the journey is the destination...

the new has come...

2008-03-25T22:18:00.000-07:00

sorry its been way too long, so i ll make this short and to the point...

i m back in mississippi at the moment...i live in ocean springs, MS...work in pascagoula, MS...and in a week or two am moving to new orleans, LA for this project...strange because i m actually working with the same sponsor that i worked for last year during this time...i m actually workin on the same neighborhood as last year too...how strange but i guess i m kinda glad cuz i get to see things finish and close out here too...gives me a little closure...being a team leader is definitely different than what i thought it would be like...not necessarily in a good or bad way, its just different...but i m learning a lot more now, especially since we re out on our project now and i feel like i have more direct control over things...i ve been pretty busy all the time which has contributed to the breaking of my one big promise to keep in touch better this year...i m hoping that as i get more into the groove of things, i ll have a little more free time...

i m not gonna lie...this is how it goes for me...i know that i have a lot of people to call...right now on my computer i have a virtual post it note that is telling me to call 18 different people...18!!!...and these are people that i want to call too...but the problem is that i know each phone call is gonna take awhile and deservedly so...i want to have enough time to talk to everyone...the problem is that after a long day of work and meetings and any other obligations that i have as a team leader, i rarely want to be on the phone for hours after that...so thats why i m so crappy with calling people back at the moment...i dont want anyone to think that i ve forgotten, its just that as i hold off calling people more and more, the more and more new people i have to call...and thus its a neverending cycle of me putting it off and more people accumulating which makes me want to call even less...but dont worry...i WILL get to this eventually...

i really dont know what else to tell anyone...i m doing construction work at the moment...i just got back from my spring break which i spent in new orleans...i took it really easy this weekend...i just saw some old friends still in the area...watched some good music, ate some good food, etc...and i got 2 new tattoos...if you want to know what they are you ll just have to ask...i really feel like i m getting older...i just dont care to do a lot of things anymore...i ve hardly drank at all since i ve been in the corps this year, mainly because i dont feel like it...and thats how i know i m getting old hahah...and i dont really care either...its actually a pretty good feeling because i really feel like i do what i want now...and i m not limited to always thinking about drinking or partying all the time...its a welcome change i guess...hmmm...my team is WOLF 3...my van is definitely the most decorated in the corps...i have a team of 10 people that range from the ages of 19-25...right now in the stage of our house...we have finished hanging drywall, sanding, mudding, and we are finishing up painting tomorrow and then we ll start laying down the hardwood floors and the baseboards etc...

i ll just say a couple more things about being a team leader before i stop this post...i must say that i m finding this experience a lot more challenging at times than i thought it would be...people always told me that this would be the hardest job i ever had and that its totally different than any other job that i ve had and i guess its true...its wierd being a 24/7 supervisor...there are so many times when i totally feel like a parent of 10 kids...not even joking you...cuz i have to watch these 10 people and make sure they re always safe, always working, have enough to eat, know where they are, discipline them, etc...i totally feel like i ve gotten a taste of what it feels like to be a parent...other than that i dont know what else to say at the moment...i will be calling soon...i just dont know how soon...i ll try to post again with some pictures next time...take care everyone...i havent forgotten

it begins again...perry point, maryland

2008-01-04T21:14:00.000-08:00

so here i am, back for another term with americorps nccc but there is one minor detail change...this time...i m wearing green...which means i m a team leader woot woot...i m sitting in my lovely house right on the mouth of the chesapeake bay!!! yes...you heard me right...right on the water...its pretty amazing...i live with 7 other guys, 2 guys to a room...we have already dubbed our house...the kingdom...remember this name because i will no longer refer to my house as my house, but rather the kingdom...hahah...out of the 36 team leaders here there are only 11 guys total...the weather is a bit chilly but not as bad as when i first got to denver last year...its so weird to be wearing green...weird to be here in perry point instead of denver...and weird to be doin it again with none of my team...i miss them...there are 2 people here from the denver campus as well...and i m glad that one of them is my good friend who lives here in the kingdom with me...the campus is beautiful...its SO east coast...the trees and the houses...when i take pictures and post them...you ll really know what i mean...

so i had that long day of travel...from arriving back from china in sf at 830 AM to repacking and doing laundry to catch my 8 PM flight to LA in order to connect to my flight to baltimore...basically i slept on planes for 2 days...but i arrived safely and met all my colleagues and i must say that i m both scared and excited for the term ahead...i know its gonna be a real challenge for me but i really think i need it and i ll get so much out of it...training has been the usual stuff...getting to know each other, the rules, expectations etc etc...we are actually flying out to denver tomorrow for a week to do a weeklong joint training with the team leaders from my old campus...it should be really fun...i ll get to see a lot of people again...

i didnt feel like i had enough time at home but i m glad for what little time i had...sorry to anyone that i didnt get a chance to meet up with to either say hi to...or bye to...you ll just have to come see me...the goodbyes this time were much harder for me this time compared to last...especially with family...

if you re wondering...my china trip was really fun...it was a good time just to hang out with everyone so much...since we dont get that kind of time often...it really helped me appreciate and love everyone that much more...i was really glad to visit my grandma and grandpas villages...it was crazy just to see where they grew up and just how amazingly different it is...i ll keep this short and write more in depth another time...all in all...i love my family...love you mom and dad and peter and stephen and andrew and yeen yeen....

before i go i ll give you my mailing addresses:

if you re going to mail me PACKAGES then send it to me at this address:

David Lee/Class XIV TL
Americorps NCCC
VA Medical Center
Building 15, Rm 2
Perry Point, MD 21902

now if youre goin to send me REGULAR MAIL then send it here:

David Lee - Class XIV TL
Americorps NCCC
PO Box 209
Perry Point, MD 21902

ok everyone...i m making a commitment to keep in touch better this year...to really fight the fade...and keep this updated more so keep my accountable...pics will be up when i can get them up...no promises on that one...take care until the next post...which i ll make sure is sooner rather than later...

almost there...

2007-11-08T20:40:00.000-08:00

sorry no pics have been up...i will be home soon so i figure i ll save it til i get back...in denver...gonna be home on the 15th...call me and come see me...i ll try to post some final pics up later...

2007-09-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

iowa is more beautiful than i could have imagined...more to come...bogoshipda

2007-09-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

pics from my last round in waveland, mississippi

our room in mississippi...the bed with the pirate flag is mine...they call me captain davy long hairs

our common area at Camp Salvage...which we came to call Camp Savage

the first house we worked on...i did the roof for this bad boy and you can see the natural progression of the house in the next picture where it has been weatherproofed and the siding has started to go up

siding the whole house usually takes a couple of days which involves a lot of measuring and levelling...siding is very easy to mess up on

more of the first house...we worked on this house about 2 weeks max before we started on the big boy...

the framing up for our prize build...the 2 story house...the first done by habitat in mississippi and i built it...ground up...

more of the framing...the 3 things you see on the top are ceiling joists...its what supports the floor of the second floor

after all the ceiling joists are up...we have to climb up and balance on them to start making the floors for the second floor...

me and jesse...a volunteer from kansas...she was so awesome

13-15 feet off the ground balancing on half foot wide beams making the floor systems...

scott and i MADE those roof rafters ourselves...we built that roof...we really did

the scranton girls...i must admit that when first hearing that we d be working with 20 high school girls...we werent too excited...but that turned out to be one of the best weeks...they were amazing...

me and stephanie...from scranton, PA...she was awesome and still is...

more of the lovely scranton girls...

the 2 story house lookin a little how it did towards the end...

my team and i with our amazing and awesome crew leaders...mistie, dan, stephen, and chris "casanova"...

thats me at the VERY top of the house nailing in some of the rafters so we can build that roof...

me and scott were the obvious badasses of our team...the habitat crew leaders always had me and scott doin a project on our own...they trusted us to do everything and it was really cool...

helping people out on the roof...

framing the second floor...

leann, me and chris in new orleans...

close to the end...

2007-09-03T17:37:00.001-07:00

sorry about never posting for anybody that DOES happen to keep up with this blog...i m back in denver on my week break currently...i m headed to new york city on wednesday morning for a couple of days to see sandy who i havent seen in a really really long time...its been quite a while since we lived together so i m really lookin forward to seein her...

the last project in mississippi was awesome...i couldnt have gotten a better project with habitat...i can now basically say that i helped build a 2 story home from the ground up...its an awesome feeling...i helped build almost every aspect of that house...

after our break here...i ll be headed off to my last project for the last 2 months...i ll be in des moines, iowa!!!! doesnt get much more mid west than that...hahha so i m pretty excited...we ll be living in cabins...workin for the iowa conservation board i think....where i ll be doing some trail building, invasive species removal, and maybe even some controlled burns...which sounds really exciting...

this wont be too long of a post because the coffee shop that i m at is gonna close soon...the internet in our dorms hasnt been working for the past week so it really sucks cuz if you dont know yourself...everyone is quite dependent on the net these days...i cant type too well becuase if you havent heard...i ve been wearing splints on my left middle and ring fingers for the past month because i tore 2 tendons in them...dont worry...it didnt hurt at all and sounds worse than it really is...it just looks funny...ive got to wear the splints for another month so i m almost there...

thanks to anyone and everyone that remembers me in their thoughts...it is much appreciated...i ve been contemplating what to do after this is done and i ve actually decided to try for another term!!!! but this time as a team leader...i just wanted to opportunity to be able to influence just like myself...now that i know a little more of what i wanna do, i just want to help someone who was like me when i first joined the program...i think it ll be a great leadership opportunity for me...keep your fingers crossed...i ll try to keep everyone updated...but i gotta go...they re turning off the lights on me...i know that without pictures this site is pretty plain...so hopefully next time i ll be able to fix that...

join americorps if you dont know what you wanna do...ask me questions about anything...its been an awesome experience to really live for others...take care all

back at mississippi...

2007-07-22T22:50:00.000-07:00

well i m gonna keep this short until i get more pics...but i m back in mississippi again...this time i m in the city of waveland and i m building with Habitat for Humanity down here...its a lot different than the new orleans branch because its a lot smaller with nowhere near the volunteer numbers in new orleans but its cool because our whole team works together on one site so the building actually gets done a lot faster because we kinda know what we re doing instead of having to train new volunteers all the time...me and scott basically finished a roof and tar papering in 2 days...it was awesome...an hour into work and my shirt is absolutely drenched with sweat because its so hot down here...its amazing how much water we drink and how we dont have to goto the bathroom once all day because we sweat so much...its been a really cool experience down here so far with the new team...we re only here for another 5 weeks so its kind of a short round...i ll post again soon with some pics...keep me and everyone else down here in your thoughts and prayers...take care

back by demand...

2007-06-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

well well well...long overdue i guess...so long in fact that i have absolutely no idea what to write...some profound thought or pearl of wisdom probably should be dropped but yeah...nothing comes to mind with that either...i wish i could just field questions from anyone that reads this...it would make my life much easier...

according to the survey, people apparently dont like reading my posts that have massive amounts of text...so because of this, as with children i will be posting as many pictures as possible while minimizing the amount of text...hope this solves that problem...

well i m still here in the new orleans area until the 20th...it s been a pretty awesome experience building here in Musicians Village... a brief little history on musicians village...it is the brainchild of harry connick jr and branford marsalis...the main lot where the pictures come from has about 25 Habitat houses there presently but the final plan is to have 60 to 70 on the core site...the houses arent just for musicians, about 50 percent of the homeowners on the site so far are musicians...there are eventual plans for a community center to be built on the main site where musicians can go and give free lessons to community members...everything is awesome there

this is my lovely team...taken the first week we started on the sites...

what do i do exactly on a Habitat for Humanity site you might ask?!?...well...lets see...this is what your standard HfH house looks like on the site with minor details different on each house...cosmetics, floor plans and interiors are personalized by the homeowners...

so you see how the house is raised off the ground?...all HfH houses are built that way to protect it is as much as possible from any moderate flooding...so look at these pictures and see if you can tell what that is...

if you dont know...those beams that you see us on top of and going through are what we call the floor joists which is basically the floor framing...so after the foundation is laid and the cinder blocks set, the floor joists can go up...

at which point some basic floor systems can be put in so that the framing of the house can begin, at which point the house will start to look like this...

after the framing goes up...some sheathing can be done where the outside walls are sort of put on the frames...

after that...Tyvek homewrap is applied to the walls to weather proof it and the roof trusses can be placed on the framing of the house...

after that some siding, sub fascia, soffit, porchwork, stairs and roofing can start...i know that you guys probably dont know what half of those are but oh well...here are some pics from when we worked on "decking" the roof...its where we place the flat pieces of OSB lumber onto the roof to actually create the roof...

if you cant tell we actually have to use a ladder to get into the roof trusses where we then have to balance on the 2 by 4 s that we use while we are about 10 feet above the floor of the house...we climb through the trusses like little monkeys and hammer the deckboards into place...

after that happens then tar paper and shingles can be used to make it look like an actual roof...

after all that is done then there are a ton of more things that need to happen all of which i dont know exactly of but i know some...interior drywalling needs to happen, insulation, painting, cabinets, rugs, plumbing, electrical, mudding, doors, windows, and much more...so much goes into a house and its pretty cool to learn alot...they use us Americorps members as assistants to the crew leaders of the house where we help supervise the volunteers that are there...all in all...there are hundreds of volunteers each day that need to be divided among the different houses that are being worked on each day...i do a little bit of everything...including driving a box truck for deliveries...i m a pro at driving big vehicles now...

besides working tho i ve had my opportunities to get to know the new orleans area which is pretty cool to know where i m going in a city where i m not from...

this is where i stay...its called Camp Hope and its an old elementary school thats been converted into a volunteer base camp where there are usually an average of 300 volunteers here...its funny cuz i m so used to sharing a room now with like 15 other people and having community showers and bathrooms...people sometimes say its a little dirty but i dont seem to notice anymore...this is what our room looks like...

and this is my bunk...the top one with the pirate flag...its a little different in actuality now...we have made our room into the pirate room...we have pillaged a lot of things from around the area to make our room super cool...our room tends to be known as the loud music, pirate talking, yelling random things, messy, crazy room...its actually quite fun...my bunk now has a bunch of milk crates nailed all over to serve as makeshift shelves...i ve also got some random artwork that ive collected...its definitely the coolest/cleanest bunk in the room...

the south loves crawfish...they have what they call "crawfish boils" where they take huge amounts of crawfish and boil them in huge pots with a ton of spices and other things including corn, potatoes, mushrooms, etc and just eat them...

i personally dont see why crawfish is that great...i mean...its pretty good but not awesome to me...it is however very fun to just eat...its fun to tear them apart and so forth...

i got a chance to goto the famous New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Music Festival which was pretty amazing...its a huge deal here and they have all sorts of stages with musicians from all different genres such as modern rock, classic rock, jazz, reggae, blues, gospel, brass bands, hip hop, etc... a lot of stuff just unique to new orleans...

before we came here to New orleans we stayed in texas for a week at a YMCA camp which was pretty cool...i just wanted to show you what happens when you put 20 guys who have a lot of huge bags into one cabin meant for little kids...

it was amazing hahaha...it looks worse than it was...

one thing that i really like about being a federally funded program is that we have government vehicles which consists of 12-15 passenger vans and covered pickup trucks for our luggage...we have government plate and its so cool to always get together and see "govvies" as we love to call them...if we see a van with government plates we just know they re americorps and its like a bond...it pretty cool ...we just wave or go crazy in our cars even if we dont know who it is...and i also think it makes us a little more invisible to cops with the government plates...we have a lot of rules tho since they ARE goverment cars...we cant drive over 65 mph...EVER...if we dont wear our seatbelts...its a $100 fine...if we reverse...we always have to have a "ground guide" where someone stands in the back and uses our fancy hand signals to make sure we dont hit anything...we can never drive the car alone...there has to be at least 2 people in the car at all times...we have to record the mileage...EVERYDAY...those are just some of the great perks of driving these things of beauty...haha...here s what a parking lot full of govvies looks like...and mind you this is nowhere near how many we have on our whole campus...

i do manage to have my fair share of fun here though as well...which is definitely something you need not to get burned out...so of course i ve been to bourbon...seen a ton of live music,,,jazz on the streets...etc etc

americorps just feels like a completely different world...everyone always talks about that here...its like we re in our own little bubble and "real" life just kinda pauses...when i stayed at a hotel a little while ago and took a shower in a real bathroom it was wierd...hhaha...it felt like normal but it felt wierd...we add ameri in front of everything....ameri-world...ameri-car...ameri-life...my ameri-home...my ameri-friends...ameri-water...ameri-bed...anything and everything...haha...its crazy...

here s some pics of my ameri-friends who i ve grown to love and i keep meeting more everyday...i can now safely do a roadtrip across the country and have many places where i can stay...all over...i never thought i would know people from ohio,,,or alaska...or maine...but i do...its amazing

well i guess the last thing i ll write before i call it a night is more of soemthing i d like to ask of anyone...if you find you ve got some time...come down here and help...i d love to work along side all of you especially my close friends...you have no idea how great of an experience you would have here...people have the misconception that you need a lot of time and money to do something like come volunteer for a week but its really not...you can always just come on a weekend and stay at a volunteer base camp where you might not have to pay for anything...you work the days doing something great and you still have plenty of free time to sight see or do whatever you want at night...it is soooooo much more rewarding than you could possibly be imagine...you dont have to work here everyday if you want to come...its called volunteering and we would love to have anyone even if its only for a day...and come on...another plus side...you get to see and work with ME...how long has it been since you ve done that...so all i m asking is that if you were thinking on plannin your annual vacation soon...dont overlook a vacation where you can help do something great while doin the normal things you do on vacation...there still is a tonnnn of help needed down here and i would really LOVE to see some of the people i care deeply for get involved in something with so much value...i really think it would change lives...come guys...i miss you...if you have any questions or anything...get in touch with me...myspace...facebook...email...dulldavid@gmail.com...AIM:dulldavid...cell:415-517-2667...whatever...just come...there will ALWAYS be some reason not to go...its up to you whether or not you re gonna let it stop you...DONT...you guys are all better than that...come...sometimes you just cant think about it...

keep in touch all...i would really love to hear from some of you that i dont hear from...i m never too busy...miss you all...

i will side with you forever...cootie

new address...

2007-04-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

hey everyone...i dont really feel like posting at the moment but i just wanted to give you all my new address that i ll be staying at until june 20th...so if you need to mail me something, send it here...mark it like this

David Lee (Fire 3)
Americorps *NCCC
W. Smith Elementary School
6701 E. St. Bernard Highway
Violet, LA 70092

sorry i dont feel like blogging now but the internet sucks here and i m just not in the mood...but yeah...we re working with habitat for humanity now building houses in musicians village in the lower ninth ward of new orleans...its been pretty fun and tiring doing construction...so far i ve done a lot of random things like cutting out toe boards, painting, putting soffit up on roofs, caulking, cleaning, framing houses, sawing, moving appliances,...we ll get a lot more experience later on many other things...maybe i ll write more later tonite...and i gotta try to get some pictures up...miss you all

summer camp...

2007-04-17T01:17:00.000-07:00

so i m no longer in pascagoula, mississippi anymore...now i m in trinity, texas for a transition week before i head over to new orleans...we are staying at this YMCA camp here called Camp Cullen...it is a camp straight out of the movies...there s a lake, ropes courses, horseback riding, climbing walls, archery ranges, etc...its pretty cool...

for some reason i ve been feeling a bit anti-social...i havent done any of the activities up above and i dont really plan on doing any of them...i dont know...i honestly just wanna get this over with and go on to my next project...i ve been thinking about how everything is going and i guess i m just tryin to refocus on why i came here in the first place and for some reason i ve been looking up a lot on the peacecorps...its easy to get caught up in the world here we call ameri-life...i ve just been relaxing here being a lazy bum...laying in the grass and listening to my ipod and what not...i m still trying to find that something that i know is out there for me...i think i m starting to feel a little old here...i feel like i m one of the more responsible ones here and i guess that automatically makes me feel a bit older...

my team leader selected me and one of my other teammates, shira, to be ATLs or assistant team leaders...i m glad...i m not gonna like brag or anything but it was really the only logical choice...i think our age just makes us a little more mature...so with this comes a little more responisibilty and now an official title.

there will be certain things i ll miss about pascagoula and other things i wont...overall it was a great experience to learn a lot but i m definitely ready to go work with habitat and get my hands dirty...

so i figured out a big mystery that i was wondering about earlier...i solved the reason why i had such tremendous amounts of gas back in denver...apparently it is a common practice in dormitory cafeterias to add laxatives to the food...LAXATIVES...i asked my friend why and apparently its healthier for you...they want you to have a regular cycle so you get less sick etc, etc...i just thought that was so wierd and if that is true, it makes so much sense.

ok...i m really tired...i m seriously like always the last person up...2-3 hours of sleep a night is not that hard to pull off but sometimes you feel it like i m feeling it now...good thing i dont have to wake up early...another update comin soon...take care

finally...an update

2007-04-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

well well well...i guess its time...time for another mandatory post...lets see...i ll try to keep this brief and easy to read by chopping up paragraphs...

a lot has happened since the last post...our time here in Pascagoula is almost up and what a ride its been...volunteer coordinating has its pros and cons...the pros being interacting with all the different volunteers that have come through that I ve had the pleasure of coordinating and getting to know due to my position...i can now proudly say that if i need a place to stay in Illinois, Missouri, or Ohio i have some awesome people i can call up and crash with...the cons being basically everything else...hahha...but overall...a very rewarding experience...

so on April 14th we ll be leaving pascagoula to head over to houston, texas for a week of debriefing and reflection and just plain old reunions with all the other teams from our campus...and after that week...we ll be heading over to our next project in NEW ORLEANS...

"nawlins" as its called down here in the south is the next destination...my team is really happy because we got our first choice of projects for this round...we ll be staying at Camp Hope and working with the New Orleans Habitat for Humanity...my team and i are really excited to drop the admin work and just get to focus on building for a good 6-8 weeks...we want to get all the building skills down so that when we go to our next projects we ll actually know what we re doin instead of just BSing.

i m especially excited to be going just because i ve heard so much about camp hope from friends and my family who stayed there for a week volunteering in the exact same spot that i ll be doing rebuilding...who knows...maybe i ll be building houses on sites that they helped gut or clear out...that would be pretty cool...my family drew pictures of themselves on some walls in camp hope so one of the first things i ll be doing is going to find those walls and take a picture next to it...for those that dont know...camp hope is a huge volunteer center in new orleans that houses close to 800 volunteers if i m not mistaken...some people say the rooms look like army barracks which are basically rooms that have been divided by one sheet of drywall with 15-20 mattresses piled in a room...some people are skeptical...but i m totally excited

i ve been loving the feeling about not having to worry about what i m gonna eat or where i m gonna sleep...americorps nccc is an awesome program that i think all of you should definitely do...i keep finding out that there are a lot of middle school and high school students down here helping out because service hours is a requirement for their graduation...thats so cool...when i heard that i totally thought that that is what it should have been like for me...instilling a sense of service at a young age would totally make our culture a little less self centered in my opinion

so the big project at our center started last monday...100 homes in a 100 days...a lot of media hoopla on monday where most of my team actually got on the front page of the newspaper for the area...pretty cool i guess...wish this project luck...getting 100 families into their homes will be such a great accomplishment for this community...

i went to new orleans for st patricks day which was pretty fun...bourbon street is definitely a place that is booming with culture and nightlife...definitely something you dont see everyday...i can honestly say that i m sick of seeing those plastic beads everywhere...i dont understand the obsession with them...i refuse to wear any...

we had a new team join us about 2 weeks ago who are helping us run the place now and i really am glad that they re here...it helped mix things up and added a breath of fresh air into the atmosphere around here...i like them a lot and its already sad to think that we wont be together for the rest of the projects...but yeah...we re having fun down here

other things of interest might include the BAR ASSAULT that we were unfortunately involved in...basically we were all hanging out at the local bar which is like 4 blocks away from our center...this is a small bar that we ve been to a few times before where we have always met great people...the night we went was a more crowded night and lets just say...not many minorities...in fact, i along with my teammate who is african american were the only minorities in the bar...there were a couple of us playing shuffleboard...which by the way is such an awesome game...basically some drunk young football-lookingish guy who was playing pool all of a sudden starts pointing his pool stick at my friends and saying "you got a problem? you got a problem?"...both of them (who werent even facing him at all!!!) both said calmly "no, no problem" and go back to playing our game...after one of my teammate leaves to answer a phone call...my other teammate...the african american one...gets assaulted...all of a sudden i see the guy charge my friend and basically sucker punch my friend and runs him into the wall...he then proceeds to throw him against the other wall across the room...at this time... i m a little in shock but rush over there where at this point, tables have been knocked down and they are now wrestling on the floor...(note that my friend is not fighting or throwing punches at all....he has his hands up the whole time)...so when i get over there to try to break it up...i get picked up from behind and SLAMMED to the floor...by a big huge football looking guy with this pastel blueish polo shirt with his collar popped...after i got off the floor, some old man runs up to me and asks if i m ok...i just go back and try to break up the chokehold the guy has on my friend (and at this point all my other teammates are screaming at the guy to stop)...after a couple more seconds my friend gets out of the guys hands and i walk with him immediately to the front and tell my friends we re leaving...one of the regulars walks up to us outside the bar and asks us what happened and i begin to explain that we re volunteers in the area and that we re not here to cause any trouble and he immediately tells us that he knows who we are because we had come in the other night and he asks if we re ok...i immediately think that my friend and i have to get out of the area so we walk back to the center...the whole walk back all i could think of in my mind was guys coming in pick ups to jump us again...but we make it back ok...as soon as i get him inside i head back over to the bar because all our other friends are there (a significant amount of which are girls) so i wanted to make sure that everything was ok...i catch up to them halfway to the bar and they told me what happend after we left...they told me that all the locals in the bar came up to us and started defending at us yelling at the guys who started all the trouble...they said that they all came out saying "i m sooo sorry...please dont let this be a representation of mississippi for you...these are just young redneck kids who havent learned the way yet"...funny hearing them say rednecks...they wanted to drive the rest of my team home just to make sure we got back safely...they were all so nice...one of the bartenders actually yelled at the guys saying "those are my friends, get out of here"...they all told my teammates how thankful they are that we are here and how sorry they were...it was really a nice thing on their part and really helped save our thoughts on mississippi...it was just so random and bad because if you knew my teammate who got attacked he is the quietest person ever who hardly speaks to US so its impossible that he would have said anything to strangers...hhaha...who knows if it was racially motivated or not but its just ironic that the only 2 minorities in the bar got attacked...he was fine...he didnt have a scratch on him and i just had a bruised elbow for a day or two...and now it just makes a cool story...to have actually been in a bar fight with tables falling...we went back to the bar just recently and we found out that those guys are banned from the bar forever...and the people still love us there...so there...little details are left out because i could go on forever but that s the gist of it...bar fight in mississippi...hahha

now on a lighter note...the weather is warming up here and its getting a little humid...oh man...i dont know how i m gonna survive actually doing manual labor in this weather...a lot of deodorant and cologne will have to suffice...

its only been about 2 months since i ve left but it feels like forever...i feel like i ve known my team all my life...i guess thats what eating, sleeping, working, and basically doing everything else with your teammates will do to a person...but its awesome...we have a good team that works well together...

after talking with my old roommate, i ve come to the conclusion that i really miss these certain types of noodles...so if anyone has nothing to do and wants to send me something random...get me some MI GORENG noodles from your local Ranch 99...they look like ramen packets...but they re like a dry noodle that doesnt have any broth...if you send me a bunch i will love you forever..i m trying to think of other things that i ve been missing or want....hmmmm

i cant really think of anything else of significant importance that has happened since the last post...i really want to post pics that i ve been taking or that my friends have been taking since i totally dont take as many pictures as i should...but its just so much more difficult...so i ll post a link to one of my picture sites and you can look for yourself what i have up there and maybe later i ll post some actually on this site...here it is

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v55/dulldavid/denver/

a couple points of info for everyone...when i call people and ask people why they dont call ME...i always tend to get the same lame excuse...and yes its understandable but still lame...i always get the excuse that everyone thinks i am busy and they dont want to bother me...i understand that but seriously...i would much rather get missed calls from people then not get anything at all...here are some things so you dont have any excuses...currently i am 2 hours ahead of pacific standard time...i wake up at 7 AM here and get done with work around 5 PM...so basically anytime after that i am free...i stay up to about 3 AM everynite so thats still 1 AM for all you at home which i m sure is still later than a lot of you...so dont be afraid to call...i know i should be calling too but if you feel like calling...just call...10 minutes, an hour or a minute...i dont care...and i ll try to call more too...

one more point of info is that if you re gonna send me a package, please let me know...i know this might be lame but if you send me a package to denver at this moment...i wont be getting it for a couple of months because they dont forward packages from denver to wherever my project is if it is too big...so sometimes it might be easier to ship it out directly to where my project is but you have to ASK me first. I dont want to get back to denver to open a package only to find that whatever was sent is eaten by mold.

well the last thing i m gonna post is actually a video of my teammate from when we were back in denver...he s a great musician and this is when he played 2 songs that he wrote at our talent show...seriously...he s really really good...we make him play these songs all the time...the quality of the video isnt great but the audio is good so just listen...he definitely has potential to make it...so listen and enjoy...i really didnt like the first song that much when i first heard it but i absolutely love it now...its called ariella...and the second is called mother mary and its also awesome...

and i dont know if you read this but if you do...happy birthday wootie...

take care you all...miss you guys...keep me in your thoughts and prayers

quite possibly the hardest i ve ever worked...

2007-03-10T13:41:00.000-08:00

well...this is one of those posts that i ve deemed necessary just for the sake of keeping this blog alive...because if i dont post and let things pile up i m just not gonna wanna post later because i have so much i need to write about...haha...yeah...i hope that makes sense...this afternoon is one of those rare occasions where i actually have free time so i m here at a coffee shop called "dough joes"...which to my delight is surprisingly nice...its got that "little house on the prairie" feel to it...not something i d expect to find in pascagoula...it really makes me feel like i m home...let s see...let me try to think about what you all are wondering right now....

our job here at Operation TLC is that we basically staff the whole volunteer center...like literally...we ARE the only staff at the center with the exception of our site supervisor...it has been absolutely crazy...it is basically like a 24 hr a day job...and if you ve never lived at the same place where you work...then...well...DONT...hahah...its hard to get away from the job when you are here...its very hard not to think about work when you walk by the office everytime you goto the kitchen...and in our case...the kitchen serves as part of the office...

my specific position is that i am the volunteer coordinator of Operation TLC, which means that I am in charge of calling and confirming with incoming volunteers and also recruiting new ones...now at first this may sound like an easy job but organizing and just obtaining the info is quite difficult...after a lot of phone and email tag...even when you get a hold of a group...the numbers are never definite...i find myself on the phone or computer quite often or just waiting for people to get back to me...i dunno...it s pretty cool because i was given a FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) phone and laptop to use as part of my job...but they recently took the phone back because FEMA is dumb....i guess this job is a little hard for me because i feel like i quit Macys to get out of the office and here i am...in an office all day pretty much...it ll get better once i get stuff down because i ll get to lead the volunteers to a site and work with them...the cool thing about this position is that i am basically the point of contact for the volunteers...so when they get to the center i m the one who greets them and shows them around and stuff...we havent had too many yet but in the next week we ll have almost 100 volunteers at the center so i dont know how crazy that is gonna get...its hard because most of the volunteers arrive on the weekends...and thats what makes it hard to get some free time...it makes going out on weekend nights hard as well...but i think this will be a really rewarding SPIKE(which means our round of deployment) because its definitely pushing all of us...while most if not all teams are out there doing more manual labor type SPIKEs here is our team...RUNNING a volunteer center...this operation is so awesome...its probably the hardest i ve worked or at least the job where i had the most responsibility and other people relying on me and that is something i m gonna have to get used to... the 2 ladies who started it are quite amazing...if you wanna read about the operation goto www.operationtlc.org ...they can use any help they get down here...so if you have some free time/money/furniture/whatever...help out...all of us have so much...we owe it to give back...in whatever way we can...

let s see what else can i say...its pretty cool hearing the southern accent all the time...it really does feel like the "dirty" south...haha...i ve seen much of where the stereotypes come from...the main shop here in pascagoula is the super wal mart...everyone DOES drive pickups here...there ARE a lot of camoflauge shirts here...people DO have mullets...and there really IS southern hospitality...everyone is very courteous and everyone calls people "miss so and so"...like...miss elaine...miss ruth...etc...they say new orleans like "nawlins"...it is quite fascinating...amazing to think of how much culture there is within the US itself...so if you ever here someone say that they have to travel the world to get some culture...you smack them upside the head and remind them that there is culture right here in their very own country too...things that you wouldnt imagine...especially for those of use coming from big cities...

hmmm...well 2 days ago something unexpected came up and i drove 2 hrs each way to new orleans and didnt get back til 3AM in pascagoula...that something was EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY!!!!!!!!! oh my gosh...one of my absolute FAVORITE bands EVER...AJ called me on the 7th and asked me if i was going to the show...and i was like...what show...and then he proceeded to tell me that he thought explosions in the sky was playing in new orleans soon...so being that this was in the middle of the work day...i take time out to look it up and lo and behold...they WERE playing in new orleans....the NEXT day...so now i go into panic mode and try to figure out what i m gonna do...sidenote...i love this band and have never seen them play live because they dont tour that often and the one time i did purchase a ticket to see them in sf...it happened that i was gonna be in china...so yeah...i was seriously considering flying to go see them wherever they were when we had our break here but i guess they just added the new orleans show recently so i was totally totally trying to figure out a way...so i looked up rental cars and when i told my group that i was going...a lot of them wanted to jump on board...so it ended up being a really spontaneous thing where we left at 530 to go pick up people...we had so many stops along the way that i was totally stressing that we werent gonna make it in time to see them...there are so many streets that still dont have street signs...so as you can imagine that plays havoc when driving in a place you dont know at all...but after one last stop at Camp Hope to pick up Abby, we made it to the show and JUST IN TIME...they went up probably 10 minutes after we arrived and i have to say...ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS EVER...for those of you that dont know...explosions in the sky is an instrumental band most known in the mainstream for the fact that basically all the music in the movie "friday night lights" was done by them...but yes...it was such an amazing show...explosions is definitely a band that you FEEL more than you listen to...it was an experience that was just indescribable...i just wish sankyoung could have been there...they played a short set so that was the only thing i wished happened differently...but that made the show short but still...just great...definitely something i ll never forget

while i ve been here...there was actually a tornado warning...it was the same weather pattern as all those tornadoes that killed all those kids in alabama if you keep up to date with the news...we are actually right on the border of alabama...our team leader came up to us that day and said "if you here someone scream TORNADO go into this hallway" hahahha...priceless

i gotta goto waveland, mississippi right now...

pictures coming up soon...

my blog sucks...

2007-03-05T22:26:00.000-08:00

so in the interest of time, i ll make this quick...basically i found out one of my team mates has a blog site as well...so i decided to read it and guess what...my blog sucks crazy balls compared to hers...lets just say she has a way with words...so basically, i m gonna be a total loser and put the link to her blog up on my blog in order to make my blog seem cooler...hahah...well...if you really want to know what i m up to down here then i HIGHLY suggest you head over to her page and read it...trust me...its both a very informative blog and an entertaining read...so please...read it...she is awesome...she helps keep me sane...oh yeah...and she s jewish haha

www.shirainamericorps.blogspot.com

a new post comin soon...

2007-03-04T23:32:00.001-08:00

we are working basically 7 days right now and i am too tired to write anything of major importance...this place is crazy...more to come

pascagoula, mississippi

2007-03-01T22:30:00.000-08:00

Fire 3 baby!!!!
me and scott at operation tlc in pascagoula, mississippi

tyler, texas

2007-02-27T22:43:00.000-08:00

well after another day of roadtripping which was filled with roadkill and some concerned riding on my part (i ve been driving 2 shifts of 2 hrs everyday just because i dont trust other people to drive...i m definitely the most reliable driver)...we ve made it to tyler texas and tomorrow we ll be getting up extra early to leave for mississippi at 7 am...i had Chick-Fil-A and Sonic for the first time today and i must say that i thought they were both pretty good...especially Chick-Fil-A...they should definitely have some in the bay because i think it would do well...its amazing to think that i ve driven through colorado, new mexico and texas...and tomorrow...louisiana and mississippi...pretty cool things to cross off on my to-do list i must say...well...i gotta sleep now because i m getting up soon...call me sometime folks

amarillo, texas

2007-02-26T22:10:00.000-08:00

well...we drove through colorado and new mexico running through many tumbleweeds along the way (yes...tumbleweeds!!!) to finally arrive in amarillo, texas where we re staying for the night only to drive another 8 hours tomorrow to reach the other end of texas...i guess thats how big it is...another update tomorrow

M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I

2007-02-21T23:00:00.000-08:00

well folks...here's the word...my final team is Fire 3 and there are 9 of us all together not including the team leader...next monday feb 26 we will be driving for about 2-3 days to Pascagoula, Mississippi where we will be living until april 14!!!

isnt that crazy??? just look at the name of that place...pascagoula...hahaha...thats gotta be the deep south if i ever heard of a deep southern city name....we ll be living in a recreation center and cooking our own food...so far from what i understand we ll be doing needs assessments for people who have lost their homes and then we ll actually be writing them grants!!! AND after that we get to go help purchase the materials and actually build their houses...so its really cool that we get to witness the whole process...

just so you know how pascagoula is...let me copy and paste a couple of lines of description of the city...errrrr town

"The population was 26,200 at the 2000 census...Today, Pascagoula is home to the state’s largest employer, Ingalls Shipbuilding, owned by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems — "America’s Shipbuilder."
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina's 20-foot storm surge and 30-55 foot seawaves devastated Pascagoula,[1] much like Biloxi and Gulfport and the rest of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.[2] Katrina came ashore during the high tide of 6:12AM, 2.1 ft more.[3] Nearly 92% of Pascagoula was flooded. Most homes along Beach Boulevard were destroyed, and FEMA trailers are now an omnipresent sight. Due to the major media focus on the plight of New Orleans and Biloxi-Gulfport in the aftermath of Katrina, many Pascagoula citizens have expressed feeling neglected or even forgotten following the storm. Most Pascagoula residents did not possess flood insurance, and many were required to put their home on pilings before being given a permit to rebuild.
As of the census GR2 of 2000, there were 26,200 people, 9,878 households, and 6,726 families residing in the city. The population density was 666.4/km² (1,726.4/mi²). There were 10,931 housing units at an average density of 278.0/km² (720.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 67.15% White, 28.97% African American, 0.18% Native American, 0.97% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.67% from other races, and 1.04% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.89% of the population.
The median income for a household in the city was $32,042, and the median income for a family was $39,044. Males had a median income of $30,313 versus $22,594 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,891. About 18.1% of families and 20.7% of the population were below the poverty line,"

so yeah...thats where i m headed...by me just being there i should increase that 0.97% Asian rate right up hahahah...i keep trying to post more pictures so you guys can see but the connection here is so bad that it takes absolutely forever to get them up...but i will eventually...lets see what else is there that i can tell you...if you guys have any questions or want to know anything about what i do just leave a question in the comment section and i ll try to address it...i m not really sure how many of you read this but yeah...hopefully i ll talk to you all soon

hmmm...i went to see The Shins here in denver and it was really good show...much better then i expected...i got to see the little hipster scene down here in denver...

oooooh.,..someone actually came to visit me on sunday...I got to hang out with Jenna who i randomly met on the streets of SF like 6 months ago...she moved back to colorado so i got to see her...it was really cool seeing someone that i knew from back home...hopefully i ll be here in denver enough to chill some more

pitchers of beer here are only $5 at the bar we go to...so thats very nice...i usually just walk around the bar drinking straight out of the pitcher...its way more efficient...hahah...

there are just too many amazing things to highlight and i m getting tired...we had a talent show last nite and my team member is an amazing guitar player who has a couple of amazing songs...i have one of them on video that i ll attempt to put up some day...you will be amazed

i ll try to post one more time before i head to mississippi but i plan on bringing my laptop down there anyways...keep in touch people...feel free to call me sometime and i ll do the same...

this is it...

2007-02-16T17:42:00.000-08:00

we re getting our final teams and the location of our first project in about 20 minutes and everyone is really nervous about the final teams because we ve all made certain friends and such...ahhhhhhh...the first project will definitely be in the gulf coast so i ll update right when i find out..

2007-02-14T16:25:00.000-08:00

after the warriors lost to the nuggets...

baseline physical training...

2007-02-09T12:09:00.000-08:00

so we just finished our baseline test for our physical training...basically its a way for us to try to improve our fitness over the course of the 10 months...we get timed for a 1.5 mile run which includes hills and then we do as many sit ups and push ups as we can in 1 minute...so here are my results...i did average for the run and i did pretty well in the sit ups and push ups in comparison to everyone else...for the run i ran it in 15:01 which i m pretty satisfied with since there were hills and this is denver which has really thin air...my throat was really burning...and i did 50 sit ups in a minute and 52 pushups in a minute...so yeah...they test us continually throughout the term...so i hope i do better...now i m off to our next workshop which is called "motor stables"...its where we all learn how to check oil, change tires, check the engine, etc for the 12-15 passenger vans we ll be driving...we just changed teams for the 3rd time today and we get our final teams next week...its been fun...its just so different then anything at home...even things here in america make you see how big the world really is...there are people from all walks of life here and its pretty amazing hearing all their different stories...its just that there are people from all over the country here...its hard to get this type of experience on your own...

the dorm experience i never got...

2007-02-08T15:21:00.000-08:00

well...i m actually posting in the middle of the day...we just got done with our first aid and cpr certification today which was basically from 8 - 4 and now i m just waiting for our PT (physical training) which we have 3 times a week...it sounds bad but its not that bad because we just played organized sports for about an hour and today is water polo...so yeah...the demographics of all the people on the campus is hmmmm...lets see...there s supposededly around 250 people here...95% i would say are white...there s maybe 10 blacks...3-5 latinos...and 3-4 asians...there s 2 other asian guys here but i definitely stand out cuz i have the long hair and i think i m more sociable...so basically i m saying i m a lot cooler then them because they seem like they re awkward around everyone hahahhaah...i mean...i dont wanna sound cocky but thats the way it is...i fit in and adapt very nicely...so yeah...i noticed when i went to wal mart the other day how strange our group must look...because the guys that i was walking with....here was the lineup...a tall irish guy...a crippled guy in a wheelchair...a french guy...and an asian guy...hahah...very funny....but yeah...living in the dorms is really cool...thats the one thing i always regretted about college...but yeah...now i get to live here....it all works out in the end...its just cool being able to walk around whereever and find people who wanna hang out...but yeah...more to come

i ve been having incredible amounts of gas...

2007-02-07T23:24:00.000-08:00

the title says a lot...i think the cafeteria has been giving me non stop gas...i swear i ve been like a farting factory....i just feel my stomach get bloated and bloated...so i finally asked all the other guys living near me and they say the same thing...so its gotta be the food...yesterday we had our first service project...we worked in a food distribution center and boxed up food and such...it was such a relief from sitting in classrooms all day...we boxed up probaly 600 boxes before we left...it was so awesome...i ve been really tired lately just with adjusting and doin stuff all day...so i ll have to update you more later...

waiting for the food boxing to start in the warehouse...

more of the warehouse...
pallets of food...

and last but not least...my face plants...i have been just jumping face first into huge lakes of snow and trying to get a good indentation...here is one of them...you can see my legs....my head...etc...i recommend doin that...its fun

the sun is out...

2007-02-06T00:38:00.000-08:00

alright...the snow has finally stopped falling and the sun has finally come out...its actually pretty nice now...the last couple of days have just been more training...we learned about community service awards, campus standards, got our physicals and just plain hung out...for the physical we had to do a urine drug test which was the first time i actually had to pee in a cup...it was hard...i had to drink a bottle of water right before we got in the clinic. then i got my tetanus and tb shot...my arm is still a little sore from the tetanus shot...i m really tired right now and tomorrow is the first time we work a little with an outside organization...i think we re working with a food distribution center...let s see...initial impressions of denver...the city is HUGE, land wise...the cabs absolutely SUCK in the city...the streets are deserted...its cold...haha...i ll try to update more later...

this is abby chillin with me while we wait for our laundry to be done...

abby and andrea playing with our huge lint ball...

and here...

me...waiting...for th e laundry...
here s my impression i made when i jumped in the thick snow...as you can tell...thats my hand and head and body...

and this is abby and andreas imprint...

this is frenchie...he s from the bay area...

dead fly sitting next to me

getting tired in our workshop
a chair openin the window.....
abby again...she s from so cal

denver is nice...verrrry nice

2007-02-02T00:02:00.000-08:00

so today was the first day we wore our uniforms and i guess it was pretty cool since all 250 of us looked the same...makes you really feel like you re part of something bigger than yourself...basically we learned the rules and stuff about driving 15 passenger vans and then we got to go drive...we stopped off and saw buffalo bills grave and this cool little gift shop...after that we just relaxed and chilled at the dorms where i was just meeting more people and playing taboo...pretty uneventful today but it was still fun...so here s some pics to keep you occupied

my hallway in our dorm building...walsh hall...this hall is filled with all fire unit guys...

this is my team for now...fire 3...in our van...shira...kim..chad...zach...

a cool little scene filled with snow covered trees while driving up to lookout mountain...

the sign on my door that told me what room and unit i m in...

a nice view with smoke coming out of the Coors brewery...

buffalo bill...dont know why...but i thought it was kinda cool

uhhhh...yeah...thats a stop sign...might help if you could see it better

the view from our cafeteria window...the rocky mountains just surround us...its cool

this is the Coors brewery...its huge...they supposedly give you 3 glasses of beer if you complete the tour...we re trying to plan a trip

some of denver...looks so nice now...but i wonder what it looks like when the snow is gone...

take care everyone...update me on how you all are doing...feels like i ve already been gone for awhile...ahhh ahhhh ahhhhhhh...storyme

when the world sleeps...we will listen

denver...the first post

2007-02-01T00:49:00.000-08:00

well...after months of waiting, i ve finally made it...denver...

heres the view on my plane ride in...as you can tell...its super warm and wonderful...watch out denver, here comes the asian kid with the long hair...

this is my dorm room on the campus which is a university campus...its strange because you have to pull out the beds from underneath the drawer thingies...haha...my roommate s name is Larry Skidmore from Ohio...hes a cool guy who drives a sick wrangler...our heater only shoots out cool air so we had to get some more blankets...

another pic of the room with our desks...

another view from the plane...see how warm it is???

check out these views from the room where i did 2 hours of paperwork...

our sink in the dorm...

that s larry on the table and kelsey...i met her first on myspace...myspace rockss

this is River who s from montana with her cool socks on a piece of wood balancing on a big chunk of plastic pipe...that was pretty cool

and heres the lovely cafeteria...where they serve such small portions that if i dont lose weight here...i REALLY am fat

overall...there are just too many names being thrown at me now but i m trying to learn them all...i ve met a lot of people who recognize me from myspace...but thats probably because i m the only asian guy with long hair...there s supposed to be a snowstorm this weekend that s gonna dump 5 feet of snow...i m doing driver training tomorrow with my group to learn how to drive these 12 passenger vans...more updates to come...its just that the internet isnt great here and this site sucks when it comes to uploading pics...someone help me figure it out...time for bed...

its that time...

2007-01-30T05:18:00.000-08:00

i miss you all already...

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find that ways in which you yourself have altered"

- Nelson Mandela

"Things do not change, we change."

- Henry David Thoreau

i look forward to seeing the change in you all...

fight the fade...

i love you...

whats wrong with me....

2007-01-30T02:56:00.000-08:00

for some reason it still hasnt hit me yet...i m leaving in 5 hours and i still dont feel like i m goin anywhere...but i ll miss every last one of you...forget me not

start packin...

2007-01-29T04:12:00.000-08:00

i ve got about 28 hours before my flight...and i just finished laundry...now i can finally start packin...whew...oh yeah...and its 4 AM...i ll be your hero haha

Americorps...

2007-01-26T10:35:00.000-08:00

well its almost time folks...if you dont know...as of Jan 30th i ll be stationed in Denver for 10 months of service with Americorps...if you dont know what americorps is...its basically 10 months of community service throughout the US...one day i ll tell the story of why i decided to do this...i ll be using this site to keep you all updated rather than through mass emails so you can check it if you re wondering what i m up to...i ll still have my cell phone there so feel free to drop me a line from time to time (415) 517-2667...if you want to mail me something or would like to write an old fashioned letter to me here is the address you can do that at:

David Lee
Americorps*NCCC
3001 S. Federal Blvd.
Walsh Hall, Room 136
Denver, CO 80236

this is just another chapter in my life that i am very excited to start...i will miss all my friends but i m also looking forward to seeing how everyone will grow when i come back...10 months is, at the same time, not very long but very long. a lot can happen...i m looking forward to seeing you all again...stay in touch...