9.29.2007

Update

It's been quite the week. Last weekend we went for a hike; we made it all the way up to 5200 ft! And the leaves are changing color, I hear we are coming near peak leaf viewing season which I am looking forward to with great anticipation. In the midst of the hike, we had several album cover poses, here they are for your enjoyment.





On Monday I went to visit the school I'll be working in and met with the principals. It made this whole year seem more realistic to be walking around the building. It also overwhelmed me a little. They are trusting me to work in classrooms and mentor kids through Big Brothers Big Sisters with only a month of training (and only about 2 days of it on actually working with kids). I feel under-qualified, but maybe that is how all teachers feel (at least at first?). Next week we are in the schools all week observing classrooms and then the week after we really start.

In other City Year news, we got our uniforms this week...including the much anticipated Timberland boots! Yes, they are everything that I imagined them to be. I can't wait to get them dirty and wrinkled. The rest of the uniform, is well, a uniform. The pants fit kinda funny and the x-small shirt is way too big. But I feel approximately 13.2 hundred times cooler working in it. Really unifies the group.

Friday was our Opening Day, basically the official start of the year. We listened to lots of people talk, and said the City Year pledge which I'm putting here because I actually think it is pretty cool. Here ya go:

I pledge to serve as a City Year member to the very best of my ability,
To honor the rules and expectations of City Year,
To respect my colleagues and the people and communities we serve,
To provide excellent service,
To lead by example and be a role model to children,
To celebrate the diversity of the people, ideas, and cultures around me,
To serve with an open heart and an open mind,
To be quick to help and slow to judge,
To do my best to make a difference in the lives of others,
And to build a stronger community, nation, and world for all of us.

So, it's official. On Monday we get our jackets and have a jacket dedication ceremony which should be cool. I'll let you know how that goes.





Here's something for you to think about. What is the best way to open a can of tuna without a can opener? Let me know if you have any better ideas, because I still have three cans and no opener :-)



9.22.2007

Water

The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to.
It is content with the low places that people disdain.
Thus it is like the Tao.

In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don't try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.

When you are content to be simply yourself
and don't compare or compete,
everybody will respect you.

from the tao te ching by lau tzu, translated by stephen mitchell

Sprouts!



Yesterday I woke up, groggily walked to the kitchen and started the coffee, turned to the herbs that weren't supposed to sprout for another couple of weeks to find glorious green heads poking through the soil! It made my morning. I couldn't stop smiling the whole way to work.





Then on the way to work we drove behind a clown in a minivan. It was fine until he saw us staring and started waving. Then it was just creepy.



9.20.2007

I'm in.

I like to think of myself as a critical thinker not easily swayed by the popular opinion or engulfed in groups just because they exist. But I find myself completely buying into the whole City Year idea. Don't worry, I won't drink any Kool-Aid no matter what they tell me will happen :-). It's just that I really agree with the goals of this organization and I am even excited about getting my uniform so that I can wear City Year colors proudly. Oh, and the boots. I am very excited about the free pair of Timm's work boots!

Today we had an event called Serva-a-palooza. It is an annual Timberland event where they basically shut down all operations for a day in order to serve in communities across the world. Afterwards there is a big party...that's the palooza part. I worked at a park in Rochester clearing brush out of a wonderful pine forest. It was so overgrown it was creepy when we got there. But six hours and 150 volunteers transformed it into inviting paths and beautiful views of the river. It is truly amazing to see a community like this at work.

The other very cool part of today was working with high school students from the nearby school. On girl came with a pink and bleached mohawk that was at least 8 inches tall. Amazing. They were wonderful to work with and excited about City Year. One of the first things they asked me was how they can join. I thought, "Wow, way to be thinking about the future...I didn't even know this program existed until last November".

Back to me buying into City Year. The CEO of Timberland is an amazing man by the name of Jeff Swartz. He spoke at the party tonight and you could feel his passion radiating into the crowd. He does good with his company not to make money, but because this is what he believes. It inspires me. He was on the Colbert Report a while ago, so check it out!

I am feeling good about my team. I really got to know them this week working together and living together at our retreat. They are amazing people, and I look forward to continuing to build these relationships.

In conclusions, service is fun and you feel good afterwards and yea for free boots!

Here's two pictures from BTR...





9.16.2007

Life in the 'Shire

Hola. Here is an update and pictures. So far we have had: 2 service days, 6 days of training, 1 trip to the school where I will be tutoring middle school students, 2 hikes, and lots of laughs. There have been a few tense moments with my team, but I am confident that we will find a way to work it out.

These are my awesome roommates after our second day of service. We helped out at a 200 mile relay race across the state. The runners go all night for 24 hours straight. Crazy.


Amanda worked the night shift so she was a bit tired by the time I took this picture. Her team all wore funny wigs to help the time pass, so, no, that's not her real hair :)

So after working for 10 hours yesterday, we got up and hiked a mountain. It was an easy incline, but the view from the peak was beautiful. It awed me so much that I had to take a nap before heading down.

And yes, it was only 2804 ft. in elevation, but when most of the state is at sea level that is a tall peak. A little trivia, the highest point in New Hampshire is Mt. Washington at 6,288 ft. We are hoping to hike that before the end of the year!

Tomorrow we are going on the Basic Training Retreat (or BTR as they say in the business). We are going to a summer camp up north and chillin' till Wednesday. Should be fun. But if I am out of touch, that's why.

9.12.2007

Pictures from a while ago.

Here are some photos from the road trip that I never got a chance to upload.

This is where I lived in Charleston for the first three years of my life.


Sunset in Pennsylvania.





Self-explainatory.






Ah yes.

First off I'd like to apologize for the post lumping. Again, no Internet, but we should be getting it on Friday. There have been a lot of mood swings in this first week, and I'm all posting it at once.

Today was an amazing day. We had our first day of Physical Service. That means we go out and do something. I went with a team of five people to a place called New Generations; it's a home for women who are pregnant or have young children. Women stay there for a few months up to a year and eat together, do chores together, and live together. There is a beautiful garden (awww...Flagstaff), and they run a thrift store to help fund the home. Today we worked in the furniture part of the thrift store and organized the poo out of it. Then we mulched, pulled weeds, and beautified.

It felt great to move around and do physical labor. You could see a transformation at the end of the day. It wasn't huge, but it was there. I feel like this is the right place for me to be (which is a good feeling after last night). I'm a tired, but it is the tired of a hard day's work...the best kind of tired.

So, that brings my blog up to date, and hopefully I'll be able to post in real time soon!!!

When times get hard.

I am starting to really miss the familiar. I miss my friends and family. I miss familiar weather. I miss familiar smells. I knew this time would come, but it is still a shock. I knew that I could only ride the initial excitement for so long, but it is still hard to come down.

Work got harder. Personality clashes are showing up in teams. I think the initial excitement has worn off for everyone else too. I know this is part of building a strong team, but it is hard to remember. We are all tired and sprinting across new territory without a map.

I pray for patience and peace in my heart.




I spent the evening dancing to Michael Franti, eating macaroni and cheese courtesy of my roommate Jodi, and watching The Muppet Movie, so I’m feeling better.

City Year is always ready.

As part of the team-feeling of City Year (that’s what the Americorp program I’m doing is called) we do Physical Training or PT in the mornings together. This involves doing push-ups, jumping jacks, or lunges all together in a certain rhythm. There are also call and responses such as “How are you feeling” “Fired-up”, “City Year, are you ready for 7 powerful push-ups” “City Year is always ready”, and “We live to serve another day” “And that’s a beautiful thing”. It is both sincere and funny at the same time.

In other news, on Saturday I went for a hike with my roommates and several other corps members. It was awesome; I feel so much better when I get out in nature and exercise a bit. We climbed a “mountain”. Not to belittle east-coast mountains, but it is hard to get excited about 3,000 feet when you’ve lived at 7,000 for the last four years. But it was very steep at we went practically straight up. There was a fire watch post and we saw some fantastic views.

A little further down the trail was a “pond” (in New Mexico we would have called it a lake). It was spring feed and refreshing, we all went for a swim. After lying about to dry off we found some wild blueberries and raspberries just growing by the trail. Food does grow in New Hampshire!

To add to my excitement we stopped at a farm stand on the way home. Basically people have big gardens and the put up signs and set up little carts right off their driveway. We got sweet corn and tomatoes and homemade apple butter. Yummy. I’m hoping to start an herb garden sometime soon.


And…City Year is housed at the Timberland headquarters. If you haven’t heard of Timberland (I hadn’t) check out their website. They are a wicked cool company. Each employee gets 40 paid hours off to do service in the community. They have two global service events a year, one coming up next week. They are pledged to be carbon neutral (not adding any carbon dioxide to the atmosphere). They are committed to human rights in all their factories, plus there shoe boxes all have a “nutrition label” on them letting you know what exactly went into making that pair of shoes. Wicked cool. To top it off, I get a 40% discount in the store here. Oh yeah…

On Monday we get our team assignment which means I’ll actually know what I’m working on this year. I’m very excited.

Confessions

Part I

I shopped at Wal-Mart today. I really needed a plunger for the new apartment. I’m sorry world. My deepest apologies.

Part II

The fiddlesticks plunger broke after using it twice. I consider justice done. I will never shop at Wal-Mart.

9.05.2007

Live free or die

Well folks, I’m in New Hampshire. Sorry these posts are clumped together, but my internet is sketchy so I post when I can.

I’ve met my three roommates and they all seem really cool. I think we will get along really well. One of them quilts and another knits and spins wool. This is very good especially since I have just made it my goal to learn to spin again.

The apartment we are in has the weirdest floor plan I have ever seen. It has two biggish bedrooms with nice sized closets and then two bedrooms that aren’t even really bedrooms. No closests, the circuit breaker is in one of them, and they are really small. Weird… But we are making it work. Last night we all started unpacking; starting with all the pretty stuff we hung all over. We even have a Welcome sign hanging on the front door. How cool are we.

In other news, I’ve decided to adopt the New Hampshire state motto, “Live free or die”. I have a couple reasons for this.

1. It is a great battle cry. Try yelling it at the top of your lungs, you’ll like it. Come on, try J

2. My friend Rusty has a theory. If you appear more unstable than everyone around you, no one will mess with you. What is more unstable than 1)?

3. I guess since I am in New England I should learn more about the history of the place. I’m assuming the motto comes from the revolution, so consider me learned. (Okay, that’s a stretch, but I needed a number three).

I start work today. We have training for about a month before we really get down to it, but I’m excited to see how this will all work out. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Mile 2468

Hours in the car today: about 8
Hours in the car tomorrow: about 0!!!

We woke up early this morning and after a fight I was able to use our hotel’s “high-speed wireless” internet. Don’t believe everything they advertise. But since we pushed it yesterday, we made it to Niagara Falls by mid-morning. And here it was that Dad and I made the astounding discovery…

…the river flows east here!!!! If this doesn’t seem weird to you then you haven’t been living in the west for long enough. Dad and I had separately made assumptions about which way the falls would be but when we started walking we realized that the river was flowing in the opposite direction. Weird!

After our profound discovery, we enjoyed these views…

Then we (regretfully) got back in the car, hopped on the New York Thru-way, and drove. We made it to Vermont for dinner. I felt like we were driving through an L.L. Bean catalog (which I guess is a real possibility). Half a billion white churches, picket fences, and scenic views later we crossed into New Hampshire, our last state. Man, it is good to think that we won’t drive 600 miles tomorrow!

And now we are at the hotel; it looks like an old boarding dorm with poster beds, carved wood panels, etc.

Goodnight.

9.01.2007

Mile 1945

States entered today: 5
States remaining on this trip: 3

In the early haze of morning we drove through Charelston, IL. We went by Eastern Illinois University where my mother taught, by the house were I spent the first three years of my life (I’m working on plans to turn it into a museum so stay tuned J), and to the town square that was vibrant before the Wal-Mart moved into town. But fortunately the South-Side Diner was still kickin’ in the square so we had a classic breakfast. After breakfast, my dad used the force and this long-term memory to find the grave stone of his grandfather in the Charleston cemetery. It was a bit weird to see my last name in this unfamiliar yet intimately related place.

We hit the road again and drove for a very very very long time. Words cannot describe how long we drove. We past corn fields, then some more corn fields, then Indianapolis, the some corn fields, then Columbus, then another field of some kind. We eventually made it up to Cleveland, OH, then to Erie, Pennsylvania. We ate dinner at a fish place overlooking the lake, complete with sunset and sail boats. For a couple moments I almost forgot how much I hate the inside of my car.

From Erie we drove on a back road through wine country and beautiful lake front homes. I can imagine waking up, picking few grapes and watching the sunrise over the water. Dad quickly pointed out that it probably isn’t quite as picturesque in winter when everything is buried under several feet of snow. But such is life, I think I could deal with it.

Tomorrow we are driving north 40 miles and checking out Niagara Falls in the morning. It is good to only have a short drive before the hope of fresh air. And the most beautiful thought of tomorrow is that it is our last day! We should make it to Exeter, New Hampshire before too late and then attempt to find my prospective apartment on Sunday. So close!

Mile 1382

Miles driven today: 714
Miles left: 1018

We left early this morning and enjoyed the empty back roads through the fields of Kansas. It was a shock when we crossed the border into Illinois and suddenly had to deal with traffic again.

We drove straight through the day; I got a lot of knitting done. The really exciting part started when we got to St. Louis. We stopped to see the St. Louis monolith…

…oh, I mean arch.

We walked by the river then had our first real meal of the day at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Turns out one doesn’t need to eat nearly as much when one is sitting in a car all day. But after a walk and some good food we were both resuscitated enough to fully appreciate the excitement to come.

That’s right, we saw the WORLD’S LARGEST CATSUP BOTTLE!!!! No kidding, it was built in the 40’s and proudly stands 10 miles off the highway in Colinsville, IL. It took a while to find it. Apparently the Collinsvillians aren’t as proud to house the world’s largest catsup bottle as one would think. If it hadn’t been in our atlas, we might not have found it. But as it is I can share this wonderful picture with you.

And now we are in Charleston, IL, the place of my birth. The circle of life and all that jazz.

Mile 668

Miles from Las Cruces, NM to Manchester, NH: about 2400
Miles driven today: 668
Miles left: 1732

Today I woke up in New Mexico, stopped for gas in Texas, drove across the Oklahoma panhandle, and am going to bed in Medicine Lounge, Kansas. Let the road trip begin!

My dad and I are driving my little “go fast” car loaded with all my possessions across the country. When we get to New Hampshire I’ll start an Americorp program called City Year. I don’t know exactly what I’ll be doing, but I’ll let you know when I do.

Armed with our books Roadside America (© 1987) and Eat Your Way Across America (© 1997), we bravely explore as many diners and tourist traps as possible. Today we drove past White Sands National Monument (it’s only a couple miles out of Las Cruces) but had few other tourist opportunities. The food, however, was delicious; Penny’s Diner in Vaughn, New Mexico for lunch and a family BBQ joint in Liberal, Kansas (I can’t be to *liberal* with my praise!) for dinner. We saw cool architecture, a rainbow, and a movie-sized orange full moon. Good day.