I'm excited to tell you that I have safely arrived in Baltimore and begun settling into my new home. My mom and dad and I successfully packed all my things into our rented van and drove down to Maryland on Wednesday. On Wednesday and Thursday we got to spend time with family and friends in the area, which was wonderful. I'm so excited to be near my extended family (blood related, and non) again and can't wait to spend more time with them this year. On Friday, we moved all of my things into the house in the morning and had lunch with one of my parent's old friends, Angelo Boar, who works at CC. Around 2, I had to say goodbye to my parents because they were off to spend the weekend at the beach, and our meter had run out. It is hard to believe I won't see them until November!
Once my other community members had arrived, we took a tour of our house and picked our rooms by lottery. The house is a four story brown stone with two bedrooms on the first floor (one is a guest room), a bedroom, kitchen and living room on the second floor, and two bedrooms on the 3rd and 4th floors. I got the room on the ground floor which I am really happy about. It doesn't get much natural light, but it was repainted last year in really pretty yellow and green, I have my own bathroom and a really cool layout. There is one big main room, the bathroom off of the back, and two small rooms- nooks, kind of, that come off of the side. One, I use for storage and the other, I'm going to put my bed in. We are getting new double beds (to replace the old single ones) and desks next week. Once we get them, I'm going to move some things around and then I'll send you some pictures, but at the moment, it is not quite finished.
More importantly, however, is that my community members are awesome. There is Faith from Boston, Bethany from Ohio, Kelly from Florida, Rebecca from Vermont and Ian from Baltimore. They are all really great people and we have had a lot of fun over the last few days telling stories, laughing, and getting to know each other. The best part though is that everyone is equally committed to living well as a community and communicating concerns and ideas for how to make this year great. I know there will be challenges, but right now, the future is looking bright :-) Also, my coordinator Allison is WONDERFUL. I anticipated that she would be from all of the phone conversations we had, but she is so much fun in person and truly a part of our community family too, even though she doesn't live in the house with us.
We have done quite a bit over the last few days. In addition to get to know you activities and sessions on community, spirituality, service and simplicity, we toured the area (the Inner Harbor is in walking distance), went grocery shopping, learned about CC and Americorps, had dinner at Ian's house got finger printed, went to the doctor, met with the HR director and ... visited Sarah's House! That's where I'll be working. We got a tour from one of the caseworkers named Kelly. She rattled of a lot of information and rules about the facilities and residents and it was definitely more than an little overwhelming, but I am no less excited to work there. It will be a lot to learn, but I know I'm capable of it. And, I got a hug from one of the little boys who lives there! More to come about Sarah's house in the next couple of weeks.
In the coming days, we will visit the other service sites, meet the director of CC and Project SERVE alumni, go to an outdoor learning center, have a picnic, go swimming and more sessions on community living. On labor day, we all work together at Our Daily Bread, a hot meals program and then we will go to our individual sites on Tuesday.
I guess that's all for now. General summary- I'm EXTREMELY happy. I know in every bone of my body that I picked the right program for this year and vocation for my life. I'll be sure to update you again soon. Thanks for reading and all of your support!
Love,
Caitlin
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