Catching up, goodbyes, and my first marine mammal stranding

Ever since the shelter things have been pretty busy around here. The weekend after the shelter was my vacation to Florida (I won't write about that here because it's not AmeriCorps related but there are pictures on Facebook for anyone who wants to look at them), and then the week after that was our AmeriCorps winter retreat. We all went to a camp in Sandwich for three days and got to hang out with everyone from the other houses and we also had some sessions about "Life After AmeriCorps" to help us prepare for what we're going to do after this year of service. It was fun, and the space was a lot better than our fall retreat because there was more space for us all to spread out and we weren't all on top of each other the whole time.

Then the week after retreat I had a lot of catching up to do at my IP because I had missed 3 weeks of it, but that meant that the two days I was there this past week were very productive. I had a lot to catch up on but I was able to get a lot done and now have several things that I can start working on more in the coming weeks.

There have also been several other events in the past few weeks, such as our last Wet Fest! I've written about Wet Fest before and I think I made it clear that it was not my favorite service project to do, but now we are done with all 12 of them that we had scheduled. Although we found out at the last one that we're going to do something similar in June at a larger event in Western Massachusetts, but we will only be doing certain activities and some of them will be new so at least it won't be exactly the same thing we've been doing. And we'll have some time to take a break from it for a while before that.

Another cool event was the Owl Show with the Harwich Conservation Trust. It was similar to the wolf show we did earlier in the year, so we helped out and then got to sit in the front, this time to make sure the kids sitting there didn't get too rowdy. We didn't get to touch the animals this time unfortunately, but it was still fun to see them up close. Here are just a few of the pictures from that.

If I remembered what each of the types were called I would write them with each picture but I don't. I know the white one is a snowy owl, and there were barn owls and barred owls, but other than that I can't remember haha.

Also, a few weeks ago I joined a community chorus in Truro, which is one town north of Wellfleet. I've gone twice, and it's been fun. It's nice to get back into singing and I'm excited that there's a performance in the summer. The first day was fun because I was by far the youngest person there, which isn't surprising given the demographic of Cape Cod, so everyone I was sitting near noticed that I was new and was very friendly and welcoming.

Now onto the bad news of this week. Last week we found out that one of the girls from the Bourne house got a job in Louisiana and will be leaving in a few days. Then on Wednesday we found out that one of my roommates, Senja, also decided to leave for a job. She left early this morning, so today has felt really weird. Since we just found out a few days ago I don't think it's really sunk in yet. It's just so weird that she won't be coming back. So needless to say today has been sad.

On top of that today has also been significant because around noon we got a call from IFAW saying they needed our help with a marine mammal stranding. It was a single pilot whale that has stranded in Chatham and died, and they needed our help moving it because it was so heavy (they estimated it was about 2,000 pounds.) So that was cool because it was my first stranding experience, and it was hard work because even though it was only one animal, it was huge and we had to move it several hundred feet to get it into the truck. Here are some pictures from that as well.

That's all the news for now, after the stranding we all came home to relax because it was more tiring than I expected. I hope everyone weathered the recent storm ok.

Shelter Insanity

In my last post I said I wasn't sure exactly what this shelter experience was going to be like, boring or busy, and it ended up being neither of those...it was CRAZY! There was no way I could have prepared myself for what ended up happening and thinking back on it now it still seems a bit surreal. There's no way I can really put into words what it was like, but I'll do my best to give an overview of what happened.

Friday was our first day at the shelter, and in the morning we had to wait to find out exactly what time we were being deployed. We got the call at about 9:45 telling us that we had to be at the shelters at noon, so we waited a few more hours and then headed out. I was part of a group of 6 of us who went to Yarmouth, 4 of us went to Eastham, and 3 of us stayed at the house to keep an eye on things there and to possibly be deployed to help clear fallen trees after the storm. The first day at the shelter wasn't very busy, so at that point it felt pretty much the same as the Hurricane Sandy shelter. When we first got there the shelter hadn't opened yet, so we helped set things up in preparation for the first clients. Suzanne and I were the 2 AmeriCorps members chosen to help DART (Disaster Animal Response Team), so that first afternoon we helped set up animal cages and got to play with some of the animals that other volunteers had brought to the shelter. As the evening progressed, the storm got worse and when I looked out the windows I could see the snow being blown all over the place by the strong winds. Clients who didn't want to brave the storm trickled in that evening but the headcount for people who stayed overnight I think was only about 8. The power went out at the school a few times which plunged everything into complete darkness for a few seconds but it came back on almost immediately each time.

We set up sleeping shifts for that night and I was supposed to stay up until 2:30 am to keep an eye on the registration table, but it was pretty quiet so I got to go to sleep at 11:30 instead. When I was laying in my cot trying to fall asleep the power finally went out for good and the generator kicked on, which meant that all of the emergency lights in the school went on, including in the library where we were sleeping, and there was no way to turn them off so we had to sleep with the lights on. I woke up at 6:00 the next morning, and the storm was still raging outside. I started off the day in the DART area again, but then once things started to get busier in the main shelter Suzanne and I were called up there to  help with registration. Saturday was the craziest day because once people started coming to the shelter, the flow of people didn't stop all day. From about noon to past 10:00 pm I worked constantly registering clients and it seemed like it would never end. Most of that time the storm was still pretty bad and the governor had put a driving ban into effect the previous day at 4:00 pm, so everyone who was coming to the shelter was being brought by the police, fire department, or ambulance. When it finally slowed down I was so drained and overwhelmed and exhausted that all I wanted to do was go to sleep for a whole day. I went to bed at about 10:30 pm but didn't fall asleep until past midnight because someone was snoring really loudly and keeping me awake. I ended up moving my cot out into the hallway and was finally able to fall asleep.

The next morning, Sunday, I was up at 7:00 am not really knowing what to expect from the coming day. The storm had passed and even though we only got about 8 inches of snow (which is a lot for the Cape but much less than other areas that the storm hit), the strong winds had left 90% of Cape Cod without power, and there were still people coming into the shelter in droves because they had been able to wait out the storm itself but now did not feel safe staying in their homes without electricity or heat. So we were still doing a lot of registration that day, and then on top of that there was the added work of trying to get the people home who did have power back at their houses. The shelter leaders started having periodic meetings with all the clients to give them updates on power being restored and transportation back home. Because so many people had been brought into the shelter by emergency service vehicles, it wasn't simply a matter of people getting back into their cars, so they had to get several buses taking multiple trips a day to start bringing people home. By this point I was getting more and more overwhelmed with registration and asking people the same questions over and over again, so I volunteered to go with one of the buses so I could help people get back into their houses. Since most of the clients were elderly, there was a concern that if their houses were still snowed in they would need help getting to their doors safely. This was probably my favorite part of the experience because I felt like I was really making people happy because I was helping them get home after what I'm sure was a stressful ordeal for everyone involved. I got to meet some great people during the bus ride and help several sweet old ladies walk up icy sidewalks to their houses, and they were so appreciative that it made me feel really good to be able to help. This whole day was almost as busy as the previous day, and I was just as drained when I finally got to go to sleep at around 10:00 pm, with the intention of getting up at 3:30 am to go back to the registration tables.

When I did wake up at 3:30, I found out that one of the clients was suspected of having used some sort of drug, possibly crack, in the staff bathroom which was right next to the library where we were sleeping. Because they didn't know if he was dangerous, they told all of us to just go back to sleep and report back to help again in the morning. So I went back to my cot, but I was nervous for a while every time I heard someone moving around. Jared and Mike had volunteered to stay up and keep watch though, so that made me feel a lot safer.

So I woke up again at 7:00 am, and even though I had gotten more sleep that night than the previous nights, I felt more drained than ever. I was exhausted and constantly stressed, and felt like my patience and ability to interact with people were just about gone. Every day we were at the shelter was harder than the last, and that day, Monday, was by far the hardest. Luckily I was able to help cleaning and breaking down cots, which got me away from the registration table and all of the clients asking questions I didn't know how to answer. I just didn't have the energy or mental capacity to answer any more questions or fill out anymore paperwork. At this point in the day there was still no word on exactly how long we would be staying at the shelter because our house still didn't have power, and it felt like there was no end in sight. We were the only group of volunteers who had been at the shelter the entire time up until that point, most of the Red Cross, DART and CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) volunteers had either been relieved or at least gone home to shower. I was severely sleep deprived, my body had been in a constant state of stress, and I hadn't showered or brushed my hair in 4 days. But then around noon, some of the AmeriCorps staff members showed up to help and we found out we would be leaving the shelter at 3:00. I was so happy, and just knowing that there was a set end time gave me the energy to make it through the next 3 hours.

When we finally left, it felt slightly surreal, like my life outside the shelter didn't really exist anymore because I had been there for so long. I was so happy that the stress had been lifted, but also didn't know exactly how to go back to real life. So the first night I just tried not to think about that too hard, and just relaxed as best I could. We had electricity back at our house, but the furnace wasn't working so we still didn't have heat, but I didn't care, I was just glad to be back. There were several trees down in our yard, and one of them had fallen onto the house and broken a window in one of the bedrooms, but all in all the damage could have been much worse, so we were lucky. Our heat came back on the next day so the temperature in the house went back to normal, and we were given 3 days off to recover before we have to go back to our regular service, which is amazing because it's taken me until today to really feel caught up on sleep, let alone everything else I felt like I have to do before going back to our normal routine.

Overall, this was, as someone put it, one of the best and worst experiences of my life. It was incredibly draining, both mentally and physically, but it was also extremely rewarding to know that we were really helping people in a very difficult time. We got so much thanks from the other volunteers and the clients for all of our work, and everyone was very impressed and appreciative. One of the shelter leaders said when we were leaving that other times that AmeriCorps has helped at shelters they didn't make that much of an impression, but this time he really felt like they couldn't have done it without us because we worked so hard and helped so much with the running of the shelter. It felt good to know how much everyone there appreciated us, and even though I hope I don't have to do anything like this again anytime soon, I'm very glad I was able to experience it.

Woods Hole Formal and Winter Storm Nemo

Life on Cape Cod in the winter can be pretty uneventful most of the time, but this past weekend was lots of fun because there were several things happening that made it stand out from other weekends. On Friday night, a bunch of us went to the Woods Hole Winter Formal. It was held at a bar in Woods Hole, which I think is a village in Falmouth, and it was a masquerade ball theme. It was super fun because they played a lot of music that I like to dance to, and it was the largest number of people around my own age that I have seen since I got to the cape haha. When we go out here we usually go see live bands and sit and chat, which is nice, but this was a nice change of pace and something I had been missing since I left Baltimore. Here is a picture of all of us girls all dressed up (some guys came too but for some reason there's no picture of all of us).

Then the next morning, some of us went to a Land Trust Conference in Bourne. It was for people who work for land trusts, environmental groups, and local governments throughout Southeaster Massachusetts to come together and discuss important topics, and it was pretty cool. There were several speakers on different topics and it was very informative. Nothing much more than that to report though, unfortunately not an event that calls for pictures being taken lol.

Then the last thing that happened was the Super Bowl, which I'm sure everyone knows about so there's not much to tell there either, except that we had a house potluck dinner so we could all eat together before the game. It was nice, we've done it a few times before and it always turns out great because everyone in the house is good at cooking so there's tons of good food, and it's a fun way to eat together in addition to our weekly house dinner.

Now we're having more excitement as the Cape braces for the blizzard, or Winter Storm Nemo as it's being called. We just found out earlier today that we are being deployed to shelters again like we were during Hurricane Sandy, but this storm seems like it's going to be far worse so I doubt this shelter experience will be as boring as the last one. It's pretty crazy, some years there are no shelter openings that the AmeriCorps members have to help with, and this program year so far we've had 2. You just never know what's going to happen I guess. I might keep blogging from my phone as the storm progresses like I did the last time, but I'm not sure there will be much to report so I might not. Or I could be so busy I don't have time to. We'll just have to see what happens. I hope everyone fares well during this blizzard, according to all the weather reports it's supposed to be a huge one.

Snow, cold weather, and MLK

As most of the northeast, we have been experiencing some pretty cold temperatures and several days of snow recently. Today was the coldest it's been by far (it was 11 degrees with a -6 degree windchill when I woke up) but luckily it was a day that I didn't have to be outside, so I was comfortably warm inside and just had to listen to the wind gust against the building. We did have our coldest outdoor service project to date last Friday after it had snowed the night before. It was about 25 degrees for most of the day and we were in Brewster clearing invasives from a piece of town conservation land, which is a pretty standard task for us on our group service days. The day started out feeling like it was going to be brutal and that everyone would be miserable, but I wore tons of layers so once I got moving around I was a comfortable temperature the whole day. Also, it was a day that people from all 3 houses (Wellfleet, Bourne and the Fire Crew) got to work together, which doesn't happen often, so it was fun to get to spend time with each other. Overall it was a great day, and it was really cool to see the freshly fallen snow all around us while we were working. I took some pictures of it to share, although pictures never do nature justice.

This is what happens when all 3 houses get together...lots of chainsaws!

We also had another encounter with snow this week when it snowed Monday night into Tuesday morning and we got temporarily snowed in. It didn't snow enough for anything to get cancelled, but we had to wait for our driveway to get plowed before we could go anywhere so we had about an hour delay while we waited for that. It made me realize that I'm really back in New England, not in Maryland anymore, because people here actually know what to do with snow and the chances of getting a snow day are a lot lower haha. And as always at our house, if there's downtime there's going to be some shenanigans going on, so I took a picture of what happened when Jared tried to take a nap on the couch:

Collin loves tickling people and this morning was no exception. I just love how at peace Jared looks at the bottom of the pile. 

Our service project this Monday was a special project for MLK Day that a group of my roommates planned (each COD Day has a specific volunteer recruitment project they are assigned to plan and this was Thursday COD Day's event). The main focus of the day was "Serving those who serve us" and doing things to help people who serve in the military. The event "hub" was where everyone checked in and there were stations to make care packages for soldiers and families of soldiers who are deployed. Then there were other sites for different projects. The site I was at was helping a veterans center redo their basement which was flooded during Sandy, so I spent the day putting in insulation in preparation for a group of volunteers to put up drywall. It was a good day, everything went very smoothly which was great and really showed that the group of members who planned it had done a really good job. It was fun to work with other volunteers and do something different from what we normally.

Now for some bonus photos of some other goofing around that happened recently when we were working on fixing shellfishing cages during COD Day on Tuesday:

Suzanne decided to get into a shellfish cage

Steph wearing one of the cages

Well that's it for now. Everyone try to stay warm in this crazy weather!

Since Christmas Break

So since Christmas break, our days have been pretty routine in terms of service (IPs, COD Days, and group service projects). One thing slightly out of the ordinary is that we have more Wet Fests this month than usual, and two of them are pretty much back to back, so we had one on Friday and another one tomorrow. I'm getting a little bit more used to Wet Fest so I don't dread it like I did for some of them, and the group of kids we had on Friday was really well behaved so I'm hoping that trend continues tomorrow.

At one of our group service projects, 2 reporters came to find out about what we were doing and interview some people. I thought they were just going to be writing an article about it, but it turned out that they were video taping for a website called CapeCast. The video ended up being kind of funny and silly, so I'm guessing that's the editors style with these videos he does. Here is the link if anyone is interested in watching it. I'm pretty sure I'm in it at 0:24, but it's sort of hard to tell if it's actually me.

One new thing that is not service-related is that I joined a gym. It's the first time I've ever joined one because I was usually pretty active with dance and sometimes went to the gym at school which was free, but I felt like I hadn't been active enough recently. A gym in Orleans, which is about 20 minutes away, was having a deal for a 3 month membership and if 3 or more people signed up you got 15% off, so me and two of my roommates decided to join. I just signed up on Thursday and I've gone every day since then, so I'd say I'm off to a good start. It's feel good to be getting more exercise again, and I think the fact that I actually paid for it will be a good incentive to go if I ever feel like being lazy haha.

Well I think that's all for now. I'll keep you updated on anything else exciting that happens.

Christmas Break bonus: Shellfishing video!

Hello all! I just got back from Christmas break so there's nothing new to write about at this point, but I just realized that I never posted the video of us shellfishing that one of my roommates made. I just found out it's on YouTube so I can actually share it on my blog now! It's from the most recent time we went shellfishing, in the beginning of the day before we all got ridiculously cold haha. So here it is! Click here to watch it. More blogging to come soon as we get back into the swing of things here.

Another blog post finally!

I'm so sorry it's taken so long for me to post. We didn't have wifi for about a week and a half recently and I didn't want to take as much time on the house computer as a blog post would have taken since all 13 of us had to share that computer. So a lot has happened, but I will give a quick synopsis of the most interesting things.

A few weekends ago one of my housemates and I went to the Cape Cod Beer brewery in Hyannis for a tour. The brewery is really small so we basically just stood and listened to the tour guide and also got to taste a bunch of the types of beer while the tour guide talked about the beer-making process, the history of the company and how each of the beers was made. It was really fun, and the beer was really good. And it's great that it's a local company so I feel good about supporting them. Here's a few pictures I took at the brewery. 

We also recently had a few holiday-related activities at our house. The first was the day we took our holiday picture so people could send out Christmas cards. We went to the beach and took some group pictures in our ugly Christmas sweaters. We took some serious ones and then some of them we got a little silly. Here's a taste of what went on.

This was our most normal pose...

This one shows a little bit of what goes on in our house on a regular basis haha

Then we got creative with the posing...

...and a little silly. 

The last one was just random haha. 

After that we decorated our Christmas tree! It's just a random pine tree we took from a service project where we were cutting them down in a field, but it turned out very nice. :)

Then this weekend the festivities continued with our Christmas Party which involved a potluck dinner, secret santa, white elephant swap, and a Jeopardy game that two of the girls put together to help us get to know each other. It was cool, they did interviews with each of us and then made questions about some of the things they learned and put us into teams to answer them for the game. For the white elephant, we decided that the gifts had to be free from the swap shop at the transfer station (the dump as I'm used to calling it, Massachusetts seems to like to make up it's own words for things lol), so everything was really random and hilarious. For the secret santa, we had a $10 limit but everyone ended up getting great gifts. Since we all spend so much time together, we know a lot about what each person likes so it was probably the best secret santa I've done since everyone got something that was great for them. I have a few pictures of this celebration also, but not very many. Here they are:

Meg got a green plastic knight suit as a secret santa gift. 

The knight suit was quite popular so Mike took it when it was his turn to choose a gift. 

So that's been our Christmas celebrations up to now, definitely lots of fun and gotten us in the Christmas spirit. Now for a bonus picture: this me and Meg and it was taken during one of our group service projects last week. It was raining and we were working outside all day so we were wearing our "foulies," which is our bright orange rain gear.

Even though it was raining and we were wet, it was still a great day and made me realize how lucky I am that I get to be outside all day, even in all kinds of inclement weather, doing work that I feel like really makes a difference. I'm so thankful that I was accepted to this program because I've met so many awesome people and had so many great experiences even just the few months I've been here so far, and I know the rest of the year is going to be just as amazing!