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Galveston, TX

Hello Bill Gwynn fans! Long time, no see. How is everyone doing? It's been a little while so let's get busy with the updating. I am currently sitting in the communications tent at my residence on Camp Tarmac. As the name implies, the camp is located on the runway of an operational airport. But don't let the location fool you, it is such a sweet set up. To start, I have been sleeping on a very comfortable cot in a 500 person tent. I have never had 499 roommates before (and I'm guessing most of you as well) but it has been working out surprisingly well with no complaints. We have a pretty big dining hall tent where they have been feeding us well.... too well. The first night we arrived here we had a surf and turf dinner of steak and fish. I know, right? Where am I? And most of the meals have been equally impressive with pulled pork sandwiches, pastas, omelet bars, and last night, the most delicious meal thus far, ribs. We also have a fitness tent with weights and exercise machines, a communications tent with laptops, and an entertainment tent with a huge flat screen and surround sound. That not enough for you? But wait...there's more! We have a medical trailer that pretty much can give you any over the counter drugs for free, the whole campus is wi-fi, and they do our laundry for us! That's right. I'll say it again in case you missed it. They do our laundry for us.

In all seriousness, I would never complain realistically about all the plush accommodations but at times I do feel guilty for all we get. When I planned to volunteer for a year, I planned on living simply and while some elements like our port-a-potties fit that life style, others don't. With that being said, I am so thankful to the services that help support us. They have really made it an easy environment to live in.

As for the surrounding area of Galveston Island, it went through a lot with hurricane Ike. I have seen a ton of destruction since arrival. Massive yachts on the sides of the road, endless businesses closed, and houses either completed gutted or leveled. There is much work to be done here and I'm glad our team was assigned here. The actual project that we will be working on has switched about a billion times since we've been here. We are now working through a program called Good News Galveston to do needs assessment. We are going to be going from door to door filling out surveys and interviewing people for, as the name implies, the things people still need. I'm very enthusiastic about our assignment because it will give me a chance to hear people's stories first hand.

On the lighter side, we had the day off yesterday and we had a lot of fun. On the other side of the airport is a pretty nice hotel and set of three pyramids. The hotel is where have been doing most of our hanging out. It's upscale but the lobby is quiet, with a moderate bar, pool tables, flat screens, and just a chill environment where you can do anything from sit and read to throw down some conversation over a few cocktails. The pyramids adjacent to the hotel each house a different attraction. The main pyramid is a beautiful aquarium that holds a ton of fish, some seals, and a bunch of penguins. It really is a fun aquarium with good attractions. The next pyramid is only partially open and is a discovery museum with an IMAX (that will be reopening shortly) and a ride-film. The final pyramid is a botanical garden that unfortunately will not be opening for 9 months. Also with price of admission, you get a boat ride around the bay that was quite pleasant.

So all in all, everything is going pretty well for me down here. I have a great living situation, a job with meaning and purpose, and things to do. Now, that I'm pretty settled I will try to write on this more with greater detail into the work I'm doing here. Thanks for reading. I hope this wasn't too long or boring. I worry about these things sometimes. Bye for now.

Austin, TX

Hello friends. So after three days of traveling from Sacramento, we are currently in Austin, TX. I personally loved the trip. We drove down through California and the Mojave Desert. Through Arizona on Tuesday and stayed in New Mexico. We passed through endless miles of open land and saw a ton of mountains, cactus's, wind energy windmills, mesas, and plateau's. Today we are doing in-processing with FEMA and then tomorrow we leave for Galveston, TX to work with United Methodist Corps. We don't exactly know what we're doing yet but it has something to do with working at a call center trying to get people back into their homes. Well that's all folks. I'll talk to you later.

1st travel day

so we completed our 1st day on the road. we pretty much just drove down the center and eastern side of california. now we are riding next to the colorado river and we literally just crossed the border into arizona. gotta lot road left in front of us. last night we stayed in needles, ca if you want to look it up. happy election day. talk to you later. gwynn out

Quick Update

I did not get a chance to go to San Francisco yesterday. It was just a little hard to work out. However my Uncle Michael came here with my two cousins, Marco and Gianna, and we got to hang out for the day which was fun. Still leaving at 6:30 tomorrow morning for Texas. YEE HAW!

Update Post

Just wanted to also post a quick update on the past week. This week was the final week of my Corps Institute Training and I was officially inducted in the Corps on Friday. Not too much else new stuff to report this past week. It was the normal routine of trainings, and meeting, and info sessions. They pushed back the departure date for Texas a day and now I'm leaving on Monday. This means two things. First, that means that our travel schedule is pushed back and so on Tuesday I will probably been passing through Arizona. So that means on election day I will be the home state of one of the two major candidates in the election. This also means that I now have this whole weekend off. So shortly after I finish this blog, my Uncle Michael is going to pick me up and I'm going to hang in San Francisco this weekend. So that's really it for now I guess. I'm planning on writing a few quick posts from my van ride down to Texas just to give a cool travel blog feel. Also, I don't know what our internet situation is going to be once we're down there so I don't know how long or how frequent my posts will be once I'm down there. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Good bye for now, loyal readers.

2008 WORLD SERIES CHAMPION PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES

The moment that I have been waiting, literally, my entire life for has finally happened. The Philadelphia Phillies have won the World Series. WOW! What a feeling! So many emotions boiled up inside me once the Phillies took the pennant. Simply incredible. I have invested a lot of my time and energy into this team and it finally paid off. You gotta love the way this team won it, too. Hamels was phenomenal on the mound, Utley argulably the best all around player on the team with his bat and the great plays he made in the field. The bats of Howard and Werth, the tenacity of Victorino, the sexiness of Pat Burrell. All these players did an amazing job this year and I was glad to be able to feel apart of it. But as old Chuck Dickens once wrote, it is the best of times and it is the worst of times. For the first time since I 3 years old, I am living more than 2 hours away from the city of Philadelphia. When Lidge struck out Hinske to win the game, I was 2000 miles away. When the team cracked open the champagne, I was 2000 miles away. When the parade went down broad street, I was 2000 miles away. The amount of joy I have for the team winning is equal to my sadness of not being home to celebrate with my fellow Philadelphians. But either way, the 2008 World Series Champions are still the Philadelphia Phillies no matter how far away I am and that's a very good thing. Congratulations Phillies and congratulations Philadelphia.