtown that they have including "Music on Main" and "Jazz in the Square" which are just music shows downtown and being able to enjoy music and the downtown area.  Coming up this week we are going to the Greek Festival which i am so excited to eat me a Gyro! And next weekend is their International Festival, so we've got a lot of cool culture activities to do around here and keep us busy.

So that's all I have for right now, but thought that I'd update as to what my last couple months have been like and it was pointed out that I should keep up with it even if this work isn't as exciting as what I was doing last year.  So.  I will try.  Adios.

The End.

Well.  This is it.  Last day in AmeriCorps NCCC.  It has been such a fantastic year, but I'm also so ready for it to be over.  Had a nice week off, really just sat around most of the time relaxing.  Some of the people on my team and I were able to go to a water park, which was nice and relaxing, some of us went to an open mic to see my teammate David perform, that was really good. 

Kelsey, Brandon, Greg and I out downtown

This week has been dragging on, everyone came back and we had our transition week to finish everything up business wise.  Yesterday was fun, we had our "AmeriLympics" which was essentially a field day!  We did trivia, frisbee golf toss, classic relay races, name that tune, ultimate frisbee, kickball, and feats of strength.  Our team, although not the best at everything, should have won for team spirit.  It was nice to come together and have fun.  as a team we won the name that tune and frisbee golf toss (we had 50 throws in 10 minutes while 2nd place only had 34...we were awesome...) So that was a fun day.  Then at night they had a banquet for us off campus at a really cool venue called Mile High Station.  We had some delicious dinner and sat through some awards, but it was extra fun cause we got to dress all fancy.  I stole a bunch of pictures below from Mary and Kiera cause they are just so darn good!!


My team Fire 6 at AmeriLympics



Waiting in line for Classic Relay Races



Ya, I'm crab walking, jealous!? (My body hurts real bad from this)

 

Emma and I being cowgirls



Love this picture of Emma, Mary and I at the banquet

<3 Fire 6 (I have the blue fingernail polish on)

Fire 6 at the banquet

Not the whole team, but such a good picture! Everyone looking all snazzy

Mary and I as Woody and Jesse

Love Love Love this picture :-D

So today we have been busy running around tying up loose ends and finalizing everything.  Mom got in a couple hours ago but is doing her own thing getting the car/relaxing at the hotel, and we'll do dinner tonight.  Then tomorrow is graduation where we have to wake up at 5:30AM!!!! gah it's going to be painful to wake up that early.  Then we are busy bodies till graduation at 10am and then everyones being booted off campus at 12noon.  Mom and I are going to go to the county fair after graduation tomorrow.  And in the 2 days we're here we plan on going to Colorado Springs, Garden of the Gods, Red Rocks and just wander around 16th St mall!  Then we'll be home midnight Monday and I'll be home through the next Monday and then again the 16-19 of August! 

Can't believe this is all ending. Everyone's so busy packing, but me being me I've been done packing 2 days ago and cleaned this morning...so I just get to relax waiting for our last meeting then off to dinner!!  I am going to be very said to say goodbye to some people, and can't wait to not have to deal with some peoples crap anymore!  I am so ready for my next journey.  It's exciting but I don't think I've fully realized that this time next month I will  be calling South Carolina home.  Just the simple fact that I'm perfectly ok with moving to SC shows how much I've grown this year and will continue to as I'm on my own in the South for a year!!  I hope my next journey after that is exciting as well.  This year has shown me that the possibilities are endless, especially at this age when I can really do anything I want/go wherever I want.  I can always come back to Maine if things don't work out.  But until then I want to explore new options and new places.  GAH I am just so darn happy with life right now and it was a long journey to reach this happiness...rough long journey but I am perfectly happy with where I am right now.  Ecstatic to come home in 4 days and so ready to move on!!! Will update how Mom and I's vacation goes! (It will be amazing I already know it!)

Leaving Tuscaloosa

Well, I've been awful with this blog.  But for good reason.  We were so busy this month! But we met such amazing people and can't even explain how amazing the people of Tuscaloosa is. 

In other news as I'm sure you've all heard that I found out Friday that I recieved a position as an AmeriCorps VISTA with Big Brothers Big Sisters in Spartanburg, SC!  I've been looking into the organization for a while and figure this is a great way to be able to get a foot in the door!  AmeriCorps VISTA is different from what I'm doing now in that I won't be traveling, and I won't be in a group of people.  I will work for one year with that one organization with the same benefits that I have now.  I got this position after another girl who they accepted before dropped out.  They originally chose her over me because she lived in SC already, but I was their first call!!  So the past weekend has been crazy cause everything has been last minute and I had to get them answers to difficult questions about relocating within hours and I had a huge breakdown.  Originally they wanted me to go to a training in Atlanta from August 8-11 and then be in Spartanburg for August 15 for a training and begin on the 16th.  That was way too soon for me, I was realizing I would be home for 4 days before I had to pack up and drive all the way to Atlanta and be in Spartanburg for good.  Then they told me that that training was full and I had to go to the training in Ft. Lauderdale from the 16-19 which worked out better and gave me more time at home! Then today as we were traveling from Tuscaloosa to Little Rock I got a call that I was accepted into the training in Georgia and they needed to know in an hour how I wanted to get there! So I had a huge freakout again, but in the van with 4 of my teammates directly witnessing it all...So thanks to my lovely mother we slowly but surely came up with a plan that I think is going to work out perfectly.  I am going to get home at midnight August 1 (technically 2nd) fly either August 7 or 8 to Atlanta for training the 8th-11th, then fly/train to Spartanburg for a training on the 15th.  THEN I am paying for myself to come back home to really get myself together and have 4 extra days at home.  They were nice enough to give me an extension of my start day and I'll leave Maine again driving leaving the 20th to start the 22nd.  I figured this all out today...rough day.

So basically what I think I'll be doing with BBBS is to help find mentors for the children (Bigs) and interview them to get an idea of what kind of child they would be a good match with.  Along with that I would be giving presentations about the organization.  I am extremely excited for this new adventure!  And I already have a roomate and a townhouse about 10 mins from downtown Spartanburg.  I am lucky that Spartanburg has a really good community of VISTAs and helped me find my roomate who is also going to be a VISTA.  Lucky. 

So Tuscaloosa was absolutely amazing.  I can't believe how far they've come in almost 3 months and am very proud to be able to say I helped.  I am definitely hoping to be able to go back and help out more later on, I'll only be a 6 hour drive away!  So the work we ended up doing altogether was debris removal (hot yet rewarding), working at relief centers (a lot of organizing and hanging clothes but got to meet a lot of the people affected by the tornado) and assessments of the houses in the whole city which was cool to be able to see the path of the tornado and the difference it makes having trees in your yard or not.

I was very sad to be leaving, we got so many compliments as to how much we really made an impact on their community and that was so great to hear how much of a difference we made.  I feel so good about our work there even if it was only for one month.

So now we are on our way back to Denver where we get a week off to do...well...nothing! pretty excited about that! Don't have any plans yet, just going to let them come to me!  And the next week we round everything up and graduate on the 29th. My mom is coming for the graduation and we're going to stay in Denver and extra 2 days.  I'm very excited to be able to show her around Denver!

I'm exhausted...don't know what else to write about right now but maybe I'll try later while I'm in Denver!

Tuscaloosa

Helloooooo! Sorry haven't posted in a while. I've been exhausted, one night I almost went to sleep at 8:45....thats too early...ANYWAY So. Left on a Sunday, got to Tuscaloosa on my birthday.  My birthday was alright, not what I'm used to.  We got into Tuscaloosa around 12:00, got to the church we are going to live in and it is amazing.  The area around us got hit pretty bad, but the church is still standing and doing amazing work to help the community.  The team decided to get right to work when we got here, so my birthday was spent helping others.  At night we had some dinner and then went out for frozen yogurt to celebrate.  Not how I would have spent it if I were home, but it's ok, there will be plenty more!

So we are staying at the Forest Lake Baptist Church in their basement area, which is really nice, there is a kitchen, game room (pool table ping pong etc that we can actually use), a couple of classrooms and a bathroom.  The people that take care of us here, Debbie and Kyle are an amazing couple, probably in their 60s I'd say? We.Are.Spoiled.  They provide us with all of our food, and cook dinner for us...they are amazing.  We have showers that are in a trailer, sounds trashy but they are soooo nice! air conditioned and everything.  There are people from a church in Texas that drove it up here and they stay and hand us towels and...get this...do our laundry! I feel so bad being as spoiled as we are, but I understand that these people just want us to be taken care of.  I couldn't ask for better facilities than what we have.  Although there is always a downside...so we aren't the only ones living here, last week there was a group of 9 living here that consisted of some teenagers, lets just say they weren't very wary of our being there.  They were loud in the morning and dirty, but we dealt with it.  There are also 2 big groups of around 20 that are staying elsewhere, but eat with us, so they show up at 7:30am all loud and everything because they are teenagers as well and then are here at lunch time being loud and dinner as well...but we only have to deal with it till Monday! Then after Monday it's all ours except the nice couple that is with the shower trailer!

Turns out we are here the rest of our project, so another 3 1/2 weeks, we leave on July 19th for Denver.  So the work we have been doing has been a lot of things.  I worked a lot the first week with the Salvation Army.  I worked in the distribution center where they provide families with essential needs (food, hygiene prodeucts, cleaning products etc) and I became sort of a go to person there and would train new volunteers coming in on how to fill carts, make food bags, how to arrange things etc.  It was nice to be relied on and trusted and kind of be in charge again, I've missed it.  I loved it there the people there are amazing.  I also worked one day at their Canteen where they provide the community with a meal.  Other days we have helped with debris removal, which consists of going to houses (which are mostly debris now) and helping to clear trees, debris etc.  A big part of what we are doing here is helping the city with assessments of the houses.  So we go around to houses with sheets that we need to provide information such as how many walls are standing, if there are trees laying on the houses, if there are trees or stumps left in the yards etc and we provide them with information on free debris removal.  The past 3 days I have been working here at the church where they have a relief center which is a lot like what I did at the Salvation Army. 

So I've gotten to interact with many many community members that have been affected.  It has been very emotional and intense since we've been here, but I think we are slowly getting used to handling these situations.  The people we help at the relief centers have been helped by FEMA and are so very grateful to us and the time we are giving to help them get what they need.  I can't even put into words how awful it feels to look around this city and see all the destruction.  You can be on one street where one house is completely gone, and across the street another house looks perfectly fine on the outside.  The tornado was a mile wide and went right through the city.  I don't know who knows or not but Tuscaloosa is the home of the University of Alabama which is HUGE on their college football around here.  Everyone is so proud of their state, their college and their city.  It's amazing to see the work that has been done in just 2 months time, but it is going to take a very long time to fully recover.

Intense stuff.

Sorry if I've blabbed on too much and have made no sense, but it's a lot to handle and hard to explain everything I'm feeling and doing.  We have been working 6 8 hour days so far, which I guess normally on disaster we would be working 12 hour days, but for right now it's just been 8.  But I've been so exhausted when we get home, it's emotionally and physically draining but is one of the most amazing things I've done in my life.  I am so proud to be able to say that I have helped with a disaster and have supported so many community members.  I'll probably read this later to find out that it makes no sense....but that's ok...you might get the general idea....

One month to go! Can't wait!  I foudn out that my application is under review for Big Brothers Big Sisters in Philadelphia, so I'm hoping that falls through and I get an interview and get it!  Otherwise my plan is to just come home and figure it out from there! Who knows!

just to give you an idea of the destruction I'm surrounded by...

This is Forest Lake that is one block down the street from the church