Jaunary thus far

January has been a strange month because I have been everywhere from home to midyear and then back to San Diego. Home was a little overwhelming, but still great. It was supposed to be my time to relax but it turns out that I did just the opposite. I wanted to get in seeing lots of people so I was always on the go and not at home nearly as much as I wanted to be. Not that it wasn't great to see people because it definitely was. It was awesome to be with my family again, especially my mom. I think the best part of being home though was finally being able to meet my god-daughter, Emma. She is the cutest little girl I have see and it was really hard to have to leave her and Colleen and Matty.




After her baptism with me and Eldon, her god parents.

Right from home we went to mid year retreat which was in Ocean City, on the shore in New Jersey. Alli and I were driving down in the volunteer cars, I had the Lawrence car and she had the Bronx car. We were supposed to leave Massachusetts by 9am so we could be at the retreat house by 4pm but due to a lovely snow storm we couldn't drive until it kind of stopped. So I left my house by noon and ended up in Jersey after picking a few others up along the way at 10pm. It was a very long ride but at least somewhat enjoyable. Mid year retreat was great. It was awesome to see everyone from all of the different sites and especially to spend 4 straight days with Alli. It was a nice way to ease back into the volunteer year after being home and gave us ways to really focus on what we are doing and how to continue to make the best of the rest of the year.


our car on the way down to midyear. almost there (only a few blocks away) after what felt like a million hours of driving.


during the community competition. our clue on the beach got blown away, but clearly we didn't care and decided to stop and take pictures instead!


Alli and I. We shared a room during midyear...felt just like when we lived together!


San Diego before our dinner out!


All of the domestic volunteers 2009-2010!

After midyear was straight back to San Diego. I am realizing that I do really love this place very much. In the beginning we missed fall a lot and thought the city was to cocky of itself. But now that we actually know our way around places and the fact that its sunny while its freezing at home, we are beginning to really enjoy it here. I love being able to wear shorts and dresses in January rather then bundling up in too many clothes. (although I hate that all of my dresses and such are summer clothes and they dont go with the season so I never know what I should wear here!)

The two weeks that I have been back at school have probably been two of the hardest weeks I've had here thus far. The first week consisted of getting the students back into the routine with me. Behaving, listening, ect. I forgot what it was like to be with children all day again and to just come home feeling exhausted. Running around after kids and yelling all day (mainly because we are outside and if I dont yell in general they can't hear me) is just plain old tiring. Meg and Sarah were here visiting me last weekend though. I loved being able to go out with them here, to show them where I live and where I work, having them meet my roommates and showing them lots of San Diego.


Meg, Sarah and I in Old Town.


out in PB (pacific beach) with melissa, also went to Merrimack and came down from LA.

This past week at school has been insanely difficult. San Diego has been having rain and storms all week which leads to having PE inside. I don't mind it too much because its a nice change from what we are usually doing, but the kids are crazy because of the weather and they can't get their energy out by running outside. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday we did things in their classroom, watched a movie or played 4 corners, heads up 7 up and silent ball. Thursday we brought them into the parish hall to run around but they were insane. It was probably one of the most difficult days so far. At the end of 5th grade P.E. a boy punched a girl in his class. I didn't see it so it was really difficult. Probably one of the more challenging situations I have been in.

But the rain is now gone in San Diego so lets hope that this week is much better! Since I have now done 4 updates in the past month I think I am on a good streak and I'm going to try to keep it up!

Adios! (My roommates are trying to help me learn spanish)

St. Pats

Yesterday, I was sitting inside watching a movie with 4th grade (we had indoor P.E. because of all the rain) and I began to think about how much I actually love the place. I love that I know all 152 students names and that I actually have some sort of a relationship with each and everyone of them. I have five months left at the school and I am going to make the most of it. In the past five months I have seen the students grow and I can only imagine how much they will continue to affect me over the remaining time. I can already feel how difficult it is going to be to leave the place.

Although I am finally realizing how much I like the place, I still find my job extremly hard. There are some kids, mainly 8th graders, who can't act properly. They talk back, which I'm pretty sure they don't do to any other teacher. It's only January and I'm running out of ideas of things to do with the kids. Mike and I are talking a lot more about lessons and using things that the each of us have done a lot more. Hopefully we will keep that up and can come up with lots more ideas together. So if anybody reading this knows of any games that I may not know already...please feel free to send them my way. I am also hopfully ordering more equipment this week so that can probably give me more things to do with the kids. My greatest challenge is coming up with things for the 8th graders to do. The computers also still don't have internet, but I believe a parent may actually be helping me with that so hopefully that will not be an issue soon.

I have personally set lots of goals for myself to keep me motivated thoughout the rest of my time at St. Pat's. I want to continue to be present at the school as much as I am. I do a lot there but I like that I can get so involved in the school. I want to work on my trust. In myself because I know that if I have set my mind on something I can do it and not feel as overwhelmed. In my community that they are there for a reason, to help me when I need it. And in God because I know that he would not give me anything that I would not be able to handle. I want to start to look on the possitive side rather then just the negative that occured that day. I want to live in the moment more. I always look foward to what is coming next whether is being something in particular or just the weekend, but by doing that I am not fully experiencing what is going on at the time. And finally I want to leave some kids of legacy at the school. Perhaps start a club or just do something in general to make me stand out. So with those, I hope that St. Pat's will help me to continue to grow.

Here are also some picture to finally give you a better idea of what exactly my job involves.


Our little tutoring corner in the computer room. We do one on one tutoring after school 4 days a week. I'm there everyday, Emily is with me on Monday's and Wednesday's and Anne is there on Tuesday's and Thursday's.


The computer room. There are 8 working computers. The colorfulness on the keyboards is the stickers I put on which they absolutly hate cause they can't see the keys.


The school parking lot, aka my classroom. You can see most of the school here too. Southern California schools don't really have hallways, all the doors are right into the parking lot which is where they have P.E. and recess.


The rest of the parking lot. It's hard to do things in here cause somebody always gets hurt. You can also see the church behind everything which is part of the school. The little building in the bottom right corner is the computer room from the outside.


The area where they eat lunch. There is only one class of each grade and 3 grades eat at a time. The door on the right behind the tables is the P.E. closet. The fact that it is so small shows you how little equipment I really do have.


Me leading the class in stretches. We start every class by having them line up on their poly spots and stretch and then running 2 or 3 laps around the yard (what they call the parking lot) and then we play whatever game we are doing.


Me with the kindergarten class. During the times where I don't have classes I go into different classrooms and help the teachers where needed. Tuesday morning's I'm with the kinders.

Long time no see!

So, I have realized since being here that having a blog is definitely not my forte, but it is something that I want to work on in the coming months. Since I haven't REALLY updated since October, I'm going to try to sum up the first half of my year. My last post is also the blog entry that I had to write for the program so that is there too. I will be doing multiple posts regarding the first half of the year, but this one is meant to sum up community life. Because it would be wayyy to long to write everything out, I am doing this one in a variety of pictures. I think they sum up better what the year has been as well.

Community life is what I have really loved the most about this year. In a matter of just 5 months my five roommates: Ali, Anne, Chris, Emily and Mike have already changed my life in a great way. They are what keeps me going each day and really make me realize how great this year is. They're the ones who cheer me up when I've had a bad day, make me laugh and smile, do random things with, and now even eat healthy and work out. We pray together on a regular basis which gives us the time to reflect on everything that we are doing and have meals together a few times a week. I love those moments because of the time that the 6 of us share. And because of those moments I have seen God in my community more then anybody else this year. I'm having a hard time realizing that this year is already half way over. It really feels like about a month ago that I was applying to the program and eventually graduating from college. All I can say is that I can't imagine myself anywhere else other then in San Diego, in this house and with these people this year and I am really looking foward to all that I have left. But anyways...onto what we have done thus far!



The year started out in August at orientation meeting all of the Augustinian Volunteers, but most importantly, my community.


We then took off from Orientation in Philadelphia to head to San Diego! Yes, we all fell asleep on the plane!


We met Deac, our site supervisor, a person who has helped us so much and has affected our lives in a great way since being here. He also taught us how to surf!


We've made multiple beach trips, many during the day where we layed in the sun and went swimming and many at night where we would just lay down and look at the stars for a while.


We celebrated Mike's 23rd birthday the mexican way on our 2nd floor deck!


We headed to the 5th grade teacher from St. Pats house to celebrate Oktoberfest!


We saw many, many animals at the San Diego Zoo! A great trip that everybody should do at somepoint.


Mom came to visit! It was great to be able to show her everything that I had been doing here thus far. She was able to see St. Pats where I work and spend 4 days meeting my roommates. It was definitely great to see her.


We tried doing some dance and gymnastics moves in our front yard (its great living in San Diego where it is always warm).


We went to Julian, California. It is a little over an hour away from San Diego and at a higher altitude. We expected it to actually feel like fall because of that and we were excited because we missed the season a lot, but alas it was not cooler at all. In the 90 degree weather we still had a nice mini road trip, did some hiking, bought an apple pie, got cider and went pumpkin picking.


We have fallen in love with Hercules. Ali has friends that are Navy nurses out here and one of them has Hercules so we watch him sometimes while she is doing crazy shifts. Hes probably one of the greatest dogs ever.


We had a party at the house and finally decided to utilize our backyard. Turns out we actually have friends here in San Diego other then us and the Roderick's!


Ali and I went to LA for the weekend and stayed with her friend that is volunteering there for the year. We saw the chinese theatre, the hollywood sign and lots of other fun touristy things.


We hiked Lake Poway to Mt. Woodson. One of the favorite things we've done all together...and it was great exercise, over 8 miles!




We went to the Classy Awards! Hogar Infantil la Gloria, the orphanage that Anne and Chris work at and our friend Dan is the director of in Tijuana, Mexico was up for Charity of the Year and Won! It was so much fun to be able to get dressed up and get excited for something great for the orfa.


On my week of for thanksgiving, Emily, Anne and myself went bike riding around Coronado. You can only kind of see how great this island is in the picture.








One of the best days ever, we celebrated Thanksgiving together! The day started off with the girls doing a 5K for St. Vincent de Paul Village where Ali and Chris work...my first 5K! We came back and started to get things ready and then went outside to play a game of football since it was 80 here. The evening then followed with an awesome dinner and desserts and a great night together. The 6 of us plus Dan and Mike Roderick and Chris' brother that was here, all had an awesome time staying in and having fun. It will definitely be one of my most cherished memories of this year.


We have seen all sorts of beautiful sunsets. My favorite place to see them is at Sunset Cliffs in Ocean Beach. Right on the water and the view is perfect.


We've spent time at the orphanage in Tijuana all together. It's a place that has stolen my heart. Even not knowing any spanish I have fallen in love with all of the amazing children there. I am now motivated to learn spanish and I can't wait for all of the times that I can head there the rest of this year.


We have found our new favorite bar, Bar Pink. It's been a great change from our usual down the street bar, Hamilton's.


We went out for a nice dinner together before leaving for Christmas at Coronado brewing company. After we got frozen yogurt and walked to Hotel Del to see the Christmas tree, then came home and exchanged secret santa gifts and spent the rest of the evening together.

And that is Augustinian Volunteers San Diego 2009-2010 first half of the year in a nutshell!