Looking Back

When I think about the year I spent in Tucson, I am so appreciative for everything that happened and all the amazing people that I met. I honestly have cried more about leaving Tucson than I have about anything else in my life. Which is kind of strange since it's not like I won't be able to see these people again or visit Tucson. I think what has made me so sad is thinking that if/when I go back there, it won't be the same. All my housemates and volunteer friends are spreading around the country and now 5 strangers live in the house I called home this last year.

I never thought that one year could make such a difference in my life. I could not have predicted how the people I interacted with and the city I lived in could change me so much. Thinking about the person I was before JVC started, well....let's just say I'm "ruined for life."

I was going to make a huge long list of things that I will miss (like watching the sunset off our friends' roof, casa mariposa, the kids at school, the cacti) but really what I will miss is how loved I felt by everyone. At work, all the teachers and kids were so amazing. On the weekends (and hump days!) we hung out with our awesome friends. And at home with my community.

I lucked out in having 3 people that made JVC so much better than I could have ever imagined. I am going to miss our community the most. I think my favorite part was the dinners we had together. We made an effort to make great food for each other. We each ended up with a spot around the table. We would push all of our crap to one side, Jen and Erin would get their special small forks, and Jeff would get confused on where we sat. We'd sit down and just talk about anything and everything. I loved it.

So anyway, thank you to everyone who made my year in Tucson so incredible. Know that I love you and miss you and will always remember the time we spent together.

(the song "Good Life is stuck in my head)

Hopelessly
I feel like there might be something that I'll miss
Hopelessly
I feel like the window closes oh so quick
Hopelessly
I'm taking a mental picture of you now
cuz hopelessly
The hope is we have so much to feel good about

about to cry :(

So, it's getting really close to the end...like...um...5 days left here? We leave next Monday morning, so everything has now become the "last time" we do that. Like the last time we get frozen yogurt, our last road trip together, etc. And this weekend will be our last weekend here :(

I keep finding myself on the verge of tears over little things, but really I'm just sad that I'm leaving this city I've grown to love and my friends and housemates.

We just got back from a weekend retreat in southern California, our last retreat with all the southwestern JVs, called "Dis-Orientation." we had lots of time to reflect, and I have to say I've been feeling pretty disoriented. Sometimes we pretend we'll be here for another 6 months because it's easier than saying, "well I won't be here next week."

I really do hate goodbyes.

When we got back yesterday we had dinner with our friends at Lindy's, an awesome burger place (good veg burgers too!) on 4th ave. It felt so great to see them, but also sad that it's one of our last times seeing them...

I even almost started crying last night when Erin was just hanging out by our door saying goodnight. I was thinking, well pretty soon I'm not going to see Erin in person anymore cuz Baltimore is so far from Spokane!

It's so hard to say goodbye to the amazing experience this year has been. What's getting me through this week is thinking about how great next year will be as well. I'm doing another year of JVC and I'm going to keep in contact with my friends, so it won't be so bad.

Still, I can't help but tear up thinking about leaving...:(

3 weeks

Just 3 weeks from yesterday I will be driving away from Tucson, from this amazing life-changing experience. And 3 weeks from today will be the first day I wake up not in my bed in Casa Nacho anymore!

It's hard to believe this year is almost over. It has been challenging and frustrating at times, but also rewarding and one of the best years of my life. I will definitely miss my friends I have met and lived with here this past year.

Since we are almost done, we have decided to spend as much time with our friends as possible. This includes "hump day hangouts" on Weds nights and pretty much hanging out every day of the weekend!

On the 4th of July weekend, most of our friends were gone, but Amy and Ana were still here so we hung out with them a lot! And we went to a lake! That's right there's actually water in Arizona. Weird. This is pic stolen from Jen of us at the lake. Good times:)

Last weekend we also spent lots of time with our friends. We went out to the bars on Friday, went to a house party on Saturday and had some people over on Sunday as well. The weekend felt really long, which was nice.

And now, this weekend is our LAST WEEKEND with our friends (next weekend is Dis-Orientation in California, and then the final weekend we will be packing and Ana will already be gone:(

I'm still getting used to the idea of not living here. Some days I'm ready to leave and other days I'm like awww I'm gonna miss everyone!

"homemade" food "from scratch"

These are concepts related to food that were pretty much foreign to me until this year. Sure, I made the occasional vegetarian dish during Thanksgiving or helped out someone in the kitchen, but in high school my dad made most of my meals and in college my cooking skills were limited to a stir fry here and a pasta dish there. I never made any bread from scratch, I had never even thought of making my own veggie burgers!!!
So, I've slowly gotten better at cooking this year. On Monday I made homemade lentil burgers with buns from scratch and sweet potato fries!!!I started with the buns, made from 100% whole wheat flour. They are really quick to make and they taste great! Here is the recipe.Next I made the vegan lentil burgers. They also have carrots and onions in them, I added red pepper since we had some. The hardest part I think was making the bread crumbs from toast. I also had to crush the oats myself. And, they don't have an egg in them to hold together, but they still worked out pretty well! The here's the recipe.

The sweet potato fries had a mixture of garlic, cilantro, oregano, salt and pepper on them and although they might not have been completely baked when I was done making the other food, they still tasted pretty good! The recipe is here if you scroll down!So, this is what the final product looked like!! And it tasted great too, so....success!

Now, I'm addicted to making food from scratch and I love recipes! I can't wait to add more meals to the list of things I can make! :)

Los Samaritanos

Yesterday I went on my first Samaritan Patrol. My housemates and I did the training back in the fall, but never signed up for the actual patrols because we've been busy. Now that I've got more time, I decided to sign up! So, at 6am I met up with a woman in her early 60s named Kathryn who has been doing these patrols for 9 years and a man named Steve in his late 50s who had only been on one other patrol. We wore long sleeves and hiking shoes, brought lots of water bottles, gatorade, a medical kit and food packs.
Basically, we went to the migrant trails to look for people who were crossing the desert from Mexico and try to help them without breaking the law. If we let them use our phone or drive them anywhere, that counts as aiding and abetting. But we can give them help by providing food, water and medical supplies. We started out by driving down to an area near Arivaca that has known migrant trails. I looked out the right side window and Steve looked out the left side while Kathryn drove. We were looking for any signs of migrants. Kathryn told us that once they saw just a flash of red and it turned out to be a severely injured man waving his red hat to get their attention.

I didn't see anyone as we were driving along, but then Kathryn said she heard a whistle. I thought it was just the birds, but we looked in the rear view mirror and there was a man in a big black jacket coming towards us. We drove back and met up with him, took him off the road where Border Patrol couldn't see and he kept saying "water...water..." We gave him water, gatorade and a food pack. Kathryn drove the car to park not near where we were hiding so Border Patrol wouldn't see where we were.

The man's name was Jose and he is from Jalisco, Mexico. He was really nice and had lived in Boston for 8 years, so he was fluent in English. Kathryn kept trying to speak Spanish to him, but he replied to us in English. Turns out he had been traveling with a group of 8 other people but at about 5am, a Border Patrol helicopter found them and he heard "RUN!" so he ran. He lost his backpack with all his stuff and everyone in his group. He also hadn't had anything to eat or drink since the day before in the morning. His feet were swollen badly with lots of blisters. His eyes were tearful, saying that we saved him and I could tell he was tired of being hunted like an animal. It was nice to sit and have a conversation with him, and I'm sure he was glad to be treated like a human being. He apparently has a friend in California and was bummed to find out that is really far away. We also told him we were 50 miles from Tucson and he probably wouldn't make it there. But we cleaned his face up, gave him new socks and said to walk to Arivaca and meet a woman there that maybe would be able to help him.

We left Jose there with lots of water and food packs, told him to take a break before heading out and to not walk on the road because there was LOTS of Border Patrol out. I also learned a lot about Border Patrol on the trip. Such a waste of money. The starting pay for a Border Patrol agent is from 70,000-100,000 a year. Yes, that's their STARTING pay. They drive around in their vehicles and when they find migrants, they treat them so poorly. They separate families on purpose, refuse medical treatment to many of them, abuse them, randomly select people to spend up to 2 years in detention centers (although you are much more likely with a "prior"). And don't get me started on how much a waste of money the detention centers are! Here is a report from No More Deaths about abuse from Border Patrol if you're interested: CLICK HERE (called Crossing the Line)

I also found out Border Patrol agents shot two kids in the back! whhaaa (they claimed the kids were "throwing rocks" but that's a lie according to witnesses!) This picture above is from when a Border Patrol agent drove up and asked us what we were doing. We said we were hiking around. He made some joke about the heat. *rolls eyes*

So, anyway after that encounter we drove a little further and stopped to hike the migrant trails. It was sooo hot but there was a breeze so it didn't feel like 100 degrees. We walked the same trails that are walked every day by the migrants from Mexico. We found footprints and Kathryn would tell us how recent they were (some were from that morning). We called out in Spanish that we had food, water and medical supplies, but didn't find anyone else. There were many discarded water bottles, shoes, and clothes along the way. We hiked for a few hours in the hot sun before going back to the car.

Before we left, Kathryn took us to the wall along the border. The wall is another complete waste of money. It cost 1 million dollars per mile and if you look in this picture you can see it just ends in places. So, people walk around it. Kathryn said she has also seen men just climb over it. And, there are these 9 big towers with sensors that were supposed to be able to find people with infrared technology. They cost 1 billion dollars to set up, and don't work AT ALL! Border Patrol doesn't even use them...epic fail.

So, this trip was very informational for me and also eye-opening as to what migrants have to go through. I've learned a lot this year about the border that I will never forget.

If you would like to help save lives of migrants there is immediate action that needs to be taken. Click this LINK to learn more.

Farmers Markets!

I fell in love with farmers markets a few years ago in college, and my senior year I was spoiled because we had an amazing farmers market every Saturday right outside our apartment complex. And it was in California, so the produce was abundant. So when I went to my first farmer's market in Tucson I was less than impressed. There were like 4 stands and not much available.

Well, now I have a much greater appreciation for them! Partly because I've started working with the Community Food Bank farmer's markets, and also partly because I now know how hard it is to grow things here! Back when we started our little garden, we had to dig and pick-ax like crazy to even get a hole big enough to plant seeds. It also is so HOT and DRY here in the desert that many special precautions have to be taken (like adding shade, watering A LOT, etc).

So, anyway I'm liking working with the Food Bank! My new schedule is kind of complicated, but it goes like this:

Every other Monday I work at the Marana farm stand (in Marana, where the farm is, 30mins North of Tucson)
On Tuesdays I work at the Food Bank's farmers market
Some Wednesday and Fridays I work in the garden
On Thursdays I work at the Santa Cruz farmers market downtown.
(On my days off I am working at Casa Maria and other places I'll blog about later)

^this picture is from the Marana farm stand I worked at yesterday with Audra!

I'll also be working on the weekly e-mails that go out about what will be at the markets and contacting vendors and volunteers. So, it's pretty cool. All the people I've worked with so far have been awesome.

My responsibilities are mostly setting up, weighing the produce and checking out the customers (they can pay with WIC checks, food stamps, cash, credit, etc.), and packing up/closing down. I've learned about so many new veggies since working there (dragon's egg and Armenian are two new kinds of cucumbers I had never seen!)

One of my favorite customers was a little boy about 10 years old named Sky. He told me he found some coins while he was cleaning up and wanted to buy carrots. So he grabbed some carrots and I weighed them and told him they cost 35 cents. He was so excited he could afford them and had extra money, so he decided to get some little tomatoes too. He found an extra dime and I think the total was like 65 cents or something. He did this all while his mom was shopping. It was so cute :)

Yep, that's what I'm up to now! This Friday I'm going on Samaritan Patrol to help out migrants if we see any in the desert. I'll let you know how it goes!

San Diego MARATHON!

So...I did something kinda crazy yesterday....I ran 26.2 miles....

But it was actually not too bad! I was kind of stressed that I wouldnt be able to finish or that I'd injure myself since I've never run more than 17 miles, but everything went well!

Here's the whole story:

We drove to San Diego on Friday afternoon. I took the first driving shift and Jen took the second. We stocked up the car with yummy foods (I made a pizza with dough from scratch, Erin made a white bean salad, we brought lots of hummus) and drove the 6ish hours over to the coast. On the road trip we passed these mountains that looked like giant piles of rocks...it was weird...I tried to take a picture, not sure if you can see(<--)

When we got to San Diego we were very excited to be in a city and feel the humidity. But most of all, San Diego has a BEACH! Which we are lacking in Tucson (dry....desert.....no water.....) It was a little late when we arrived and we were tired so decided to wait to get to the beach until the next day. But I took this picture in our hotel room (which my parents generously got for us!) Look how cute my housemates are(-->)

awww...haha. We joked that we were on a "family vacation" of the four of us. But my family from home actually did come the next day! Sean drove down from LA and my parents flew down that night. On Saturday before they got there tho, we headed to Mission Beach for some much needed ocean and sand time. We never got a picture of the four of us on the beach, but I did get these ones:

If I look cold in that last one with Erin it's because I was! The water was pretty chilly, but that's ok! It's still beach!!!!!

On Saturday night, I went to carbo-load at an Italian restaurant with Sean, Erin and Jeff. We met Allie there as well, and it was really fun! I had some ravioli and some great garlic bread with red sauce on it:)

That night My foot started to really hurt and I was worried about the next day! Would I be able to race on a sore foot? Would my knee just kill me and give out? Would I have to walk the last 5 miles? All these questions and worries kept going through my head. My parents arrived that night and my mom told me she would meet me at mile 16, then start running with me at mile 19 and finish the race with me. This comforted me knowing that she would be there!

Sunday was race day! Jen and I woke up at an ungodly hour (4:30am) to get ready and get on the 5:10 shuttle from the hotel to the starting line. When we got down to the hotel lobby there were some other racers there and a shuttle out front so we went and sat down on the shuttle. The driver took a long time to get there, and we were kind of worried so some of the racers went to go check it out. Turns out we were all waiting on a shuttle to the airport and were holding up pilots and flight attendants! Oops!!! They got us on the right shuttle after that and we were on our way to the starting line.

We met up with my parents at the start and got ready to race. We were in corral 17 out of 44. There were 33,000 people there so it was pretty hectic! San Diego is where the original Rock n Roll race started so I'm glad I picked it to be my first marathon ever!!!

Jen and I started the race together, but had to split up at mile 4 because she was running the half and I was doing the full. It was sad to say goodbye and run alone for a bit, but I was focusing on the fact that I would see my mom at mile 16 (and maybe my other housemates along the way?) So that was good. There were also people with entertaining signs (like: "Chuck Norris never ran a marathon!" or "Run now, Tequila Later!" or "Why are you reading this sign? You should be running!') and bands playing songs as well. The course was pretty cool too, going through the city, along a freeway and a beach.

I was still SO excited to see my mama at mile 16. We agreed to meet back at mile 18 and she would run the last 8 miles with me. I just kept focusing on the little milestones and the people cheering me on. I took my older sister's advice and focused on what I would get after I finished (Thai food and frozen yogurt!!!) When I got to mile 18 I felt ok, but by about mile 19 or 20 I really started to hurt. Luckily by then my mom was running with me and distracted me by talking and telling me stories.

From about mile 22 to mile 25 we ran around "Fiesta Island" which was pretty brutal since it seemed to never end. But it finally did, with cheerleaders from a high school cheering us on! When we had about .5 miles left it really felt like it took forever, but then we could see the finish line and my dad, Erin, Jeff and Jen were there cheering, and then BAM! I was DONE!!! My official finish time was 4:43:31, which I feel like isn't terrible. I just wanted to run it under 5 hours and I did!:) My main goal was to finish and not walk a lot. I ended up only walking at the water stations, so that was good. I was verryyy exhausted by the finish and couldn't think about anything except getting food and ice. We took the buses to the trolley and Sean picked us up.

After some showers and packing up, we got that Thai food for lunch and I ended up with a chocolate and peanut butter shake from Ben and Jerry's. YUM.

Would I do another full marathon you ask? Hmmm. Well today I'm really sore and my foot hurts A LOT when I walk. So....ask me in a few days. I'm already signed up for the Portland 1/2 marathon next year and Jen and I are discussing maybe doing a full one in Seattle or LA or maybe even St. Louis!

I've decided marathoners are crazy. And I'm proud to say I'm one of them.