Long time, no see!

I can't believe it's already been three weeks!

Well things have been pretty busy.  I started work at Pio Decimo and I absolutely fell in love! I'm working in the preschool classroom.  We started out the year with only 5 students, but I just found on on Friday that two more enrolled and will be starting on Tuesday! (yay for 3 day weekends by the way!) My students (all 3 years old) are all so adorable.  I love spending time with them.  It's great to see them thrive too.  My class is comprised of 3 girls and 2 boys.  When they started school two and a half weeks ago, the girls always needed me to push them on the swings when we had outdoor play.  By the end of this week, after I help them get on the swings they are good to go.  They are so proud of themselves and always yell to me "Teacher look! I'm going so high!"  One of the boys also can now make it halfway across the monkey bars without my help.  These little things that bring them so much excitement and joy make me happy and make my job in Arizona the best I've ever had.

My casamates and I have been settling in nicely.  Now that we're on more of a routine, we started to explore the city more.  I try to make it out of the building during my lunch break every day to see what's around.  The other day I spent my entire lunch break at Tucson Reptile Rescue learning all about different reptiles and hanging out with some giant lizards and turtles.

There's so much more I could talk about, but we have a community business meeting soon so I need to get ready.  I'm always open to phone and Skype calls though :)

Missing everyone on the East coast! <3

First Days in Tucson

Hello again,

My roommate Claire and I made the mile bike ride to Starbucks to get some wifi.  Today marks our second full day in Tucson.  We're all still struggling with the jet lag a little bit.  In case some of you don't know, most of Arizona doesn't recognize daylight savings time, so relative to the East coast, we're three hours behind.  A lot of breakfast foods at 6am Tucson time.

When we got to our house on Friday night, we were greeted by our two community support members.  Julie is an FJV, and Jerry is just heavily involved in the Tucson community and loves JVC.  Julie made us an enchilada casserole, and Jerry brought over a cake.  After a restful night, Julie and Jerry took us around the city, making sure we knew where everything was.  They took us out to lunch in downtown Tucson.  It reminds me a lot of Burlington, VT. We had plans to go back downtown at night, but couldn't figure out the bus schedule.  Instead we watched the sun set over the Tucson mountains from our rooftop.  Awesome community bonding (Even though, lets be real, we didn't really need it. We're already awesome friends)

This morning Jerry came over with doughnuts from what he claimed to be "the best bakery in town." Anyone who knows me well knows that I have hated doughnuts since about the first grade, but these were AMAZING!! Today was a lot of errand running and some more cleaning.  Also, IT RAINED TODAY! Only a drizzle and only for a couple of minutes, but after the ridiculous heat, it was very welcomed.

Only two more free days before I start work, and I absolutely cannot wait.

Orientation Retreat!

Greetings from 37,000 feet! 

We are (finally) on our way to Tucson! We spent the last week in Dickinson, TX (a Houston suburb) at the Christian Renewal Center for our JVC Orientation retreat.  Each of the four days was dedicated to the four values of JVC.  They are social justice, community, spirituality, and simple living.  We did a variety of community building activities within our own communities, as well as spent time getting to know the other JVs who are serving in our area.  We made friends with JVs from Mobile, AL; New Orleans, LA; Houston, TX; Austin, TX; San Antonio, TX; Albuquerque, NM; and Phoenix, AZ.

One of my favorite parts of the retreat was a mindfulness walk we took.  We walked in silence for about 15 minutes down a worn down path through the trees.  We were instructed to take in our surroundings and reflect on a variety of things.  I found my mind often wandering to different things going on at home.  I noticed that I kept looking to my left.  I then looked to my right and noticed a tree that was painted entirely blue.  After the initial shock of this Dr. Seuss-like spectacle, I finally was able to find something to focus my thoughts on.  How often to we miss things going on around us because we are so focused on looking one way?  Whether you take that literally or figuratively, I realized that this year, it’s going to be important to take in everything around me, and to not get lost in just one thing.

My community-mates and I really hit it off.  (Allie and Abi are currently helping me write this and requested personal shout-outs) Between the six of us, we cover pretty much every area of the country.  We come from six very different backgrounds and cultures, but we all share a passion that brought us to JVC.  It’s only the first week, but I think the six of us will grow really close and maybe I’ll have best friends in places like Oregon and New Mexico to visit for the rest of my life.  Not only did we finally meet our community-mates, but we also met our Program Coordinators (PCs).  The PC helps the communities in different areas.  If JVs were college students, PCs would be academic advisors. Ours is a wonderful woman named Cece.  She is the PC for the Tucson, Phoenix, and Albuquerque communities.  My community is extra lucky because Cece actually lives in Tucson!  She had so much to share with us, and I can’t wait to continue working with her.

As you may or may not know, for graduation, my beautiful friend Liz (not me, other Liz), gave me a key with the word “fearless” on it.  I have been wearing it on my wrist since Sunday.  During the reflection times during orientation, I spent a lot of time reflecting on what it meant to be fearless.  I came to the conclusion that no one explains it better than Taylor Swift.

“To me, Fearless is not the absence of fear. 

It's not being completely unafraid. 

To me, Fearless is having fears. 

Fearless is having doubts. Lots of them. 

To me, Fearless is living in spite of those things that 

scare you to death.” 

I hope that this year, I can learn to be fearless.  I hope that I can take chances.  As I fly further and further west, more of my heart stays on the East coast. 

I miss everyone tons!

Keep being fearless.