By Diana 

We are in Atlanta right now. We were supposed to go to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center and then maybe the CNN headquarters (which I was very much looking forward to), but one of our vans is having engine trouble.

Yesterday, we were at the Atlanta Braves vs. Boston Red Sox game. It was fun. (And my first baseball game!) Though we had standing room tickets, some of the guys decided to scope out some seats while the girls saved our standing area. While we waited, a photographer asked if he could take our photo for the Braves’s Web site. Eventually we got some seats and it was a pretty decent view.

We’re staying at a Best Western in Atlanta, which is much nicer than Camp Biloxi because we aren’t living in tents and trailers. Though the food was “campy,” the one chef was cool. I don’t know his name, but he sure loved to fill people up. One day, he just walked up to our table and started picking on Sokkun for eating a salad. He brought out a whole chicken and plopped it in front of Sokkun and started talking about how his 13-year-old could eat more than he could. We were all laughing while he tried to eat the chicken.

Then he picked on me! I hate being in the spotlight… He was telling me to say “uncle,” but I thought maybe he was just joking, so I didn’t say it – until he put a MASSIVE piece of carrot cake in front of me.

On our second to last day there, we had enchiladas for dinner. There were beef enchiladas and cheese enchiladas. When Ms. Wood told him that I was a vegetarian, he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me all the way from the back of the line to the front, took me into the kitchen and gave me three cheese enchiladas fresh from the oven. (Everyone else only got two.) I was so embarrassed by being dragged to the front. At the table, Ms. Wood just shrugged and said, “That’s what you get for being cute and little.”

Tuesday was our last workday. We got a lot done, but didn’t finish putting up all the drywall because we were waiting for insulation and had some momentary power outages. I had a lot of fun with the drills and the saws until I was hit in the head by two 2×4s. My head hurt obviously, but it wasn’t too bad because the back of my shoulder took part of the blow. I think someone else was hit by a 2×4 also. The previous day, people were being hit by big, falling pieces of drywall. (And that stuff is pretty heavy.)

The culinary walking tour in the French Quarter on Saturday was fun. I was only slightly disappointed that we did more listening and walking than eating, but the food was sooo gooood… I don’t remember what was in that one sandwich I had, but that was the best. Then there was some really sugary candy stuff and – ooh! – the best chocolate-filled pastry ever. Hey, they aren’t world-renowned restaurants for nothing.