Day 2 and Day 3
Hey y'all! We are in the South! Sorry we left you hangin' yesterday, our free housing yesterday had strict rules on internet access. We left St. Louis around 8 after having breakfast in the hotel and headed down south. The drives were pretty uneventful excluding our pit stop to Burger King in the middle of Arkansas. Our drive yesterday was quite long which allowed us plenty of time to bond and really get to know each other. Michelle and Allie drive one car, Sly Fiend and the other car driven mainly by Amy and Greg we are calling Hash tag.
After Arkansas we cut through a corner of Tennessee, where we waved to our fellow ASBers who are working in Memphis. We did get make a couple of wrong turns and random stops in the middle of the freeway. Needless to say it was a tad frightening. But we managed to get back on the track and made it to The Magnolia State-Mississippi.
Our destination on Saturday was Jackson, the capital of Mississppi. Tired of being in the car for 9 hours we were all cranky and sore and eager to get to Belhaven University and settle in. We walked around BU for a little bit and then found a place to eat in Jackson. The restaurant we found "Peaches" via Yelp! on Zack's iPhone turned out to be in a very run down area of Jackson that looked a little too rough for us so we tried again. Despite the rough area, we did get a nice scenic drive of the Capitol building and the Governor's mansion.
We ended up dining at the "Hickory Pit", home of the best barbeque in Mississippi. We munched on pork sandwiches', grilled cheese, coleslaw, baked beans and the best sweet tea. It was definitely the authentic southern bbq we all wanted to experience. Word to the wise if you ever come to Mississippi-drink your sweet tea slowly otherwise you're in for a rough night.
After dinner, we played tourist and drove to Fondron, a neighborhood in Jackson. We found out that this weekend in Jackson was the "Zippity-do-dah parade and festival". Despite the fact that we really had no idea what it was we decided to be spontaneous and just go with the flow. Turns out this festival is basically a bunch of high school marching bands, local advocate groups and retirement groups that throw out large amount of mardi gra beads, candy, stuffed animals and jar openers. (Those were from the retirement group). Basically we decided it was a played down version of Mardi gras. All in all, we had a great time and definitely recommend it if you are in Jackson!
After the festival we headed back to BU and found a talent show that consisted of dancing and Christian rock band that sang about chess. It was interesting to say the least but we soon left and had our final meeting of the night. We stayed in dorms at BU we were separated: boys on one side of campus, girls on the other. Our dorms were no 5 star resorts but it was free so we can't really complain right?
Eager to get to Bay St. Louis, we left Jackson bright and early and made it to there in three hours. Our drive was smooth and we thought we had made it here without any problems. Little did we know of what was to come? We arrived to Bay St. Louis, parked and walked to the historic/downton area. We didn't really know what to expect but we discovered a quaint little town filled cute shops, cafes and of course, beaches. Since we didn't eat breakfast, we starving we're game for almost anything. We found a cute little "Mom n Pop" restaurant called "The Buttercup. " During lunch, we got to witness Southern hospitality as we met some of the most friendly people and dogs. We ate local fare like grits, crawfish omelets, Bay St. Louis eggs and of course more sweet tea.
After we ate, we only had one thing on our mind and that was to get to the beach. We got to the beach and stayed there from noon to five. That's right folks five hours of sun and fun, which can only mean one thing-sunburn. Not one of us escaped the suns cancerous rays, but some of are us are only a little pink whereas a few of us look like lobsters. Despite our burns, we had an awesome day at the beach!
We left at five and had dinner at the boarding school we are staying at. An orientation for Habitat for Humanity followed dinner and we were briefed on the work we would be doing. We are still a little unsure of what is in store for us but we are looking forward to helping this community we have already come to love.
We ended the night by splitting into two groups with one group taking a walk to the pier and other group driving to another beach.
That was a lot y'all but we are having a great time and will keep you updated as the week goes on!
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