hanging in ohio…still

soooo yeah.  I’m still at orientation.  but only four more days in the US!  freak out! 

we just had two days of silent retreat at a retreat house in PA.  it was nice, but the grounds were kind of small so I kept running into people.  it was no Gethsemani, where I wandered in the woods for hours and never saw another person (and then worried about tripping and hurting myself and never being found again…) but it was nice and there was a porch with rocking chairs so had a peaceful nice time.  gave me time to transition and put my mind in order and such.  they required us to go to spiritual direction and three talks though, which annoyed me.  I perfer spiritual direction to be optional, and I don’t like doing it with some random person I’m never going to see again.  the first time you go to a spiritual director is usually just getting to know you stuff anyway.  you never get into the good stuff until you’ve established a relationship. 

the rest of this week is practial workshops on counseling and teaching and social work stuff.  should be…not so fun.  I’m ready to get started already.  I hear our house in Ecuador has a porch, btws.

RdC update

ok so here’s the way it works.  there are two houses, one with seven people and one with five.  I’ll be living in the house of five with four other ladies (found out today).  two different neighborhoods.  we have two different work sites, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  usually the afternoon one is an afterschool program.  we won’t decide specific work sites until we get to Duran and visit the places and such. 

my community members for next year are Kasia, Elyse, Melissa, and Lauren.  I’ll most likely be talking about them, so note the names.

sequestered

hello from sometimes sunny northern ohio! 

I’m at orientation right now, meeting a crap ton of new people and praying a lot and being busy though feeling like I accomplished very little.  some things have been challenging, especially coming off my last year of service so very quickly.  but many things have been very good, like my new community.  all 12 of us get along really well, which is weird and very nice.  we find out our house assignments this coming weekend, so I’ll be interested to see which 4-6 guys/girls I’ll be living with out of the 12.  I’m to the point where I just want to get down to ecuador already and start making mistakes.  even though I’ve only been at orientation three days….11 more days to go! 

(don’t worry, I still miss people.  it’s not all fun and games.  I may be having a good time most of the time but that doesn’t mean that I totally forget about everyone.  remember that all this year, please)

serious eek

Friday my family, paul, and I leave for Cleveland.  I turn off my cellphone.  I return my laptop to my employer.  I stay in on a college campus with little to no internet access for two weeks.  I am basically incommunicado.  after that day, it is quite possible you will not hear from me until I am in freaking SOUTH AMERICA.  how completely crazy is that?  (ok I will have a phone card to call people during orientation but I won’t be able to call everyone as it’s public phones so really don’t feel bad if I don’t call you).

really, this is a pretty difficult week.  I mean, I’m excited and pumped and ready to go in many ways.  but I’m also fully aware that this means that I will not see almost everyone I love (minus people who will visit, my parents and paul) for a year.  this is a long time.  a looooong time.  I think that I am allowed to be totally freaked out by that.

I’ve been talking to Tracy, the one of my future community members who lives here in cincy that I met a few weeks ago.  it’s been actually really nice, since we get along really well and we’re both personable and we’re both freaking out about the same things.  it’s good to have someone to say “holy crap I’m totally concerned about this!” and have them say “me too!” so at least you know you’re not the only one.

but I thought my eyes were sunken in!

I bought new sunglasses.

they’re not very stylish, considering I bought the cheapest polarized sunglasses they sell (I actually bought two pair, partly because I couldn’t decide which one looked less…utilitarian).  paul said “they look like something I would buy” but he meant it as a compliment.  he buys clothes for use, not looks.  and they will work just fine for south america!

I’ve started wearing them whenever I’m outside, to try and get myself in the habit.  and I’ve realized why I’ve never been able to get in the habit of wearing sunglasses.  they just don’t fit me right.  my eyelashes hit the lens and it feels weird.  it’s not just this pair.  I’ve had this issue before.  when glasses are all the way on my head, they bump my eyelashes and make me blink a lot.  maybe I should try bugeye glasses that bulge out in the middle.  those also would not be stylish, but perhaps more comfortable.  I try angling the top out a bit or wearing them slightly down my nose, but so far I haven’t found a position that maximizes eye coverage and minimizes looking stupid.  hopefully I will have this mastered in the next couple of weeks, before I get to orientation and have to meet a bunch of new people.  I think there are outdoors activities that first day, and I don’t want my future community members to think “why did they accept her, she doesn’t even know how to wear sunglasses.”