Miami

Learning to Deal.

2011-08-17T07:45:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's really difficult for me to enter back into the “real world.” I spend my days (and sometimes nights) working for a cause that I believe in. I sometimes spend almost 24/7 working for and living in community with these children and youth that might not have opportunities in life otherwise. People continuously tell me that I work too hard and need to slow down. However, as I see it, I only have a limited about of time on this earth and I'm going to spend every second that I can giving all that I can to the cause that I believe in most. Unfortunately, this also means that I get a little too wrapped up in life in Florida City. Whenever I leave and go home or even go to visit friends in other places, I realize that's not the reality for anyone else. They don't live in community with others. They don't share all they have and fight and love and live with their coworkers and the kids they serve. (And, believe me, I'm not trying to be on a soap box here – most of the time I don't do any of this well.) However, when I do leave the FLC and go to other people's houses, I'm much more conscious about how they spend their money. Not that what they do is wrong, it's just drastically different from my reality. I am constantly surrounded by people who are working in the Florida heat picking okra or tomatoes just to make a few dollars so they can put food on their tables for their children. I can't be surrounded by that extreme poverty and be irresponsible with my money. I can no longer pour money into meaningless things like pedicures, high end vacuum cleaners, Kindles, or shoes that I may or may not wear more than once. (Not to say that I don't pour my money into other useless things like Itunes music, plane tickets, and the oh-so-necessary Starbucks.) However, every time I enter the “real world,” so to speak, I have to learn and re-learn how to deal with these issues. I can't look down at everyone else and pretend like I have it all figured out and that other people aren't using their money responsibly. However, I also can't condone spending money the way I see some people spending it. I don't think that one way is right and the other is wrong, but it's been a very hard thing for me to deal with the past few months. It's a daily struggle to see the ways that this job has changed my life and to try to deal with my past.

Enough is a Feast.

2011-07-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

After being in Florida City for two years, I would have thought that some things would stop surprising me. I would have thought that I would be used to some things by now. However, there are days when I am still caught off guard by the little things that surround my everyday life in Florida City. One of these “little things” is the concept of generosity and sharing. I grew up in a home where I was taught to share at an early age. However, I am also becoming increasingly aware of that fact that I grew up as the spoiled baby of the family. Often times, my sister, who is four years older than me, would just cave and give me whatever I wanted simply to avoid a scene. Plus, with only two kids in the family, sharing is pretty easy. My sister and I would share toys, chores, beds, and food when we were younger and now we share clothes, accessories, friends, and taste in books and movies among other things. (Just not beds...I apparently kick and steal covers...)

Sharing is not hard. We are taught from an early age that we have to share. If you don't share, you're a rude kid and often punished. So, it's not a foreign concept – to anyone. However, the way it is done in Florida City is completely different from anything else that I have ever witnessed. When I was in middle school, my mom made me take my lunch to school everyday. She would buy healthy foods like bananas and peanut butter and fruit leather for me to pack in a cute lunch box and take to school. Now, I am thankful for these habits she instilled in me. However, in middle school, I was mortified. Everyone else bought their lunch and ate french fries and other various fried foods. I wanted nothing more than to eat these fried things. So, every day, I would ask my friends for them to share their french fries. And, most of the time they would. Sometimes, they would get fed up with me being a mooch. (Obviously appropriate...) However, on the off chance that my mother would let me buy lunch, I would buy my own french fries. And when my friends would ask me to share, I'd refuse. It's like I would completely forget their daily generosities and just get greedy.

This is what I think it's like for a lot of upper-middle class kids. (Which I would absolutely fall into the category of...) They expect everyone else to share, but then when it's their time to share, they don't want to. I think it's even the mindset of some adults, as well. However, in Florida City, they have adapted to their environment – they have discovered a way to survive. It's called sharing. It's a shocking concept, really. Apparently, when you have something that other people want, you give it to them. In fact, you offer it to them – you don't have to wait for them to ask. This happens in the smallest of instances at Branches and in Florida City. On a student's birthday, one of our volunteers always brings in a pack of gum as a gift. When they receive this gift, the very first thing this child will do is rip it open and give everyone in the room a piece. Let me tell you, at the age of 6, if I got a pack of gum, the first thing I would have done would have been run to my room, stuff six pieces in my mouth at once and then hide it under my mattress so my sister wouldn't get any.

I took a few of our youth out to eat at Wendy's last week as a “thank you” for their volunteer help at Summer Shade. There were 5 of them and I told them they could get whatever they wanted (first problem...) At first, I was kind of upset because between the five of them they ended up spending $60! (My fault for not giving them a limit...) But, just as I was conjuring up the “don't be so greedy” lecture in my head, I realized they were only eating half of their food – some of them only ate about a quarter of it. That's when I started to realize what was going on. They packed up the majority of their food to take home to their little brothers and sisters. That incident really got me thinking. If we had even an ounce of the generosity that these children have, our world would be completely different. Instead of everyone trying to be the best and have the most, we would share what we have been blessed with. And not because we're asked to – because we want to. Because we genuinely care about the welfare of others. Sometimes the troubles of our government, the politics of the church and workplace can really get me down. I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the general hopelessness that I see on the television and read about in the paper. However, then something like this happens and I see these tiny glimpses of hope in this next generation and my faith is restored and I know that every little thing is gonna be alright.

Rejuvenation.

2011-03-21T10:14:00.000-07:00

re·ju·ve·nate \ri-ˈjü-və-ˌnāt\

To restore to a former state; make fresh or new again.

“I am about to do something new. It is beginning to happen even now. Don't you see it coming? I am going to make a way for you to go through the desert. I will make streams of water in the dry and empty land.” - Isaiah 43:19

Camp OASIS is meant as a time for our kids to get out of their homes and current miserable situations and have a time to experience these "streams in the desert." However, what is often overlooked is that it’s also a time for the adults to have similar experiences. The last night of OASIS, there was a worship service that was so full of energy and God that it was really indescribable. I will let this short clip speak for itself:

That experience began the break down process of the spiritual blockades I had been feeling in my life. After Camp OASIS, I traveled with a friend up to North Carolina. I was able to reconnect with friends I had not seen in about ten years. It was a time of getting to know each other all over again. We are both people trying to navigate this world of ministry, being strong women, wanting to make a difference, constantly wondering about our own spirituality, where the church is headed as a whole, and where we fit into it all. It was a weekend filled with great conversation, great, laughter, and great tears. On Saturday, we traveled up to a town called Blowing Rock. As I sat looking out on this view:

I thought, “is this the kingdom of Heaven?” ...it certainly looks like it to me. But, as I began mulling over and talking over this philosophy, I realized it is not. At least, not for me. Although it was surely the most beautiful scenery I have seen in a long while, I was reminded of the passage from Luke12:34: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Even though I had a great love for each and every person in that mountain town and even though I had some of the best company I could have ever asked for, I was finally able to reach my point of rejuvenation. I was able to come to the conclusion that while this scenery was incredible, I believe the Kingdom of Heaven lies in Florida City, because that is where both my heart and treasure lie. Sometimes being able to take two steps back and look at the work I am doing from up on the mountain top, I am able to travel back into the valley to continue my work, rejuvenated and transformed, just as my children were from their “mountain top” experience at OASIS.

Where is your treasure?

OASIS prayers

2011-03-21T09:57:00.000-07:00

I first want to say thank you for your support of my ministry in South Florida! We are doing good down here - managing the heat while the rest of the country is hoping for an end to winter! Programming is coming along quite nicely as the first month in our new building has flown by. We have been able to expand what we offer for our youth group - girls and boys fitness classes, more tutoring time, the addition of a computer lab, ACT/SAT/GED/FCAT (Florida's standardized test) study courses, paper making (a skill that one of our employees possesses and shared with our kiddos so they could start up their own business) and so much more! We are really growing, moving, and shaking now! Right now is spring break time, so we have an abundance of college groups coming to help out on mission trips.

So, the main update is that GOD IS GOOD!!

The main reason, however, for writing this email is to ask for your prayers. On Sunday, we leave for four days to take all 74 of our youth to camp OASIS. OASIS camp is the camp that we put on for our kids during Spring Break. It is an incredible opportunity for them to encounter the living God and have radical experiences that often change their lives. When you ask the youth what their favorite part of Branches is, 10 out of 10 of them will answer camp OASIS. We chose the name "oasis" for the symbolism of an oasis in the desert. For so many of our youth, this is their time to get away from all their troubles. They get out of their crazy home situations, they get away from their friends who aren't the best influences for them, they get to leave Florida City and travel to the wilderness and spend the nights in cabins - where they have their own beds. They also get to do "crazy" things like archery, hiking, canoeing, swimming, and play in the great outdoors. If you can't tell, OASIS is a time for our kids to have great and sometimes new experiences! What I'm asking for is lots and lots of prayers. We need prayers for safety, (I am the camp nurse this year, so we need EXTRA prayers for safety...) prayers for energy for the adults - especially myself, prayers for God to move and work in all the planning, set-up, and on goings of camp. We need major prayers for our youth to be open to the words they hear and that they have fun, learn a lot, and really let God into their lives.

Thank you so much for being willing to help in this way! I will update you again when we come back on how things went and what happened over the week.

Lots of love and peace!

Back by Popular Demand :)

2011-03-21T09:56:00.000-07:00

So, many of you have been asking questions about the past six months and what has been happening at Branches. I have come to the realization that I have fallen short on my updates. So, I thought I would take some time on this beautiful, warm day in sunny Florida to write to you all. (Sorry, I had to make you all jealous about the weather, I only get two months out of the year where it's valid.)

I wish I could sugar coat this update and tell you how wonderful things have been and how amazing my job is. While it is an authentic statement that I still love every second of my job and the community in which I serve, I have to be honest about the past six months. The truth is that every day since the fire has been a challenge. We decided the day after the fire (when we MUST have been delirious from sleep depravation) that we would not stop programming. We would be resourceful, creative, and diligent in our efforts to keep every single program running that Branches offered the community. We would not let this violence against our church and community stop us from the service which we have been called. So, for the last seven months, we have done just that. We have been serving all 125 families in our program out of a tent, two small classrooms, and a port-a-potty. To be honest, looking back, I don't know how we managed.

I moved into a small three bedroom house two blocks from Branches and my house, along with my boss's house have become “second Branches.” We had to do programming at our houses three nights a week because there was just no space. There's not a night of the week when youth and young adults are not at my house: receiving tutoring, doing laundry, editing college essays, having Bible studies, and of course EATING! (All services they should have been able to receive at Branches over the past few months.)

Now, in no way, do I want you to construe this email as complaining. I am taking the time to paint the picture of what the past seven months has been to show the direct contrast of what has happened over the past two weeks. For seven months, we have literally been working seven days a week, sometimes eighteen hours a day, trying to keep up programming, trying to serve (often more than we were capable of), simply put: trying too hard to do too much. It has seemed like an uphill battle all leading up to last week.

Last week, when our kids came back from Christmas break, we were finally able to move into the portable building. We now have 7,000 square feet of space. We have a kitchen. We have four toilets. We have four classrooms. We have three offices. We have a roof over our heads. When it rains outside, we do not have to worry about flooding. When it's hot we do not have to bathe in insect repellent. In essence, it's the promise land! God has brought us out of the wilderness. And I realize that's a bit of an over exaggeration, however, after what we have come through, to us, it seems to ring true. The better news is that this portable building is still only temporary. In seven months, through the generosity of our supporters, we have been able to raise the TWO MILLION dollars needed to start our new building. Therefore, this summer, we will begin constructing a new building and church sanctuary that will make our “promise land” of a portable look like an outdoor tent and port-a-potty.

It has been a demanding past few months. To say the least. However, things are shifting in Florida City. God has seen us through our trials and is helping us to prosper and to build a hope and a future in South Florida. I am so grateful for the support each of you have given me through these trials and tribulations and am even more grateful to start a new future in this community I love.

Matthew 6: 25-34

2010-10-03T14:50:00.000-07:00

Friday night started like any other. However, it ended a little something like this:

http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21002377218327/

This week has been a tough one. Our first piece (out of five!) of the portable building showed up. And then the next day was promptly taken away. We had a tropical storm warning. Everyone thought that Tropical Storm Nicole was really going to hit us hard. However, she actually just turned into Tropical Depression #16 and dumped some rain around the area. Needless to say, yet again, I was fooled into thinking I would get a day off of work and some quiet time while listening to the rain. We were also, again, fooled into taking down the tent only to have to put it right back up the next day.

For weeks, my boss, her husband, and I have been participating in the Daniel Fast. It's a fast based on the Biblical book of Daniel in which he fasts from all "choice foods" for 21 days. It's been an interesting fast, one that makes your body feel good, but also leaves you spiritually and physically wanting more. My boss and I sat around often discussing the fast and how it's made us feel, or what we were thinking. We both often expressed frustrations because at times it can just seem like a bad diet. The fast ended on Thursday. We didn't think much would come out of it. We didn't think about the power of God.

So, after 21 days of fasting, and a really tough week, a lot of us were just hoping to get through Friday night. Get through it so we could sleep in and gather some rest on Saturday. However, we had planned an amazing night. It was the Oasis Kick-Off Jam, meaning we were supposed to spend the night getting our youth pumped up about our spring break camp Oasis. We had many visitors hanging out with us that night and had even hired a Christian rapper known as "Chirstaholik" to perform. It was shaping up to be a good night. Then, about half way through the "fun and games" portion of the night, we see cop cars show up on the corner. My boss tells me to go see what has happened and before I can even get outside of the tent, I see a mob of about 500 people walking down the street straight at us.

It's pretty funny to hear the different stories on what people thought was going on. These stories are usually centered around how long you have been in Florida City. Some of our new and naive staff members thought nothing of it. They thought, "oh, something's going on..." Where as my boss was certain it was a riot and we were all about to get shot. No matter the first impressions, we were quickly surrounded by this mass of people who started immediately disassembling our stage set up and bringing out their own instruments and sound equipment. My boss quickly recognized some members from a partner church, The Vineyard, up in the Kendall area.

It took me quite a while to come to grips with the fact that we were not actually under attack. However, once I discovered that these people "came in peace," things started to click and I realized that I must be in the midst of witnessing something powerful.

Powerful, indeed. From this point everything kind of seems like a blur of news cameras and camera flashes. But, I do distinctly remember my boss being handed a large, wrapped present. I also very vividly remember their pastor telling us that they took up an offering for us last Sunday and decided to give our church everything. Everyone began chanting "Open It!!" and Kim and Audrey pulled off the wrapping paper to reveal a giant checked marked for $80,377.03. And yes, please do look at that number again. There is not an extra zero.

This church gave us $80,000, because they knew we were in need. They knew of the work we do and they knew of the fire. They knew it was what needed to be done. What they didn't know is that Branches has an anonymous Christian organization that triples every dollar donated to the building campaign. Meaning what this church actually did was donate almost a quarter of a million dollars!

We have been "going through the wilderness" for about four months now. Trusting God and having faith, but living every day discouraged and frustrated at work. Knowing that our ministry could do so much more if only we had the space. If only we had the staff. If only we had the resources. If only... But if there's one thing that this experience has taught me it's the fact that if you seek His kingdom first, everything else will fall into place. We should not worry about what will come about tomorrow, for tomorrow has it's own worries. We should be content knowing that God will always provide what is needed. He knows. He always knows.

Now my boss and I are just trying to figure out how to top that Friday night...any suggestions!?

Is your person white?

2010-09-30T15:04:00.001-07:00

I have never lived in a place where the color of your skin is brought up as much as it is in South Florida. Almost daily, I hear comments about this topic. Because I have more of an "olive" complexion, when I first moved down here, my children and youth continuously asked me the infamous question of, "what are you?" I was obviously very thrown off by the question. I liked to thrown them off just as much by answering that I was "Texan." They didn't appreciate my humor.

Now that it was been over a year since I have made the move to South Florida, I don't usually notice when kids start talking about the color of someone's skin. Words like "black" and "white," which used to shock my painfully politically correct upbringing, now tend to sound common place. The bell no longer goes off in my head when I hear a young child ask someone what color they are.

Today, however, I couldn't help but laugh when I watched two of my fifth grade girls play "Guess Who?" Every time they started a new game, the very first question out of either of their mouths was, "Is your person white?" I promise, I almost lost it the first time I watched their game. However, to be fair, the next thought that ran through my head was, "What a good strategy, I wish I had used it." Because, honestly, if the answer to the question is, "no," you have basically won the game considering there are only approximately five people of race that is questionably something other than "white." Also, to be fair, I'm pretty sure they have introduced new players into the game since I was a child.

However, watching the contemporary minds of two eleven year old girls in South Florida happened to make me pause today for thought.

A Prayer for Those Who Have TOO MUCH.

2010-09-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

To my brothers and sisters in developing countries:

While I was deciding which oat bran cereal to eat this morning, you were searching the ground for leftover grains from the passing wheat truck.

While I was jogging at the health center, you were working in the wealthy landowner's fields under a scorching sun.

While I was choosing between diet and regular soda, your parched lips were yearning for a touch of water.

While I complained about the poor service in a gourmet restaurant, you were gratefully receiving a bowl of rice.

While I poured my "fresh and better" detergent in the washing machine, you stood in the river with your bundle of clothes.

While I watched the evening news on my wide screen television set, you were being terrorized and taunted by a dictatorship government.

While I read the newspaper and drank my morning cup of steaming coffee, you walked the dusty, hot miles to the tiny, crowded schoolroom to try to learn how to read.

While I scanned the ads for a bargain on an extra piece of clothing, you woke up and put on the same shirt and pants that you have worn for many months.

While I built a 5 bedroom house for the three of us, your family of 10 found shelter in a one-room hut.

While I went to church last Sunday and felt more than slightly bored, you looked out upon the earth and those around you and felt gratitude to God for being alive for one more day.

My brothers and sisters, forgive me for my arrogance and my indifference. Forgive me for my greed of always wanting newer, bigger, and better things. Forgive me for not doing my part to change the unjust systems that keep you suffering and impoverished. I offer you my promise to become more aware of your situation and to change my lifestyle as I work for transformation of our world.

-Written by Servite Sr. Joyce Rupp, 1997, upon returning from Guatemala and Liberia

What I Need To Hear.

2010-09-29T21:10:00.000-07:00

"Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast."

-Psalm 139: 7-10

Lessons from a Tropical Storm

2010-07-23T20:49:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning, my coworker walked up to me and said, "What's our hurricane plan?" I looked at her and said, "Open all the doors and windows and yell, 'COME AND TAKE IT?'" She didn't find my humor very funny because it turns out it was a serious question. She then informed the rest of the staff that there was a tropical storm that could form into a hurricane by Friday. So, we decided to cancel all our programming on Friday for the tropical storm that was later named, "Bonnie."

Thursday afternoon was a whirlwind of stress. We had a mission team of about 30 helping out at Branches as well as a youth choir of 72 visiting. We had to water proof everything in case the ceiling leaked liked it did in the last big storm. Then, when we finally thought we had a second to relax, there was a roll-over car accident in our parking lot. (Thankfully no one was hurt...) Thursday was insane. To say the least.

However, Friday finally came around. I got to sleep in. It was possibly the most beautiful day of sleep I have ever been a part of. It was raining and windy and it didn't matter because I was safe and warm inside of my bed. I got some work done in the morning, and then spent the day lounging around. I was content. I was resting. I was relaxing from possibly the most stressful summer of my life. And then the phone rang. It was my boss. (Now, I should probably preface this next sentence by letting everyone know that "tropical storm" Bonnie was pretty lame. She had passed through South Florida by noon and left blue skies and sunshine.) My boss tells me that we are going to have our Friday night youth service and on top of that, we needed to meet early to put the outdoor shade tent back together, since we took it down for the storm. I am not sure I have ever wanted to do anything less in my entire life. I was so angry that my day of rest had been taken away from me that I was literally filled up with tears.

I showed up to work, we successfully put the tent back together, and the night was off and running. I was obviously upset about being at work in the first place, and still detoxing from a really tough week when one of my youth came up to me and hurt my feelings in a way that only she knew how to do. I was at the end of my rope. I was finally broken. I went into the bathroom and had a good cry. I was so angry about having to show up to work when I wasn't supposed to. I was so angry to get the chance at some rest and then to have it stolen away from me. Those feelings snowballed into thinking that my work in Florida City is useless and these kids don't appreciate the fact that I don't sleep because I am up doing work for them at all hours of the day and night. (I told you it was a bad week...)

I managed to pull myself together and continue on with the night. I prayed that God would show me why I was needed there. As always, God did answer my prayers. I realized, through the course of the night and through talking with different youth, how selfish I was acting. Yes, I was exhausted and yes, I'd had a bad week. But, that doesn't mean I have to take it out on my kids. God showed me that night just how much our kids need Branches. I was so excited to go through a tropical storm/hurricane in South Florida because I was told that people gather together and take time off work and hang out. That sounded like the greatest way to spend some quality time together. Well, after talking with our youth, I realized that's basically their nightmare. Being stuck inside their miniscule homes with close to twenty of their closest relatives who yell and are drunks and say harsh words to hurt them intentionally is possibly the worst scenario they can picture in their minds. By 3:00 pm, most of our youth were calling and texting and begging us to have Branches tonight, because, if nothing else, they would be able to go somewhere and get out of their houses.

That was a reality check. One I needed very badly. It turned out to be an amazing night. Full of passion, worship, good music, and a really great and intense game of volleyball. It was definitely what we all needed.

Somebody Loved.

2010-07-07T18:35:00.001-07:00

It never ceases to amaze me how things can change and have different meanings based on the context of my life. For so long in my life I have searched for acceptance and love in other people. In middle school I remember how badly I wanted to fit in with the "cool" group of girls. So badly in fact, that I changed who I was, what music I listened to, and how I acted towards others. I lost a lot of friends and was so mean to so many people trying to find acceptance in a group that I thought I needed to be a part of. Throughout high school and college I tried to "find myself" and often would do anything to seek the love and acceptance of anyone. I hurt a lot of people in those ways as well. The past few years, I have tried to find acceptance in romantic relationships. Yet another place where where affirmation did not ensue and heartache instead took over. It has only been through the course of this year and this journey where I have realized that the only place we can go, and really the only place we NEED to go is to God. Going to God is the only place where full love and acceptance and affirmation will occur. Last night in our Bible study with the youth, we talked about the idea that God is always with us and we read Psalm 118, part of which says, "It is better to go to the Lord for safety than to trust in mere men." On the way home from work this evening I happened to pop in a CD that was made for me by a previous boyfriend. On it there was a song called "Somebody Loved." At the time, during the relationship, I thought it was a great song because it was an affirmation of the feelings that I was feeling and searching for in "mere men." Tonight, I realized what the Psalmist was actually trying to write on my heart. We do not need to continuously search for those feelings from mere men because God gives us all the love and affirmation we will ever need. This song has taken on new meaning in my life truly knowing that I am "Somebody Loved."

Somebody Loved

by The Weepies

Rain turns the sand into mud.

Wind turns the trees into bone.

Stars turning high up above.

You turn me into somebody loved.

Nights when the heat had gone out,

We danced together alone.

Cold turned our breath into clouds.

We never said what we were dreaming of,

But you turned me into somebody loved.

Someday when we're old and worn,

Like two softened shoes.

I will wonder on how I was born

The night I first ran away from you.

Now my feet turn the corner back home

Sun turns the evening to rose

Stars turning high above

You turn me into somebody loved.

Building Up Branches

2010-06-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

I was tired of looking at the photograph of the burning building when I opened my blog. Therefore, I think I need to upload the video that I created for the rebuilding campaign "Building Up Branches." Enjoy.

Beauty For Ashes

2010-05-26T07:29:00.000-07:00

Early last Sunday morning, around 1 am, The Branches United Methodist Church sanctuary and brand new playground was burnt down. As you can probably imagine, life around here is now chaos. As it was, we did not have enough space to house all the activities we had going on at the church and community center. We utilized our outside space to the max, so when it rained we had a hard time housing all the children and youth that we serve. Now, as you can imagine, it has turned into a daily scramble trying to find places to continue our programming and serve all the people in the community that we can.

Sunday morning, we had an incredible church service outside. We all slathered on sunscreen and sang and praised God and did a lot of crying. However, the overall tone of the service was positive. The words of our pastor, Audrey Warren, "God is bigger!" rang through the

neighborhood as news crews, neighbors, and church members sat on blankets and folding

chairs. The church has received a lot of publicity for all that is going on. Since the investigation has ruled out everything but arson, news stations have been eating our story up, twisting it from every angle: from the issue of gangs, to a sorrowful story of hatred, to a positive story of hope. Because of this, programming at work this week has been difficult. So many people in the community have dropped by to bring money, food, clothes, even furniture. We don't have room for the items being donated, but they all just keep coming! News stations are swarming the area trying to interview children and youth and people are always walking around taking pictures, or trying to find out more information. If nothing else, it shows us as an organization, the true impact that we have on the community. People keep driving by saying, "My sister-in-law's uncle's cousin went to Branches six years ago and we just had to come see the sad news for ourselves!" This organization truly has a community full of supporters, despite the bad that we have seen this week, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.

The support that Branches has received has been incredible to witness. To add insult to injury, all of our laptop computers were stolen during the chaos of trying to have church outside on

Sunday and make a plan to rebuild the buildings. Of course, a news crew jumped all over the story immediate

ly, sewing a story of deep sorrow and how "our faith is being tested." However, this news story reached all over the greater Miami area and because of this, seven new laptops have been donated to Branches. People that don't have any connection to Branches at all have been calling from all over the state saying, "I heard about the story on the news, what can I do?"

Our community has shown us what it means to be supported in a time of need. A young woman who doesn't even have enough money to feed her family stopped by and handed Audrey an

envelope of cash, telling her that when she earned more, she would give it to the church. One of our student's friends gave him a dollar and told him to give it to the church to help it be rebuilt. In the past three days alone, there have been countless more stories of generosity and charity. We have been wrapped in the love and support of community members as well as the greater church. Wealthier churches in north Miami have donated things like temporary playgrounds, laptops, tents, sunshades, fans, and lots of snacks and food for our kids. There are no words to describe the work of God that we are witnessing unfold right before our eyes. God is making the words of our pastor ring true each and every day, "God is bigger than all of this."

One Step Forward, Three Steps Back

2010-05-19T08:10:00.001-07:00

It seems to me that life goes in cycles. You have the cycles of the seasons, the cycles of the school year, and the cycles of life and death which are occurring world wide daily. My faith, for sure, goes in cycles - cycles of getting close to God and feeling as though there is nothing that can separate me from His love to cycles of feeling further and further away because I am so grounded in this world and in worldly matters. My youth at work seem to go through cycles as well. They are currently in one of two different cycles. Half of my youth have passed their FCAT (Florida's standardized test), they have been keeping up with their school work all year long and are sitting back and enjoying the fact that the teachers are easing off of them towards the end of the school year. The other half of my youth are freaking out. They have been relaxing most of the year, their grades have dropped drastically, and they are trying to frantically get their work done, do their makeup work, and redo some of their work because of their failing grades - all while the idea of 'repeating this grade' is breathing heavily down their necks.

We have eased off some of our kids during this time - letting them do Sudoku puzzles to work on logic instead of drilling them on their multiplication and division tables. However, we have really done this so that we can focus our whole attention on these kids who are frantically trying not repeat their grade level. I have one girl, a middle school girl, who is actually in the 5th grade. Her younger sister is in a grade higher than her because she failed and her sister didn't. A woman I work with fully sponsored this young girl to go to a Christian school down the street from Branches because there, 5th grade is considered "middle school." Therefore, because of my coworker, she can come to all youth events for Branches and not be considered in a lower grade than her younger sister. The problem is, the scholarship money never came through for this young girl to go to school, so the payments that my coworker was making was not fully footing the bill of her education. The school tried and tried to contact this girl's parents, however, they never called the school back. Rather than kicking her out of school, they let her continue, except the teacher stopped grading her work (which are individualized books that they have to complete a certain number of in order to pass that grade level.) The teacher never told this girl what was going on, so she spent the majority of the school year not doing any work because the teacher would not issue her new books or let her continue with her work. Finally, my coworker called the school and heard the entire problem. (She was obviously pretty upset.) She is now covering the entire bill of my youth's schooling so that she can finish out the year. We placed this young girl in that school because it was going to allow her to catch up in her school work and hopefully fill the gaps in her education and allow her to move on into middle school. However, now she is about a semester's worth of work behind and if she even wants to pass the 5th grade (again) she has to basically work night and day on her school work.

This is unfortunately an issue for a lot of our youth. In the case of this young girl, it wasn't entirely her fault. However, some of our youth are just too lazy to take responsibility for their actions and do their own work. In Florida, public school do not get out until the middle of June. These kids literally have a little less than three weeks to finish a semester's worth of work. It's so hard to see this issue and wonder if there was something you could have done to change this outcome. I cannot physically make the students do their homework or study. But, at the same time, it's so tough to see these kids fail when you have been helping them all year long.

The Depths

2010-04-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a service for our youth that was a "Peace and Healing" service. We have been talking about attitude and how the way you react to situations is truly your choice. You may have been dealt the worst cards in the stack and your circumstances and the things that happen to you on a daily basis may not be good at all. But it doesn't mean that you have to be rude and angry towards everyone else and it doesn't mean that you have to be unhappy all the time. Our youth have broken lives. It's a daily reoccurring theme down here that I find out something else about one of our youth's lives that is appalling. But, the staff realized, that if our youth were ever going to be ok with their lives and therefore change their attitudes, that we needed to let them know how to heal and more importantly, we needed to show them how to ask God to come into their lives to help them heal.

As one might imagine, last night was one of the most emotionally draining nights of Branches history. I also think it was a very important night for a lot of our youth.

Tony asked me yesterday afternoon if I would be willing to lead a prayer station. Since I am not comfortable praying in front of people I obviously shouted "NO!" in my head. And then I told him I would do it. Before I was even able to take my spot at a prayer station (where our kids would come up and together you would ask God to enter their lives and help them heal) one of my youth came up to me and said, "I need to talk to you outside."

This youth happened to be one of my high school girls. Her story is an interesting one, and one that will probably never be fully told because I'm not sure anyone could fully understand her pain. She is approximately 6'2" and solid. Our girls at Branches would call her "thick" because that's their word for everyone who isn't stick skinny like them. (Yes, I am daily called "thick.") But by solid I mean she can take any of our boys at basketball and she could probably bench press most of them as well. To say the least, this girl used to scare me. She's a tough girl. And she has the front of a tough girl. I have never seen her be emotional once in the months that I have worked here. But, as she got nick named at Oasis as 'The Gentle Giant,' she is always smiling and laughing when she comes to Branches and she truly loves Branches and the people here. I think that has to do with the fact that Branches is the complete opposite of her home life. Her mother had her when she was about 13 years old. Her grandmother had to step in and help raise her and her siblings. As one can imagine in this situation, she's had a hard life.

Last night when she asked me to step outside I wasn't sure what she was going to say to me. She started off by saying she's never really opened up to people about this, but she's feeling a pull to do so now. Then she just burst into tears and said, "My mom tells me everyday that she doesn't want me. I don't know why, but she doesn't want me. My grandmother tells me everyday that I have ruined her life by being born. Most days I wish I had never been born." And then she continues to sob and repeat some of the same stuff like, "she just doesn't want me." I asked her if I could pray for her and we stood there for a while praying. All the while, she was shaking and sobbing, knowing and learning that God loves her always and that when she feels useless that God is there. I can only hope that something has stirred within her to start the healing process of her life and to hopefully make her realize that, more than ever, she needs to graduate high school and get out of that toxic life that has plagued her for so long.

It's stories like this that make me feel mixed emotions. On the one hand, it's what keeps me coming to work day after day just to show these kids that there's someone out there who cares about them. On the other hand, it's the one thing that makes me want to give up day after day because their situations just seem so dismal. So impossible to overcome. But I guess that's the challenge of this job and this community. You just have to throw out the seeds and hope that a few of them hit fertile ground and miss the rocks.

One Year.

2010-04-22T20:48:00.000-07:00

What can you do in one year?

You can read the whole Bible.

You can learn another language.

You can have a baby.

You can lose a lot of weight.

You can learn a new skill.

You can change the world.

Or so they tell you. One year mission programs like mine advertise things like "A year of service for a lifetime of change" or "Blessed to be a blessing." We sign up for these service years to be just that: a 'blessing' to the people we are ministering. We make grandiose plans and lofty goals for what we want our year to look like and for the mission that we will be administering to these people in need. But what happens when these goals cannot be met? We throw ourselves into our jobs and into "frenzied action" as Parker Palmer would say, without truly thinking about ourselves and our needs and even our own actual capabilities because we only have ONE YEAR to change the whole world.

Somewhere along the way, we start to realize the reality of the situation. "Changing the world" might not look like what we originally thought. I would not say that we have 'failed' at our original goal, nor would I say that we are 'jaded' having been thrown into the darkest of situations. Instead, I would say we are educated. We have been handed a vital dose of reality and we have come out on top. We more fully understand that 'changing the world' doesn't necessarily mean making it like your own. Rather, it's the smaller things, like letting someone know they are loved, that truly changes the world. It's telling someone that you believe in them and then proving it by helping them get into college or helping them figure out a way to learn English. Changing the world in one year will not happen. I do not care how much energy or excitement you bring to the job. However, changing your way of thinking and allowing yourself to be vulnerable enough to fail and then start over daily will change the world. Unfortunately, our tiny day to day actions might not make the impact that we had originally thought it would. However, a lifetime of these daily actions might bring forth a wave of change.

One Day

2010-04-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

I have been teaching a photography class at Branches for quite a while now. Last week when we were supposed to take a field trip around town photographing, it started raining. I figured I had two options, take them inside and show them slide after slide of other people's work that they mostly just find "weird" or bring about plan b, which was leaving still photography behind and teaching them about video. Of course, after I scrambled to put together a video lesson, it stopped raining and the sun came out. Thank you Florida. Regardless, the girls enjoyed their video lesson and made an awesome video about their Branches community.

OASIS - TIGHT'N UP!

2010-04-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

During the week of Florida's spring break, my co workers and I took 150 urban youth to a camp in Lake Wales, Florida. The conference we put on is known as Camp Oasis. The term “oasis,” coming from the image of a watering hole in the desert. Or, a more figurative definition being the idea of a peaceful, pleasant area in the midst of a difficult, troubled, or hectic place or situation. All 150 youth are not ours. Other urban groups, like ours, from the greater Miami area are involved in this camp as well. My supervisor Kim started Camp Oasis over fifteen years ago; since then it has only grown infinitely. She saw a need to get these kids out of their homes, out of the city, and into a space where, at the very least, for four days they will know they are loved.

Camp Oasis has probably been the most powerful experience I have witnessed since my move to South Florida. My youth changed the second they got out of Florida City. Every single one of my youth had a life changing moment at Oasis. I'm not going to lie, I was skeptical about Camp Oasis. The first question every youth asked me when I moved to Miami was, “Are you going to Oasis?” Oasis is seriously the only thing my youth have been talking about since August. Throughout my life, I have been involved with a lot of camps and conferences. I live for camps and conferences. It's where my true passion lies. So, in the back of my head, the only thing I kept thinking was, “Ok, I'm sure it's great for these kids, but it must just be like every other conference I have attended and they just don't have any experience with this kind of thing.” Turns out, like with most of my initial reactions, I was wrong. Dead wrong. Oasis, first and foremost, was the most organized and well put together camp I have ever been privileged to be a part of. Kim, and the supervisor of another program very similar to ours in Homestead, worked pretty close to 24/7 leading up to the camp, and all of their hard work paid off and truly showed from the second we got there.

In the fifteen + year history of Oasis it has never rained harder than a short drizzle. However, this year, the skies opened up. We're talking 'torrential downpour, fear for your life' kind of rain. And it wasn't short lived. It rained from Sunday afternoon all the way through Monday morning. A big part of taking these kids out of the city is to introduce them to outdoor activities that they would never otherwise get to witness or be a part of. Do you know how hard it is to play soccer or go boating in a tornado? So, to say the least, this year's camp could have been terrible. We could have let the rain ruin all of our plans and we could have pouted. Those were all my suggestions. I don't really understand why they were not taken seriously. Instead what happened is we made the best of it. The kids were forced to take a breath and just sit. Just relax. God knew what He was doing. These kids don't ever get the chance to sit in their daily lives. They go from school where they are subjected to pressures that I never had to think about or endure in my middle school or high school straight into their homes where their parents tell them that they are useless and are never going to amount to anything. Every minute of their lives is spent trying to resist all they are subject to and everything they are told. They use all their energy trying not to be just another statistic. Because of this, their lives are tiring. And this weekend gave them a chance not only to rest and be themselves, but it also gave them a chance to see that there is a different way of life out there.

I spent most of the four days trying to figure out what made Camp Oasis so different from the other camps and conferences I have spent my time at. Sure it was well organized and amazingly staffed with 50 adults trained in youth leadership. However, there was still something more. The only answer I have been able to come up with during my days of reflection is this: the youth. When you take 150 youth who have barely even been out of the city and put them in the woods with crazy things like snakes and bugs, as well as exposed them to unheard of things like a lake, boats, and new games like nine-square (a super hyped-up version of the classic four-square game), it's no wonder radical results occurred. These kids were curious about everything. And more than curious, these kids wanted to participate in everything. While most middle school and high school youth would yawn at a paddle boat ride or a small slide into a lake, these kids thought it was the best thing that had ever happened in their lives. I was in charge of swimming and even though on Sunday the temperature dropped and the clouds rolled in, every single youth that signed up for that activity block was swimming and had to literally be dragged out when we told them it had to end early because of the lightening. Even during the hard rain, many youth came up asking me if they could go swimming and they just did not understand why I said “no.” They did not take a single experience for granted and truly wanted to cherish and soak up every second of being outdoors and away from Florida City.

While the outdoor experiences played a large role in making this conference so different, the one thing that truly made the difference was showing these youth that there are people in their lives that love them. As I had mentioned before, a lot of our youth are told repeatedly in their homes that they are worthless, that they were an accident, and that they will never amount to anything in life. I do not understand it, but there is a large cultural difference surrounding families in South Florida. Instead of wanting the best for their children, most parents do not want their children to be more successful than themselves. They see it as a threat and they want their children to always be around to take care of them instead of having their children focus on a career or a family. It happened to the parents when they were children and it will continue to happen until the cycle can be broken. It seems very backwards to me, but it occurs. And it occurs in almost every home of our children and youth. So, when you take these middle school and high school students who have been told their entire lives that they should not be alive and you tell them the radical message that God loves them, their entire life changes. The message is so overwhelming for most of them that even the toughest high school boys will weep in your arms for hours. It's a powerful experience. To say the very least.Camp Oasis is truly one of the best programs that Branches has to offer. It was life changing just to be able to be a part of the staff and witness the changes that our youth went through. God is truly raining blessings on South Florida and moving powerfully through each of our youth as well.

Oasis 2010

2010-03-26T07:02:00.000-07:00

I leave today for Oasis, which is a four day retreat put on for our youth, as well as youth in the greater Miami area. Branches Florida City started this conference years ago and it has only grown infinitely since that first year. This year's theme is "Tight'n Up." We will be talking about the ways in which we can tighten up our lives and our relationship with Christ. I couldn't be more excited! From what I have heard about this conference it is usually a life changing step for a lot of our youth. When asked about Oasis, one of our kids told me, "Miss, you will LOVE it. I think it's what Heaven is going to be like."

I would ask that you all keep our youth and adults in your prayers these next few days. Pray that our youth will have experiences that they will remember for a long time and that our adults will have the energy to truly provide a worth while experience for our kids.

P.S. This is the logo I got to design for the conference!!

Decisions

2010-03-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

I can handle it when kids make bad decisions. After all, their brains are not fully developed. It's not their fault they act stupid. However, when parents make bad decisions, I have a hard time letting it go. Today, one of our middle school girls was pulled from our program. Her mother decided she needed to go live with her grandmother because Florida City was not having a good influence on her.

This particular girl was the one middle school girl I truly felt a connection with. She was new to Branches: she had only started coming right before Christmas, but she formed a very tight bond with me very quickly. If she had a problem, she asked for me right away and always trusted me with her secrets - including the issues she had with her mother. She was a good student. She tried hard. She actually did her homework and asked for help if she needed it. She had just gotten accepted to a really good private high school in the area that specialized in nursing - her career of choice. She was someone that we all had really high hopes for. Only there was one issue: her mother.

Now that I am a "grown up," (for all intensive purposes...) I often find myself siding with parents more in situations and telling the youth that "They really need to listen to their parents more. After all, they know what's best for you." A sentence that probably would have never come out of my mouth four years ago. However, in this situation, I cannot even find a way to reason with her mother. This particular girl came to me a couple of months ago asking for advice for how to deal with her mother. I told her that even if they didn't get along that she still needed to respect her mother and the decisions that had been made. I don't necessarily think that was bad advice at this point, however, I now realize why she even came to me with a question like that. It was because what this young girl was going through was not a case of "angry teenager vs. Mom." What she was going through was a little more of "certifiably crazy Mom vs. seemingly rational middle school girl." Not your typical, everyday teenaged girl issues. Although, at this point, I think I should probably expect things like this to come out of Florida City.

Her mom stormed into Branches today to tell us that she was pulling her daughter out of our program and shipping her off to live with her grandmother. Her middle school daughter had not let her search through her book bag. When her mother took the bag by force she found inside a notebook. Some of the notebook's contents were notes, but there were a few doodles. These doodles showed that her daughter had a crush on a boy. And her daughter - her fourteen year old daughter - had not told her about it and lied about him. I think her mom kept raging and probably gave more reasons for why she was being pulled out of Branches, but I left and went out to the car to talk to my favorite middle school girl for seemingly the last time. Her equally as crazy little brother was saying very rude things about her from the backseat as she just sat in the front seat, tears rolling down her face, asking over and over again what had she done wrong?

It broke my heart. I truly felt awful. I felt helpless and feared for this young girl who had actually done everything right in her life and yet still ended up on the wrong side of things. These kids have every disadvantage stacked against them. Even when you think you find the ones who will live above the influences and make the right choices in life, other things, uncontrollable forces, step in. The only good I can see in this is that maybe this move will get her away from her crazy mother and her mother's horrible boyfriend. However, it also takes her away from "the one place where she felt welcomed and loved."

Life is unfair.

A Mess

2010-03-11T13:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, the second grade girl that I tutor who is a total MESS, told me I look like I "forgot to brush my hair."

Maybe I should rethink my current style.

Confirmation

2010-03-01T20:03:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, we took seven of our youth up to Warren W. Willis camp and retreat center in Leesburg, FL, which is just north of Orlando. We traveled up there for Confirmation Camp. Audrey Warren, my new best friend, and pastor at Branches United Methodist Mission, (the church that houses and runs the afterschool program I am working for) was the key note speaker for the weekend. It was a retreat designed for students, mostly middle school students, who are going through confirmation with their church. There were about 12 other churches there, mostly from Ft. Lauderdale and further north. There were no other churches there from Miami, and certainly no others from further south. We were the only church down south who were crazy enough to make the five hour drive up north. Since we were so far “north,” the weather changed. Our kids were completely unprepared for the cold that awaited us in Leesburg and most of them only showed up with flip flops. Although, to be fair, I think more than anything that most of our kids actually only own flip flops.

I learned a lot about our youth this past weekend. Five hours in a car will do that to any group of people. However, I learned more about their lives and their Florida City culture. I learned mostly by listening. Not by listening to the ridiculous stories they told, or to their complaints, or to their conversations with one another. I learned so much more about their lives by listening to their questions.

Question #1: “Miss, where's all the black people at?”

I mentioned that most of the churches were from north of Miami. Besides being churches that are north of Miami, most of the churches were from smaller rural towns. Therefore, there was an obvious lack of diversity that I don't think I would have ever noticed before. We stuck out like a sore thumb, that's for sure! Seven loud, crazy, Haitian and Latino children with their three white adult sponsors. Honestly though, before moving to South Florida and becoming the minority, I had never noticed that it is weird to go to a church conference and be in a room full of hundreds of white people.

Question #2: “Miss, can't we lock our room? What are we going to do with our stuff? You know how people steal...”

There's something I had never thought about. Or never HAD to think about. Stealing? At a church conference? Who would do such a thing? But honestly, that's all these kids know. I have been told quite a few times not to leave my computer out during the day in the space where I work. I have been told that if I am not in the room with my computer that I should have it locked in the closet. Which has now just become habit for me, but was very hard to get used. (Thank goodness for helpful coworkers.) Over Christmas break our children and youth raised enough money at Branches to buy a goat from Habitat for Humanity. We had a giant bucket sitting on the table with these children's hard earned money in it. One day it was there, and a few hours later, it was gone. Our children and youth and staff had been in and out of that building all day long. And yet, somehow, it managed to disappear, right under our noses. My boss could do nothing but laugh and make light of the situation. This is just to be added to the long list of things that have been stolen from Branches. I think having been raised in a community where people don't even lock their front doors, hearing and witnessing and coming to terms with the fact that this is reality and where I came from is an anomaly, is something that takes getting used to.

Question #3: “Wait, we eat like this for THREE meals a day?!”

These kids don't get the kind of nutrition they need. That was something that was taught to me early on in my stay here. I tried one of the first months that I was here to teach a nutrition course, only to have it fall apart at the seams when I came to the understanding that these kids don't have access to the right kinds of foods, so telling them that they should be eating vegetables and whole grains is kind of just mean. Unfortunately, in our culture, it is more affordable to buy your child a hamburger than it is to purchase them a fruit or vegetable. Why is this? Why do my kids eat things like hot cheetos for dinner? I have never seen kids eat so much in my life. Even the middle school girls. I looked around at the tables surrounding us at meal times, noticing the middle school girls from the other groups dump full plates of food into the trash because they were watching their weight and didn't “need” the complex carbohydrates. Meanwhile, our girls are going back for seconds and thirds and hiding food in their pockets. I guess sometimes we don't realize how good we have it.

The last thing that happened this weekend was the most interesting of all. We got there kind of late, considering we drove the furthest, so we had to wait to move our stuff into our cabins after everyone else. It turns out there were not enough beds all in the same area. Our kids were nervous about sleeping in a room without adults that they knew, so Audrey and I were prepared to pull mattresses on the floor and let them have the beds. Instead, our kids decided to “double bunk.” Two girls slept in one single, twin bunk bed. Granted, we have skinny middle school girls. But still. When I had friends over in middle school there's no way we would have slept in one twin bed together. That's the purpose of bunk beds. However, it became very apparent the next night, when we were able to sort through the bed dilemma, that most of these girls had never had a twin bed all to themselves. They have been double bunking their entire lives. That is all they knew. And for all I know, they may have even had to sleep with more than two people in a single bed.

It truly is amazing the things I have taken for granted my entire life. I am thankful for an exhausting weekend. I am thankful for the fun, for the laughter, and most of all I am thankful for the learning.

Mystery Machine

2010-02-26T08:30:00.001-08:00

Thanks Mom, for always making my dreams come true...

(The driver's side door also looks like this, I just ran out of camera battery and can't show you. You'll have to use your imagination.)

MERGE.

2010-02-16T20:50:00.001-08:00

Ok, I do realize what a stretch this is going to be. However, you should know it's been a long day. So, I pose a question to everyone from Texas. What do you do when you see a large, neon, orange arrow ahead of you in your lane of traffic? You know what, I can actually answer this question for you:

Texans

A Texan driver will see the large, bright, blinking arrow, acknowledge the fact that it means that the lane you are currently driving in will soon diminish, slow down, turn on their blinker, safely check their blind spot, merge into the lane next to them approximately 200 feet before the lane actually disappears, wave to the kind person who let them into the other lane, and continue on with their day.

South Floridians

A South Floridian driver will see the large, bright, blinking arrow, acknowledge the fact that it means that the lane you are currently driving in will soon diminish, speed up, drive as fast as they can until all of the cars have bottle-necked up at the end of the lane, slam on their brakes, make the "angry-Floridian-driver arm gesture," inch their way closer to the end of the lane, tailgate the person in front of them because, Heaven forbid, someone in the lane next to them actually get two inches ahead of them, wait until the last possible second, cut off the person next to them, *more angry arm gestures,* ending with traffic being back up for miles, simply because South Floridians don't know how to merge.

Can you tell I'm a little bitter this evening? I have mentioned the ridiculousness that is South Florida drivers before. "We ride low and we drive slow..." But it more than the fact that these people have all learned to drive in other countries and then all moved to the same area of the state to fight for who can drive the worst out of the South American countries.

I was sitting in traffic this evening. Unnecessary traffic, I might add. The road I have to take to and from work each day is under constant construction. If, like tonight, I leave work a little bit late, the "nightly closures" have already begun, thus closing down the major highway to one lane so that they can refinish the others. I'm sure that, YEARS after I am gone from South Florida that this will actually be a very decent road, however, right now, it's a pain in my neck. I sat in traffic tonight for about twenty minutes simply because people in South Florida don't know how to merge from two lanes into one. IT'S NOT HARD!

About half way through my raging, I realized I was acting very childish. Tonight in my Bible Study we talked about the prodigal son. The study actually had to do with relationships, but I am reaching here... I kind of had an epiphany right there on the turnpike tonight. I was so pissed off for so long watching these people whiz past me on the road. I was thinking, "I'm doing the right thing. I saw the flashing arrow and I moved over well in advance. YOU PEOPLE are doing the wrong thing. Waiting until the last possible second so that you can get ahead of everyone else. Thus actually holding everyone up so that there are near accidents and angry road raging individuals roaming the streets." I was ready to burst. Giving everyone that I looked down upon (literally looked down upon because I drive a fifteen passenger van with a lift...) a dirty look and a dirty thought to go along with it.

Then I had my thought. My first thought came about because my boss tonight in the Bible Study said something profound. It was actually directed at the youth, but she said, "Why can't we all just get along? Why can't we just be nice to one another?" And then I also recalled my pastor last Sunday talking about this "constant need to love others - even those on I-95." Those two thoughts converged in my head and exploded with one final thought about the prodigal son. I was having a very self-righteous "brother of the prodigal son" moment, thinking I was better than these people because I have been doing the right thing all along. Yes, these people cut me off. Yes these people are stupid and don't know how to drive. (Just kidding...I'm still bitter...) Yes, these people can be rude. A lot of people in this world can be rude. However, God loves them as much, if not more than me. Honestly, that thought changed my attitude. I stopped tailgating the person in front of me to let others in when they finally decided to merge. And, the greatest thing actually happened. The man who I let in, who I had been giving mean looks to and secretly pinching his head off for the last twenty minutes, actually gave me a friendly wave in the rear view mirror. My first friendly wave from a South Florida driver. It only took six months and a change of heart to get there.

Home.

2010-02-09T07:59:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I watched my roommate and various other friends participate in a half marathon. The whole time I was watching these people run by (getting rather nauseous trying to find Julie...) I was getting more and more pumped up about running. That high has lasted through this week and has reenergized me on my morning runs. Enabling me to run farther and feel better about my exercise routine. When I run I preform what is known as "the cardinal sin" of runners. I wear head phones. And listen to music. If you are a true race runner, you know this is usually not even allowed at a race because you cannot fully understand what all is going on around you. But, I have to have music to run. Only one of the reasons why I will probably never achieve my goal of marathon running. This morning I turned up the music. Loud enough so that I couldn't hear my thoughts or the cat calls of my latino neighbors but soft enough so I could still hear the passing traffic. (Safety first, that's what I've always said...)

But, this morning on my run, I heard a song I had never heard before. It's by someone who I was just recently introduced to, Marc Scibilia. If you have the chance I fully recommend his album "From Brooklyn to Maine." I have recently been expanding my music collection and opening my mind to new artists and songs. So, when this song first came on my mp3 player, I wasn't sure what it was, however the song, "This World Ain't My Home" totally spoke to me. My whole life I have felt restless. Not able to stay in one location for more than a few years and more recently, not feeling like I have a permanent home. Not necessarily longing for these things of permanency, but often times feeling anxious and in flux. Anxious about where I will be working or living next year. Anxious about what I want to do with my life. Anxious about the tensions in my life of wanting to feel "in the moment" and yet needing to look forward. I think this song says it all. For me, for my anxieties, for my current life of flux. And hopefully, for some of you as well:

"This World Ain't My Home"

by Marc Scibilia

"I've been to Paris, I've been to Rome.

I've seen a little bit of the world that's known,

but it seems no matter where I go,

I know this world, it ain't my home.

I've got keys to a house that's on loan,

I've got keys to a car with rust and chrome.

I've keys to things I'll never own,

'cause I know this world, it ain't my home.

You take me so very close,

but I can't cut down this thought that grows,

that no matter where I rest or roam,

I know this world, it ain't my home.

Sometimes it seems a far off dream,

just in sight but out of reach,

I don't know where to go but I just keep going,

'cause I know this world, it ain't my home.

And I used to treasure jewels like years,

'till these ancient words met my ears.

Now a ruby's just another stone,

'cause I know this world, it ain't my home.

And you take me so very close,

but I can't cut down this thought that grows,

that no matter where I rest or roam,

I know this world, it ain't my home.

Maybe I could try to fall in love again,

find a little house with a picket fence,

but you know, you know that I, I am a travelin' man,

to a distant country and a far off land.

And when my time is used and done,

when I see that final settin' sun,

I'll leave everything I've ever known,

And that house above, it will be my home."

Haiti

2010-01-14T13:55:00.000-08:00

By now, I am sure everyone has heard the news about the terrible tragedy that has overcome Port-au-Prince, Haiti. This earthquake has shaken the lives of the people who live there as well as so much of Southern Florida. Miami and surrounding areas like Florida City are so deeply connected culturally to Haiti. Most of the children and youth I work with have relatives in Haiti. Many of them have at least one parent still in Haiti.

After high school tutoring was over last night, Tony and I were driving around in the van dropping all the youth off at their houses. Many of them made remarks like, "I don't want to go home." And while, often times, they make these remarks in a joking manner (mostly to annoy Tony and I so we have to kick them out of the van...), this time we knew it was true for every single one of them. One girl said she didn't want to go home because she just couldn't take the crying anymore. She said her mom hasn't stopped crying since the news hit Florida. The hardest part about all of this sadness is that no one knows anything. Haiti is in a complete and total state of shock. Rescue crews don't even know where to begin. No communication comes in or out of the country, and therefore, so many of our families are in a similar and constant state of shock. It is the unknown that haunts so many of our youth and families at this point.

My roommates and I sat around a few nights ago praying, talking, and attempting to make any sense of the tragedy. The thing that we have come to realize at this point is there's not a whole lot we can personally do other than give to organizations that CAN do something. Some of the churches around the area are collecting clothes and material things. Which is good, and I do not want to discourage anyone from doing so, however, what the Haitian people need right now is emergency supplies. They need food, water, and medical care. So, if you are like us and do not know where to begin, but want to donate to legitimate organization that you know will be doing good, here's a list of some of the organizations sent out via email by South Florida Urban Ministries. I know there are tons more as well, I was just hoping to give people a starting point.

United Way is newly partnered with South Florida Urban Ministries and Branches. We received an email yesterday with this link letting us know they are doing all they can to help those in Haiti as well as those in South Florida who have relatives in Haiti.

If you haven't heard, the U.S. Department of State has made a fund that you can drop money in via your cell phone. U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was quoted this morning as saying that this fund already has $3 million in it going to the Red Cross for Haitian relief aid. Just text "Haiti" to 90999 and a donation of $10 will be made and billed to your next cell phone bill.

Mercy Corps is currently accepting donations.

Partners in Health is already on the ground and running operations in Haiti.

Yèle Haiti was established by Wyclef Jean and is also already on the ground in Haiti. You can text donations to this organization as well by texting "yele" to 501501. This will donate $5 to the Haitian relief fund.

The Mennonite Central Committee has been in Haiti since 1958 and is currently planning efforts.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief also has a long history of working in Haiti and is now leading earthquake relief. You can donate to UMCOR and 100% of your donations go directly to helping the victims.

I also got word that the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is setting up funds. You can donate to PDA by directing your money to account number DR000064 within the Presbyterian Church.

I hope that some of these links will help. I'm afraid, at this point, that all we can do is pray. Pray for the families affected so terribly. Pray for the Haitians. Pray for the Florida City Community. Pray for South Florida. Pray for the Haitian government.

Just keep those prayers coming in.

Miss Understood

2010-01-05T20:03:00.000-08:00

These are a few conversations that I have had with my youth over the past few months. Unfortunately these are direct quotes. Enjoy reading what I get to listen to on a daily basis. Welcome to my life.

Marcknal: "Miss, why does your hair look like that?"

Me: "Like what?"

Marcknal: "Like, all....yellow."

Me: "I think I was born with 'yellow' hair."

Marcknal: "What? That's impossible. It looks fake."

Me: "Well, thank you. But, what color hair were you born with?"

Marcknal: "I wasn't born with hair!"

Jasmine: "Miss, do you have a man?"

Me: "No."

Jasmine: "Oh, that's because you're fat and ugly."

Me: "Thank you for your honesty. And for reinforcing my junior high insecurities."

Valerry: "Miss, what are you?"

Me: "What do you mean?"

Valerry: "Like, are you Haitian, Cuban, Salvadoran? What are you?"

Me: "I'm Texan."

Valerry: "GurlBeFo'Real."

Me: "I smell like a campfire!"

Yamilet: "Miss, that is NOT what you smell like."

Me: "Then what do I smell like?"

Yamilet: "Something BAD."

Tiger: "Miss, where you from?"

Me: "Texas."

Tiger: "What's that?"

Kevelyn: "Miss, aren't you from China? Do you eat pandas there?"

Me: "I don't know, I'm from Korea. We eat rice."

Kevelyn: "Ohhhh."

(And yes...I have given up on attempting to fight the fact that my kids think I look Chinese.)

Alait: "Miss, were you with your girlfriend on New Year's Eve?"

Me: "Yes, I was with my girlfriends on New Year's."

Alait: "WHAT?! You're a lesbian??"

Me: "What? No...you call your friends girlfriends."

Alait: "Who calls their friends girlfriends?"

Me: "Lots of people." (Thinking that I should insert "My grandmother, for example...")

Alait: "Like girls who date other girls?"

Me: "Nevermind."

Stephanie: "Miss, THAT'S your car?"

Me: "Yes. Do you like it?"

Stephanie: "No. Does it actually make it here from Miami??"

Me: "What?! It's a good car! And I'm standing here, aren't I? So I must have made it from Miami?"

Stephanie: "Is it going to make it back to Miami?"

Me: "I don't know..."

Brunia: "Miss, how many people do you live with?"

Me: "Four."

Brunia: "Oh. Five girls in a house must suck."

Me: "No, two of them are boys."

Brunia: "Isn't it a sin to live with a boy before you are married?"

Me: "Well, I'm not dating both of them!"

Brunia: "Oh, so which one ARE you dating?"

Mike: "Miss, you eas'in' me?!"
Me: "No..."
Mike: "Yes you is."
Me: "Yeah...I don't actually know what that means."

You truly have to admire kids. For their blunt honesty if nothing else...

New Year's Resolutions

2009-12-31T10:29:00.001-08:00

So, on an earlier post, my mom said she thought my New Year's resolution should be to blog more. Well, because she told me to do it, I am going to do the exact opposite and make my New Year's resolution to blog LESS.

Not really. But sort of, in a way. The start of a new year means a fresh start, in a sense. I have never really been one for New Year's resolutions, mostly because I usually last approximately 2.5 days and then I give up. But, this year I have decided that I will have two New Year's resolutions. That are actually extremely contradictory, so we'll see how this goes. I have decided that what I need more than anything in this job and in this year is to be present. To be fully immersed in my job, to give it my all, to be there fully for these kids and this organization. These past few months I have been a bit distracted, to say the least. I have had too much on my mind to be fully present in Florida City. And that stops now. I am there for one year, to give my time, my energy, and my all to these children and youth. And that is what I am going to do in these next eight months.

The other half of the resolution is to reconnect the bonds that I have lost. This move has been a hard transition as has the graduation from college. I, up until this point, had not really figured out how to juggle my Texas life with my Florida life. I now have a lot more figured out and feel a lot more centered. I am ready to take on this challenge and promise those that have not heard from me in a while will be hearing from me soon. So look out!

On a sadder note, just as I have started to feel happy to be in Texas again, I have to fly back to Florida tomorrow. And what's worse is that my flight leaves at 10:45 AM, which means I will have to endure my black eyed peas for good luck in the New Year at about 8 AM, because, let's be honest, I'm not going to buy black eyed peas and eat them in Florida.

Christmas Time at Branches

2009-12-31T10:09:00.000-08:00

Wow. People sure are generous during the holidays. I am luckily in a position where I get to see people's generosity for these kids and this organization year round, but Christmas time is truly an amazing site. And an interesting one.

We have a partnership with a church a little further north of Florida City. This church was one of the first supporters of Branches when it opened it's doors about 16 years ago. Since then, their support has never ceased and actually only grown throughout the years. Early in November, they asked us to hand out flyers to all of our children and youth, (well over 100 in numbers) asking the kids what their favorite candies were, what size clothes they wear, what they wanted for Christmas, and who was someone in their family that they wanted to give a gift to. Now, I thought these flyers were guidelines for the church to take back with them to give them some ideas for 'a' gift for each child. I was wrong. The things that these kids wrote down is exactly what they got. They each got pants, a shirt, lots of candy, whatever gift they wanted and gifts to give their family members. And these overambitious children did not write down small things that they wanted for Christmas. One girl is learning to play the guitar from our pastor, so the church bought her an acoustic guitar. Another girl got a digital camera. I was shocked to see the generosity of these congregation members.

But, the gifts don't stop there. A graphic design company that has connections to Branches also did the same things for our kids. As did numerous families and organizations in the community. I couldn't believe the amount of gifts these children received. I know they were thankful and I know that this generosity is welcomed, especially in this time of our poor economy. But, what I couldn't help wonder is what the parents thought of all of this. I know they were extremely overjoyed to see the joy on their children's faces, but at the same time, I think I would feel a little slighted. These parents are migrant farm workers, taxi cab drivers, fast food service employees, fruit stand workers, etc. And that's IF they are lucky enough to have a job. Some of our families have 10-12 children living in a house built for 4. I can't help but wonder if they feel upset knowing they can't give these kinds of gifts to their children. Or, maybe they feel the love and joy of the Christmas spirit knowing their children can be provided for. It is a fine line, in my mind, of being upstaged verses thankful. Regardless, there's not much that our organization can do except thank God for people like these congregation members, these organizations that want to give back, these families that want to share their wealth, and for anonymous donors who give solely because they are moved by the Christmas spirit. Because of these people, it is truly a happy, blessed, and merry Christmas for our families down in south Florida.

Pimp My Ride

2009-12-22T12:43:00.000-08:00

So, if you have not heard about the tragedy that was the community car, here's update: it's dead. Since I have such a long commute, I was driving the "community car," an old car of my site supervisor Heidi's, which happened to be pushing 300,000 miles. Toyota's, man, you gotta love those Japanese. Anyways, I did my share of adding to those miles driving the 30 mile commute each way to work everyday. Needless to say, the little car just couldn't go anymore. It broke down late one night, thankfully close to Heidi's house. (Her husband Richard likes to tell the story as "the car was trying to find it's way home...") Regardless, the repairs would cost some where in the $1,000 mark, which is more than what the car is worth. So, it's a goner. Sold off to a junk yard and probably on it's way to Mexico for parts.

BUT. Here's the fun part. Since I still don't have a car in Florida, I get to drive the 15 passenger van! (Ahem...I mean 12 passenger for insurance purposes...) It looks like this: (Except it usually has lots of seats in it)

That's right, folks. I am driving The Mystery Machine in all it's glory. Now, if only I could find some of those fun "Flower Power" decals.

Graphic Design

2009-12-03T07:38:00.000-08:00

So, I have been doing a little work on the side. (Don't worry, Americorp, it's unpaid!) :) But, I have been working for Pastor Audrey, the pastor at the United Methodist Church in Florida City that Branches is connected with. Literally connected with, in both physical building and spirit. Branches is actually such an integral part of it all that Audrey (and others) have decided to change the name of the church to Branches United Methodist Church. It makes sense, considering everyone knows that building complex as "Branches" anyways. So, I was asked to create a logo design for the church. Here's where we landed:

The other design she had me work on was for the Non-Violent Coalition of Florida City. I don't think I like this one as much, but it was a lot of fun to design. This is a coalition that Audrey is helping start down in FLC. Last Sunday there was a prayer vigil where most of the prominent members of the community came out to show their support, including the chief of police and mayor. Hopefully this coalition with be able to do some strong work down south. Major prayers for them and the hard work they are all about to embark on!

Raspas and Rewards

2009-11-29T14:09:00.000-08:00

Fridays at Branches are always fun. And quite a bit stressful. Most of the teachers give the kids a break with the homework since they are headed into a weekend, so there's very little tutoring that actually takes place. My schedule is worked out so that on Fridays, since there is no middle or high school tutoring, I get to help out with the forth graders. This has to be one of my favorite grades of all time. I have nine forth graders that I get to hang out with on Fridays and they are nine of the most amazing kids I know. They were the first group to learn my name once I got down here and even on all the other days of the week when I don't work with them, they run up to me and give me the biggest hugs.

Besides getting a break from my argumentative, punky middle school boys, Fridays are fun because after the elementary students are picked up from school (meaning all the kids up to fifth grade), the staff takes them to go get "Raspas." A raspa is the equivalent, in my mind, of a snow cone. There is a little old man, who looks like he has leather for skin and only speaks Cuban, who sits on the corner down the street from Branches every day, all day, out in the hot sun, selling raspas out of a cooler attached to a bicycle. I like to think that Fridays are his favorite days too. We drive up with a fifteen passenger van full of screaming elementary kids and buy thirty or forty raspas from this man. I have never seen him work harder. Or smile more. He knows on Fridays to make sure he has extra "pink" flavor. The first Friday I was working at Branches, I got a phone call asking what flavor of raspa I wanted. Since I had no clue what was going on or what a raspa was, I told them to surprise me. (My favorite answer to a lot of questions.) I received a bubble pink, milky-looking snow-cone-like icy drink and was pleasantly surprised. Fredy, my coworker, told me he got me the "pink" flavored raspa, a local favorite. I later found out the flavor is called "fresas con leche," or strawberry milk flavored. Regardless, they are good! Probably not sanitary, but GOOD!

Fridays are also fun for the elementary students because of the Branches Rewards Club. This is something that I watch every week with fascination. Everyday, the kids get tickets based on their behavior. If they are bad they get tickets taken away, if they are good, they receive extra tickets. If they do something without having to be asked, like say something nice to someone or pick up trash from outside, they can earn even more tickets. They are taught the difference between spending and saving and the importance of saving, since some big items require that they receive a lot of tickets. I feel that this system is just genius. Not only do the kids really love getting rewarded, but it is a fantastic discipline tool to be able to "take tickets away," rather than having to yell or discipline kids in other ways. What fascinates me about rewards club is the prizes. There are your average "kid prizes" like candy and junk food (spicy hot Cheetos being a popular choice...GROSS.) But, the big ticket items, the items the kids are always trying to save up for and coveting from one another when one child finally gets enough tickets, are school supplies. Of all the things a child could want in this world: stuffed animals, action figures, candy, toys, electronics, etc. The things these kids want most are trapper keepers and spiral notebooks.

Why? The only reason I can think of is the fact that school supplies are expensive. It's something I have never had to think of in my life. If it was on the list needed for school, my parents bought it. Down to the hundred dollar calculator needed for calculus. (Thank you Mom and Dad for helping me pass my math and science classes...) School supplies were not ever something I had to worry about not having. Of course, there were limits. I may not have been able to get the Lisa Frank binder or expensive (and quite unnecessary) locker shelf that all my friends had, but I had everything I ever needed for school. These kids don't have that privilege. They have the basics. If even. Branches gave these kids their backpacks and school supplies at the beginning of the year. If that runs out, we will provide them with more. But, if Branches did not do that, they would not have these supplies and they would not be adequately prepared for school. Getting to "purchase" school supplies from the Branches Bucks Rewards Club is like Christmas for these kids. It is an incredibly humbling experience to see these kid's faces light up as they carry their new notebooks around.

Fridays are also extremely stressful because after a full afternoon of tutoring elementary kids, I want to go home. However, that is just the start of my day. From 7-10, the middle school and high school students come for youth group. It's a very high energy, fun, exciting night. And it requires a lot of stress and energy from the staff. But it is beyond worth it to see these kids, about 60-70 youth on a given night, crossing boundaries of race, culture, and class which they would never ever do anywhere else. The youth that come to Branches range from Latino to Cuban to Haitian to Jamaican and everything in between. Never in a million years would these different cultures mix as smoothly as they do at Branches. That is just one of the many cool things to witness on a Friday night. And just one of the many cool things that happen on a daily basis down in Florida City.

Where is God?

2009-11-08T20:20:00.000-08:00

The other day at Bible study, we studied hell. Quite a daunting topic, I must say. I am in charge of writing all the Bible studies and it was a very hard one to wrap my head around. I have to be in the right mood to write a Bible study, and with everything that was going on in the outside world with my personal external forces, I couldn't center myself enough to focus on writing on this particular day. I finally ended up getting something down on paper and had my boss tweak it a bit for Tuesday night: Bible study night. I have to say, despite being a little nervous to see how they would respond, I don't think I was quite prepared for their reactions. They enjoyed this study. More than I have ever seen them enjoy anything at Branches. I teach the 8th and 9th grade girls and I have never heard so many questions fly out of their mouths at once.

My supervisor had told me to write on this topic because it's something they don't really know about. Their vision of hell comes from what their parents and friends have told them and what the media has sold them. They have never actually opened their Bibles as far back as Revelation. They found it fascinating. Which I, of course, was very pleased to see. However, their questions made it hard to actually get all the way through the Bible study (to the Good News!)

I have one girl who is a freshman in high school and comes to Branches everyday, but always with a terrible attitude and a scowl on her face. I actually do not like it when she shows up to Bible study and secretly hope that she doesn't walk in the door every Tuesday. But, every time, without fail, she walks through that door. (And my heart sinks just a bit knowing I will have to deal with her difficult attitude and mouthiness.) She always tells people she's not a Christian and she doesn't believe in God. But, she shows up to Branches everyday, including Bible study and church, and participates, and obviously enjoys herself (despite what her face and actions tell us) because she keeps coming back. Day after day after day. I think she kind of uses the fact that she is a newly deemed "atheist" (she just found out what that meant...) as a way of not taking responsibility for her actions. She knows that if she gets caught cheating or lying or if she goes out drinking or smoking with her friends that she won't have to answer to anyone, because she's "not a Christian." Regardless of the reasoning behind it, she asked some very insightful questions that night. She kept spitting out things like, "if God loves us so much, why does he let good people die so young?" And "how come there's a rapist running free, but an honest man dies of cancer?" Questions, mostly about God and His character that I honestly didn't have very good answers to. Finally, she said something that made me pause and realize I had no answer for her because I was in the same boat. She said, "I think I am going to consider myself and atheist until God speaks to me." (It sounded quite juvenile at first...) But then she kept going, "You know, cause all the time I pray to God for help and I cry out to Him and I ask Him to keep my family safe and nothing happens. The same bad stuff keeps happening and nothing that I do or say can fix it."

That statement hit me hard. So much so that I just kind of sat there staring at her. I finally managed to tell her that as cliche as it sounded, she needed to make an effort to get to know God in a different way. Prayer is good, but it can be helpful to open her Bible too. (She didn't like that answer.) But it actually helped me maybe a little more than it helped her because I realized I needed to take my own advice. I had been feeling the exact same thing that she had just put into words. I have been looking for God and not finding Him anywhere. As it says in Job, "But if I go to the east, He is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find Him. When He is at work in the north, I do not see Him; when He turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of Him."

I sat in on a rather impromptu church service this morning at a new church (seeing as how I am STILL shopping.) It was impromptu because the main pastor had been called to help out at Ft. Hood Saturday evening and someone had to fill in for her and completely change the service the night before. However, the man filling in did a great job. The title of this blog happened to be the title of his sermon. Where is God? In the midst of all of this hatred and grieving and destruction and death, where is He? In the back of my head every once in a while would pop up the old saying, "if you don't feel as close to God as you used to, guess who moved?" But I always dismissed this and continued on with my busy day. Burying God further and further beneath the work load and external forces of my life. This sermon today, along with the happenings at Bible study, made me realize. I have moved. I have shifted. Farther and farther away from God to a place where I no longer even recognized Him in my life. It was a tough realization; however, I now feel that I can slowly start rebuilding the relationships that I have lost and torn down over the past few years.

Sweet Little Lies

2009-11-03T07:16:00.001-08:00

Sometimes lies are easier to swallow than the truth. Sometimes I like it when my youth say things like, "Nah, miss, I don't mess around with drugs." Or, "Alcohol's for losers!" Even though it is obvious they are just patronizing me, I secretly like to believe that they are not lying. I like to believe that we live in a society where alcohol and drugs are not readily available to eleven year olds.

A few days ago, I was assigned to work with a young sixth grader whose family comes from El Salvador. Most of the time, this boy is quite a pill and really hard to handle or get to know. But, every once in a while he'll do something or say something with a giant, flashy smile and you just want to jump up and give him the biggest hug! (But you DON'T, because you realize he will never talk to you again if you do it.) Usually Angelo, my co worker, is assigned to work with the bratty sixth grade boys while I get to work with the angelic seventh grade girls. However, on this particular day, none of my angels had any homework, and of course, all of the sixth grade boys did. So, this young man was assigned to my table for homework help. He sat down and I asked him what he had for homework today. He told me he had to write an essay that his teacher assigned him titled, "Why I Want to be a Better Person." (Whether or not this was a punishment assignment, I still do not know.)

Regardless, we start collaborating on this essay. And by collaborating, I mean that he would write a sentence and then look at me and say, "Right, miss?" I got sick of this method and told him I wasn't going to do his homework for him, but we could discuss what he was going to write about (make an outline...thank you forth grade teachers...) and then he would write it and I would edit it. He started telling me his three main points as to why he thinks it's important for him to become a better person. His second point stunned me. He wrote down that he needs to be a better person so that he can help other people be better too. I thought that this point was one, actually relevant to his topic unlike his other ideas, and two, profound. It's hard to find a middle school student these days who actually care about anyone other than themselves. But, the part that made me stop and turn my eyes to God thanking him for upbringing was that his reason for needing to help others be better is so they don't start doing the "bad things" that he does at such an early age. I, of course, asked him to elaborate and he said, well, it's not good for people to start drinking and smoking when I did. And I said, "Yes, that is very true, how old were you when you starting drinking and smoking?" He gave me his sheepish, mischievous grin and looked at the floor and mumbled "nine."

NINE. NINE? How did I not expect this? I knew this kind of abuse was prevalent in poorer communities and that kids these days had started substance abuse earlier and earlier, but NINE? I was trying to think of what I was doing at the age of nine. I was in 3rd grade. I was still playing with dolls and building forts. I didn't even know what drinking was. My mother had to explain what being drunk meant by using an episode of Full House. How does this happen?? I was so shocked, I didn't even know how to respond. I asked him if he still does those things and he says, "I try not to." I thought that was actually a pretty mature answer for him and we talked a little bit more about what those substances do to your body and what will happen in the future if he keeps using them. But the cancer tactic and the eventual break down of health doesn't always work on middle schoolers. Although the 'not being able to play soccer and football well' worked a little better. It's hard. Life is hard. This world is complicated and complex.

Shameless Plug

2009-10-08T15:57:00.000-07:00

So, Branches is trying to raise money. Imagine that. Who isn't in this economy?

I am not sure that anyone can deny the increase of the use of technology in the classroom as well as outside of it. On any given night, we will have from thirty to forty youth come to Branches looking for help on their homework or with a project. And, on any given night, we will have from ten to twelve people needing to use a computer. None of these youth have computers in their homes, given their family's economic state. So, why, might I ask, are teachers giving them projects and papers that have to be typed or made in Power Point? They know the economic state of their students. What are they thinking?

Regardless, that leaves Branches a little high and dry. We have two computers for our youth to use and they are able to use the printers and anything else technological that we have on hand. However, I'm guessing you can kind of see the dilemma. Two computers. Twelve students. What do you do?? What we do is try to raise the money. $1500 to buy three new laptops for Branches. (Not Macs...which I think you know my stance on PCs, but hey, we are in a budget crisis here.)

Branches has found this incredible Christian organization, that matches any monetary donation we receives three to one. Therefore, we really only need to raise $500 in order for our computers to be purchased. Is there anyone out there willing to donate for this cause, or you can tell me where I can find help for this?? Everyone at Branches is doing their part in trying to get this money raised, however in the economy, it's hard. I personally feel like $500 is nothing, considering what I have been attempting to raise all year for YAV. However, I know it's still a daunting task for anyone to be asking for money at this time in our country.

So, that is the dilemma. Email me if you have a solution.

Work Day

2009-10-05T21:20:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, we had a family work day at Branches. One of the parents of an elementary student decided since Branches does so much for her child, she wants to give something back. Thus, the first annual Family Service Day was created. I invited all my roommates to come and help as well, partly because I was skeptical that anyone would even show up. Four of us, since JJ was still out of town, piled into the community car and headed down south. We got there early to help set us and to do a lot of the painting before the families got there. We arrived at eleven, and the parents were supposed to get there around three. However, two thirty five rolled around and the biggest rain storm I have seen since living here decided to descend upon Florida City. We looked around at one another and said, "it'll pass." However, almost an hour later, the rain was still pouring from the sky and only one family had shown up. We thought about calling it off, but decided to stick it out and find some inside projects for the family that showed up.

About ten or fifteen minutes later, families actually started showing up and they poured in steadily for the rest of the afternoon. So many families, actually, that we didn't have enough inside work for them to do. The rain finally subsided, thankfully, and all the families were able to go outside and plant our garden, mulch the playground, clean up all the trash and trim the hedges. It was amazing how much work got done. Every time I ran into my boss Kim, she would just smile and say, "I can't believe people showed up in the rain!" It truly was an incredible thing to witness. It was amazing to see how much these families care about Branches.

P.S. Who's idea was it to give kids paintbrushes?! Oh yeah...mine.

Things I Believe to be True

2009-10-03T14:20:00.000-07:00

Having lived in South Florida for a little more than a month, there are quite a few things I now believe to be true.

1) Christian rap is hard to get used to. And yet, I really like it. When my supervisor Tony took me to the airport after my first week in Florida, he asked me if I knew any Christian rap. I obviously said no. The closest I had come to knowing any Christian rap was the Kirk Franklin energizer. Well, on youth nights, this is the praise music we listen to. I find it funny to think about my home church and how the addition of "praise music," aka an acoustic guitar, was a huge step. I wonder how they would react to our Friday night worship services. The first Friday night experience was, intense, to say the least. I found out just how much of a "frozen chosen" white girl I am. Well, I found out that, and the fact that I cannot dance, no matter how amazing I THINK I am, I have to face the facts. Black people can MOVE! And I cannot.

2) Race is in your face down here. Miami obviously has a great mixture of races all attempting to co exist. Sometimes that doesn't go so smoothly. But regardless, it is ok to talk about it. The first week I was at work, I was teased for being white. I have a good sense of humor and knew I was being teased, but my boss was so worried I would be offended because there are very few places in the United States where people can talk so openly about race. I am one of the only white people at my job. And I constantly find reasons to realize this on a daily basis.

3) Bob Schneider's new album Lovely Creatures happens to be the current soundtrack to my life. Not only is it just a decent album, it brings back good memories from this summer. It also reminds me to look into the future. Two issues I am currently struggling with. No matter how much I love Florida, it is hard to be consistently reminded that I need to be looking forward into the future because this is only a temporary fix for me being jobless and homeless.

4) Black people's hair is the coolest! When I was a little girl I used to tell my parents that I when I grew up I wanted to have a black baby. Why did I say this? I was fascinated with the texture of their hair. I am not even really sure where this fascination began, considering Wimberley had approximately 5 black people in it when I was a kid. They were all in one family, and oddly enough, all named Patrick. (Or Patricia.) Had I been in my parent's shoes, I am pretty sure I would not have been able to keep a straight face or take me seriously in the least. But, I think you also would have had to know me as a child to get the full effect of this request. My parents, being the wonderful people that they are, felt the need to acknowledge this desire. Therefore, the next Christmas I received as a gift from Santa, Addy, the black American Girl doll. Now, fifteen years later, I am still fascinated. I have learned so much within a month about "black hair." For instance, weave. The incredible phenomenon of fake hair. Girls get their hair "did" every few weeks. At least that what it seems like. Every Monday at least one of my girls has new weave in. They wear shower caps when it rains to protect their weave, and it comes in a variety of colors; red, pink, and bright yellow being the most popular. What is even more ridiculous is that to get your weave done, especially if you get "micro braids" (very tiny braids), it takes hours upon hours of sitting and having your hair pulled. We're talking three different sessions, each about eight or nine hours long. I need me some weave. I asked if they made weave in my color and my girls told me "yes, but you can't handle the pain." That's the other thing about weave. Apparently it itches and hurts like crazy and you cannot itch it or it'll get messed up. So, instead, these girls just go around smacking themselves in the head because it makes it itch less.

5) South Florida drivers are the absolute worst drivers in all of America. And in most of Europe as well. And that's saying a lot, considering I feel as if I almost died multiple times in Italian vehicles. Everyday on the road I am reminded of the Seinfeld sketch where he discusses Florida being the only state where the "eventual left" is a legal turn. "We ride low and we drive slow!" Maybe Uncle Pauly should move down here. Seriously though, I have never lived in a city with people so full of road rage. If you pause, even just to move your foot from the brake to the gas pedal at a red light, you will be honked at. When a light turns green, however, you should hesitate because the person coming at you will run their red light. At night, everyone uses their brights. There is no courtesy of turning your lights down when you come up behind another car. I don't know, maybe they only make bright lights in Florida. If you are following someone, no matter how close you get behind them, they will not move over. Even if they are going slower than the lowest possible speed posted in the fast lane, you will always have to find a way around them. It's like an odd power struggle where South Floridians see who can be ruder on the highway. Not to mention "flipping someone the bird" seems to be the international sign for "good morning!" in these parts. I never considered myself to be a bad driver, however South Florida would disagree.

Church Shopping

2009-09-27T11:06:00.001-07:00

I am torn. For the past two Sundays I have attended a service at Coral Gables Congregation Church. It is a United Church of Christ church in a very affluent part of the city. We worshiped there last week as a community and then decided to go back this week for "green" Sunday because you could supposedly take your old light bulbs and exchange them for energy efficient ones. We were all encouraged to either car pool to the service or ride our bikes. Therefore, we all four (JJ has his own church and is not involved in our "shopping" trips) piled into Erin's tiny car, including all 6'8'' of Isaac, and went over to CGCC. We walked in the door and were handed a bulletin with a giant print out of the senior pastor. I took the bulletin and thought it was weird because it was supposed to be a paperless Sunday. When the senior pastor walked in, everyone got on their feet and gave a standing ovation for her. It soon became apparent that the light bulbs were not the focus of the ceremony. Apparently, we had just walked into a surprise ordination anniversary ceremony. Laurinda, the senior pastor, had been ordained thirty years ago today and her entire family and many friends from seminary showed up to give kind words. This was a really strange service to be a visitor at. It was an oddly intimate service to witness, especially from an outsiders point of view. Even the secretary of health showed up to wish Laurinda well. (Bill Clinton's secretary of health...) Regardless of it starting out as a really awkward situation, I couldn't help smiling when I heard all these kind words spoken about this person I didn't actually know or have any kind of relationships with. I love this congregation. I feel at home there. It feels safe and comfortable. I love the words Laurinda has to say and feel a very closeness to her already. It might be the fact that she has a love for Abba maybe even greater than mine. Or it might be that she is so warm and welcoming. Or it might be that she wishes for everyone in the community to challenge themselves to be accepting to anyone and everyone in the world. Whatever it is, I feel the desire to worship in this community. However, I feel as though I shouldn't want to worship there. It is the first church I have ever visited in Miami. Also, it is in a very affluent part of the city. After visiting for the first time, I turned to my roommates and said, "oh, this is where all the white people in Miami are." Laurinda tries to get her congregation to give as much as possible. In fact, for her ordination, the church set up a fund to give money to a charity in Haiti. However, it is only because they are truly able to give. I feel as though I should be worshiping in a community where I am not comfortable. Where I can truly challenge my faith and my comfort zone. I should want to worship with the people I am serving. I talked for a long time with my friend Alicia about it all. She is an administrator at the Yvonne Learning Center where Isaac works and she worships at CGCC. She struggles with this same issue week after week. The way she put it, she goes to church there in order to be filled. She spends the rest of the week: five, sometimes six days, living in a world where she challenges herself and leaves her comfort zone. Therefore, do I leave my comfort zone in order to stretch my faith, or do I take Sundays as the day to recharge my faith and fill myself spiritually?

All That I Know is Keep Breathing

2009-09-25T08:19:00.000-07:00

What do you do with the difficulties of life?

What do you do with a young girl who knows she can make more money standing on a street corner than sitting behind a desk?

How do you teach a child to "honor their father and mother" when their parents are the ones telling them they are worthless?

How do you tell someone to stay in school when their family tries to convince them daily to quit so they can make money?

What do you do with a kid who's entire life has been inundated with fight? How can you teach peace when the people who are supposed to love them the most are the ones hurting them?

What do you do with kids who care more about the touch-down dance than the touch down?

How do you show enough love to the child who has eleven brothers and sisters and who's parents work four jobs to provide for them?

What do you do with a boy who is sixteen and still in seventh grade?

What do you do with kids who spend hours perfecting Michael Jackson's dance moves instead of finishing their school work?

What do you say to a young boy who doesn't worry about his school work because he knows he can always go sell drugs for a living?

How do you show kids what is right when all they see in their lives is wrong?

Prayer for Today

2009-09-22T19:45:00.000-07:00

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying [to ourselves] that we are born to eternal life.

Just to Clarify

2009-09-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

An actual conversation:

Marcknal: "Miss, you look Chinese with your glasses."

Tiger: "Wait, miss, you're NOT Chinese?"

5 minutes later...

Me: "Ashley, Marcknal just asked me if I was Chinese."

Ashley: "Oh, a bunch of elementary kids asked me that the other day. You're not Chinese, right?"

First of all, I wish I had made those names up. Sadly, they are real. And sadly, these conversations are real. Do I look Chinese to anyone else?? My boss said she thinks maybe they have never met anyone of Asian descent. Regardless, this is what my day revolved around today. Me, attempting to convince everyone at work that I am not actually of Chinese origin.

Daily life in Miami

2009-09-19T07:23:00.000-07:00

Many people have been asking me, "just what are you doing down there?!" So, I realized I haven't taken a lot of time to explain things. I am what is known as a Young Adult Volunteer through the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Which means, I have chosen a location to serve for the next year: Miami. Part of the stipulation of being a YAV is that you live in intentional Christian community with one another. So, I live in a house with four other volunteers (see posting below for photos).

I live with two other girls and two boys from all over the nation and ranging in age from 22-25.

Julie is from North Carolina and was the first person I ever met when I moved in. She is also working with Branches, however she works for the South Miami location. We are exact opposites. Not really, there is a lot we have in common, but our "likes" as far as movies, leisure activities, and food are completely different. It has become a joke between the two of us that if I like something, I know she will not, and vice versa. However, we do both enjoy using terrible British accents from time to time. (No jokes from the family, please...)

Erin is the social justice worker from Iowa. She has spent one year (well, really only 3/4 of a year because of sickness) in the Philippines being a YAV in 2006-2007 and a year working for social justice in Iowa. She will be working with migrant farm workers at South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice. We enjoy gardening and practicing our horrible Spanish together! The backyard is kind of our pride and joy.

JJ or Hota Hota as we call him in our Spanish class, is the quiet yet cunning one of the group. He is from Maryland and has been working in Miami for a year already at Latin American Missions. You never quite know what JJ is thinking, but the things that come out of his mouth will make you laugh so hard. He also has the hilarious way of cracking himself up so easily that his leg will start stomping. Quite entertaining. Plus he has a very funny, noticeable laugh. It's a good thing!

Isaac is me in male form. We have taken to calling each other "twin" from time to time because it is a bit ridiculous just how similar we are. He is still in school at Goshen College in Indiana but is from Kansas. He is only going to be here for a semester and is working at the Yvonne Learning Center, a Haitian school in North Miami. He is an art major and is 6'8", which actually seems to generate more conversation than anything else in his life.

So, these four roommates and myself all live in a house together in intentional Christian community. Which basically means, we have to figure out a covenant that respects all of our wants and needs as well as figure out budgeting and daily chores and all the other daily junk that goes into living in a house with five people. However, it is all done in a loving, Christian manner and disputes are dealt with even more so in this fashion. It's a fantastic support group and friend circle to be able to come home to. Every evening we gather and take prayer requests and pray about our day and the days to come. We read books together that discuss topics like community living, poverty, injustice, etc. and discuss the topics openly with one another to generate conversation.

Then, during the week, I work down in Florida City with my organization, Branches. All the other housemates have their work to go to as well. It's an interesting living situation, because even though we don't work together,we all know the issues we are dealing with on a daily basis. We may be doing completely different jobs, but they all in some form or another, deal with immigration, poverty, race, and social injustice. These common themes seem to surround the Miami area constantly and it is so important to have this support group who can identify with what we are all going though so that we don't get bogged down and discouraged as it is so easy to do. The injustice that happens daily in Miami and South Florida would shock some. It's a frustrating world we live in.

The Happiest Place on Earth!

2009-09-19T06:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I got a chance to participate in what is known as "Night of Joy." It is an incredible Christian event put on by none other than...DISNEY WORLD!! We took 42 middle school and high school youth up to Orlando on Friday night, spent the night in a church up there, and then headed on to Disney early Saturday morning. We just went to Magic Kingdom for most of the day, which if you know anything about Disney World was only a small portion of what you could have done inside the park. (Although they really get your money there because every park you go into, you have to pay the full price, it's not like Schlitterbahn where you buy one ticket and go to all the parks...) Anyways, I was more than thankful to get to spend a day in Disney because instead of paying for it, I got paid! The kids have to pay to go to night of Joy, however, the ticket prices are significantly reduced, and most meals are paid for, so it's an incredible deal for these kids to get to see something that is so physically close to them and yet so far out of reach of their normal lives.

I was assigned to look after six middle school and high school girls. So, you can only imagine the drama that ensued when one of them wouldn't want to do what the rest of them wanted. We got to the park around 8 and walked around and rode rides until 3:30. That gave us the chance to ride every ride in Magic Kingdom at least once. It was raining all morning, which ended up being a blessing, because 1) this little white girl didn't get sunburned, (although I had to explain to my youth why I was putting on sunscreen when it was raining outside...let's be honest, I get sunburnt at night...) and because 2) nobody else is crazy enough to be walking around Disney in the rain, so that meant little to no lines on all the rides! By 3:30, the girls were tired, the sun had come out so they were complaining about it being hot and muggy, and I was ready to leave. However, that was only the beginning of the day! Night of Joy actually happens at night. (Makes sense, right?) So, at 3:30, we made our way over to Hollywood Studios to hang out a little bit before the Joy really began. We got to ride the rides there, however, Hollywood Studios is much more about the Hollywood aspect and less about the rides, so there was really only two/three rides available. We rode both the Rockin' Roller Coaster (Aerosmith's ride. I had to explain to my youth who Aerosmith was... A direct quote: "I know Aeropostal, but no AeroSMITH.") and the Tower of Terror, which the youth literally had to drag me on and I have never felt more scared in my entire life. I walked off the ride still shaking. Don't ever ride it. However, since those were the two big rides in the park and everyone was at this one park for Night of Joy, you easily had to wait one to two hours before even getting on the ride. Worth it? Maybe. The girls thought it was. Around 7 was when the Night of Joy actually got started. It's big name Christian artists putting on free concerts from all areas of the park. There were three stages going on at the same time and the concerts ranged from 30 minutes to one hour and lasted until 1 AM. We watched MercyMe, Jars of Clay, and Mandisa, who was on American Idol in 2006. The concerts were fantastic, although I might have gotten more out of the whole night than the youth. It was frustrating to me to hear the youth whine and complain because this was such a gift that they were supposed to be able to enjoy. I'm pretty sure I used the line "This is the happiest place on Earth, therefore, we WILL be happy."

It was an interesting trip. I was able to form bonds with many of the youth in an outside Branches setting, which was probably the best part of the trip. The kids had a blast and were able to participate in something that was out of the ordinary for them. They were surrounded by Christians all weekend long, rather than their friends and families that often act less than Christian, to say the least. However, it was exhausting and frustrating a lot of the time as well. We got back on the bus around midnight and drove back to Branches arriving around 4:30 AM. Then I got to drive back to Miami, putting me in bed around 6 AM, only to have to wake up a few hours later to host one of the most amazing barbeques of all time for the National Director of D.O.O.R. and many of our new friends. I am still recovering from last weekend. However, at the same time, I really felt like I was where I needed to be. These kids need to see that there is a different life available to them. They need to feel loved and appreciated and to get out of the house and have fun from time to time. That is what the true joy of the night was.

Photos!

2009-09-13T18:17:00.000-07:00

So, this weekend, we had a barbeque. More blog posts to come about that later. But...because the house and yard was really REALLY clean and because Isaac spent six hours mowing the lawn, I thought I would post photos now, so you all can get a better idea of how the house I live in looks!

**Disclaimer: the house does not always look this good/clean. If you come to visit me, don't expect this. :)

This is my bedroom. Also called the "Florida Room" in most houses in Florida. It is a room off the back of the house, mostly windows, and a door that leads out to the backyard. I'm not sure what else this room would be used for, but everyone's got one! It's a little boring right now, because it's white-ish, but I am painting

it turquoise on Thursday!!!

Other side of the room with my "closet" - only downside to living in the Florida Room. The white door in the corner leads to the Party Patio and the other door leads into the living room.

Wall of photos - or rather, wall of babies!!! I have to brag on my cousins somehow...

Living room. Complete with Isaac working on his computer and Erin sleeping. Can you tell these are pre-party photos? The fireplace to the left of Isaac (the weird white pillar-like thing) has possibly the ugliest fake logs inside ever.

Cute dining room which is fun to sit in and drink coffee and read the paper in the early mornings. Or, actually around noon time... Also fun for community dinner nights!

TINY kitchen. My only grievance for this house. However, it helps to have the dining room. Actually, the small size AND the fact that someone in the fifties thought every kitchen and bathroom needed pink tiles are my grievances. The only two houses I have ever lived in have had pink tile. What's the deal??

The Party Patio! This is right outside of my room, in the back of the house. I have a big love/hate relationship with this patio. When we arrived, the entire patio and yard was so over grown with weeds, you couldn't even walk down the steps. We have since weeded every square inch, mowed the lawn, and planted lots of fun flowers and plants. Once we find the Christmas lights, they will also be added. And then, the party patio shall be complete.

To the right of the table, there is a patch of dirt that has been used as a compost pile for the last year or so, but was so overgrown, it could not be used for anything else. Since then, we have weeded and tiled the area and are hoping to start our garden soon. Here in Miami, gardens that are planted in the late fall tend to do the best. We are going to test out that theory. To the left of this picture is a long strip of dirt that we have already turned into our herb garden, complete with thyme, basil, and something else that I have never heard of...

The outside of the front of the house!!! Photo complete with Godzilla in the grass. Godzilla is the house van which Isaac drives around town because it's the only community car that he can fit in. It's official intended purpose was to use with youth groups and other groups who participate in the D.O.O.R. program and need a way to get around Miami. The giant silver shutters on the windows are actually called "hurricane shutters" and can be removed, if wanted. However, it's easier to keep them on until a hurricane comes. They lay flat against the windows and prevent you from having to board them over.

I kind of think this photo makes our house look like a trailer. However, it is a real house. Just real old. And real blue.

Hope you enjoyed the virtual tour. Come to Miami and see the real thing someday!!! :)

*By the way, Isaac did NOT spend six hours on the yard.

Rather, the girls in house did.

Don't bring me bad news.

2009-09-09T19:26:00.000-07:00

There are days, like yesterday, when I go to work and realize I am truly there for a purpose. Then, there are days like today where I sit back and think "Why am I here?" "Am I even making a difference?" I, already within a week, have formed such strong bonds with each and every youth member at Branches. I have heard many of their personal stories and backgrounds and have become invested in this community and in these kids. So, when one of them makes poor choices, it disappoints me.

I had to kick a kid out of tutoring today. Actually, I gave him the choice of staying at Branches and actually doing work or leaving. He chose to leave. He chose to leave the support system we have set up to better his life and future. This student, who we will call JJ, (because I think it's funny to give out fake names that happen to be the real names of my roommates...) is in the seventh grade. He also happens to be fifteen. Almost legal to drive and still in middle school. He was also the first person at Branches to know my name, take an interest in me, and actually greet me with a smile each and everyday. Which made his decision making process all the more disappointing and hard to take.

My supervisor Tony had already talked to him twice today before he was assigned to my tutoring table. He spent the entire time testing the boundaries and while I attempted to be nice, he was disruptive and disrespectful to all. He told me he didn't have any homework and when I asked why not he told me it was because he had skipped school. In fact, in the two weeks that he has been back in school, he has already missed four days. I think the most heartbreaking part of it all was to see how bright he was. JJ knows math like no one else that I have seen at Branches. While I have spent the past two weeks teaching students his age and older long division on paper, JJ can do any of the problems in his head. He enjoys reading when he can force himself to be still enough to focus and he is very good at history as well. So, why is it that he is two to three grade levels behind?

After JJ left Branches I saw him walking with two other boys who do not attend Branches. Instead, these boys stand across the road and cat-call the girls as they walk in and out throughout the afternoon. The girls all have stories to tell about these boys and how they are not the type of boys you want to hang out with. So, why, would someone as bright as JJ choose these hooligans over his Branches family? Why would he willing throw his future away because he is behind in school?

I hate seeing people make bad decisions. It's often like watching a train wreck. I just can't take my eyes off of it and yet I don't want to look. My boss Kim seemed unfazed by the situation. She looked at me sincerely and said, "kids make bad choices." Kim started the Branches program fifteen years ago when she was my age. She has probably witnessed more in this time than most people want to see in a lifetime. She realizes that we can't reach them all. She realizes the depressing, heartbreaking, honest truth. Branches is an incredible organization. However, kids make bad choices. And I wish it were as simple as that...

Florida City Speak

2009-09-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

So, I learned in my first week of work that although Florida City is a part of the United States, I still feel like much of it is foreign to me. Besides not knowing my way around town and spending most of my hour long breaks trying to find my way back to work, things that should be simple, like language and culture are completely alien to a white girl from Texas. The very first thing I noticed from day one, even just speaking with the staff is the language. Florida is unique in that only one out of twelve considers themselves Caucasian. I live next door to little Havana, so most of the people in the area speak Cuban. However, most of the other influences come from Haiti, El Salvador, Mexico, and lots of other South American countries. Almost everyone in Florida City is either Haitian or South American. A vast majority of our kids are multilingual and many of their parents don't speak English as their first language, or at all. However, in Florida City, there is yet another language spoken. It's called Florida City Speak. Or, at least, that's what we call it. Here's a little taste of the words and sentences I hear on a daily basis:

"Acts" - This word is spoken instead of "asked," as in: "I just acts Mrs. Kim if I could leave."

"Miss" - Refers to anyone in charge. Mostly heard in a whining tone: "Miss, I didn't do it."

"Is" - Used in all times and places instead of any other tenses. "You is from Texas, Miss?"

"It is" - Always used in this order. "What time it is?" "Who it is?"

"Screet" - Despite the fact that I always think this word sounds dirty, it is actually referring to the STREET. "No, I is walking down that screet."

"Mines" - Refers to anything possessive. "That book is mines!"

"I don't have no..." - The act of having nothing. "Miss, I don't have no homework."

"Kim House" - (Or anyone's name...) Leaving off the "s" in most words is common. "No, I is at Kim House."

"Cakeing" - This word refers to when two people stay up late talking on the phone. "Naomi's been cakeing with some boy!" (Sounds a lot dirtier than it actually is...)

"Dapping" - If you don't want to hold someone's hand you can "dap." Which means put your fists on top of the person's next to you. We do this when we pray as a group, my boss Tony will yell "Dap it up!" and we will all touch fists.

"Rank" - This means to put someone down. "At Branches, we don't rank on one another."

Now, I realize you can find a lot of these common mistakes all over America, however, a few of them are very unique to Florida City and I had never heard of them until I moved here. I have been told to correct the children and youth repeatedly, but that is how they talk in their homes and on the streets, so it is very hard to get them to correct the problem. It is a very interesting world down here. Although I am fully aware of the fact that I am still in America, often times life seems more exotic here than it ever did in Italy. It truly is "a whole other world" in Florida City and Miami.

Revision

2009-09-03T20:38:00.001-07:00

Correction: Isaac is 6'8'' and not "lanky."

Maggie

2009-09-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

Maggie is our neighbor. Although, I still have no idea where she actually lives. Regardless of the fact that she describes her house to me everyday, "It's the pink house with the hurricane shutters." I nod and smile, while in reality, I am thinking, "You just described every house within the next eight blocks!" She is an older woman, maybe in her sixties, and everyday I have seen her (which is everyday I have lived in Miami) she has been wearing the same clothes. She stops by our house every evening and asks to use our phone. We kindly smile and let her in, let her use the phone, give her water and a place to sit. And a place to vent, apparently. Maggie is a woman of many words. There is always something interesting going on in her life and she is not one to hold back any emotions or stories or excuses.

We enjoy our chats with Maggie. However, what started out as a friendly neighborly gesture has turned into something more. Because she knows she can trust us and because we "are so nice and friendly," she keeps coming over. Sometimes only for a few minutes, sometimes for hours. It's hard and uncomfortable for us to ask her to leave because we have this desire to be hospitable to everyone who enters "the mission house," as it is known and commonly called. It's part of the reason we live in the neighborhood that we do. We throw neighborhood barbeques and block parties as a way to get to know our neighbors and as a way to be fully present in the community.

Maggie has recently told us she is moving, and therefore packing up most of her belongings. Everyday she will stop by with something else of hers that she thinks we will want. And while this seems like a very neighborly gesture, she doesn't actually want to give us these items...she wants to sell them to us. So, we bought her DVD player for $20 a few days ago. Then, the next day, when she tried to sell Isaac her husband's wool suits, we had to tell her no, because, big surprise, they didn't fit the 6'7'' lanky, white boy. Plus, wool suits in Florida?! But, we quickly learned that these gestures were more about just getting rid of her stuff. She actually needs the money, considering she said, "Oh, sorry the suits don't fit, can I have $20 anyways? My husband's sick." And the next day when she came over she needed a ride to her new house to talk to the landlord and then asked for more money. The entire house is very torn about what to do about Maggie. We obviously value her presence, but now we get worried when we see her come up to the front door or when we hear her knock because we are unsure of how to approach the money situation. On the one hand, here is someone who is obvious need. On the other hand, we are not making enough money to be giving her $20 everyday. However, it is our responsibility to take care of our neighbors and be kind and generous. On the other hand, she is taking advantage of the fact that five young, caring people live down the street and don't have the heart to say no. Jesus calls us to love our neighbors and help in every way possible. Maggie's background is a very complex and complicated one. She is a person that needs all the love and support and help she can get. However, monetary services are not ways in which we are strongest right now. On the other hand, we are all white, educated, middle income kids from "the center" who theoretically could have alot to offer and share with Maggie.

It is a never ending circle of confusion and prayer and questions. What do we do in a world full of Maggies??

Settled

2009-08-25T18:14:00.000-07:00

I feel as though up until this point I have been in one of those stupid snow globes; flying around like a snow flake, being tossed about in some fluid and landing wherever I can find a place to stop for a few seconds and breathe. However, after being in New York for exactly a day and half, I feel settled. That seems to be the comments of most fellow YAVers here. This evening in vespers, we all expressed sentiments of feeling anxious, excited, and just plain confused. However, we also all expressed that this retreat has given us time to feel centered and to realize what it is we are all about to embark upon in this coming year. It doesn't matter that we aren't all going to the same location. In fact, there is only one other person here going to Miami. What matters is that we all have a similar mindset and that we are all going out to have the same purpose for a year. We are bonded by our displacement. And I couldn't feel more grounded than I do right now. This retreat has only reinforced that I am in the right place at the right time and that big things are happening. I love the fact that everyone here is outgoing and energetic and so happy to be in the place where they are. It is like being in a place where everyone is different and unique and yet everyone is the same. I absolutely love that I can walk up and sit down next to anyone and say "hi, my name is..." and be received on the other end with the biggest smile and then talk for hours about our hopes and fears when I only just met the person. This is the best community that I have ever been a part of and feel so lucky to be right where I need to be.

SFLUM

2009-08-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, it looks like gibberish. And when spoken aloud, I often feel the need to say "Gesundheit." However, SFLUM is the organization overseeing my site placement for the up coming year. It is an acronym for South Florida Urban Ministries. Branches, my new job placement, is part of SFLUM. There are quite a few Branches sites in Miami and I have been assigned to the Branches ministry in Florida City, a small community about 45 minutes south of Miami. I have been at training for the last week now in Miami and Florida City. It was an unexpected visit to Miami, and I was frustrated by the lack of notice and by having to fly to Florida the day after I returned home from family vacation. However, it was a blessing in disguise; as I am quickly figuring out, most of these inconveniences are. I was able to get a feel for the area, see where I am working, meet a majority of the children I will be seeing on a daily basis, meet my co-workers, and sit down and figure out my job description. Essentially, I was able to get my questions answered and my fears quelled, for the time being. I will be working mostly with the youth of Branches, which is in connection with a Methodist Church in Florida City. I will be tutoring middle school and high school students and building relationships and community with these youth for the next year. My hours will be odd, there will be a long commute some days, and I have been told not to get upset if the youth don't want to talk to me for weeks. And I couldn't be more excited about the entire process!!! I know that the year, maybe years, ahead will bring challenges beyond my control and beyond my realm of knowledge. I know I will be tried and tried again. And I know I will grow and be shaped and molded into the person I am supposed to be.

Consider the Lilies.

2009-08-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

25 "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

28"So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;

29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

31 "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'

32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

This passage was read in church on Sunday. We had a guest preacher in the pulpit, and once he was finished reading this passage I literally sat back and thought, "this is the reason why I came to church."

Summer camp has been an incredible breath of fresh air in my life. I have seriously loved every second of it and could not have imagined my summer going any differently. However, in the back of my mind, I have not been able to shake the thoughts that I still have to raise almost $7,000 and that has proven to be more complicated and trying than I originally thought it would be.

This passage truly spoke to me. I have the worst tendency to freak out about the tiniest things. I am way too rational to think that God will provide every need in my life. However, it is times like this when I am thankful for the tiny ways that God gets my attention and lets me know that "every little thing is gonna be alright."

Monetary Update!

2009-07-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

As of today, I found out I have raised $2,450 so far. I am so thankful for people giving me such large donations and cannot find enough words to say thank you for your generosity.

That being said....

I still have to raise about $4,500 more. Which is so scary to think about. I would really appreciate it if you spread the word about the cause and kept the donations flowing. This is obviously a fantastic cause, but getting all this money is quite a daunting task!

Thanks to everyone for their support and love.

A million thanks!!!

2009-06-12T13:19:00.000-07:00

It's times like these that I wish I knew more languages. As it is, I can only say THANK YOU, gracias, and gratzie. Well, I could probably think of more but I wouldn't actually know how to pronounce them correctly, let alone even begin to spell them.

But, I do want to say thank you! About a million times, if I could without running out of breath. Everyone has been so supportive, both with their words and thankfully, also with their pocketbooks. I have always known that I have had a large support system in my life, but I guess I have not had the opportunity to actually see the effects of how wonderful the people I love can be! Luckily, the money is getting there. So many people are doing their part in helping me raise enough money. And for that, I cannot say thank you enough. With the economy so poor right now, I thought this task was going to be near impossible. I guess I should have known that I should just have a little more faith.

I do not know the exact amount that I have raised yet, and as soon as I find out, I will keep y'all posted, but I do know that the money is coming in, and it's all thanks to people like you!

YAV!

2009-05-07T10:21:00.000-07:00

I'm switching gears, just a bit. Imagine that. This is now my blog for my upcoming year as a Young Adult Volunteer! Check back for updates on this exciting year of my life!!!

A funny thing happened on my way home from the art show...

2008-12-25T12:39:00.000-08:00

So, Thursday night, the last night of classes, I had a final art show at a restaurant in downtown Florence. Mauro ended up going with Christy and I to view our work. The show went great, and it meant alot that Mauro could come and share this experience with us. BUT. On the way home, Mauro asked us to wait outside a shop because he wanted to go inside and buy some chocolates because that particular shop had the "best chocolates in Florence" (he was right...) Anyways, so Christy and I are sitting on a bench, all dressed up and bundled up in our nice overcoats, just waiting. A man walks up and kind of gives me a strange look, which I happen to see out of the corner of my eye, but I just ignore him, because that's just Florence. Well, he starts digging through his wallet, and I assume he's looking for money to go buy some chocolate. Instead, once he finds what he is looking for, he walks up to me, and without saying a word presses a small coin into my hand, closes my hand around it, and walks away around the corner. I look at Christy, astonished. When I look, I realize he has given me a 20 Euro cent coin. Why? I have no idea. Was it a down payment? Did I look homeless? Was it a complement? I may never know. But, it made me sit and wonder for the rest of the night what this could possibly mean. I think I might start doing this in America. because, regardless of the meaning behind it all, it makes people think and wonder. And I kind of like that! :)

San Gimignano…FINALLY!!

2008-12-02T03:01:00.001-08:00

So, this weekend was the grossest weather ever! And unfortunately, this weather has carried over into this week. It’s rainy and COLD, and I wish it would just snow. It really wants to, and it is snowing everywhere but Florence. But anyways, on Friday, despite the bad weather we went to Siena, a small Tuscan medieval town. It’s one of the best preserved medieval towns in the area. It was pretty cool to see all the old stone buildings with giant towers and fortresses. However, at the same time, it’s cool because the rest of the town, the more modern buildings have just sprung up around the ancient buildings, so it’s a very interesting mixture of medieval and modern. It was pouring down rain unfortunately, because from many places in the town you can look out into the Tuscan countryside, which is beautiful, even in the rain. I got sick, yet again, because it was so cold and rainy, so now I have a gross cold. Bummer. But, I have been wanting to see Siena for a while now. It’s so close to Florence, it’s one of those towns I would have been disappointed if I hadn’t gotten to see it before I left. And, since that night was one of the last nights Christy’s friends were in town, we went to fabulous restaurant across the river called Cambi and all the boys had giant Fiorentina steaks, which were amazing. They cook them for a short time on either side and then they stand the steak up on it’s bone and let the heat of the bone cook the inside. It’s pretty interesting, just to watch.
Finally on Sunday I got my second chance to tackle San Gimignano. Some of you may have read my post about trying to get there before, and if you haven’t, you probably should, because it’s quite comical and gives a little more insight as to why this trip was equally as ridiculous… Anyways, this trip was equally as disastrous, except this time we actually made it the town we wanted to see. So, we start off the day getting to the train station late, but it didn’t matter because our train ended up being 40 minutes late. You have to love the Italian trains. Actually, I really do love being able to travel by train, but the Italians can’t organize anything! Anyways, once we finally get on the train and get to Poggibonsi, we actually know what to do to get to San Gimignano this time, but since our train was late, we missed our bus and ended up having an hour and half wait in Poggibonsi. So, once again we found ourselves wasting time in this tiny town where everything is always closed! But, the bus finally came, so we get on it, with three other people and we haven’t even gone three blocks before a car hits our bus!! We barely even felt it because were in a huge charter bus thing, but this little Italian car felt it!! It really wasn’t bad, but there was a ton of paperwork to do, of course. So, that delays us even further. And, I would like to point out that these things would never happen to anyone but Christy and me!! But, we FINALLY get to San Gimignano, and it is worth all the fuss and trouble and wait to get there. This is probably one of my top favorite places in Italy now! It’s a tiny (we’re talking TINY) town on top of a hill that is still surrounded by its original medieval walls, and something like eight of the original medieval towers still exist. It was so cool to walk through this town and around this town and all over it because it’s so small… But it was like stepping in a time machine because every part of this town is original and it hasn’t grown outside of it’s original walls (atleast not much). So, as we are wandering around we find signs for La Casa de Babo Natale (Santa’s House). And, of course, we have to go in. So, we enter this courtyard and it’s decorated with lights in the trees and Christmas-y things everywhere, including a sleight and wooden reindeer. And then, Babo Natale’s house was in the corner and it turns out it was like an arts-n-crafts hut for children, so we thought we would leave it to the children, but it was fun to see. Plus, we found a tower in this courtyard that you could climb up and get the best 360º view of the city ever! Christy and I just sat up there in awe of the beauty of the scenery. I could have stayed there forever and been content. You could see Tuscan countryside for miles: miles of wine country and olive groves and the bright oranges and reds and greens that are made! It was really cool. So, despite the fact that Christy and I almost never actually made it San Gimignano, it was definitely worth the hassle!!

An American Thanksgiving…in Italy

2008-12-02T02:49:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving abroad was an interesting experience. Christy had some friends come in from Indiana for the week, so Mauro and Loriana invited them to Thanksgiving dinner. It turns out there was five of them, two of us, and Mauro and Loriana. If you have been to the Biliotti’s house (mom, dad, and Rach) you know this house is not outfitted for this many people. AKA it’s an apartment (above Gucci…just sayin…) in Italy. So, we set up extra tables and there were people EVERYWHERE! But, in that way it seemed more like my family’s Thankgivings. We started cooking the second I got out of class about 3:00 and didn’t stop until all the food was on the table about 8:00 (early for dinner by Italian standards. They usually eat at 9-ish…) So, Mauro and Loriana put us in charge of cooking them an authentic American Thanksgiving dinner, and that we did! Neither one of us had ever cooked a turkey before and everyone that we talked to gave us different instructions for cooking it (who knew there were so many different ways to cook a turkey?!) So, we kind of mashed everyone’s directions together and made it up as we went along. We cut slits in the skin and put butter in to keep it moist, then we covered it in olive oil and rosemary. It ended up pretty good. It was a little dry because we cooked the crap out of it because they didn’t have a meat thermometer and we were worried about it being too undercooked. But, it looked pretty and the juices made a darn good gravy. I would like to point out that we even made gravy…points for us? So, we had the giant turkey, which Mauro kept calling an ostrich because it was freaking huge!! (5 Kg to be exact…) And then we prepared mashed potatoes, my grandma’s stuffing recipe (which was a giant hit!! Loriana had like seven helpings of it!), buttermilk biscuits, and corn on the cob. Then for desert, Loriana made the best tiramisu EVER! And Christy made a darn good apple crisp, but it was most definitely shown up by Lori. So, it was really cool to be able to share this American holiday with friends and with my Italian family. We have had turkey in every form since that day…turkey loaf, turkey meatballs, turkey ribolitta…it never stops!! But, the holiday was the best I could ask for being abroad! And, now we get to listen to Christmas music and enjoy all the Christmas decorations that started after Halloween here! Plus, the guy who sits outside playing Christmas music on his flute (which is apparently called a flautist…who knew?!) is finally actually playing for the right season considering we can hear him from our window and he has been playing Christmas music since we got here…in August…

Venezia

2008-11-28T01:28:00.001-08:00

Venice, in a word, was amazing, incredible, perfect, beautiful, pristine, a little dreary, and all around wonderful. Who am I kidding? I can’t describe Venice in one word! Last weekend, Christy, Patricia, David, and I all took a train up to Venice. The train ride was about two and half hours, but it went by quickly because the views were beautiful from the train and because we were sitting next to Fernando, a good looking Spaniard who was making us practice our Spanish for once instead of our Italian. It kind of sucks that since I have been here speaking Italian this whole time that I can no longer find the words for things in Spanish, only Italian. I have heard that it is very hard to be able to speak both languages, and I agree, they are just too similar. Anyways, we got to Venice mid morning, and I immediately loved everything about it! We went on a bit of a dreary, cold, foggy day, but that worked to our advantage because there were hardly any tourists there. I had heard that Venice was smelly, dirty, crowded, and gross. But I never saw any of that. There was hardly any trash around (this might because I am used to Florence which can get pretty dirty…), it didn’t smell at all, and the water was a beautiful color of blueish green. I think I was expecting something more like the river walk where there is brown trashy water. But, this was no San Antonio, this was Venice!!! We decided to first visit St. Mark’s Square, which happened to be on the complete opposite side of town. We could have taken a gondola ride, but it was just too expensive! They jack up the prices because it’s such a “tourist” thing to do now and Europe likes to take tourists for all they have… So, we found our way walking around the city, over bridges, and through some of the tiniest allies I have ever seen!! It was actually quite easy to get around town by foot, although the streets are a joke there because they were built around the canal system. If you ever see a map of Venice, you will know what I am talking about. There are bridges that just stop at someone’s front door step and streets that start out of the middle of no where. It’s quite comical to try to walk in a direct route anywhere in Venice. But, we made it to St Mark’s and got to see a large portion of the city in the process. St. Mark’s was absolutely beautiful. The flying rats (pigeons) that cover the piazza: not so beautiful. The pigeons there are absolutely crazy!! I thought Florence had a problem with flying rats. Nope, Venice has a bigger one. People think it’s fun to feed these gross things, so they constantly fly up to you and land on you and are really brave little suckers. I just ran through them all and watched them fly away, that was my fun for the day. But, the church was absolutely amazing, inside and out. Inside, the ceilings and floors are covered in elaborate mosaics. The floor mosaics are made out marble and the ceilings are done in gold teseri. I doubt it’s real gold, but maybe...it is Venice after all. After we saw St. Mark’s square we did a little more walking around and found a pizzeria that made us a special margarita pizza (because we are awesome…just kidding, I don’t know why.) But it was a darn good pizza. It made me like Venice even a little more. Then we some how found our way back to the other side of the city, to the harbor (although the whole city is basically a harbor…) and we took a water taxi (which is really just like a giant ferry) over to the islands of Murano and Burano. Murano is where the famous Murano blown glass is from (hence the name…) and Burano is famous for their lace. We only stopped very briefly in Murano because it has gotten very touristy since they became known for their glass. However, since Burano is a little more out of the way, it was basically deserted! This was an incredible island! It used to be a very successful and popular fishing town inhabiting over 22,000 people. Now less than 6,000 people live there. (I will one day make it 6,001…) This island was beautiful though. All the houses are painted in bright colors so that when the fishermen come home in the fog or dark, they can still find their house. (So the old story goes…) But it was like being in Venice, because everything was still navigated by canals, but the houses and buildings were painted absurd colors! It was so beautiful and we ended up staying there until dark. If I didn’t find lace so tacky, I probably would have purchased some because their lace working skills were quite incredible! After we came back on the water taxi, we had just enough time to do a little souvenir shopping before we embarked on what became a nightmare of a trip home. We bought cheaper tickets on way home because we didn’t have any place to be and therefore could take a little bit longer. But cheaper tickets meant we had to switch trains in Bologna. Well, that turned out to be a slight issue seeing as how there was a train wreck and all the incoming trains were four hours late. At this point it was already 10 PM (or 22:00 if you’re from Italy) so I was exhausted! We finally, after talking to about twenty different conductors, found the only train that was going to Florence and hopped on it. It turned out to be a sleeper train, so we had to move around to five different cars until we finally found seats. The final part of the journey was that the train didn’t stop at the right train station and we missed the last train to the other station (which is literally two blocks from home). So, we got to walk for an hour before our journey finally came to an end. So, basically, it was a little stressful at the end, to say the least, but I wouldn’t trade those experiences for the world!!!

London Calling...

2008-11-24T02:07:00.000-08:00

London was one of the best trips I have taken since I have been here. Although I guess I start every blog with that. We left way too early on Friday morning, but it was good because it got us to London by 9, so we could start our day. The first day we were there we took a walking tour of the downtown area, which might as well be called Times Square. It’s all modern architecture with a giant bright screen that flash advertisements just like New York City. But, after we walked around downtown, we went to Covent Garden Market, a really cool market with very expensive stores. Well, everything is very expensive there because the dollar to pound ratio is a bit ridiculous! But, this was a great market because there are street performers everywhere. Some were really good – doing amazing magic tricks like making melons appear out of no where. But some were quite awful cross dressing comedians who didn’t happen to be funny, but happened to have hairy stomachs shown off by their belly shirts. So, it was great for people watching and absorbing some of the funky culture of the area. That evening, we went and had dinner at a great pub, The Coal Hole, (recommended by my friend Damien!) in down town London. I had a fabulous wild mushroom and asparagus pie. London’s famous for their pies. Afterwards, we headed down to the “hip” area, where all the night life is. We got to see some half naked transvestites pole dancing. Highlight of my night. Haha. We hung out with a friend of mine’s cousin, who was studying abroad in London this semester, so she was able to show us around some. But we were too tired to really stay out that late.
Saturday was my favorite day of the trip. We started off (too early…) at the National Gallery. This was possibly one of the best painting collections in the world. Every room you went into had famous names splashed over every wall. There were whole rooms dedicated to some of the best painters in the world: Botticelli, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rapheal, Titian, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Caravaggio, Monet, Seurat, Cezanne, Van Gogh…the list goes on and on and there were about 70 rooms of these paintings. I probably could have spent a good week and half just in the museum. We also got to see The British Museum, which was great and full of everything England has stolen in the past thousands of years. Including one of the crystal skulls that the new Indiana Jones was written about. (Who knew that didn’t just jump out of George Lucas’s head??) After the museums, we took a stroll through St. James’s park. This was such a beautiful area! However, there were nasty geese/pigeons/ducks everywhere! (And, no, I don’t mean that they were mutant animals, just that there were all of those birds everywhere.) St. James’s park is one of the only areas in London where it’s legal to feed the birds, so they sort of flock there. There was even an old man feeding squirrels out of his hand. But, St. James’s ends at Buckingham Palace (with the flag raised which meant the queen was actually there…) where we got to watch the changing of the guards. This was a cool experience, but a little over the top if you ask me. I mean, twice a day there’s a huge parade all because the soldiers were going off duty. I hope there’s a parade every day for me when I get off work. Anyways, it was a cool experience. After the changing of the guards, we headed to the Tower of London. We got to go inside and do the full tour of the whole tower and castle. Got to see the crown jewels, the ancient weapons, crowns, and armory of the past kings and queens, as well as great views of The London Bridge (which, oddly enough, was NOT falling down…sad day.) and the modern architecture of London. After the tower tour, we went back to the main square to figure out what we were going to do for the evening. We wanted to get Mamma Mia! tickets, but they were all sold out, I’m assuming because the movie made it a bit more popular. But, it ended up working out for the best, because we got tickets to see Wicked instead. This was definitely my favorite part of the trip! We had a hell of a time actually getting to the theatre, because our bus stopped half way there and we were told it was only going to take 20 minutes to walk there when in reality it took 45 minutes to jog there. However, we made it, a little late, but we still got to see the show! This is seriously one of the best musicals I have ever seen! The costumes are incredible, the set is even more impressive, and the two female leads have voices that give you goose bumps every time they opened their mouths!! It was “London’s number 1 musical,” so our little gay ticket seller told us, and I can totally see why! I unfortunately asked the stupid question of “do you think when you see it in the states, the actors all have British accents?” Apparently the answer to that was no. I guess I was just thinking of Spamalot…
Sunday was a short day because we had to get to the nightmare that was the London airport in the afternoon. However, we were still able to cram in so much! We got to see Westminster Abby, Big Ben, and the London Eye, because they are all like a block from each other, who knew, right? And then we got to go up to Camden Road Market, which was an incredible open air market that had everything from things for hippies, goth, and punk rockers, as well as antiques. There was a huge area with foods from every country. (Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Argentinean, Brazilian, Jamaican, Turkish, etc. etc.) It was a really cool place to go people watch, but it was also a great place to shop because the prices were really reasonable (even for the pound!) Plus it was cool because most of the stuff was hand made and all the artists and artisans just sat around making their products all day long.
So, the trip was amazing. The weather held off quite well. It was very cold (yes, I’m from Texas…) the whole time, but it only rained a little bit on Sunday, and we were basically in the airport by that time. I think the best thing about the trip was the people. Everyone in London was so happy, helpful, and just plain kind. Even the people who in America are total jerks, like security guards, policemen, and airport workers, were insanely nice and wanting to be as helpful as possible. It’s a nice change from Italy where people are a bit more hostile and definitely an amazing change from America! I think we should take a note from the Brits and start going out of our way to be friendly!

Calcio

2008-11-18T02:54:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday, me and a few friends finally went to a soccer game here in Florence. It was quite the experience, to say the least. We bought the cheapest tickets possible, because that’s how I roll, but it ended up being really good. We ended up on the first row, separated from the field by only a thin sheet of glass. The entire crowd, including us, was in purple (Fiorentina’s color!), except for a small portion wearing red (Munich’s color…BOO). Munich was the team they were playing and they actually had a large portion of fans in their section, which had to be sectioned off by glass as well, and then guarded by a ton of police in hurt-your-eyes yellow vests, making sure no fights broke out. Apparently, we went to a good game, because Munich is a big rival of Fiorentina, and there were really good yelling matches between the two teams. When we arrived, my favorite player, Mutu, ended up scoring the first goal within the first ten minutes. That’s why he’s my favorite. Well, that, and the fact that he’s ridiculously good looking. So, the rest of the game was a little bit boring, besides the man standing behind us yelling obscenities in Italian. I swear even the worst and ugliest of words sound amazing in Italian. The man standing behind us was constantly yelling “Vaffanculo!” (Pronounced va-fawn-coo-lo) And, this sounded so beautiful, regardless of the fact that he was yelling the worst obscenity that exists in the Italian language. Well, in the last twenty minutes of the game, Munich ended up scoring on a cheap shot (I’m not biased at all…) so the game got pretty intense. But, it ended up being a tie, so all was good and everyone went home happy-ish. So, that was my Italian soccer experience. Despite what some think, there was no cheating. Italians don’t cheat at soccer. Haha. There were quite a few obscenities yelled, lots of purple, lots of really great soccer, and a really good time had by all.

Americans in Italy for Obama

2008-11-05T07:07:00.001-08:00

Last night, Christy and I went to a theatre outside of Florence called Sachall. There was an all night election party going on for anyone who wanted to go. It was put on by the Tuscan American Association. Yes, apparently that exists. We arrived after dinner (which is like 10:30 here because they don't eat until 8:30 or 9) but it was really interesting! There were hundreds of people at this event! Students, ex-pats, older couples on vacation, Florentines, and other Europeans. It was so not what I was expecting. I guess I just didn't realize how many people are wrapped up in the decisions that our country is making. There was a ton of free food. Crappy American food like McDonalds and donuts, but hey, it was free. There was also free wine, because, duh, we're in Italy! Live country and western bands played all evening until the race started getting intense, because apparently that's the most "American" music they could think of. And there were lots of raffles with the grand prize being an all expensive paid trip to America. But, before the race started, they took an electronic vote of who you wanted to win and 85% of both Americans and Europeans said Obama. There were shirts and buttons being past out that said "Americans in Italy for Obama," and poor John McCain didn't even have a booth. I'm pretty sure all his supporters left when they saw the odds were against them. But, it was surreal to be in a foreign country and seeing how much everyone cares for my country and just how much one decision mattered. Whenever they would show Obama winning a state the entire room would burst into applause and cheering. But when they showed McCain everyone booed and flicked off the monitors. (I didn't ever say the Florentines were classy...) It was so funny, and a really great experience. Unfortunately everyone got kicked out at 4 AM because the party had to end before the final results came in, but it was such a fun night! Or morning... had a blast and hope that things can start changing in America. Or else I'm moving here. :)

Il Tanto

2008-11-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

This past week has been exhausting and exciting and perfect! My family met me here in Florence last Sunday afternoon (well, some of them didn't actually make it here until Monday. Damn the French. It wasn't their fault, but I feel as though I need to blame them for everything now.) We hit the ground running and never actually stopped moving until they were safely on the airplane home. They visited me for a week, but it only seemed like a few short days because the time flew by so quickly.

The first few days we had time in Florence to do a little sightseeing. Oh, did I say a little? Opps. Basically we saw almost everything Florence had to offer in two/three days... We had a guided tour of the Accademia (definitely even cooler once you know what everything in the museum is) went to Santa Croce, Santa Spirito, Piazza le Michelangelo, Palazzo Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio, and alot of other places that I can't really remember right now...

Then we went to Chianty. We got a tour of the vineyards from our private guide Guido. Whose name means "guide" in English. Coincidence? I think not. The vineyard was beautiful, despite the rain, and we got to have a fabulous meal of cingàle (wild boar) and lots of vine. Then we got to go into the wine tasting room and taste even MORE wine, grappa (a very strong liquor made from the skins of the grapes), homemade olive oil and the best tasting balsamic vinegar that they make at the vineyard. It takes something like 7 years to make balsamic vinegar right. (I wasn't really listening to that part...I think Colleen and I were distracting each other...) We then left that vineyard and visited a town called Montefiori (Mountain Flower) that only has something like 100 residents. It was an ancient medieval town with the original stone walls still surrounding it. We went inside a small wineshop and I attempted to converse in Italian with the cutest little old man who owned the store and made his own wine with his sons. We got free tastings of three of his wines from 2004 and 2005. I was definitely a fan of these wines, but it may have had something to do with the little old man serving them. After we drank wine he handed me his card and then started telling me to look him up on facebook. Yes, a tiny mountain village in Italy with only 100 people living in, and this old man tells me to find him on facebook. Priceless.

On Thursday we went to Rome, which was possibly one of my favorite days. We started at six in the morning and didn't stop again until we were back on the train at eight thirty that evening. We received a guided tour through the Vatican by Brenda, a former American who now lives in Rome and does research for the Vatican about Christianity and some other big words I didn't really understand. But, she was incredible and so knowledgeable! We got to see the Vatican museums, the Sistine Chapel, (which I may or may not have taken an illegal photo of...) and St. Peters. It was such a great tour! Then we left Brenda and was shown around the rest of the town by Julio (pronounced 'jew-lee-o', NOT 'who-lee-o' like my dad kept trying to call him...) I was not so impressed by Julio because he kept telling me the things I had learned in class was wrong. And I think I might believe Jeff Fontana who has a degree in the subject rather than this tour guide who writes fiction novels... But, anyways. We got to see the Pantheon, the Colosseum, Trevee Fountain (which I still don't know how to spell...) and the Spanish steps. I saw everything I wanted to see in Rome except for a few art museums that I might have to go back for later, but somehow we did it all in a day!!

On Saturday, my mom's birthday, we went to Cinque Terre. The five villages along the west coast of Italy that is now a National Park. It was so beautiful! These villages are very tiny, with only a few houses, restaurants, hotels, and shops, with narrow winding roads that connect them together. Each town is a little different than the next, but they are all right on the coast and all painted brightly to stand out among the dark stone cliffs. There are also hiking trails that connect them all together, but unfortunately the rain that had hit Florence all the previous week had made the trails too dangerous, so they were closed. However, we were able to drive to three of the five and explore the towns, take a ton of photos, have a FANTASTIC lunch of pesto pasta and pizza, (since these towns are known as the birth place of pesto) and toast to my mom's birthday with some lemoncello on the beach.

The week was so amazing and flew by entirely too fast! I miss my family alot, but I realize I only have less than two months left to see everything else I haven't gotten to see and to make some of the best memories I will ever remember! I am so thankful my family was able to come visit me and I hope they had an equally good time!!

Christy and Megan should not be allowed to travel alone…

2008-11-03T01:55:00.001-08:00

So, these past two weekends have been incredible! But, seriously, Christy and I should not be able to travel together. Last weekend we went to Perugia to attend Eurochocolate 2008, the chocolate festival of Europe. (if you didn’t catch onto that one…) The school was sponsoring a trip, but we decided we would save money and make the trip by ourselves. Mistake number 1. We talked our good friend Ben into making the trip with us. First problem, we got to the train station too early. (or maybe late…) We thought there was a nine o’clock train, but it turns out there was only an eight o’clock train and an eleven o’clock train. So, when we finally got on the train, it took about two hours to get to Perugia. Once we reached Perugia, we realized there was another problem. We had no idea where the chocolate festival was taking place in the city, or how to get there. I guess we just expected to step off the train and have there be chocolate everywhere. Well, our friend Kellen was at the train station going to the festival too, but he got on a bus before us and told us just to get on a bus that looked like the one he got on. So, the next time a “coach-like” bus drove by, we hopped on. The only problem? This bus was actually heading to another town. We asked a young boy sitting next to us if the bus was going to the chocolate festival and he just laughed. So, we got off at the next stop, which happened to literally be in the Italian countryside in the middle of nowhere! So, we wandered around the Italian countryside for a while until we found another bus stop going the opposite way and only had to wait about twenty minutes for the next bus, but it was a stressful and all around hilarious situation, and even more funny that it happened to Christy and me. When we finally got to the chocolate festival (about three and half hours after we were expecting to) it was worth it! If I don’t have to look at chocolate for a good long while, I will be happy!! But, there were booths from all over Europe. The Swiss chocolate was probably my favorite. We got a lot of free samples, and I ended up buying some chocolate covered hazelnuts, which happen to be my new favorite nut since it is used in everything here!! There were really cool booths with chocolate everything, like a giant life-sized chess game with the pieces made out of solid white and dark chocolate! It was a very cool festival! Once we finally got there!

This weekend, we decided to visit San Gimingiano because we didn’t have too much time to take an entire day trip, since Christy needed to be back to cook dinner for our host parents. San Gimingiano is a small town on the top of a hill about an hour outside of Florence. So, we took the train there and got off in a little cute town. We hiked around a town and through the woods around old fortress walls and walked all around an ancient castle. It was a really cool hike and it was surrounded by beautiful views of the Italian countryside. But, as we were leaving, we realized that we had not actually made it to the town of San Gimingiano because you cannot reach that town by train. Only buses can go to San Gimingiano. Therefore, we had been walking around the town of Poggibonsi all day not realizing where we were or what we were doing. This is why Christy and Megan are not aloud to travel together. I might find some time to head back to see San Gimingiano, because I still do want to actually see the town someday.
On a different note, my parents are getting here this weekend!!!!! And not only my parents, but my mom, dad, Rachel, Aunt Anne, Uncle Tim, and Aunt Colleen!! Let the fun begin! I can’t wait to share my cute little town with all of them!!

Capri…Italian for the most perfect place on Earth!

2008-10-17T04:16:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I spent three days along the coast of Amalfi. I traveled, along with 45 other students down to the Southwest coast of Italy. The trip took about six hours each way, so there was a lot of down time to say the least. On the way down we stopped in Napoli (Naples). I was thoroughly unimpressed with Napoli. Naples is the third largest city in Italy, only to Milan and Rome. It is also the place where the mafia supposedly currently resides. (Although I think that’s supposed to be a secret. If I don’t make it back to America, we’ll know why…) However, it also happens to be the place where pizza was invented. Their pizza is fabulous!!! But, their city was very dirty because they are attempting to get over a trash strike, and there is so much crime there, I constantly felt on edge. Thankfully we only had a few hours there. Just enough time to eat a pizza, meet the prime minister, and have our first look at the ocean. Then we continued on into Maori, where we would spend the next two nights. Maori is a small coastal town, which is very hard to reach by land. We drove along side of a cliff in a giant coach bus all along the switchbacks of the Italian coast line. Every time we rounded a corner our driver would lay on the horn to announce to the world that a big ass bus was coming around the corner. And, if another car ever drove up at the same time, they were basically screwed because the one lane road didn’t really allow for large buses. So, that was an intense drive, but it was worth it! The coast line is the most breathtaking site to witness in person. These pictures will not even come close to doing it justice! Each small town that we drove through on the way in was more beautiful than the last. Our hotel was right on the beach and my room faced the ocean, so in the mornings I was able to watch the sun rise over the ocean…PERFECTO!! By the time we got to Maori on Friday, the sun had already set, so we only had enough time to run to the ocean and dip our feet in before dinner. However, after dinner, we went back down to the ocean with a bottle of wine to watch the moon reflect off the ocean. My friends Julia, Emily, and I ended up going swimming in our underwear. It was kind of cold, but the water was so clear you could see all the way to the bottom – even when it was too deep to touch and even only in the moon light. The whole swimming in the underwear thing sounded like a good idea until we realized that we had no towel and it was really cold outside.

During the day, the ocean was so brilliantly aqua marine, it was indescribable. We had to be awake at 7 AM, but that gave me an excuse to watch the sunrise! We first had to take a small boat along the coast to Amalfi, and then we got on a larger ferry that took us out to the island of Capri. Capri is literally in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea with very few islands surrounding it, so it took forever to get to it, but it was worth the two hour boat ride because this was the most beautiful island ever. The second we got there, we got on another boat that took us to the Blue Grotto. This is a cave that when the sunlight hits the water, it reflects up onto the top of the cave, making the whole thing the most brilliant blue you will ever see. When we reached the entrance of the cave, it was not at all what I thought it was going to be. They moved us all from the boat we were in, into tiny canoes. I got crammed, along with seven other people, into a tiny canoe that I had to lay down in. The entrance to the Grotto was so tiny that our gondolier literally had to lay down on top of us to get into the cave. It was such a cool experience though because once you went through the tiny opening, the cave opened up into a huge room, where our tour guide bega

n singing to show us all how well it echoes in the cave. We didn’t get to spend enough time in the Grotto in my opinion, but it was an unforgettable experience! After the Blue Grotto we hiked to the top of the island and back down the opposite side so we could go to the

beach. It was so surreal to see the rich blue ocean meet with the tallest cliffs without any kind of transition or beach. While on the beach we went cliff diving, which was actually kind of scary, because the water was so clear that it didn’t look like it was deep enough to jump, let alone dive into the ocean. But, in reality, the water was about thirty feet deep! It was a crazy experience. I have never seen water that clear in my life! After swimming, we hiked around the mountains some more taking pictures and taking in the views. After Capri, we boarded the boat again, made a short stop in Amalfi to see their Duomo and crash a wedding, and then headed back to our hotel. In the evening, our teachers set up a beach party for us complete with a bonfire, tunes, and booze. (You have to love European’s ideas of schooling!)

The next morning, we boarded the bus entirely too early to go visit Pompeii. I was pretty impressed with the site, but for some reason I wasn’t expecting it to be so huge! We spent almost three hours inside and I still felt like there was a lot more I could have seen. It was very interesting to learn about Pompeii because I was so unaware about everything before. Silly me, I thought that the lava got the town, but no. Lava never ever reached the town seeing as how it is 10 or 12 kilometers away from Mt. Vesuvius. It was actually the toxic volcanic gases that suffocated the villagers, and the 12 feet of volcanic ash that buried the city. It was so interesting to see the town and all the people who were so unaware of what was going on. It was a little depressing to see. There was a dog that’s apparently famous, but it was tied up outside someone’s house, so it was all curled up in an awful position.

So, that was my weekend. Full of memories I will never forget, and sites I will probably never see anything like again. The absolute perfect weekend!!!

2008-10-07T03:57:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe it’s already a week into October!! Where has the time gone?? I sill can’t come to grips with the reality that I am living in another country. I’ve heard that you finally get comfortable with everything about a week before you leave. Sounds about right. This weekend I was supposed to be in Venice, but a train strike stopped that plan. Thanks train workers, you probably should have asked me before you did that one…just saying. But, it worked out ok, because I got to see a lot of “tourist” spots in Florence that I have been dying to see.

On Thursday (and actually, again on Friday and Saturday) there was mini Oktoberfest in the piazza below our school. The school smelled delicious for three days!! They had a ton of booths from Germany and Switzerland, and a few from France. There was lots of German beer (of course!) and the best giant pretzels in the world, and giant wheels of cheese (that actually smelled gross…I know, blasphemy for a McCarty to say…) and a whole pig on a spit, LOTS of wiener schnitzel and sauerkraut, and really awkward booths that sold wooden porcupines. But, it was really fun to go walk around and smell everything and see all the fun, crazy drunk people dancing to German music.

The rest of the weekend we spent time hitting all the hot spots. We finally finished seeing the Accademia (David is one big nude dude…), finished the Uffizzi (Which I probably could spend four more days in and still not be able to take everything in), the Medici Chapel, and San Lorenzo Church. We wanted to go out to the Medici Villas on the outskirts of town, but we didn’t really know what bus to get on and we were not brave enough to just jump on a random one. Plus it was a dreary, rainy weekend, and I wanted to take pictures because it’s so beautiful out there. There are still a ton of churches that I want to see, since that’s where a lot of the most famous Italian Renaissance art is located. You have to pay to go into them, and our card that gets us into all the museums for free doesn’t get us into the churches. But, we have discovered that if you go to mass there, they can’t charge you money. It might be a little blasphemous to only go to mass to admire the art, but it is very interesting to sit in on mass in Italian. I love that they end all the services with “Andiamo in Pace” (Go in Peace). I feel like it sounds so much more elegant in Italian. Well, really, I think everything sounds better with an Italian accent. Even the Italian men who yell, “Hello, kiss me!” in the markets. They don’t really mess around anymore; they go straight for the direct pick up lines.

Next weekend is the Amalfi Coast, which I am so excited about!! I will have to add a ton of pictures to my blog from it. I hope the weather is good. We have been having a bout of nasty weather here. I hear November if ever worse…boo. It has gotten very cold here. Well, cold for a Texan, my Indiana roommate makes fun of me leaving the house in my giant coat every day. During the day it’s not bad because the sun is usually out, but in the mornings and at night it gets pretty chilly. This weekend was especially bad though because the rain came in as well.

My host parents invited us to have dinner with them on Saturday (because we don’t eat with them on the weekends usually) and we were supposed to make a desert for them. So, we chose to make banana bread because they both have “a little bit of diabetes,” as they like to say. It came out really good, considering we weren’t really sure if the ingredients we were putting in were actually right considering the writing on the boxes was in Italian. They have been fattening me up good! The other night they had to go to a dinner party, so they left us a “cold dinner,” which I didn’t think sounded good and was actually kind of scared of. But, this was seriously the best salad I have ever had in my life. It had a layer of proscuto, then a layer of lettuce (but not the normal Italian lettuce, because this had small, sweet leaves, and usually the Italians use arugola…haha Rach) then a layer of corn, then some cheese (of course, because we are in the land of cheese), then it was topped with olive oil and lemon. The most perfect salad on the face of the planet!! Then they fed us these unidentifiable fruits. They are green, with a leafy stem. But you eat them like an apple, and they taste awful!! We have been trying to figure out what they are, but there’s no translation in the dictionary, so I’m pretty sure they don’t exist in America.

Oh...and here's a photo of Mauro...

Under the Tuscan Sun

2008-10-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

Saturday was possibly one of the best days I have had since I got here! I am a total wine snob now. Especially when it comes to the red wines. In fact, like the Italians, I won’t even bother with white wines any more! J I learned so much about how to taste wine, how to describe the tastes, how to smell, how to see the alcohol content of the wine…ect. ect. We first went to Montecino, a small town North of Siena, about two hours from Florence by bus. We were first able to tour the ancient Renaissance castle, which the main part is now used for wine tasting. Then we got to taste our first wine of the day, a Brunello.

Apparently this is the most famous of the Tuscan wines…I really had a lot to learn considering I had not even heard of this. We had a 2003 vintage, which I liked, but didn’t happen to be my favorite of the day. Although I shouldn’t put this wine down because it is possibly o

ne of the best wines I have ever tasted. Apparently, 2001 was the best year for Tuscan wines and 2002 is “absolute piss,” as Mossimo, our guide told us. After that, we went to Montepulciano. Apparently, these two towns have a rivalry going with which one produces the best wine. I think Montepulciano was best, but I got to taste more wines from the region, so maybe that had something to do with it. We had lunch in a small restaurant that Jack Nicholson apparently frequents. (so says the restaurant, considering there are large photos of him on the outside…heck, maybe the owner just really loves Jack, who knows…) We had a huge four course lunch with a different wine pairing for each course. (Now should be the time to mention that wine tasting in Italy is a little different from in the states. Instead of getting a sip which you taste and then spit out, the Italians fill your glass and expect you to taste the wine as you drink it. All of it.) Needless to say, it was a rowdy bus ride home! J I had to try chicken liver

pâté for an appetizer. It was pretty darn gross. (And to top that one off, tonight, Monday, Mauro prepared this delicacy for Christy and me as part of our dinner…I just can’t escape the pâté!) For a first course we had Pici Bolognese, which is basically fat spaghetti, almost worm-like, but it was some of the best pasta ever! For a main course we had pork in a plum sauce. And for desert, we had the best tiramisu on the face of the planet!! I think my favorite wine pairing was the pasta course.

Although I am still not educated enough to know why I liked that pairing more than the others. After lunch we stumbled on out to the vineyards, where the wine we drank came from. We got to walk through the vineyards, taste the grapes right off the vine, see all the casks (both metal and oak), and taste their special reserve label wine. That was actually my favorite wine, but it also happened to be the most expensive. What can I say, I have expensive tastes…

But it was cool because the reserve label wines had the photography of a famous photographer from the area. (Think Jones Soda labels to the extreme…) The grapes from the vineyard were fantastic. They were different from a normal grape. They had very thick skins, which they end up using later to make a liquor called grappa. And they are possibly the juiciest little morsels ever. “They even tasted purple.” Our last stop on the tour was Piensa, where the famous pecorino cheese is made. The entire town smelled of cheese, which was actually not as good as it sounds. But it was fantastic to sit, eating fresh cheese, watching the sun go down over the vineyards. If possible, I will one day own a villa there. It will happen; I just have to get famous first. This was definitely one of the best Italy days. When I pictured Italy in my head, this is exactly the type of day I pictured.

Sunday morning I participated in ‘Corri la Vita,’ ‘Run for Life,’ which was a run/walk supporting beast cancer. (Well, supporting finding a cure for breast cancer… atleast I don’t think it was in favor of it…) But it was a 5k that went up over the hill of Piazza le Michelangelo, through the woods, and back down over the Arno river. It was a very beautiful run! And such a fabulous way to start a Sunday morning. Plus, we got free pot holders for participating. We then ran into a parade on our walk home. There were lots of men in hats with feathers, wearing plaid. I thought it was their version of the masons, but no such luck. Two men saw that Christy and I were dressed the same and still had our numbers on…so they struck up a conversation with us starting off with asking if we won the race. (No, but thanks for rubbing it in some more…) but they told us that it was a parade of the Alpini Soldiers. These are the men (Well, these old fat men were obviously retired) that protect the Italian border of the Alps. Apparently it’s a big deal, which we happened to know nothing about. But the old men were cute and they took pictures of us and we got pictures of them…

We probably have the most interesting Sunday nights here. Last Sunday night we went to Piazza Santo Spiritu, which we renamed Piazza della Hippie. We had dinner and ended up staying for a concert because he heard the band warming up, and they sounded incredible and the lead singer spoke perfect English. The bad played a lot of blues stuff like Blues Brothers, some Aretha, etc. It turns out the lead singer was from New Jersey. She was so funny because she was announcing all the members of the band, in perfect Italian, saying “on sax, Francesco… on piano, Luca…” and then she said “Mi chiamo SUSAN.” Whitest name ever! Christy, Kellen, and I just looked at each other and said in unison, “Yup, American”… But we went and talked to her after the concert and she was a really cool woman. She was a student here like us, over 16 years ago, and she ended up back here and hasn’t left. I would love to one day have a story like that! She was such a great sport through the whole concert too because there were lots of people there that were obviously very high or drunk or on something, or needed to be on something. For some reason there were also quite a few people of questionable gender there as well. We played a fun game called ‘Man or Woman?’ But there was one woman, who actually liked to be called a man, it turns out, who kept getting up on stage and asking Susan to dance with him. It was hilarious! Susan looked a little thrown off, but just kept on singing, until the person took the microphone from here to tell everyone that Susan is a lying American woman. Possibly the funniest concert ever. Finally the ‘man’ was thrown out of the free concert, but not before getting angry and throwing chairs. Oh, Italy. As Lindsey tells us, “This country is peaceful, but the people here sure have a lot of anger in them!”

Well, then, last night, we decided we needed to have a picnic up on Piazza le Michelangelo and watch the sunset. So, we are sitting on a blanket enjoying our cheese and crackers, and a German couple walks up and notices that John, a guy in our group has brought his guitar with him. The man asks if he can play it, and just starts busting out some Simon & Garfunkle, Bob Dylan, John Denver, and basically just puts on a little concert for us all. His wife buys use three bottles of wine, which they consumed most of, and we just hung out having a picnic with the German hippies. The guy looked a little like Willie Nelson, but his name was Axil, and his wife was Sabina, who had the longest blondest hair on the planet. By the end of the night they were both pretty drunk and all the more entertaining. Sabina kept asking John to play the Rolling Stones’s song Angie because Axil would never play it for her and she just loved that song so much! She must have asked him like four different times. Pretty darn entertaining!! They were apparently camping up there with lots of other hippies. Apparently that’s hippie central too. We do know where to find them now!

Project Runway and Secret Tunnels

2008-10-01T09:43:00.001-07:00

Even though it’s already Monday, I will fill everyone in on the on goings of last week since I have some catching up to do…I will split these into two blogs so it is easier to read because a lot more happened this past weekend than in the last week.

Last week was fairly uneventful. I really love going out in the evenings here because there is always something going on. On Tuesday night we ended up meeting some friends at the Lion’s Fountain, an English pub here – SO un-Italian of us… They were having a guitar hero contest, which I obviously would have one if I had thought to enter. Haha…some of you know of my amazing Guitar Hero skillz. Anyways, we only stayed a few minutes at the Lion’s Fountain, because we are attempting to immerse ourselves in the Italian culture, not the British one. So, we ended up back at our staple, the Jazz Club. It was blues night, so basically whoever wanted to play could get up there and bust out some blues. There was one group of boys who looked as though they couldn’t be older than 13 playing some of the best blues I have heard in a while. It was pretty funny. They left a little before 10, because we figured it was a school night.

Graphic design on Thursday was a ton of fun. We are designing word art to be incorporated into the menu at a local restaurant. We are also designing the menus for a special art show called “Food ‘N Art,” which I aptly renamed FnA… But we are having a contest and whoever’s they like best is going to get to be the actual menu. We are basically playing Project Runway, so my teacher keeps walking around saying “Just make it work.” Haha…Jessie.

Friday morning we got to tour the Vissarian Corridor, which is a long hallway essentially, that connects Pitti Palace to the town hall. Pitti Palace was originally supposed to be built for the Pitti family, (hence the name) but then they ran out of money and the palace remained half finished before the Medici family came into power and finished it. One of the Medici’s built the corridor as a gift for his bride, and now you apparently have to pay a lot to receive a tour of it all, or you just have to know the right people! J This corridor was a way for the Medici family to walk safely from their house to their private art museum, the Uffizi, and then to the town hall. Essentially, they never had to come into contact with the commoners, but they were also able to keep tabs on the workers below. It was a really cool tour, and we finally got to begin looking at all the Uffizi has to offer. Now the corridor is filled with self portraits from 17^th century painters and some more recent artists. There was a Chagall self portrait which was my favorite. But I just loved that I got to do something that I wouldn’t have normally seen had I just been on vacation here.

Best Italian Pick Up Line

2008-09-23T04:46:00.000-07:00

Walking through San Lorenzo market the other day, I heard a man say to me in broken English, "Excuse me miss, I believe you dropped something." So, I turned around and asked him what I dropped, because I saw nothing of mine on the ground, and he replied, "My heart."

True story... Italian men are getting craftier.

Karaoke Strip Tease

2008-09-19T03:04:00.001-07:00

Last night was possibly one of the most entertaining nights that I have had since I arrived in Florence. We found out about this club called the Jazz Club that’s right downtown a few blocks from the Duomo. We thought it would be a very chill, relaxing atmosphere where we could go have some drinks and listen to jazz. And we probably would have been right if we had gone on any night other than Thursday. Thursdays at the Jazz Club, it turns out, are karaoke nights. Yes, I kid you not; I ended up in an Italian karaoke bar last night. It really wasn’t that crowded…imagine that…and there was one couple that we met there that happened to be studying abroad through Syracuse, so they spoke English too. It was weird because listening to the music in the karaoke bar has been the largest concentration of Italian music that I have heard since I got here. There’s an Italian joke here that the Italian people chose to focus on the arts and therefore they cannot sing or play music. MTV is one of the biggest things here right now…Italians love their MTV. In fact, our host family has three MTV channels. However, on MTV, they mostly play songs in English. The street vendors all have English music playing in their booths, and even my Italian teacher plays American oldies in the background of his class. Italian music just isn’t that big of a thing here. So it was quite strange to hear only Italian music in the bar last night. The only people that were singing songs when we got there were the bar tenders, the owner, the DJ, and two people, a man and a woman who were obviously regulars considering the DJ would call them up by name. So, when we walked in the door, we were a bit of fresh air, so to speak. We didn’t even have our drinks before they tried calling us up on stage. We successfully got them to stop taunting for a while by telling them that we don’t speak Italian. However, Kellen, one of our friends does speak decent Italian, so he told the DJ that if he found a song in English, Christy would sing it, because she sings incredibly. Well, Christy and I had already made an “I’ll go if you go” deal before getting there, which was mistake number one. So, the DJ puts on one of the only English songs he has, Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On and Christy gets pulled up on stage to do a duet with the woman who is a ‘regular’ on karaoke night. It was entertaining, and we have a ton of pictures of Christy’s duet. (Except, then Christy’s camera died, right when the night was getting started) So, Christy gets an encore and the DJ plays Summer Lovin’ and I am pulled up on stage to join, along with Julie, and our friend Chris, because we had to have a male counterpart… And when that song finishes, we still aren’t done because we just haven’t sucked enough. So, the DJ plays MORE Celine Dion, this time he plays I’m Your Lady, possibly one of the hardest songs to sing in the world, and Christy, the woman, and I do an awful rendition and finally get booed off the stage!! So, then more people sing, the night goes on, there’s a bad rendition of New York New York, and our friends from Syracuse get to sing some Beatles (why WE got stuck with Celine Dion, I will never know…) but then, the most amazing moment of the entire night happens. The short, chubby, bald, flamboyantly gay, Italian man who is obviously a regular there, gets up to do three songs in a row, each one getting more raunchy than the last, until finally he is doing a strip tease to the point of having his pants unzipped and his skin tight shirt somewhere in the audience, with his hairy chest exposed. I really thought I was going to pee in my pants I was laughing so hard. However, he was taking it so seriously, and he had every move obviously choreographed perfectly, even down to the point of sitting on top of the piano with his legs crossed… Hands down, best thing I have ever seen in Italy thus far!!!!

Photojournalism

2008-09-19T03:04:00.000-07:00

My photojournalism teacher is trying to get me killed. Well, not really. But he is challenging me to death…I love a good challenge; however, this class is stretching me in ways I never knew possible. I am thankful for Simone (my teacher) because without him, I would never do the things I am taking part in…
On Monday, we had an assignment where we had to hike to the train station and then we had one hour to get as many portraits of people as we could. We had to go up and ask random people, in Italian, if we could take their photograph. I am too chicken to do this in America, where I speak the language! I walked around for probably fifteen minutes before I actually got the courage up to ask anyone. I started off asking people in English, because I was just positive my Italian was horrible. However, people weren’t as responsive when I asked in English and a surprising amount of people didn’t speak any English. That shouldn’t be surprising…that makes me sound ignorant. However, it was surprising to me because everyone that I have run into here speaks English, or atleast understands it well enough. Once I started attempting to ask in Italian, people were much more receptive. It was funny to see people’s reactions. Some were flattered, others said no, lots of people asked why, and one woman even said yes, as long as it doesn’t get turned into porn! It was a very interesting experience, and I was very surprised by myself and the confidence that this assignment built.
However, I still only got about 20 portraits done in an hour. Some people in my class took over 150, so you can see the comparison. I like to think I went for quality over quantity, however, I know it was just because I was too chicken to ask for any more.
My next assignment for this week is to find a small business, go inside, talk with the owner, and photograph like mad. I am excited and also nervous about this assignment because me Italian is so awful and most of these artisans around town don’t speak English. So, it will be interesting, to say the least.
The rest of my week has gone good. Classes are keeping me entertained, for the most part. And my Italian is coming along quite well, considering where I started…
On Tuesday, I had lunch with a friend whom I like to call Romulus. He goes to AC with me and is studying abroad in Rome; however his three week orientation is taking place in Firenze. It was so nice to be able to talk to someone about things back home. It was a familiar friend in an unfamiliar setting, which I loved.
So, that’s the midweek update. (It’s really Wednesday when I am writing this, but who knows when I will actually get internet again to post it…) Hope everything is well in the US! Ciao!!

Viareggio, 'The pot', and Nutella

2008-09-15T02:42:00.000-07:00

My beach trip and this entire weekend have been perfect! Early on Friday morning, (since we have no classes on Friday) Christy, Kellen, Julia, Chris, and I headed to Pisa. This is only about an hour train ride, (with stops) and the trains for it leave every half hour. The day actually started out pretty crummy because Christy and I got to the train station three minutes too late and missed the 8:27 train. The rest of the group had already gotten on this train, however, and left us. So, that left Christy and me, the two most directionally challenged people in the world, to try and navigate ourselves through the train station in our broken Italian and somehow onto a train to Pisa. Luckily we ran into a group of English speaking guys, who turned out to be in a study abroad group from A&M and UT, who were also going to Pisa. So, we sat with them on the train, which took away most of our stress, thankfully. Pisa is a cute, small, quaint little town. There isn’t really much to see there. Once you see the leaning tower and take the tacky tourist-y picture of you holding the tower up, (or kicking it over, if you are Chris) then you’ve pretty much seen Pisa. It was very amazing to see the leaning tower in person, I’m not saying that wasn’t an incredible experience, but when Mauro told us there wasn’t much to see in Pisa, he was right. We looked into climbing into to tower (yeah…they let you do that…) but it was going to cost more to climb the tower than the entire day’s trip would have cost. So, we nixed that idea and headed back to the train station to go to Viareggio.

Viareggio is the perfect little beach town. The ocean was pretty easy to find. You just get off the train and head straight for ten minutes. We had lunch at a small little beach front café, which was surprisingly reasonably priced, considering the location. We also bought granitas from them later in the day. Granitas are so much more incredible here than in the states. They are basically fresh fruit slushies, but the flavors are indescribable. Because they are a ‘summer time’ treat, they are going to stop selling them after next week, so we have to stock up now!!

They beach was perfect! The water wasn’t as blue as I expected from the Mediterranean, but it was a beautiful sand beach, and the water was so clear, you could see the bottom even when you couldn’t touch. There was nothing in the water either, not like the Texas coast where there’s seaweed, shells, and small ocean animals everywhere. We had to really search for shells on that beach. We did all the typical tourist beach things…sunbathed, read, relaxed, buried our friends in sand, swam, gawked at all the old topless Italian women. Oh yeah…so, it’s not really a nude beach, or even a topless beach for that matter, but all the old women like to sunbathe without their tops. (Everyone here is so tan…and they apparently don’t like tan lines…) And they all seem to have a different view of modesty here as well. These old, big women don’t seem to have ever heard of a one piece or tankini swimsuit. That’s a fashion statement that hasn’t reached Italy yet. These women all liked to wear string bikinis. Or thongs. And all the men wear speedos. And the little girls don’t wear tops either. It was really the most strange seeing that. I felt too covered up wearing my sports bra. Considering I didn’t bring a swimsuit…

Anyways, that was my beach trip. It was the most relaxing day. And we chose the best day to go, considering it hailed in Florence, but was sunny and ninety in Viareggio. It has been raining all weekend here. We have been staying inside mostly, going to museums and trying to work on our homework. It’s hard to be studying in Florence because there’s so much I want to see and do and homework is not one of these things.

Last night we had our first creepy Italian guy experience. We were standing in the middle of the Palazzo Republicca, trying to talk to our friends on the phone and give them directions of how to get there by looking at the map. This guy walks up and asks us if he can help and takes Christy’s phone to try to tell Chris where to go. We finally figure out where they are and decide to meet them there, so this guy offers to walk us over there. We thought that was kind of him, at first. I have learned my lesson with these Italian men. First he tells us he’s 29, but then later takes it back and says he’s only 26. Then he starts asking creepy questions like ‘are you single?’ I, for once, decide to be straight with him and say yes. Christy lies and says no. From then on, he would only talk to me. Although he had to first ask me three times if I was a lesbian. Looking back the answer to that question should have most definitely been yes. He told me at one point that he was in love with me because I made his heart go boom. You have to love the boom boom… So, he takes us half way to the location of the place before he starts asking me ‘if I smoke the pot?’ When I said no he started asking me why not, because according to him, “everyone in the US does drugs…you know, like the cocaine pills?” Then he just starts laughing uncontrollably. So, Christy gets mad and asks, “Are you high?” And he just said, “Well, yes.” Almost like, duh, why would you ask such a question? So, we managed to shake him off finally and decided we would never ask for help from another friendly Italian man because he will probably be high.

So, that was my weekend, in a nutshell, the highlights and lowlights. Oh, and I have found a new love…nutella. Mom, why have you never told me about the wonders of nutella?!

I'm Amazed...

2008-09-13T02:51:00.000-07:00

I have enjoyed my first week of classes very much. Tomorrow I will go to my last class of the week and then being to enjoy the weekend. Although I do have lots of assignments to work on. My professors are all amazing and speak pretty good English, which is good for me. And, although the hours are long, I really don't mind it, because I can look out a window and see that I am in Italy!

Last Sunday, we had a great day spending it with Loriana and Mauro. I attended catholic mass with Loriana. Every catholic family in Italy has a church they attend based on where they live, and even though Mauro calls himself 'agnostic,' it is easy to see he still takes pride in 'his' church, considering it was one of the first places he showed Christy and I on our tour. The Biliotti's church, Santa Trinita was a beautiful old church with frescos, statues, and altarpieces dating back to the Renaissance and before. It was very surreal to be sitting in a church only to look over and see a fresco I had been studying all of last semester! Later on that evening, Christy and I went and visited our friends who live in an apartment building next to a different church, San Lorenzo. The view from up there at night was perfect. The church was lit up, and the piazza below was full of bustling restaurants.

On Monday night, Christy and I decided to have an 'Italian experience,' so we bought gelato and ate it on the Ponte Vecchio while watching the most beautiful sunset. Followed by a great rainstorm. While huddling for warmth and trying to stay out of the rain, we met a couple from California who was studying in Rome. It’s funny how easily you strike up conversations here when in the states, I wouldn’t talk to stranger if I didn’t have to. It’s almost like all the American’s are reaching out just to find someone else who speaks English…

I’m amazed at how quickly I can get into a routine here. I get up, go to class, come home, eat tripe, all as though it is what I have been doing my whole life. I am finally comfortable enough to venture out in the city alone, since I now know my way around, and I am comfortable enough to leave my map at home. (Some days.) Today, after classes, I went and sat in Cascine Park and read a book while people watching. It’s such a beautiful park and a great way to get away from all the noise. In the mornings, I like to go running there, but it was most fun just to sit and be still for a while. And, it was fantastic to get away from the traffic noise and hear birds again. Hmmm…I kind of feel a song coming on (“When the hustle and bustle of Houston, starts getting to me, I put myself in my pick-up truck and head out to Wimberley…”) Sorry, bad song…if you have seen the Star of the Hills (A fabulous play about my hometown) now this song will be stuck with you all day. Anyways, I may be in Firenze, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten my roots. Although since I am so in love with this city, I am about ready to become an ex-pat. Hmmm, hope the government doesn’t read this…

Anyways, this blog is getting a bit long, and I am bitter because I have had to type it up twice since I stupidly lost it the first time. I think it may have been better the first time actually. This one’s a little more random. As is my mind. CIAO!

Tripe: Italian for projectile vomiting.

2008-09-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

Note to self: If the Biliotti's give you something that looks unfamiliar, always ask what it is BEFORE eating...

So, the other night Christy was late for dinner because of classes, so there I am, just hanging with the Biliotti fam, and Mauro dishes up something that looks like noodles in red sauce onto my plate. He has discovered that I will try anything he gives me, so he occasionally tries out Florentine 'delicacies' on me before feeding them to Christy. This was one such occasion. I load up my fork and take an enormous bite without further questioning. I instantly realize this is not noodles. The texture is spongy, almost like calamari, but they left an after taste as though they went bad. Yesterday. I finally get enough of it down to ask Mauro what I am eating to which he replies: "It is a Florentine delicacy. You like?" And I have to say yes. So he says "Good! It is cow stomach." At that point I should have projectile vomited. But, I managed to swallow enough wine to dissolve the taste. But not the visual. So, then, I email my mom to tell her of the tragedy and she tells me tripe is actually cow intestine. Apparently, Mauro got his body parts mixed up. Either way, don't eat the tripe. It may be a delicacy, but I can't do it!!

Firenze and I have a love/hate relationship...

2008-09-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

There is so much that I LOVE about Firenze. (the Italian word for Florence...don't get me started) But there are a few things I could do without.

I love that the Italians are so concerned about their consumerism. (Except when it comes to Gucci...) It is obvious that they have to be because water and electricity is so expensive. But, they only use the minimal amount of water, and the couple that we live with doesn't usually use much electricty...except for the TV, Loriana can't live without her soaps!!

I love that the city streets are bustling everyday with tourists from all over the world. I love listening to the different dialects when I walk down the streets. I love to walk past the bakeries and smell the fresh meats, cheeses, and breads.

I LOVE GELATO!! They are going to have to roll me out of this country because I am going to try every flavor. So far my favorites have been caramel, raspberry and lemon together, and cheesecake. But I have tried a ton already...

I hate it when you walk past someone and they blow smoke in your face. This actually happens alot. Everyone here smokes, but it is a national law that they cannot smoke inside, so they all walk around the streets with cigarettes...everyone.

I hate it when you walk past someone and they smell rank. This also actually happens alot. Mom, you were right, the Europeans (mostly the older ones) don't believe in deoderant.

I hated the heat until today. It had been so hot here, and they do not use air conditioning, so I would lay in bed at night losing weight while I slept from all the sweating. However, today, a breath of fresh air landed over the city and it has felt amazing! I can only hope that this cooler weather is here to stay!

I love my host family! The Biliottis are a crazy old couple that are possibly they nicest people on Earth! Loriana is really trying to learn more English. We (Me and Christy, the roommate) taught her how to say 'oh my gosh' and now she says it all the time. Everytime she says it she looks over at us to see if we caught it.

I really REALLY hate the noise. The vespas make such a racket, and because the city streets are so tall and narrow, the sound just bounces off the walls and reverberates into the room. All. Night. Long. Not ok. The older generation here rides bikes everywhere or walks, which I love. But the younger people are all into the vespas, which I hate. And they use their horns WAY too liberally. (Go ahead, Aunt Colleen, insert a joke about them being 'horny'...)

I both love and hate that we walk everywhere. I don't mind allowing extra time to get everywhere and walking along the city streets. But, I have the worst blisters on my feet, sometimes it's almost impossible to put shoes on in the morning. I hate that I only packed shoes that are fashionable, and no hiking boots. I have been living out of my Chacos, which looks really tacky, especially with my really cute dresses and slacks, but my feet are refusing to go into any other shoes.

I love Italian game shows. Every night before dinner Mauro and Loriana watch this game show that's some kind of word puzzle. I don't really understand the point of the game, but I sit there with my dictionare and learn new vocabulary. And they yell at the people in the TV.

I hate tourists. But I am still technically one. Mauro says there is no longer a 'tourist' season, it is just year round craziness. I have to walk past the Ponte Vecchio and Uffizzi Gallery on my way to school, which is a beautiful walk, but once you get to those two points (which are basically at the same spot) it bottlenecks and is almost impossible to miss the tourists and avoid being missed by the vespas. (They drive FAST...TOO FAST!!)

I love the food here! I am in heaven with the mozzerella, fresh vegetables, olive oil, and PASTA! But, the bread here is bad. They say American's have horrible bread, but I am a fan of the soft breads, and here it is all hard breads. But, if you put enough fresh cheese on anything, it's fantastic!

I hate the fact that l'Arno (the river) is filled with river rats. Ok, they are actually Nutria, which being the daughter of a marine biologist actually paid off on this one, because I am in the only one who knows what this is. Mauro spent forever trying to convence me that these GIANT animals are not rats, but really nutria. But I don't believe him. They look like rats.

I love my classes. My professors are hilarious! Most of them live in the area, either Pisa, Rome, or smaller outlying cities and ride the train into work. My Italian language teacher is crazy!! He's a 40 year old man who plays American 60's music while teaching Italian. Gotta love that... And my photojournalism teacher is a 28 year old freelance photographer who's work is published by some magazines around the area. He's really talented but he says he is too artistic to make money.

Oh, and I love my roommate!! She is too much fun!!

Well, we discovered the free internet (and by free, I do mean stolen) doesn't work on the weekends, so unfortunatly I could not write. I have so much to tell everyone and so many pictures to show already! I will write again soon. This weekend we are hoping a train to Pisa, which is only 1 hour away, and we can jump on for 5 Euros. So, amazing! Then we are spending the day at the beach and coming home. I really wish I hadn't taken my swimsuit out of my bag...

Arrival...

2008-09-04T16:19:00.000-07:00

I have arrived in Italy safe and sound! I love it here! There's so much to do and so much I want/HAVE to see before I leave. I finally have a computer that I can use, which is my roommates, but we are stealing wireless from somewhere in the area. Maybe from the Dolce and Gabbana store downstairs! The street we live on with the Biliotti family is super nice. It's all designer stores. But, the traffic outside is SO loud! It's impossible to sleep, so I think once I get tired enough or used to the time change, I will probably crash. I have already walked all over the area, but just staying inside the city center (which is the main tourist-y part of the city with all the old ruins and new museums.) It is toursit time in the city, which I wish I could consider myself not part of, but considering Christy (the roommate) and I have to stop on every street corner to pull out the map, I would say we definitely count as tourists. The family we are staying with is so amazing! We live with Mauro and Loriana Biliotti. They are an elderly couple who live in a large apartment in the city center with their cat Berillo. Mauro is an incredible artist who lived in San Diego for many years, so he speaks very good English. Loriana is a retired seamstress who speaks very little English. She knows small phrases like 'no problem' and 'is good.' They have given me one month to learn Italian, then they are not going to speak anymore English to me. I guess this is good because I need to learn, but it might get confusing at first!! I am surprised that I understand so much just from the Spanish skills I have learned. There are many similar words, which is really good. The Biliotti's cook amazing food for us for dinner. The first night we were here they cooked a 'light' dinner because we were tired. So we only had salad, cantelope wrapped in proschuto (a WEIRD combo, but a delacacy here...), salame, cheese, and penne pasta with meat sauce. Yeah, I KNOW!! I felt like I was going to pop from this light dinner!! The next night they cooked us the best lasagna I have ever had, with homemade noodles.

The flight in was uneventful. I flew all night and made a lay over in Germany. Luckily there were many other SAI (Study Abroad Italy) students on the plane with me so it was very easy to find where I needed to go.

The first few days we have been having orientation. Christy and I have been finding our way to our classes, which is only a 20 minute walk down along the Arno River past the Uffizzi Gallery and over Ponte Vecchio. Not going to lie though, I thought this was going to be an amazing walk, but all the tourists get in the way!! It is so hard to weave through the masses of people and avoid being run over by the vespas, who we learned very quickly DON'T STOP for pedestrians!! But everything is beautiful here and every church or ancient building that I pass I make a mental note to go inside soon because I think of all the incrdible architecture and paintings that I have studied in Jeff's classes that await inside. I have to wait to get my international student discount card so I can get in free!! We have been to the Duomo (many times already) and to all the main churches, but have yet to go inside.

I had my first gelato experience!! I cannot get enough!! Christy and I have decided to make a goal to try every flavor available. I had stracciatella (I think is how it s spelled...) it's like chocolate chip, but really calling it that does it NO justice! Gelato and espresso are possibly the best inventions in the world. Oh, and their wine's not so bad here either...

Anyways, it is lunch time, so we are going to find a 'bar'. (Which is really a cafe here...what American's call bars are 'pubs'. The Italians might be disappionted when they come to America looking for food and only find sleezy bars...)