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Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Ps
Oh check out the Danny woo Blog!
hello Seattle I am an AmeriCorps....
Well here we are the second day of the second week of round four. Officially Ice now been in Seattle for one week. Gold 1 has crammed into a shady two bedroom one bath. Its one of those apartments you see from a main stretch of road. You know the ones hidden behind all the trees with only a snippet of second story concrete balcony and people loitering there....drinking smoking and doing drugs. Now imagine nine 18-24yr olds crammed into one of those apartment. They file out at eight AM and wearily trudge back in around six PM. Luckily our neighbors are just as loud and as crazy as us.
Work has been interesting. We are centered in the international district or Chinatown and the Danny Woo Community Garden is right on the edge. We have had lots of time to explore; one of the days Lisa (an intern who is our contact for the children's program) set us free to rove around and explore. We have found lots of good places to eat. There is a huge bus station which can take you many places for free during the day. We took it downtown once but I still would like to go more- obviously to actually see stuff. The buses reminded me of the underground in London. There is an actual road underground the buses travel on very much like the tube!
Work itself has been interesting. Gold 1 functions not like many other Ameri-teams. In order to work we must play. In order to follow directions we must try to make it most efficient and long term. We constantly have even better ifs and suggestions. with our sponsors we interrupt constantly and probably pry more than appropriate and banter with sarcasm and teases. We have been very fortunate at every other project to have sponsors who enjoy this, also function this way or have adapted quickly and added to our playful work. after seven days here it doesn't seem to be the case. miscommunication seems to be the regular communication tactic and were feeling underused (in the idea of better suggestions which are rejected) or unwanted (for more than just work).
the garden is very neat; however, it seems to be full of shady characters and upon arrival a bit trashy. We have really wanted to work on clear definition of the children gardens plots as well as added color and kid friendly environment. We were concerned immediately by the trash in the garden and after finally nagging our way into trash duty picked up MANY syringes condomns and bags of poop. How could we expect kids to want to be safe or comfortable here with these concerns?
We spend our mornings with kids. Today was day two. Due to a lack of actual children wanting to come we recruited a nearby Daycare. Were running 18 3-5 year olds. And 4 other ppl who had actually signed up. The program is going much better than we thought it would and we're really enjoying it. The boys do other stuff then too. After lunch we have other garden stuff to do. We're being directed to pruning, creating compost, weeding etc but were constantly trying to convince Jonathon to let us work in the childrens garden. We want to make a rainbow in the walk way to signify the entering and exiting of the childrens garden. We were able to finish one. We also want to create a welcome sign and bright colorful things to draw in kids and make them feel more at play.
Last weekend we went to the Solstice festival in fremont. It was supposed to be crazy and hipstery and artsy and showcase a naked bike ride but the morning got off to a rough start and we missed the bike ride, were rather grumpy and then also realized living in NOLA during Mardis Gras seems to have ruined all other parades for us.
Money is tight but I've come to the irresponsible decision that I'm here now I should enjoy it and figure out the rest next year. Ill be sleeping in my car on the road trip haha.
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the garden is very neat; however, it seems to be full of shady characters and upon arrival a bit trashy. We have really wanted to work on clear definition of the children gardens plots as well as added color and kid friendly environment. We were concerned immediately by the trash in the garden and after finally nagging our way into trash duty picked up MANY syringes condomns and bags of poop. How could we expect kids to want to be safe or comfortable here with these concerns?
Last weekend we went to the Solstice festival in fremont. It was supposed to be crazy and hipstery and artsy and showcase a naked bike ride but the morning got off to a rough start and we missed the bike ride, were rather grumpy and then also realized living in NOLA during Mardis Gras seems to have ruined all other parades for us.
Money is tight but I've come to the irresponsible decision that I'm here now I should enjoy it and figure out the rest next year. Ill be sleeping in my car on the road trip haha.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The beginning of the end
Often its clichely said "this is the beginning of the end." Senior year of high school or college, last dances, a fight with the significant other and many more. These are all places where even I have used this age old cliche but this weekend it rang more true than any of these other times.
This weekend I finished packing for Good 1s last grand adventure. When we return to campus Iman will be gone and Gold 1 will have eight days left together.
Yesterday we all piled into Rhonda, stopping one last time at starbucks on watt to begin our trek. I slept for the first six hours when I wasn't driving. Yasha slept on me for two hours then Sophie Yasha and I piled into a seat and passed out-legs stretched across eachother, no regard for personal space. I drifted off into slumber thinking about how far we have come from the nine strangers afraid to touch anyone on our NOLA road trip.
I've never been to oregon and as soon as we crossed the border it seemed to all be green and lush. There were snow capped peaks and thick clouds. I wish we could spend time in Portland but maybe next year or maybe on my road trip in two months.
right now Sara is driving and Sophie is "safetying" of rather djing. I'm sitting first row barefeet poking up into the box between JFB and the bose noise reduced Eric Shupin - both happen to he reading the paper. Doom and gloom are sitting behind us reading and staring out the window respectively; both have their headphones on to drown out our music. Denise and Iman are pulling up the rear -jamming. Then where there once was a backseat there are now nine red bags and a mobile kitchen.
The traveling band of gypsies as JFB calls us has one more destination.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
This weekend I finished packing for Good 1s last grand adventure. When we return to campus Iman will be gone and Gold 1 will have eight days left together.
Yesterday we all piled into Rhonda, stopping one last time at starbucks on watt to begin our trek. I slept for the first six hours when I wasn't driving. Yasha slept on me for two hours then Sophie Yasha and I piled into a seat and passed out-legs stretched across eachother, no regard for personal space. I drifted off into slumber thinking about how far we have come from the nine strangers afraid to touch anyone on our NOLA road trip.
I've never been to oregon and as soon as we crossed the border it seemed to all be green and lush. There were snow capped peaks and thick clouds. I wish we could spend time in Portland but maybe next year or maybe on my road trip in two months.
right now Sara is driving and Sophie is "safetying" of rather djing. I'm sitting first row barefeet poking up into the box between JFB and the bose noise reduced Eric Shupin - both happen to he reading the paper. Doom and gloom are sitting behind us reading and staring out the window respectively; both have their headphones on to drown out our music. Denise and Iman are pulling up the rear -jamming. Then where there once was a backseat there are now nine red bags and a mobile kitchen.
The traveling band of gypsies as JFB calls us has one more destination.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Just another night....
Scene - three NCCC pile into a small 2 door Honda w Illinois plates. The driver sporting power stripes and a retro sweater which looks like an arcade game's reset screen. Two ladies in the back fashionble as always singing to the radio as the car rolls up to a stop sign next to the smokers table and a gent in a Vietnam era MP helmet gets in. "club anthems 99" disc 1 rings out of the open windows s they cruise through the ghetto of McClellan. What hell could they be raising tonight? Drugs? Booze? Midnight rendezvous? Its actually a car of under 23yr olds off to "late night bingo" in Sacramento...
Would you have guessed that a half an hour before these four plus two others were battling over a hand of bridge. Yes that's right...bridge.
Would you have guessed that even earlier today these six were joined by the remaining three to run and chaperone a last day of school carnival?
Its only when I put my everyday life into words to send into the unknown and pry unread world of the internet that it occurs to me how bizarre my life can be or really is as a whole. I'm crazy; we're crazy; my life is crazy. I love it.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Would you have guessed that a half an hour before these four plus two others were battling over a hand of bridge. Yes that's right...bridge.
Would you have guessed that even earlier today these six were joined by the remaining three to run and chaperone a last day of school carnival?
Its only when I put my everyday life into words to send into the unknown and pry unread world of the internet that it occurs to me how bizarre my life can be or really is as a whole. I'm crazy; we're crazy; my life is crazy. I love it.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Transitioning towards the end...
I seemed to have survived the second week at sly park. I was a cabin leader with Iman and two other moms (who were AWESOME). The girls were a lot of fun however, i found myself missing students from the week before. This is a lot like teaching for sure but with only a week with each there was no time to grow accustom to the differences of week 2. It rained a whole heck of a lot less (but I think it would have been impossible to rain more) and I was able to enjoy my hikes, sit with my feet in the creek and roast marshmallows! After four grueling days, we piled back into Rhonda (the van) and begrudgingly headed home. Why were we dragging our feet you may wonder...transition.
transition = every team in the region coming back to campus to brief, debrief and check in with staff.
Sure this sounds like a gleeful time full of reunited corps members and friends. However, for Gold 1 transition usually means hiding in our rooms avoiding most of the other corps. This is partially because the Gold unit was marooned in the gulf and missed transition the first time, partially because our beloved Gold 6 was on a non-stop spike and would not be here, and partially because Gold 1 is fortunate enough to like each other and very few others. :P
We made it back to campus on friday and immediately dove into our rooms and hung out with each other. However, on Sunday most of the team + Andretta met up with one of the awesome mom's previously mentioned and went rafting all day! This is one of the best days in Kristina's Americorps history. All day we just lounged around on a raft and on a beach with our feets and sometimes whole bodies in the river and the cool river breeze in our hair. We had food, laughter and fun. However despite hourly applications of sunscreen there were a lot of lobsters on Gold 1 come monday morning. Also we seem to have discovered a rather odd and annoying sun rash. It was definitely worth it....
Transition passed rather smoothly. I of course had several people to avoid and while I didn't intend to avoid them at first withint 48 hours it was clear that there would be no civilized cordial small talk. I miss Gold 6 a ton! especially when i need some time away from the people I live with (rare but necessary). Today we had to work with weed warriors removing thistle... it was exactly like everyday of TreePeople so it was very tiring. Tomorrow we work at a carnival, weekend off and then to seattle!
I still can't believe its only 6ish weeks til the end...where has the time gone?
transition = every team in the region coming back to campus to brief, debrief and check in with staff.
Sure this sounds like a gleeful time full of reunited corps members and friends. However, for Gold 1 transition usually means hiding in our rooms avoiding most of the other corps. This is partially because the Gold unit was marooned in the gulf and missed transition the first time, partially because our beloved Gold 6 was on a non-stop spike and would not be here, and partially because Gold 1 is fortunate enough to like each other and very few others. :P
We made it back to campus on friday and immediately dove into our rooms and hung out with each other. However, on Sunday most of the team + Andretta met up with one of the awesome mom's previously mentioned and went rafting all day! This is one of the best days in Kristina's Americorps history. All day we just lounged around on a raft and on a beach with our feets and sometimes whole bodies in the river and the cool river breeze in our hair. We had food, laughter and fun. However despite hourly applications of sunscreen there were a lot of lobsters on Gold 1 come monday morning. Also we seem to have discovered a rather odd and annoying sun rash. It was definitely worth it....
Transition passed rather smoothly. I of course had several people to avoid and while I didn't intend to avoid them at first withint 48 hours it was clear that there would be no civilized cordial small talk. I miss Gold 6 a ton! especially when i need some time away from the people I live with (rare but necessary). Today we had to work with weed warriors removing thistle... it was exactly like everyday of TreePeople so it was very tiring. Tomorrow we work at a carnival, weekend off and then to seattle!
I still can't believe its only 6ish weeks til the end...where has the time gone?
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