y'all, hotlanta, and life in da hood

it feels like i've been shut off from everything that's not mission year related for weeks! i've gotta make this quick because i only have t minus 55 minutes to do all of my cyberspace catching up. so i'm going to try my best to give you a thumbnail sketch...and i'm not promising literary greatness.

i flew into philly on friday the fifth and met my teammates as well as the other team members in my tri-city area. everyone is really great. there are 6 people (including me) on my team. 3 guys and 3 girls. ashleigh (19) is from virginia, paula (22) is from north carolina, jason (24) is from oklahoma, chris (19) is from california, and bubby (21) is from alabama. pretty much everyone says "y'all" and i feel like i'm developing a slight southern accent due to jason and bubby's influence. i'm stubbornly trying to stick to my roots and refer to gatherings of multiple people as "you guys" but i'm pretty sure "y'all" is starting to take over. sometimes i'll start saying something to the group and i have to think hard about NOT saying y'all. i'm sure everyone back home will be amused to hear the twang i'm slowly developing.

anyway, we had dinner together as a tri-city team and drove back to our new home in wilmington late that night. the first two nights i could barely sleep. partly because i had so much adrenaline and partly because of the time change. the first day we spent putting the house together and cleaning up. it rained a ton that day, so we didn't get out much.

on sunday, we left for our 15 hour drive down to atlanta (or "hotlanta" as southerners like to call it. and, believe me, it is a worthy nickname!) we spent all last week camping at a farm just outside of atlanta meeting all of the team members from each of the mission year cities and going through orientation and training.

camping in hotlanta

we just got back to our cities yesterday morning. the past couple of days we've been exploring the neighborhood, meeting neighbors, and learning to live on the meager stipend m.y. gives to us. so far, i absolutely love wilmington. the people are incredibly friendly and generous. frank, our next door neighbor, is the neighborhood "watchdog" and he knows everything that goes on. one of our first days here he gave us a key to his house just in case something happens. yesterday, paula, chris, and i went for a run by the river. on our way home it was raining again and one of our corner neighbors, freely, walked right out of his house with an umbrella to walk us to our doorstep. we haven't been out a ton, but even in the short amount of time that we've gotten to meet our neighbors, they've been amazing. i can't wait to meet more of them and to be able to have meals with them. i'm really excited to be able to live life with the people in my city.

our new home

yesterday we got our living and food stipends for the month. $17 a week for food and $70 a month for personal care. later, i'm going to write a whole blog about food because there's just so much to say. this whole using the internet once a week thing is going to be really hard for me. i have SO much i want to say and so many thoughts running through my head. watching the clock at the top of my screen tick down drains me of my ability to articulate it all. so i suppose that's it for now. love and miss you all!