Day 5

We woke up a little late because Tyler kept hitting the snooze button. We went out to join the rest of the kids for our morning breakfast; it was a pretty nice energizing meal before our hard day of work ahead.
We showed up to our usually day of work out in the Louisiana heat. “Heard Dat”. For group two we got to go to a different house. We were busy mudding and putting up dry wall. We accomplished a lot. For our lunch break we went and had a picnic at the “Battle of New Orleans National Park”. It was very nice and pleasant. There was a cool breeze, which felt really good in the shade. We walked around and saw all the different locations of the battles. It was pretty awesome.
Meanwhile on the other side of New Orleans group one was busy painting the trim on a nearly finished home. They also finished putting the hard wood floor down, which they were working on all week long. They had a normal lunch break outside their house.
This was the last adventure that the students of Mrs. Dann’s group had in the big city of New Orleans. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot, and we feel really good about what we have done and accomplished.

Survival of the Fittest

Our adventure began with breakfast served by our five star chef who is commonly known as Mrs. Vieth. It was served in the courtyard inside our beautiful establishment at the St. Charles Guest House. Yummy! They tried to provide us with enough energy to power through the day before we are released into the cruel dark world which is known as work…. (Just kidding!)

Group 1
Summer ventured off into the world alone. Where they tackled a gruesome beast…laying flooring!! It put up a good fight! It threw glue that would never come off! The only way she pulled up on top was by using some concrete to rub her hands raw to get rid of the glue. In the end they ended up winning and the floor looked like it belonged in a king’s castle! For their bravery and hard work they were rewarded with a trip to Rally’s for some nice cold ice cream provided by Gary!

Group 2
The other group faced a different kind of monster…MOLD!! It was big, it was scary, and it was way up high!! It had the whole house conquered by the time we arrived at 8:00!! We did the only thing we could, fought back as violently and as swiftly as we could! Luckily, our wonderful leader Ali knew the monsters only weakness, by rubbing it with Shock Wave! So very quickly we rubbed all of the walls and ceilings with the deadly substance. THAT STILL WASN’T ENOUGH!! The mold was still fighting strong! We then applied KILZ!! Which is an even more deadly mixture! It turned the mold white and we then knew that we had succeeded. Don’t kid yourself though and think it was easy, because you would be wrong! It took us hours to finally kill the mold and the heat was deadly itself! If you didn’t keep yourself hydrated the heat would kill you before the mold could!

MISSION STEAMBOAT
This was the final adventure for the night. One of our agents was greatly awarded with a virgin strawberry daiquiri for her amazing ability to kick butt at bowling earlier in the week. She used a lot of her wits to win this, since it was indeed our own Miss Natalie Witte who came out on top! While she was enjoying her drink, the rest of us were soaking up the beautiful boat and views! We were very careful to not fall into the big red death trap…the paddle wheel!! For our hard work and bravery we were rewarded with a wonderful dinner too! We were even provided with some wonderful entertainment! At age 70 (educational guess) he was a world renown jazz dancer (totally just made that up!)! One of our own, Summer Schacht was even lucky enough to dance with this famous guy who only got better with age! The music that was provided with the dancing also had some hidden talents! The bass player surprised us all by standing on his instrument while playing The Saints go Marching In! It was a night we will all remember!

We then retired for the night after some swimming and good natured fun!

Day 4 – June 8, 2011

Have you ever seen a cheetah running through the streets of New Orleans? No? Well, neither have we. However, we had the next best thing; which will be shared with you, the reader, in a later paragraph. Our journey begins before the cock’s crow, at 5:39 in the A.M……….

“Shhhhhhhhh, my nose is bleeding.” Jake announced for the third time of the trip. His nose began to seep thick crimson blood as he made his way to the tissue box. This event would be a prelude to one of the most “1.5”* days of our young adolescences.

The weary student workers boarded rolling Twinkie**. We arrive at the levee tour for an eye-opening discussion about the destruction of the local Beniveau Bayou. The once flourishing natural wetland habit now appears a desolate, barren wasteland.

As the day develops into late morning, we arrive at the work sites. Separated into two groups, we student workers embarked on a task: rebuild the city, one home at a time. Today’s work will involve painting, flooring, sweeping, nailing, and laying flooring… and painting, sweeping the area, as well as nailing.

Unfortunately, one student’s workday was cut short by a tragic injury. Yet another unstoppable nose bleed from the nostrils of a certain, “Jake Schannuth”, put a damper on the team’s morale. Seeing a friend cowering in the corner certainly sunk the spirits of the workers. In addition, other students received injuries of their own. Grant Ruediger failed in fighting off a single toddler wasp with a gimp wing and, in the process, suffered a severe bee sting. The final injury of the day came to an un-expecting house when a student, by the name of Alex Moll, created a rugby-ball sized hole in the floor by falling through it.

After work we toured the shining gem of New Orleans: The French Quarter. This experience was extraordinarily entertaining and enlightening. We witnessed a beautiful sight when a red 2012 Ferrari pulled into a nearby parking lot. As we watched in awe, we knew the remainder of the day would be mind-blowing. Our group, consisting of Evan Bean, Jake Schannuth, Jonathan Baumstark, Austin Ruediger, Tyler Englert, and Coach Allen Speckhals, set out on our expedition through the heart of New Orleans.

We first encountered a spectacular work of art commemorating the victims of the holocaust. It was there, in front of the colorful memorial, that the group noticed a steady stream of blood flowing from Jake Schannuth’s nose capillaries…yet again. The mess was quickly cleaned up and we continued with ease. Our adventures continued with a visit to Café du Monde where we consumed about nine pounds of delicious beignets. Next, we encountered a talented magician, skilled in the art of magic…more specifically, sorcery…more specifically telekinesis…more specifically, unscrewing bolts with his mind.

Returning to the previous topic of the cheetah, we saw none. However, we did encounter two majestic galloping steeds. Atop their erect bodies sat manly enforcers of the law with bulging biceps. We all felt that much safer with these manly-men riding by on their stallions. Similar to all great things, our terrific night soon came to an end. With another successful day under our belts, we must now depart your presence to attend the pool. We bid you farewell.

Best wishes,
Group 1.5

*”1.5” – Awesome, spectacular, beyond description.
**”Rolling Twinkie” – School bus

Tuesday

6:30 am: We went downstairs to find our breakfast and fill up our water bottles. Mrs. Vieth made us breakfast casserole which was very good. We then left to go to orientation. Sister Judy gave it and told us very moving stories, which of course made us want to work even harder. We were getting nervous, but the weather was nice. One group painted and one group was going to do mold removal.
10:00 am: We (Hayley and Abby) arrived at our job site to find many more girls that had already started. We scrubbed mold with some solution and then we had to stop and wait for our paint to come in. So in the meantime we went to the “House of Feathers and Dance.” Mr. Lewis our house owner is in charge of it; it had a lot of antique and Mardi Gras Indian costumes and pictures. He hold us his story and showed us many pictures. It was very cool. Then we ate lunch and Mr. Lewis let us eat on his porch. We bonded with the other girls at this time and told them about our celebrity encounter: James Marsden! With all the people we had, we got a LOT done. Our leader’s name was Ali. She is very laid-back and cool.
Our day (Jamie and Kirsten) started off by meeting Jen. She put us to work right away and we painted, swept, and ripped up tile—mostly just painted. Jake got two nosebleeds. We waited out in the hot sun for an hour, waiting for the bus carrying the other group.

7:30pm- Went to Bubba Gumps’. This is where all the fun starts rolling in. Speaking of rolling, we won a pencil by dominating people in a trivia game. We got one Bubba Gump trivia question right. We sort of looked off this one paper but it’s just called using our resources people. The food was lovely but the waitresses were FANTASTIC! First off the waiter Ken break danced for us! And we mean he got jiggy with it! You could say he liked to move it move it. This guy spun on his head, circled on his hips, basically what you see in the movies. To add to all this excitement our wonderful girl waitress sang for us! Our coolest waiter was Reesie, she was the bomb. We heard her silently singing to herself but we weren’t going to let her get away without putting on a show for us. So we begged her and her lovely friend to sing for us. She was so good! We ended up getting a picture with Reesie and we are now close friends (on Facebook at least). We then went to some nearby shops, but none of us bought anything. Then we went back to the hotel. We really wanted to swim, but since it was raining, sadly we couldn’t. After that we sat in our room and worked on our blog. And that’s how our great #2 day went. So far this trip is a BLAST! Now we are going to rest up for our next big day!

1:00 am: Bed.

June 6, 2011

12:45 a.m. -the girls in room A6 were quietly playing rummy, and listening to the infamous “Black and Yellow” on Emily’s iPod. And we repeat, QUIETLY. Well, the walls in this upscale shack happen to be quite thin; and there also happened to be a grouchy ‘traveler’ in the room between ours and another group of our girls. Now, we will say it one more time… BOTH rooms were being very QUIET. The irate lady comes knocking on the door of the girls in room A8, saying that “travelers are trying to sleep, they need to shut up”, then, she knocks not on the door of A6, but the window (we have windows that look out into the hall, which is kind of scary because you can see the shadows of the people walking by). She tells us that she can hear our noises in the hall and we need to shut up and go to bed. But in the process of her telling this she scared the b’jeezus out of the girls (the ones who weren’t sleeping…). I mean, come on! Who knocks on the window that you can see the shadow of the person through, after hearing ghost stories about the hotel, and the window also happens to be RIGHT BY OUR HEADS!! So, trying to calm down, we all lay down, and in the midst of twirling her hair, Emily feels a foot under her pillow. She almost screams, and so does Megan, except for the small fact that we were still quite scared because of the lady. Then, it dawns on Megan that Julia had put a plastic dinosaur under Emily’s pillow! Wow, we felt stupid…

Flash forward to 8:00- there is nothing but poptarts for breakfast, We guess that will have to do; but what we don’t know is that we wouldn’t get to eat again until around 4:00, when we ate fast food.

The first adventure of the trip (besides the previous long bus ride) was to the WWII museum (on D-Day). The museum was really interesting, especially the speakers, who had had personal experiences. Everyone had a great time, especially in the 4-D movie, recounting the War. However, it was very obvious that Coach enjoyed it the most (he asked every day if we would get to go last year, and got autographs of veterans that he talked to).

Adventure #2- Swamp Tour. The tour guide that our group was assigned had a very dry sense of humor; but threatened us with the fact that if we didn’t laugh at his jokes, we would be fed to the alligators. The alligators in this swamp are used to coming to the tour boats, so we saw a lot of them. The highlight of this trip for most was holding the baby alligator at the end of the boat ride (not to mention the boat ride was cool, and we had just taken a long, hot walk).

After the tour of the swamp, we took the streetcars (like a trolley) back towards the Guesthouse. On our way, we passed the one and only all American hottie---JAMES MARSDEN! If you don’t know who this is, think 27 Dresses, The Notebook, Hop, Hairspray, & Zoolander. He was filming at a park along the road and waved at the swarm of squealing teenage girls on the streetcar, then flashed his million dollar smile.

After a much needed break in the pool, the NOLA students set out for the Rock ‘n’ Bowl. Where we ate an amazing meal of Jambalaya, Fettuccini, and pizza. And, in a competitive spirit, everyone set out to bowl. The highest scoring student was to win a Strawberry Daiquiri (Virgin of course). Natalie was the lucky winner, and will receive her ‘prize’ on the Natchez Steamboat. However, everyone else will HAVE to have one by then, they will just have to pay for it.

So all in all, it was a fun packed, but tiring day. And our ONLY full day of touring the city of New Orleans. In the morning, we get up early and are off to work.
Blog by, Megan Bockitng, Emily Thompson, and Julia Whitthaus

Safety Precautions are Overrated

Pre-determined time of departure: Promptly at 5 AM
Actual time of departure: 6:39 AM
= FAIL

They say the early bird gets the worm, and that’s why the Riddells and Sarah Schmelz arrived by 4:30 to pick the bestest seats available—the ones in the back. Little did they know, everyone would just flock to the middle instead. The trip began with a rocky start as we left the high school, only to be stopped next to Hermannhoff. Our spectacular bus was not all it seemed. It had a safety feature that we were unable to conquer. We waited and waited for what seemed like days for our rescuer to arrive. Sure, they arrived, not necessarily in the nick of time, but they did bring us another bus. A bus with fewer seats.

So the journey began and we made our first food stop at McDonald’s, where Sarah got a steak, egg, and cheese bagel… TAINTED WITH ONIONS! Emily enjoyed her fruit and walnut salad, and Tyler enjoyed his discounted steak, egg, and cheese bagel that he bought off Sarah for 50% off.

The ride went smoothly, only it didn’t go smoothly.  It was bumpy, and there was a heater under a seat. It wasn’t actually at heater, as it was an “exhaust vent,” but what’s the difference, really? And guess where that vent was… under Sarah’s seat.

Our final food destination was Harbor Seafood and Oyster Bar. It was scrumptious, and very, very cold, which was refreshing, until someone had to resort to a paper towel blanket. Guess who. When we finished our turtle soup and alligator (ignoring the onion rings, those poor things), we headed out the door and drove on to New Orleans, where we are right now! Here at the St. Charles Guesthouse, there is a pool… some beds… and… a couple bathrooms. But at least there’s an air conditioner.

Deju Vu All Over Again

In less than 24 hours, HHS will be making its second trip to New Orleans to help rebuild houses. This year we have 21 students and 5 adults volunteering. Once again we will be working with the Saint Bernard Project. Everybody is very excited! Please check back often to read about our adventures.