blog

Each year as a volunteer we are required to post one blog entry to the volunteers website. Mine was due a few weeks ago so I'm posting it here as well. I chose to write about the topic focusing on my challenges at my worksite. Now I kind of wish I decided to write about community instead because since the end of November and into December I feel they are the ones who have really had an impact on my year for the best. But...here it is!


"But I'm Allergic to Football!"

A few weeks ago I just couldn't take it anymore. Every one of the 8th graders was being so horrible that I took away their next P.E. class and gave them a writing assignment instead. They ran around when I asked them to stand still. They got sick of the game they begged me to play and decided to sit down mid class. They then continued to argue with me when I told them they needed to stand up. Where have I gone wrong? I work as hard as I possibly can to give them a great class. I thought I could be the cool young teacher that everybody loved. I could play fun games, teach kids a lot about computers, learn about sports myself and perhaps even work on my farmers tan a bit. Turns out, the only thing which was true about that thought was my ability to work up a good farmers tan.

I spend my time yelling at the students to not run around while we're stretching, to actually run when they are doing laps, to stop talking so I can pick the teams and explain the game being played, and asking them to just TRY to play the game that day. Sometimes I have great days while other day's kids get mad at calls made and tell me that they hate me and want a new coach. The only way I really think you could understand what a day is like is by reading some of the apology letters they h ad to write the day they didn't ahve P.E. I found that these are the only things that really show how students act. Some just made me laugh while others show how the students actually behave.

"Dear Ms. Kupski, I'm sorry for not being respectful, talking back to you and not following your directions. I'm sorry for listening to music really loud with bad language. I'm sorry for not staying on my poly spot and messing aroudn in P.E. and in the computer room. I hope you can forgive me for being rude and disrespectful to you the whole year."

"The rules for computers were to not interrupt. They were to be quiet. Not to fool around. Not to misbehave. I fooled around. I misbehaved. I interrupted the class. I was being very loud. I should not have done those things."

"I will get a better P.E. grade and I will try harder. From now on I will be the best I can be. I am sorry Ms. Kupski. I am so very sorry."

"I"ll try harder to listen to you. Next P.E. class maybe we will have fun if we listen to each other. I am very stubborn though and it is hard for mem to listen to what you have to say. I will try hard not to argue."

"I am deeply sorry for my actions of not listening. I will do better so help me God. This will never happen again so help me God."

"I will strive to be a good student. Sorry that I argue, it's just that you don't really watch and I am too competitive. I want to win every single game."

"Next time, there will not be a next time. I will be the very best I can be in my behavior and my grades. Again, I am truly sorry. I hope we can still be friends."

Each day at St. Patrick's School as P.E. and Computer Teacher is a new challenge for me. I don't know why, but the students feel they have to act as horrible as they possibly can and continuously misbehave before I can be "initiated" into the position. My struggle is attempting to see where I fit in at the school. Sometimes to the students I am "just a volunteer" while other times I am a teacher. I am in charge of a classroom (or parking lot) full of students and I have to spend my time creating lessons and enforcing rules.

Without struggles though, my job would be too easy and I wouldn't have anything to work towards (maybe not actually since I still am pretty clueless when it comes to most sports!). I am thankful though for the kids that really do show me what makes my job enjoyable, whether it be any kindergartner running to come latch onto me at any point in the day, 1st grader Annette screaming across the yard to tell me she think my t-shirt is very pretty today, seeing the kids truly enjoying a game of big base kickball (my all time favorite), a junior high student being appreciative of the fact that I am running the KICS club, or just getting to know each of my 152 students on a more personal level. The teachers have been amazing in helping me whenever possible and give me the confidence to keep working as hard as I can. I am also lucky to have a community that continues to motivate me each day to persevere. As this year is quickly progressing I am beginning to see why it is God has me here in San Diego and at St. Patrick's School and I am truly looking foward to everything lies ahead for the remainder of this year.

Kaitlyn Kupski
San Diego
2009-2010

I know I've been slacking...

So first of all I would like to apologize for not updating this at all. I dont even know if people read this or not. most likely not so its not like it matters too much. But for those of you that do, I am sorry. I said in the first entry that I knew that I would begin to slack once things really started getting going...which they definitely have. I feel as if I have been going non stop for weeks now. Secondly, I would like to apologize to all of my friends for the fact that I have been such a bad friend since I have been here. I promise I will start to call more.

So...I honestly can't even remotely remember what exactly has happened over the past few weeks. Just working lots. I have typically been working what comes out to be around 50 hours a weeks...not even including most of the time that I spend doing my lesson plans. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays i've been heading to St. Pats around 7 with Emily and Mike when they leave for work. That extra hour before school starts gives me the time to be able to sit down and get some lessons done. Tuesdays and Thursdays when Anne is with me we get to school for 8. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursday I'm there till 5, Wednesdays till 6 by the time I'm finished things up and headed home and Fridays around 3.

Work is going well. I finally know all 150 (give or take) kids names. The kids are starting to warm up to me a lot more finally. Kinder is finally beginning to calm down. 1st grade is still crazy. 2nd grade is with them but they are all good and adorable. 3rd gets a little upset sometimes but they have been listening well. 4th is pretty good...they are happy with anything that you give them to play and don't complain much at all. There are a couple kids that get down on themselves if they aren't doing well but they are still cute.

5th is just overall insane. There are 26 kids that all have very strong personalities. There is this one boy Kaleb who is new to the school this year that has been giving me and everybody else in his class a hard time. Once you tell him to do something he wants to go ahead and do the opposite of what you are telling him. And when kids in his class start to get mad at him he just goes even further to make them even more mad. The other kids are really bad with egging him on though. Last week he told me that he would rather fail PE then spend the 45 minute class with me. This week he actually played a game so we're getting there...baby steps. This week though about 8 kids in the class started an underground newspaper about kaleb though. Luckily Jane found out and Kaleb did not. Jane is by far one of my favorite teachers. I am so impressed by how she works with that class and especially how she is with Kaleb.

6th grade is one of my favorite classes. They are usually always pretty good in both PE and computers. Their teacher Shannon is also one of my favorites, she helps me out a great deal with everything at the school. 7th grade either has a really good day or a really bad day. Out of the class of 18 only 6 are girls and they are very cliquey; it's like 2 vs. 2 vs. 2. Some of the boys are pretty good but the others are pretty crazy. This past week Anne and I gave 2 of them parent notices and 3 different boys broke down in tears for a variety of different reasons. 8th grade overall is just obnoxious. They think they run the school and can treat me like crap and I don't even know what to do with them. Luckily due to them visit catholic high schools in the area and fall festival and testing I haven't had them too much. I think every one of the 28 works hard to do everything they can to go against me. I wish there was more I could do to get them to behave for me but it's how they've been for a while now, both the teachers and past av's have told me this.

My lack of equipment has shown to be a huge challenge. There are things that I want to do in class but I can't because I don't have the items to actually do it. I'm trying to figure out what I can for next week. I wanted to do football or baseball because the kids have been asking me to do those since I've been there but I don't have a football or even baseballs. I'm currently working on getting more equipment. Tutoring is also suprisingly slightly difficult. It's a lot to be done the school day and still have about 2-3 hours left. Kids tend to show up with nothing to do so we have to figure out things for them to do. Each day proves to be a new challenge for me. All I'm doing for now it just trying to give all that I can to the school and do the best I possibly can. I do wish I knew more about PE or sports in general. I have learned lots since I have been here though. My job is a bigger challenge then I thought it was going to be but I can definitely tell you that I will gain more then I even thought I would as well.

I do very much love the community at St. Pats. The teachers are all amazing. Like I said before, I am still amazed about how easily they were able to welcome us into their community at the school. The way they have made me a part of the school makes me feel like I've been there for years rather then a month and a half. Even a lot of the kids are great as well. Everyone up through about 5th grade will say hi to me everytime they see me.

Community life has been going great as well. I don't exactly remember what exactly we have been doing here all togther. Last weekend we headed to the fall festival at St. Pats. We've gone out a decent amount and stayed in as well. We tend to hang out with the Roderick's, Dan and Mike, who live down the street, on the weekends. Dan was a volunteer here in SD 2 years ago and stayed after his year to run the orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico. It's nice to have some other friends here then just the 6 of us.

We are in the middle of our month of visitors. We had Pat here for site visit about 2 weeks ago now. The day Pat left, mom came. It was awesome to have her here. We didn't do anything too spectacular, but it was great to show here where I'm living and working and let her get to know my community. Emily's friend Karl came the day after she left and is here with us now until Monday. Thursday Anne's friend comes until Monday and then Emily is heading to LA with her mom. We all may actually head up to LA that weekend too. It's still up in the air a bit, but it should definitely be a good time! I'm quite excited to get out of our little like 10-15 mile radius. Tomorrow actually we are headed to this place called Julian where apparently it reminds you of fall which we are all quite excited for! Apparently it's cold there and there are trees that are not a palm! Next Saturday we are actually all headed to the orphanage for the day. I'm excited to head there since I've heard so much about it not only from my roommates but Merrimack people as well. I'm nervous because I don't know any spanish at all, but I think I will be okay.

Anyways, everything is going well here in SD. I am finally feeling very comfortable with my roommates and with the area and things around here. This weekend is actually the first one where I've really been homesick...and it's only because homecoming/alumni weekend is going on at Merrimack. I'm trying to forget about it though even though it's pretty hard. I will try to update this more often. I will try not to let this get out of hand without updating for a while again!

another weeks work

So updating about once a week seems to be going well. I have a lot more time on the weekends so I have the chance to be able to do things then. This past week of work has definitely been interesting to say the least. Definitely better then boring though.

Monday it typically the day that everybody hates, but it is my easiest day of the week. I suppose it is good because I am able to ease myself into the crazy days. I only have one PE class, the 6ths graders which are really great to me. I have 8th grade computers following that, but I've been having a lot of problems with the computers so I have yet to have them for that. Monday's are the days I also have english enrichment classes. The kids who are fluent in spanish bring some of their english work to me and we do that together. I find it to be pretty hard because I don't really get a specific idea of what to be doing with them. I'm sure i'll figure it out within the next couple weeks though

Tuesday's are long days. Anne and I are split up through the first four periods of school because there are computer and PE classes going on at the same time. The two of us finally sat down this week to figure out our schedule of how things will be working at the school. I start out with 6th grade computers, have a break and recess duty, then 5th grade PE followed by 4th grade PE. lunch time is afterwards and then Anne and I have the 7th graders and the 1st/2nd graders together. computers this week has beeen a chance for them to get work done due to the lack of computers. 5th, 4th and 7th grades we played big base kickball which is a more fun version of kickball. 1st and 2nd grade we decided that since it's such a big class on Tuesday's we are going to work on their motor skills and fridays when I have them alone we will play a game.

Wednesdays are a strange day. I really like the mornings because it starts with liturgy. It's great to see the kids in mass and really enjoy it. A different grade runs the mass each week and they put a new spin to it. It's definitely very cute. The afternoons get hard because I have the 7th graders which aren't too bad, followed by the 8th graders. We played volleyball in both classes and let me just tell you, setting up that net is the hardest thing ever, and we did it 3 days in a row. The 2nd group of 8th graders had computers and the comps wont be going till this week so they were all complaining. It's funny though how they are such a horrible class yet when they are seperated (like they are for computers. half have it mon. have wed.) they are so much better. It's just that they egg each other on and become very rude. Not only to me but their classmates as well.

Thursday and Friday I set up the volleyball net again. Played it with most of the classes by starting with skills and moving into a game eventually. Anne and I are together for all of Thurs so it makes it easier to control the classes. Fridays are supposed to be the "it's exciting because it's almost the weekend" day, but for me it's the most difficult day of the week. I have the 8th graders for PE in the morning and they are just ridiculous. They don't listen to me and don't treat me as their teacher. Probably since they can remember they've always had a new volunteer there each year for PE so all they know is the new person coming in. I'm just the new volunteer in their eyes. Kinder followed 8th grade and since it was friday they were just nuts. Its so hard to calm them down and they hate being in the sun for 45 minutes. 4th grade is later and they always give me a hard time and 1st/2nd is after them which is pretty much just like Kinder except there are triple the amount of kids. So needless to day, Friday's are hard...but i'm hoping that they will get easier with time.

So since the kids haven't really done any specific PE units with the combination of skills and games because they have different teachers every year, I'm going to try to make that happen for them this year. The pricipal of St. Pats is also the principal of Holy Family grammar school where Mike works as a PE teacher. The person that was in his position retired and left him all her old lesson plan books so I have one and i'm going to try to implement a lot of that on the same schedule to the kids out here. They are so used to playing so many different games all the time and it's so hard with them. I think they'll be slightly upset that they are going to be playing a game for about 2 weeks (like these coming weeks it's going to be soccer), but they'll get over it. I'm going to do about 2 days of skills and 2 days of playing the game. I think it will help the kids in the years to come with starting to get used to being on a schedule and it will help all volunteers to come in the future.

So this weekend our community had began its change for the week. Both Anne and Chris had close family members pass away within days of each other and are home for this coming week to be with their family. It's strange without them here with us and how things run with a smaller number of people. It's also weird to think that all of the other communities have four people all the time yet its small for us. As much as six people can be hard at times, I really like having a larger community. It's more ideas for prayers, meals and just plain old topics of conversation. I don't know who exactly reads this, but I just ask you to keep both of them and their families in your prayers.

The weekend started off a little busier, but ended very simple and relaxing which was quite needed. Friday we went to the kick off for the fall festival at St. Pats. A parent (we don't know which ones and nobody will tell us) donated the money for six carne asada meals for us to eat while we were there. We've been here for close to a month and it's unbeliveable to me how generous people are to us. I think it's something that will still amaze me until the day we leave and even after. I like being there for the kickoff a lot because I was able to be at my school with my community and really show them where i'm working and give them some faces to names that I mention. After we left the kickoff we headed over to Janettes house, a volunteer from last year in SD who is working at St. Pats parish and USD. It was a pretty fun night because there were different staff member from USD there along with us and the JV's as well. We went to our favorite place, Hamilton's with the JV's after which was pretty fun.

Emily, Anne and I left Hamilton's earlier then the rest because we wanted to go to bed since we either had to work or were going surfing very early in the morning. After a few hours of sleeping though, we each were individually woken up in the middle of the night by Mike who decided to stand at the end of the bed singing to each of us while playing anne's guitar. Apparently I freaked out when I woke up, but now looking back it was halarious. Surfing came very early in the moring, just Emily and I went. Ali and Mike were tired from staying out late and Chris and Anne had flights early in the morning to head home. Deac had a boogie board for me that I was so excited about and we didn't stay for long, but he took the two of us to an adorable coffee shop on the way home which looking out on the water and was adorable.

In the afternoon, Ali and I spent the day at the mall. I needed a new pair of sneakers for both work and running and I wanted a watch to keep track of the time much easier throught the day at school. I also went into eagle and got depressed about the fact that I don't have a discount anymore. On the way out Ali and I couldn't find where we parked our car. Eventually we found it, but it's hard when we don't even know the lisence plate or what our car even looks like! We picked up Mike and Emily and then got some frozen yogurt of course. We are addicted here in SD to it. They are seriously everywhere and the places are amazing. It's really all I spend my stipend on. At night Ali had some of her friends from Nova over which was fun.

Today was a relaxing day here...we slept in a bit and then me ali and emily drove to mission bay park to go for a walk/run. I have officially started my training for a 5K on Thanksgiving. The program I'm using is a 9 week program which works out perfect because it's about 9 weeks away. I know it's going to be hard because I'm not a big runner, but I hoping that I can really get into it out here. I also am definitely starting the zumba class out here on Tuesdays. I cant wait to finally dance again :)

So I think thats about all for the week. It's going to be very strange out here without Anne and Chris...especially when I'm by myself on Tuedays and Thursday when Anne is usually with me at work. Hopefully I can begin to find my footing more with work this week. If you want to talk at all, either give me a call and I will pick up if I can. Or send me an email, kaitlyn.kupski@gmail.com, I love getting email from friends and family!

this is our new auggie, ms. kupski

So as my first week of work has closed off I decided it would be time for a new entry. Last week was overall pretty boring here since I was the only one who hadn't started their job yet. While they were all at work I did things around here for the community. I still made sure I woke up early and drove people to work each day. During the day I would clean here, do finance stuff, go grocery shopping, created our prayer wall and other things of that nature and then pick them up from work. We didn't do too much in the evening during the week mostly just hung out together here at the house. Went to the San Diego DMV on Wednesday to get my california lisence, passed the driving text, thank god. The priests from Chicago were out here for something on Wednesday as well and Mike new Fr. Tom well from St. Rita, his high school, and they took us out for some very good mexican food!

Friday we rented some movies and watched those at night because we were going surfing again in the morning. I, unfortunately did not go because waking up at 5:30am was wayyy to difficult for me. When they got back from surfing we just relaxed around the house for the rest of the afternoon while Anne and Chris were at the orphanage in TJ, they work on Saturday's. Later that night we went out to a bar that is in walking distance from the house which was def fun...I can see us heading there a lot this year. Sunday night we were sick of just sitting at the house so we decided to take a spur of the moment trip to the beach. It was actually definitely my high point of the week. We all just layed in a circle on the blanket looking up at the stars just talking.

Monday was finally my last day of not working! Ali, Emily and Mike had the day off as well because it was labor day, but Chris and Anne still had to head to the orphanage due to the fact that it is in Mexico and they do not celebrate the day. On our day off we decided to sleep late and then head to get sushi for lunch. It was my first time trying it and it was actually very good! We found a place that was not only amazing but gave us soup, salad, rice, chicken teriyaki, egg rolls, shrimp and veggie tempura, and dumplings for only 11 dollars! It was a great last day before working.

So Tuesday began my first day working at St. Patrick's elementary school! I will be assuming the roles of Phys Ed teacher for grades K-8 and Computer teacher for grades 6-8. Tuesday was an easy day because they had a half day of school so Anne (she is with me at St. Pat's on Tuesday's and Thursday's) and I met with the principal, got schedules, met the teachers, and looked over paperwork that we had to have signed. The kids left school and then we met with the junior high teachers (6th, 7th and 8th grade) and they gave us a lot of helpful hints of how to deal with the kids that age and who is really going to give us a hard time.

Wednesday was their first full day of school and my first day by myself as well. (side note: our creepy astro van hit 99,999 miles on 09/09/09!...so weird!) That morning starting off the morning assembly the principal Dan O'Neal started with "does anybody know who this is?" and all the kids responded with either, our new P.E. teacher or the new auggie. It's so strange how they are so used to having somebody there every year and getting a new P.E. teacher each year. As much as it may be difficult for them because they have to get used to new games or new teaching styles each year I think it's good to see somebody at this age doing a volunteer program such as this. I wasn't having my life scan done until the following morning so I couldn't be alone with the kids until that was done. I spent most of my day reading a P.E. lesson book and reading things about the school and what my real job is.

I love being able to come home from work and just spend time with my community. When we got out on Wednesday we hung around the house for a bit and then Ali, Emily and myself decided about 25 minutes before sunset that we wanted to head to the beach to see the sunset. We saw some of it, but it was great. I love the beach at anytime of night. We then proceeded to get amazing frozen yogurt at a place we found on Coronado that has a great deal. The funny thing about California is that you see frozen yogurt places everywhere, but you don't ever see ice cream places.

Thursday consisted of planning and reading again with Anne in the morning followed by finally getting our life scans done. We then spent time with the 3rd graders playing games that they liked and then later the same with the 5th graders. The third graders are still at the adorable age...probably the last grade that is really just all around cute. They loved the game sharks and minnows and then a game they called night at the museum where you have night guards and everybody else is statues, and the statues move when the night guards have their back to you and if they catch you moving you're out. They love it. The 5th graders are pretty good too...they also loved sharks and minnows but they can't play it for as long. There are so many of them though...26, which is one of my biggest classes.

The evening also consisted of going back to school for "back to school night" where the parents have the ability to meet and talk to all of the teachers. We pretty much sat through parents talking about different fundraising things for the upcoming year and then Anne and I and the other teachers (there is only one for each grade) had to introduce ourselves to all of the parents. As much as it was boring and almost unnecessary for us to be there cause the parents don't really care about talking to the P.E. and computer teachers that have been there for only 3 days, it was good to really see the sense of community at the school and how a catholic elementary school really runs because it is so much different then a public school. The sense of community with the teachers is also amazing and I can't believe how much they have already welcomed us into the school within a matter of a few days. They offer to help us in any way that they can, give us tons of words of advice and even just have fun conversations about who we are, what we're doing this year, their lives and even what we're doing this weekend. They've told us about great places to get things that we need and have even offered to let us use bikes they have on coronado beach! Speaking of coronado, we went back YET AGAIN Thursday night for prayer on the beach...I love looking at the stars.

Friday was crazy, it was my first day by myself and my first day having to have the kids and have lessons. Of course the first class I had was the 8th graders (28 of them!) and they are definitely going to be my big challenge this year. They hated participating in all the stretches, they cheated out on running the small 2 laps around the yard and they argued with every call I made in kickball (if they didn't complain about playing the game in general in the first place). The teachers and previous volunteers told me that this grade would be really hard to deal with and I have seen in the first day that that is beyond true. I have them 4 times a week, twice for P.E. and twice for computers, so I will have to see how this week goes.

The rest of my first full day wasn't too bad. The Kindergarteners were adorable. They loved everything including the stretches and the games. 4th grade was harder because they are definitely not as young as the the 3rd graders so the games I planned didn't exactly work. The 1st and 2nd graders are together because there are only 6 kids in grade 2 and they were cute just like K. So I made it out alive after my first week of classes. I am realizing that this year is going to be a lot harder then I thought it would be. I am going to be there for about 45 horus a week, plus the time I spend outside of work planning all of my lessons. I still haven't found anything really good to use to begin planning lessons so I'm going to try to do research on that this week. It will be difficult because the kids get bored soon after games and you never know if they will even like the game or not so you have to have a couple different back ups.

The weekend was great but also seemed wayyy too short! Friday was a very chill night where we all fell asleep before 11pm...yes we are lame! We are learning that we need to take naps when we get home on Friday from work because the work day just drains us (or at least me). Saturday was for sleeping late, watching life time movies, beach during the day and frozen yogurt once again! When I was swimming I saw dolphins in the water! AMAZING! We decided that since mike's 23rd bday was on Tuesday we would celebrate this weekend due to insanely conflicting work schedules during the week. Ali made him a cake that was the ocean with a surf board that was bitten by a shark (he is deathly afraid of sharks!) and it was amazing. We hung out on the deck upstairs and were going to go out, but never even made but had tons of fun!

Today was zoo day! We met the CFO of the San Diego Zoo and she gave us free tickets so we did that. It was absolutly amazing! We definitely took advantage of our tickets and our time there and hit just about everything in the zoo. I want 2 pet mandrills (girl and a boy), an otter, and a mom and son gorilla to adopt. That would be fab!

So tomorrow starts the 2nd week of school, my first week really teaching. I'm nervous to see how it will go and how kids will act. I'm trying to be more strict with them in the beginning and let them know the rules and hopefully they will behave in class. Tomorrow I just have 6th grade P.E. and an 8th grade computer class but have a few different engligh enrichment classes during the day to teach as well to the kids are fluent in spanish that come to St. Pats from TJ. Hopefully I can find something to get a good set of units going and a schedule for the year. As of now I'm just going week by week and i'm praying this one goes well! I just realized how long this was! I'm going to try to update more so the entries aren't as long. have a great week everyone!

this is the start of something good...don't you agree?

So after a lot of thought, I decided that a blog would be something that would be good to have. Not only to keep friends and family back home updated on what exactly I am doing this year, but mostly to be able to have something to look back upon and remember exactly what I have been doing. Please keep in mind when reading this that I am not all that great at writing, but it is definitely something that I wanted to do! I'm going to try to update this thing often, but I can't promise anything. I can see myself getting busy and falling behind in the future.

So, I left good ole Lowell, Massachusetts as of Monday, August 17th 2009 and headed to Philly for the beginning of AV orientation. I was happy that Alli and I were starting this and were able to fly and begin everything together. I think it worked out well to have each other throughout orientation as a transition between our friends and meeting new people and then heading off to our cities.

Alli and I in the airport before leaving

Although it was very long, orientation went very well. It was great to be able to meet a lot of new people who also have the desire to serve as well. Most days we had to wake up decently early and head over to Villanova (where orientation was being held). We had morning prayer and then different talks or logistic things to do throughout the day which were all done by different AV alumni, Augustinians or mostly the office staff. Following the long days we would head to a different Augustinians house for dinner each night and they would make us amazing meals and then we would go to a more relaxing place for the evening to do some more evening things (usually different talks or more sessions) and then just hang out with everyone for the rest of the night before going back to the hotel.

Saturday was the alumni day and sunday was commissioning mass so we were able to see and talk to a lot of alumni those days which was really great. Got to see Hannah again after a couple months which was great. Sunday evening following the dinner after commissiong we all went out to celebrate the beginning of the year. Monday we spent the day with everyone on the jersey shore. The beach was fab due to me losing my tan after being inside all week. We then went to dinner on the shore as well and had a great last night with everyone.

Us Merrimack '09 grads with Hannah, the AV at merrimack last year!

My roommates, the san diego community, after commissioning mass!

All the Augustinian Volunteers 2009-2010 on the jersey shore

As much as orientation was great, it was definitely good to finally head out to San Diego, California on Tuesday! Flew out of Philadelphia at 1:10 had a lay over in Austin, Texas and landed in SD around 6, California time. I didn't think the time difference would be that bad, but it's throwing me off a lot more then I thought it would. I'm going to be early and waking up early which is truly a new concept for me but it seems to be working well! It's just difficult when communicating with anybody from home because I want to call or text at night but then I realize that they are most likely already sleeping.

Home for the next year in San Diego, California!

San Diego has been well thus far. We had our first community meal on Tuesday night when we arrived and were going to watch anchorman together but then realized it wasn't in the house any longer like we thought, so we watched night at the museum and all passed out within 30 minutes of the movie beginning due to a long travel day. Wednesday through Saturday Pat who works in the office was with us showing us around and taking us all to the different job sites everybody is going to be working at. He took us to his favorite place, in-n-out, on thursday for lunch which was delish. Friday was the feast of St. Augustine so we went to mass in the morning (in our fire engine red matching polos of course) and met many augustinians and had dinner with all of them at night. They sent us home with tons of free food of course and we met the CFO of the San Diego Zoo there and she is giving us 6 free tickets to the zoo and 6 free tickets to the wild animal park (one of each of us of course)! How sweet of her! That day we also tried to get our California drivers lisences but you need a second form of identification like a passport or a birth certificate in order to do that. Luckily, mine came in on Friday and mom mailed it out already to me, so my passport should be here by Wednesday and I can then get my lisence!

My roommate Ali and I with all the free food we recieved after the feast. everybody is so generous to us!

Saturday our site supervisor deac, a 70 year old deacon, took us surfing in La Jolla! He is a very active 70 year old might I add and it was absolutely gorgeous there! I was not able to get up and ride any waves, but it was a lot of fun and I am definitely glad that I tried. Perhaps by the time June comes I will be able to do it! Maybe I can learn from Emily and Mike since they were both able to ride some waves. Sunday we had our first community meeting and figured out different things such as coordinating car schedules, prayer, grocery shopping, dinners, meetings and cleaning schedules. Good to finally have all of that in order. Then we went to Coronado beach, which I believe rated in the top 5 beaches in the entire country and it was incredible! I will be spending my spare time that I have to myself at the beach...don't want to lose this tan that I finally have for the first time in my life!

Me and my roommates Emily and Mike going to surf with our site supervisor!

As of right now I am slightly bored at here. All of my roommates started their jobs today at schools, as a nurse and at the orphanage in TJ, but the school that I will be working for all year doesn't start until Tuedsay September 8th so I don't have much to do! Without much money and without anybody to hang out with regularly it isn't too much fun! I have a to do list which I have done a lot of, did some of the things I have to do as treasurer, I put up the prayer wall that we will be starting, I found a zumba class right down the street from St. Patricks (work) that I plan to take on Tuesdays from 6-7, and did some laundry. Today Anne and I went food shopping together while everybody else was at work (she works at St. Pats with part time on Tuesdays and Thursdays so she has a couple days off this week too). Tomorrow I'm going to call St. Pats in the morning to see if I can do anything there at all during the day and again on friday, and Thursday Anne and I are def going into the school for the day. Although it may seem like it's great to have the time off, it's actually pretty boring and I would much rather start my job, especially since I'm pretty much a work-a-holic and haven't worked in weeks. I've tried to do a lot around here for my community so i'm not just sitting around here all day while everybody else is working.

California driving is definitely different then driving in Massachusetts. First of all, there are canyons everywhere, so you could be driving down as street and then it just ends and starts somewhere else cause hey, theres a canyons there! so we drive down 30th a lot and it changes cause of the way the canyons go and its not even close to a straight line...it's just very confusing at times. Stop signs are everywhere, like every single block. It's crazy, yet very annoying. Parking also sucks in SD so pretty much everybody parks on the street where ever you can find a spot. We also live right near the San Diego airport which is great for picking people up and dropping them off, but plane fly right over the house about every 5 minutes from 7am-11pm. You can be talking with sombody and have to stop your conversation because you can't hear anything with the planes flying and they really don't fly just between those hours so they wake you up in the middle of the night sometimes too.

I would have to say though that my favorite part of being here (other then the beaches of course!) is definitely the deck we have off of the 2nd floor of our house. One of the volunteers last year fixed it up for us so we could use it this year and it is great. We spent an evening last week just finding, cleaning and bringing up a lot of furniture up so we can spend nights having dinner and just relaxing up there as a community.

Our first dinner as a community up on the deck!

So, like I said, I'm not sure when or how often I will be updating, but I will try my hardest. I'm sure I'll have more to write about once I actually start my job. Let me know if there is anything specific you want to hear about! :)