AND SO IT BEGINS...

As you can already tell, I had a problem with my iWeb blog, so I had to switch over to Blogspot, which doesn't make it as easy, but it gets the job done.

We started the day on Thursday by waking up early and going to the studio to help Leah and Caroline. They will eventually be living there, but the renovations are taking a little longer than expected. The studio is a really cool house a block away from the beach. When you first walk in, there's the studio, conference room to the left and office on the right. Behind that is the kitchen, guest room and

living room, and upstairs is 2 more bedrooms for Leah and Caroline. Everything is being beautifully restored, and it will look incredible once completed. Since the studio wasn't finished yet, we helped Leah and Caroline make desks and benches in the morning. That's when it first hit me that Mississippi in August is HOT and insanely humid. I was literally outside for 5 minutes and when I looked down I was drenched in sweat.

So after lunch, and a new shirt, we went to the Pass Christian library and met Sally, the local librarian who knows everything there is to know about the town and its history. For anyone in my family, just think of Grandma Nickie, but substitute the

Long Island accent with one from Steel Magnolias, and that was Sally. I was actually glad we got me meet with her, because she showed us her own before and after photos of the town and told us her story, which was pretty heartbreaking. She had survived Hurricane Camille in '69 (which also destroyed the town) and now she had survived Katrina. She and her family evacuated somewhere up north for Katrina, and after several days, when they were allowed back in, they realized that her house was gone, along with the houses of her siblings, children and most other family members. Then she told us the now famed story of the police officers who were trapped in the library during the storm. 13 of them had to stay behind, and when their station became unsafe, they fled to the library. After a car hit the south side of the building, water started pouring in and they tried to shoot out the doors on the north side to get out. This failed because they were extremely strong hurricane doors, so eventually they climbed out onto a roof overhang and rode out the storm there.

After we were all thoroughly depressed, we went back to studio to work a little more. The next day, we went back to studio, but were sent home after lunch. I decided to take a bike ride around town to take some pictures, depressing me further. I rode up to several houses

and by houses I mean overgrown foundations with little piles of bricks or old, scattered belongings. It was a little eerie to enter these properties because it reminded me of images of Prypiat, the city near Chernobyl. Walking along, you'd see remnants of a structure, overgrown with weeds and personal belongings, like tattered shoes and broken teacups. The bank vault was one of the eeriest places, almost like a Cold War bunker. There were still surveillance tapes and travelers cheques inside. Outside, the screen on the ATM machine still worked, despite being torn apart by either the storm or looters.

On Friday night, Leah and her family hosted a shrimp boil at her house. There are several

places to buy fresh shrimp in The Pass. The one we got it from involves a short Vietnamese man who swings on his hammock all day and sells it out of his van for $2 something/pound. I was pretty excited about dinner because I had only tried grilled shrimp before. It was a little nauseating to rip the heads off before you eat it, but it was really good.

Saturday was a lazy day. We all went to the beach, but were too scared to get in the water because of the jellyfish. Later that night, Zack, Chris and I went to see Inglorious Basterds, which was awesome. Any movie about killing Nazi's is a winner in my book.

I had a Sunday fun-day. We tried going to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Biloxi. Pool entrance is free for non-guests on Sundays, they call it Detox Day. What they failed to mention

on the website, however, is that its only for people 21 and over. We decided to go back next Sunday, after my 21st birthday weekend in New Orleans, when I actually will need a serious Detox day. Instead, we packed a cooler and went down to the beach to kayak and lay around. I did go in this time, and thankfully wasn't stung. At 6, we met Lean, Caroline and Ben (our visiting professor) for dinner at Shaggy's.

And that finally brings us to today. We had our first design day with Ben. He took us back to first year with our initial exercise to warm up our minds. He seems like a cool guy and hopefully he'll help us bring some good ideas to the table once we start designing the house.

Well, it's currently 3:30AM, and I'm still awake because I accidentally took a 3 hour nap today. I am starting to get tired now so Bye Y'all.

-Mike

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

After a 21 hour drive, I finally got here yesterday at around 5:00.

This leg of the trip also went pretty quick, maybe because I had Zack and Megan with me.

In total, I drove through 10 states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Mary

land, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Total Mileage: 1321.5 Miles

Avg. Speed: 62.5 mph

Max Speed: 77.4mph

Total Time: 21 hours, 8 minutes

And I want to thank Karen (my GPS) for those statistics

But anyway, onto my first impressions of Pass Christian.

When we first drove in, we came in away from the coast and moved closer. Away from the coast, you wouldn’t even know that a Category 4 Hurricane rolled through. As we got closer to the gulf, and into the city of Pass Christian, the view started to change. We saw driveways leading to bare foundations, concrete stoops

that led to nowhere. Even houses raised 10 feet up on wood posts weren’t spared. While driving

through, I was trying to imagine what the 30 ft. storm surge was like and it’s just unbelievable to think about.

After arriving, we drove straight to our apartment. Zack, Chris and I would be sharing one and Megan, Lindsay and Emily would share the other. The apartments are really nice. They don’t look like anything special from the outside, but they’re really nice inside, with granite countertops, wood floors, and a lot more good stuff. After moving some stuff in, we decided to go and meet Leah, our program coordinator, architect, and Virginia Tech alum. She lives down here with her family now and has rebuilt several houses in town. Her most recent project is rebuilding a church that was completely destroyed by the storm. Leah and her family live in the same development as us in a nice big house, raised 10-15 ft. off the ground. Her dad told us about some stuff about the town, including how outrageous the insurance policies were now. If your house meets the new stringent building code, the insurance is around $6,000/year. If it doesn’t, its significantly higher than that. He told us about a restaurant down by the water, and the insurance would cost them $80,000/year, even though it only cost them about $80,000 to build it.

So after visiting Leah and her family, we decided to go to that restaurant, called Shaggy’s, for dinner. It’s right on the Gulf of Mexico and next to the marina and Yacht Club. The downstairs is a huge open room with a stage and bar, and the upstairs has

the seating for the restaurant and another bar. I’m not a big seafood guy and wasn’t ready to try gumbo or crawfish so I just ordered a pork sandwich. The bar was really nice and has live music on the weekends, so I know where I’m gonna be spending a lot of my time after August 28th (my 21st). After dinner, we were all pretty tired from the drive so we passed out at like 10.

This morning, I woke up at about 7 (I still can’t sleep late because i’m used to getting up that early for work), and explored the town more. I ran a big rectangle around town, stopping occasionally to stare at the destruction. I didn’t notice the night before, but there were a lot more driveways to nowhere and “Katrina Cottages” than I realized.

The town itself is hard to describe. There’s a main road that runs right along the beach. Scenic Drive contains all the mansions that were quickly renovated after the storm. There’s a nice fishing pier, marina and yacht club. I ran past the war memorial park, which is right next the police station, city hall and library. These were all still housed in trailers. A new library is being constructed, but I’m not sure if a new police station or city hall are planned yet. (More info on the old police station on the Pass Christian Wikipedia page).

After exploring, I went back to the apartment. Lindsay has finally arrived, the last member of our group. We all decided to go to Wal-Mart in Bay St. Louis, a city to the west of us, right over the bridge. Construction on the Pass Christian Wal-Mart is still going on, but it should be opening soon. After spending a hefty amount at Wal-Mart, we unpacked, had lunch, and went to see our new studio and check out the beach.

The studio is in this really nice house 1 block away from the beach. It was obviously severely damaged by Katrina, but Leah and her team renovated it and it’s really nice now...muchhhh better than Burchard and Cowgill. After the studio tour, I swam in the gulf for the first time. It was pretty warm and really quiet. The beach was deserted, I suppose because everyone in town works and there’s no more tourists. It would be perfect if there were waves higher than 6 inches

After the beach, we came back home to play cornhole, make dinner and drink a few. Oh and there’s this stray cat who lives under our deck and he always comes around looking for food, but we didn’t want to feed him because he’d never leave us alone, but today we finally decided to feed him. I do actually feel better about myself.

THE DRIVE: PART I

I can’t believe its that time already. It sure was fun to pack all my stuff with one arm after falling on my elbow at camp last week. Don’t ask me how, but I actually managed to fit everything in my tiny Corolla, including the cornhole tables i just finished painting (the fumes were fun) and my 2 kayaks.

Before I left this morning, I decided to go out to breakfast with Mel and Vin. My mom was her normal fearful self...”Aren’t there gonna be alligators in the water down there while you kayak?”, and “There’s two hurricanes coming your way.” Apparently she also thinks I’m still 6 years old because she gave me the “Don’t talk to strangers” speech and wanted me to call her every time I stopped for gas and food. After reminding her that I’ve done this for the past 3 years, I finally got on the road at about 9. My plan was to stop in Blacksburg for the night, then meet up with some people and set off for Mississippi tomorrow morning.

I love how the trip down to VT gets easier each time I do it. The 8 hour drive is so quick now, maybe because I put my portable DVD player on the passengers seat and listen to movies. (Today was Jurassic Park and 30 Rock, of course) However, I was a little apprehensive this time because I had the kayaks on the roof, but they were fine up there, even while I drove through torrential rain In Virginia.

Currently, I’m in my empty apartment in Blacksburg. Hopefully I’ll fall asleep early since I have to wake up at 5:30 to meet Zack and Megan. Wish me luck driving through the Dirty South tomorrow, I don’t even know what to expect.

Peace,

Mike