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!