Let the Good Times Roll (and tear apart, remove, destroy...)

The Demolition Crew – Summer and Olivia
We arrived at the St. Bernard Project's headquarters around 8:30. Our supervisor, James, told us what we would be doing throughout the day and since it wasn't just us Hermann folk, he had us introduce ourselves to the other volunteers, who traveled from Alabama. There were a lot of us because the houses we had been assigned to had some sort of complication, so we were reassigned to better the future job site of the St. Bernard Project. Our jobs consisted of everything from tearing out tile, ripping out the infinite number of nails and screws from the boards overhead and on the staircases, power washing, taking out the trim, and sweeping. It was quite dangerous trying to balance yourself on a ladder eight feet in the air let alone trying to do that and tear out the nails and screws that were too stubborn to be pulled out of their boards without a fight. While trying to do this, Coach Speckhals lost his balance on a loose board, fell off and caught himself in the push up position. And to redeem himself from this embarrassing act, he did a push up while he was in the position... Show off... It was hot and the humidity made it even hotter. By lunch time, all of us were exhausted but the wonderfully appetizing lunches that Mrs. Dann, Mrs. Vieth, and Mrs. Zeiss refueled us for more carnage. We salute you! Some of our volunteers craved a bit more than the rest and requested to go to Taco Bell. While waiting for them to return, Coach Speckhals started a game. From noon to the time we got off from the work site at five, Coach, Roxanne, Kevin, Jon, Keith, Alicia, Olivia and I thought of words that ended with “-ation”, “-ize”, and “-ate.” Words like dehydration, communication, traumatize, pulverize, appreciate, and congregate and by the end of the day, I'm pretty sure every word in the dictionary had been used. It was a great way to pass the time and to have fun. Roxanne reminded us time and time again to remain bearcat friendly though :) Good day!


Da Dry Wallers
by: Jessica and Abby
Blake's Golden Rule:
The Grandma Rule: If you were building a house for your grandma it has to be perfect! So make it that way! (Learn to live by this if you don't want to hear it twenty times a minute!)
Bratty
Laughable
ANAL
Knowledgeable
Exotic

8:39: Arrived at the job site to see a frizzy, curly haired man to greet us
10:30: He (Blake) finally stopped talking
10:35: Showed us how to lift dry wall
10:40: Showed us how to drill dry wall
10:45: Showed us how to hold dry wall
10:50: Told us statistics on why not to sit on dry wall
10:55: We finally got to touch our first piece of dry wall
11:30: After much demonstration finally hung our very first piece of dry wall
12:00: LUNCH BREAK
12:30: Abby manages to rob a police man of his seat after Jessica bluntly told her that a policeman was sitting there.
2:00: Ice cream rush and the best part was that Paul Paid! FREE!! Abby dropped hers after one bite so she got robbed.
3:10: Evan fell asleep while holding a tape measure for Coach Stutzman while Coach was measuring! He snores =)
4:00: (When we were supposed to start picking up) Blake decides that its STORY TIME!
4:30: After much doubt from “cough, cough” BLAKE Jessica and Paul managed to do the impossible. Hung a piece of dry wall on the ceiling, with three holes cut into it, and without it breaking. Clearly beating Abby, Stutzman, Evan, and Jake's team! =P (Quick fact: We were supposed to be out of there by now!)
5:00: We finally left!
Abby has a quick announcement she would like to add: I don't know how your team could have been clearly better when ours was quote “Text Book Perfect”.



Wild and Crazy!
By: Abby, Jessica, Summer, and Olivia
We split up into groups to go eat and tour, but magically we all ended up at the same place to eat and the same place for dessert! I would like to add this was not planned! We each did our own thing and the one major rule was to be back at the bus by 10. Only one group managed to follow this rule and one group managed to be 10 minutes late. Can you guess which group did what? Let's start with role modeling and rule following group: The Chip Ship which consisted of Chip, Abby, Jessica, Alicia, and Megan. The only group with one adult we might add. The rule breaking group was ironically Mrs. Dann's group which consisted of Jon, Tyler, Jake, Evan, and Keith. Of course the organizer of this group managed to break her own rule! Don't worry plenty of excuses: aka the 15 minute padding rule. We all made it back to the hotel safe and sound after plenty of U turns(editor's note: U turns are legal in much of New Orleans). See you tomorrow!