I am back!!

It's great to be on Canadian soil! I had a fantastic week, one of the best in my life actually; I am already anticipating next years trip somewhere, hopefully with the same group of people.

So we left on Saturday at around 5:00pm and then drove 21 hours, yup a whole 21! I drove 16 hours on the way there, Christina took a 2 hour shift near the start of the trip then 3 hours in the middle. It was around 1:00 the next day when we finally hit Fort Smith. And it was sunny! The first day was kind of empty planning wise since we didn't know when we would arrive and we knew that we would be tired. Some of us wandered around the area, soaking in the warm sunlight while checking out the local Walgreens, a beautiful park (with operating WATER park!) and a great coffee shop, while others got groceries, and then before dinner we played some football. The accommodations were way more than we had expected since it was a Church community house. There were three bedrooms, one of them had 4 sets of bunk beds, the other had 3 sets of bunk beds, and the third had a double bed. Two people ended up having to sleep on the couch but apparently it was super comfortable and they wouldn't have changed with anyone even if offered. We had a relatively early night since we had to be up early the next morning, plus most of us hadn't slept for a couple days due to the drive. I know I only got 20 minutes of sleep in the car.

On Monday, our supervisor Eddie showed up promptly at 8am to take us to our site. We all expected a bunch of people who knew what they were doing and a partially finished house... we were incredibly wrong. It was just Eddie and Hugh then us. And we arrived to a big concrete slab. It was kind of scary since none of us actually knew how to build a house, much less by ourselves! The first day was painful... I have never hammered that much in my life and my body could tell. Calloused hands and sore muscles from framing the house. We got up all the outside walls and a bunch of the inside walls on the first day, which was awesome, Eddie seemed happy with us. Lifting the walls was really cool, we had done all this work to nail the 2x4s together and make sure the headers were double boarded with plywood inbetween, then we actually got to raise the wall. We each grabbed a place on the beam and just lifted then nailed it to the concrete, it was really awesome and felt super rewarding! After work we dragged our tired bodies to the mall, and shopped for a couple of hours... I spent too much money!! We slept like rocks that night! Did I mention it was hot on Monday?!

On Tuesday, Hugh said, okay, 4 or 5 of you follow me over here. I follow him on over thinking "sweet something to rest my poor aching hand!" Wrong! We were assigned the job of putting up the chip board on all the outside studs. *For you American's chip board is Waffleboard* It was really hard, the nails like to bounce out of that stuff because of it's consistency, and it's easy to miss a stud or put in a crooked nail. We needed one about every 12 inches around the board and up the studs which is a ton. We worked on it from 8am until 3pm although we did take a lunch break. We had a great time though, I think that no matter how monotonous and hard the job is as long as you make it into something great it will always be something great. While we were working on the chip boarding, the rest of the crew was putting up the rest of the walls inside the house. We got up the first of the trusses today so the house started looking like a house! The mayor stopped by to see us and he declared it Wilfrid Laurier University week in Fort Smith Arkansas, that was pretty cool. He seemed like a nice guy, but definitely a polititian. We saw him at the mall later in the week and we said hi but he definitely didn't know who we were as he shook our hands and smiled. After work that day we headed back to the mall, I didn't get anything but wanted to be around all the people on the trip, we had an awesome group!

On Wednesday, the weather was horrible! Raining and cold (still above freezing but icky!) so we went to another site and helped do some inside touches such as inserting the draft blockers up on the roof that allow for ventilation and air flow and nailing in the metal straps that are supposed to stop tornados from tearing off the roof. We then unloaded about 200 sheets of drywall *American's that is sheet rock*. They were SO heavy but the job went fast with 18 of us working on it! We got off early but during cleanup Michelle and Cassie were fooling around and Cassie dropped Michelle out of the wheelbarrow in a BIG puddle of mud LOL... it was great! Since we got off early some of us went and saw some historic Fort Smith sites, but not all of them. On Wednesday night Hugh and his wife Priscilla invited us and Eddie and his wife to dinner at their house. They live in a gated community, it was gorgeous!!!! Dinner was fantastic, so nice to get a home cooked meal that didn't consist of mac and cheese or something to that extent. We had a casserole which was like lasagna with different noodles, some AMAZING garlic bread, a fantastic salad and delicious brownies. The night was lots of laughs and bonding with our new found Arkansas friends.

Thursday, we were back at our original site, sinking in the mud :S so we had to lay some straw. This was after I lost my shoe and almost fell in the mud as it suctioned off my foot! We got to lift the roof today! We got all the trusses up, which was awesome! It is such a cool process, some people are outside and some inside while 2 or 3 sit up on the roof. The outside people push them up to the person on the roof and then use 2x4s to slide them across while the people inside use 2x4xs to drag them in. It's kind of difficult to explain, but it's really cool to watch. We got off an hour early today since we had been invited to the homecoming basketball games at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith chapter. It's hard to get 18 people cleaned and fed in less than 2 hours! We had a pretty good time at the game and even got a tour of the campus, which is gorgeous by the way. The tallest player on the men's team was 6'10... I am pretty sure I would come up to his waist!

Friday, our last day on the site :( We were all wishing this day wouldn't come and yet it came so quickly. Today was the day we had to particle board the roof. It seemed easy enough, but I was down on the ground passing up the particle board and not up there nailing... we couldn't all be up there. We had our first accident, it wasn't too bad. Natalie got a nail right through her finger. She said she felt it hit the bone then bend to come out the other side. It didn't bleed too much, but she had to go to the hospital to check for nerve damage, a broken bone, get it cleaned out and an update on her tetanus just in case. We had Red Lobster donate lunch and it was yummy (even though I don't eat sea food they provided other things as well). At the end of the day a news reporter came to take our picture which would be in the Saturday paper... super cool eh!? We did a fair amount of work on our house and unloaded some stuff for other houses, and Eddie let us go early because Hugh wanted to take us on a tour of Fort Smith. It was great, he even took us to some neighbouring towns to show those to us and old Navy bases. Since it was our last night we all went out for dinner then to a bar, which we left early since some weren't able to drink. We bought some alcohol at the gas station (I know, WTF is that!?) and drank in a park hahaha! We felt like we were in grade 10!

We left Saturday around 1:30 after stopping by the mall for some last minute purchases and returns. It was much worse driving home then the drive there... strange I know! I had the most fabulous week, and while I'm glad to be home I wish it had been two weeks and not just one. I made some amazing friends who hopefully will not lose touch as we are on the same campus, and feel as though I did something to help a family. We met the couple who will live in our house, they are great, have two kids and the wife is working at Burger King as a manager so they feel as though right now things are just perfect. They should be able to move in within the next 6 months. We got back to snow and cold... boo. Now, back to reality!
"Life is worth living in Fort Smith Arkansas"

PICTURES TO COME SHORTLY

Good bye!!

Well today is the day, I am leaving for Arkansas. YAY! We are heading down to build a house with Habitat for Humanity. Not only are we going down for a good cause but we raised the money on our own to get there. Countless bakesales, spaghetti dinners, bottle drives, etc. We are diving down, it's about 20 hours each way. I am driving my car, Christina is my back-up driver (she is one of my housemates) and then we have two mini Vans to carry our 18 people. We got shirts made and everything! :) I am excited about going but nervous all the same... probably because I have never gone on a road trip quite that far without my parents, oh and I have such opposite views of the majority of Arkansas. The town is really small and cute, you can see the mountains and a river, apparently everything is quite historic (I hope there is a mall). So yeah, this is my last time posting for a while, I hope everyone has a great week!

In the meantime, while I'm gone, help me fill up my comment section by asking me any questions you wish to have answered. If you ask me the right question I'll tell you the secret that is burning a hole in me! :-p

I was okay...

So last night I posted about being all alone and how it would be lonely. It was, but then it wasn't anymore. Long story, but basically I had a great time and wouldn't have traded my night for anything.

But PS. Anyone who watched ER, what ended up happening with Neela and Ray and those three cute kids?

PPS. My night WASN'T excellent because of TV... I had a great time for OTHER reasons.

All by myself...

So I wrote my last in class exam today... well my last two, but the first one seems like days ago since I had another one right after. After I raced back to Oakville for a chiropractor appointment (I'm really messed up and wanted to be as fixed as possible for the 20 hour each way drive). Now, I'm home... alone. My parents are in Aruba still and my Brother has his own place... so I'm sadly alone. I realized last night that this is the first time in my life that I have been home alone, in this home at least, because I have been alone in my Waterloo student house. You may ask, how at 19 have you never been alone? Well we have had a dog my entire life... we had Roxie when I was born, got Syd when I was in grade 2, and Marley in grade 4. Marley and Syd were both big dogs, Old English Sheepdogs, so I have never been alone, and have always felt protected. I miss her a lot. Too much, and it's weird, being here alone... the house is so empty.