Sazzly

I have so much to tell you! First, I got to go to Florida on my spring break on a Habitat building project. 14 of us from Olin went, and one friend from Wisconsin went with us. 12 of us drove down to Florida in three cars, so that we would be able to go places when we got down there. I have now been to all of the states on the east coast! We stayed in Winter Haven, Florida, which is just about as smack dab in the middle of Florida as you can get.

We got to sheet rock an entire house, and put up siding on two walls of the other. It was fun measureing out the sheet rock and cutting it so that the outlets came through with as little margin as possible. Usually if you take the outlet cover off of your outlet, there's up to an extra inch of sheet rock cut to make it go through. We cut it to within 1/8"! The owners of the house will be impressed when they replace their outlet covers!


Olin Habitat in Florida

We were hosted by a Presbyterian church, which means we stayed in their educational center (pictured below) and they made us sandwiches for our lunches each day. They always made the sandwiches with one piece of white bread and one piece wheat bread each, and the vegetarians got peanut butter and jelly. We did, however, get Finding Nemo fruit snacks one day, which was pretty exciting.


Educational Center

Yeah. So Florida was pretty. It was surprising to me when we first passed the state line into Florida, because there were all these deciduous trees (trees where the leaves fall off for winter) down there. I was expecting a bright dark green lush jungle type thing, but it was really drab green - the color of the palm trees. There were also pine trees! Which brings me to my next observation, that Florida reminded me a lot of California. They have the same sort of looking casual suburbs, with 4 lane roads, and lots of places for U-turns, that Boston does not have. However, they are also very much a part of the east coast, rather than the west coast. I'm not sure if I can explain that statement. Also, they are a part of the south. Apparently, Northern Florida is more a part of the south than central, where we were, but you could see the influences. There are a lot of retirees there, who are mostly from the south or the midwest, so lots of accents.

Beach


Spring Training


Porch

I had a really good conversation with my friend, Clara, when I was there. We were able to sit on this porch, in the beatiful Florida sunset and talk about our lives and what we struggle with at Olin and on the trip, how important our families are to us, and what that means about where we'll work in the future.

I also got to go to an Open Brethren meeting in Maryland that Jessie Kia goes to as we were driving back up to Olin. I knew we would be in the Washington D.C. area on Sunday morning, and it being Easter morning, the other students were willing to make accomodations so that we could go to church. Some of my friends went across the street to a catholic service. They had to be early because it was going to be crowded. The Open Brethren meeting was a very multicultural church, reflecting the Washington D.C. area they are in. I enjoyed meeting some of the people there. I got there really early, so I talked with a lady who has attended there all her life, and I was able to talk to some of the young people during the break between meetings. One of them I was told, is like the president of a club called "Bachelors 'til the Rapture." And I met a guy who interviewd an Olin student for a job! He was the only one there who knew anything about Olin. It was a fun visit.

And then we made it back to Olin, without getting lost (much). :) 'Til next time, good afternoon, good evening and good night.