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.

hard to believe

"Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe?"
--Pi Patel in Life of Pi when told his story is 'hard to believe'

So, I finally finished reading Life of Pi...it took me forever because I lost it, then Jeff found it under the couch (I swear I looked there;) and I finished it yesterday. That was my favorite quote from the end.

Speaking of hard to believe, school is over! It ended on Thursday for the students. The last day was pretty fun. There was an awards assembly, and a mass. At the end of mass, Sister Leonette had all the teachers stand in front and she thanked us for a great year. She had the 7th graders (now 8th graders!) present little gifts to all the teachers. Then, she started talking about me and how I'm leaving and had one of the students present another gift to me. It was really sweet.

When I got back to my desk I saw that all the teachers had signed the card and I almost started crying. What they all said in the card was so nice. They also gave me a frame with Santa Cruz in it and a Chili's gift card. It was still hard to believe it was my last day there and I wouldn't be seeing these amazing kids and working with these incredible teachers ever again! During recess I went out with the kids to see them one last time and a lot of them kept calling out "Miss Devlin! I didn't know you were leaving! I'm going to miss you!"

At the end of school, I was on duty outside the door so I got to say goodbye, sign yearbooks and take a few pictures. Elissa in the 5th grade gave me a rose. So cute. The first picture is me with my "little sister" in 4th grade, Angelica. My favorite student! The next one is Andrew from 5th, Duane from 2nd and Mya from 5th. Mya was my other favorite student. Yeah I had 2 favorites hahaha.

The last picture is of Christopher and Melissa, both from 3rd grade. Melissa was one of the better students in that class, and Christopher was one of the most difficult. He was entertaining, but also a pain most of the time. But it was definitely a learning experience trying to teach him! (He's Mya's brother).

So, anyway that was my last day at school with the kids. On Friday I went back to clean up my desk and reset the passwords on the computers. I thought I'd only be there for a few hours, but I ended up staying all day, helping out different teachers clean up their classrooms. Although it was a little tough, it was also really fun. We listened to music and took down posters, organized books, and labeled desks. I'm going to see the teachers one more time tomorrow when I go to the ACE training with them, so that's when I'll say my goodbyes!

This weekend was great too! We had visitors from 2 JV houses in LA. It was nice showing them around Tucson. Then, Meghan came on Saturday and we got to spend the whole day together! In the morning we went to Starbucks chatted and caught up. We then went to her family friends house. We hung out by their pool and had BBQ food. (veggie burgerrr) Then we all went over to the Tucson Padres baseball game. I had never been to a baseball game in the US (only in Japan, which is much cooler) but it was just minor league. We ended up talking and eating caramel corn, occasionally looking up like "oh they just got a home run!" haha. Good times tho! We got bored and left after the 6th inning. Then we went over to Meghan's friend's house with her sister and brother and played drinking games. I was the best cuz I was playing with water hahaha. I'm not drinking the week before the marathon.

Another thing hard to believe--in only 5 days I will be running 26.2 miles!!! ahhhhh

Overall, tho it's been a good week. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to work at Santa Cruz this year!

and runnin runnin....

The marathon is less than 2 weeks away! I've already run my longest run (17miles!) before the marathon and now it's just shorter runs and eating a lot (got that covered!)

Lately, I've been running with my housemates, which makes it a lot more fun! On my 17 mile run I ran the first 8 with Erin and Jen. And on Saturday, Jen ran 10 with me and Erin ran all 13.1 miles! (her first half marathon!!) This picture is from when we ran the VT run with the YAVs but still...look how happy we are while running! hehehe

Now on Thursday nights we've started to run as a whole community (Jeff too!) and it's been great. We are pretty crazy, dancing and singing in the streets, ya know....

I'm so happy that my training is almost complete! Especially since it's getting really HOT here! It's going to hit 100 degrees on Friday and I don't know if I'm quite prepared for that yet!!!

School is ending this Thursday so I get a 4 day weekend with Memorial Day, then I officially start working at the Food Bank! I'm going to be working with the Farmer's Markets on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and some Mondays). The rest of the days I'm going to volunteer at Casa Maria, the Catholic Worker community here in Tucson and/or I'll float around to volunteer other places as well. It'll be fun to have a more free schedule (as in not getting to work at 7:30am every M-F!)

Yesterday we went to Santa Cruz's (5th-8th grade) performance of Aladdin here at school. It was pretty good! There are definitely some kids that I will miss when school is over. (More so the little ones, but the play was still good!) I taught 7th grade for the last time today and I told them I won't be returning next year. One of the girls, Ajiah, asked me "Why? You don't like us or somethin?" haha. I was like "no...this is a one year commitment..." But yeah it's hard to explain to the kids why I am leaving so soon after just getting here this year! Luckily they will still have computer classes with the JV who is taking over my position next August!

It's actually kind of eerily quiet at school today since the Pre-K thru 4th graders are at their Pool Day. I guess they are much louder than the upper grades! But, it has been a good last Monday at school. Now only 2 and a half more days and school's out for the summer!

Going back to running...I'm actually taking a rest day today cuz I rode my bike to work.....that's cross training right? haha

Summer's almost here!

Only 1.5 more weeks of school! Ahhh!

The last official day of school is May 26th, but I'll be done teaching by the 25th because the last day is just a half day with an Awards Assembly and Mass. The 8th graders graduated on Friday, so I have already taught them for the last time! Our last class involved finishing up their webpages and sharing them with their classmates.

I taught the Pre-K for the last time today! (They will be having their "Pool Day" next Monday). I love them so much, they are adorable!! I had them each show me their computer skills by logging in, opening up Internet Explorer, scrolling down, clicking on a link and maximizing the page. They did so well, I'm proud of them :) I almost started laughing out loud when one of the little boys started singing Bruno Mars' Lazy Song! He was like "I said it, I said cuz I can..." So cute!!

I have been loving teaching lately. This afternoon I was helping out in the 2nd grade room planning trips for their social studies projects. One of the groups was going to Rocky Point, two groups were planning on Disneyland, one going to Oakland (to see the Raiders! duh!) and one group was going to Vegas. It was so fun planning these imaginary trips with the kids on a giant map! Then, randomly, one of the little girls comes up to me with her hands in the shape of a gate and says "open the gate" So I opened it and then she was like "pick some flowers, how many flowers did you pick" and I said "5" and then she goes "You have 5 boyfriends and they are all jealous!" hahaha

So anyway, after school ends next week I'm not really sure what I'm doing. I have been looking for volunteer opportunities in the area. Originally I was going to be tutoring in the summer, but that kind of fell through. Now, it looks like I will be (hopefully) working part time at the Food Bank where Jeff works and part of the time someplace else (who knows!) I kind of want to construct my own schedule so that I don't have to work on Fridays (how sweet would that be?!) It's pretty exciting:)
Another thing about summer coming is the weather! It's starting to get HOT~ and without A/C (it broke!) it kind of sucked last week being in the 90's. Luckily this week is cooling off to the 80's, but soon enough it will be back up and into the 100's. Scary...

A fun thing I have been doing lately is starting to cook more Mexican style meals. Last week I made sweet potato, black bean and cheese enchiladas.
My first enchilada cooking experience and it tasted great! I even threw things into them that weren't in the recipe! (I added peppers, onions, cilantro and cheese, used corn tortillas instead of flour and fresh tomatoes instead of canned)
I'm making a sort of similar thing tonight: Black bean and corn quesadillas with guacamole! woo!

So, yeah. Life is good here in Tucson. I'm going to miss the kids when school is over! (well...most of them;)This is a prickly pear cactus (my favorite!) with flowers on it!

Silence

We just got back from our silent retreat yesterday. It was amazing.

It was 3 full days of silence. I have never experienced anything like that in my life!

Our house, the two Phoenix houses and the San Diego house all went to the Redemptorist Renewal Center, which is actually a really cool place! It's 20 minutes north of our house in the desert, with beautiful views of cacti and mountains...ok we see that all the time, but it was still pretty! There was a pool and we each got our own room (which is great when you're not talking!) and the meals were provided (they even had Pad Thai one night!).

I think the weirdest part for me was not looking at people in the eyes. We were supposed to look away, and even though I felt like smiling and looking at people that I knew, I had to just look down and walk away. But besides that, it was great. I actually learned a lot about my spirituality these last few days.

As I told my casamates and my spiritual director (Fumi, an FJV): over the last few years I have felt disconnected with the Catholic church. There is a lot that I don't believe in and things that I wish were part of the church. I want women to be able to be priests, I think gay people should be able to get married, and I am pro-choice. I also have a difficult time believing and agreeing with a lot that is in the Bible. I guess this all started in college, but it's been getting on my nerves lately and because I felt so disconnected from the church, I was feeling disconnected with God. But, then the silent retreat started and that all changed.

Fumi asked me the first day what I desired from the retreat. I decided that I wanted to be reconnected with God and I was going to do that through new types of prayer. Mass just hasn't been my thing lately. (Especially mass at Santa Cruz...very conservative). So, Fumi gave me lots of different types of prayers over the three days, I tried centering prayer, memory prayer, imagination prayer, conversation with God, and an art examen. Outside of spiritual direction I also did the labyrinth, a peace vigil, journaling, the guided hand meditation, and a collage. I found that I really like the centering prayer and the meditation. When I had tried meditation before, (high school?) I was in a very different place in my life. Now I think I'm really ready to try centering prayer for 20 minutes a day! (Wikipedia link if you're wondering what centering prayer is!)

Another thing that really helped me during the silent retreat was reading a book called "Losing Your Religion, Finding Your Faith." It was all about how we tie our religion and faith together when we are younger, but when we start to question our religion, we also question our faith. It was really cool and helpful. It used the metaphor of a road trip saying we are all on our spiritual journeys and we don't have to have it all figured out right now!

I wrote down some quotes from it into my journal:

"We sometimes think that because we cannot pray as we used to, we have lost our faith. But this is not so. It is only that God is challenging us to grow to a new and different level of prayerful intimacy."

"It would be terrible if we woke up one day, realized that all religious truth is simply read in the Bible, and then decided that there was nothing more to learn in the realm of spirituality...God wants us to discover all the different colors, experiences, and nuances along the road of faith."

"When we do not set aside a regular time to be attuned to God's voice in our lives, it is all too easy to become permanently distracted, spiritually asleep."

I think I had been feeling spiritually asleep until this silent retreat. Now, however, I have decided that prayer is an important part of my life. I want to not only do the centering prayer every day, but I will also be trying some new forms of prayer in the next few weeks. It feels really good to be a little more spiritually awake after that retreat!

I am a deer.

Ok not really, but I LOVE the forest! I'm back in Oregon for the week (Spring break!) and besides seeing people, my favorite part has been hiking and running in the forest!

So, I'll start a week ago: Thursday we had a half day at school because of Holy Thursday and no school on Good Friday. The kids got into their mixed grade groups for "Kids Helping Kids" and decorated reusable shopping bags for Earth Day. It was so cute! Here is a picture of Sahian from 1st grade, Mya from 5th grade (the one who plays 'Signs' with me) and Stephen from 2nd grade. They used stencils to put on the recycle sign, a butterfly, and a world. It was great!

Thursday night I flew to Portland (Erin took me to the airport right after her work:) and I got in really late. I went through LAX and my second flight was delayed after we got on the plane. I fell asleep and when I woke up, I didn't know if we had taken off yet or if we were still waiting! It was a small plane and it was dark outside so I had no idea. Weird feeling haha! Turns out we were in the air and I had slept thru the takeoff! So, I got to PDX after midnight and my parents picked me up (and gave me See's candies yum!!)

On Friday it was the real Earth Day. My parents have a new house they are renovating on Cornell Rd. (We call it the Cornell Place) and so we went from their Beaverton house over to the Cornell place for the weekend. One of the awesome things about their new house is it's right in the middle of the forest and it's sooo green. (Very weird after living in the desert for almost 9 months!) So, we decided to stop by Cafe Yumm (fave restaurant!) and then drive over to Cornell and take a hike through the forest. It was gorgeous! I forgot how much I love trees and flowers and the forest. It's so full of life! I took a couple pictures on our hike. We went on a path my dad created through the forest to get to the Wildwood trail. It was really fun because the path was really new. My dad said he was like a deer when he created the path and my mom said "yeah if deers carried saws!" (I guess he had to saw a couple branches and things to make the path) haha.

But, anyway--being in the forest felt so amazing. It felt like a breath of fresh air, like something I have been missing in my life down in Tucson. The desert is really pretty in its own way, but it also does feel really dead sometimes. Being in the forest made me feel closer to nature and it was the perfect place to be on Earth day!

The next day, my Dad and I decided to do a long run (about 13 miles) in the forest. I was really feeling great, running along on the forest trail with my iPod blasting Bust a Move (the Glee version) in my ears, when I tripped on a rock and fell down! I scraped up my legs and hip and got a huge bruise on my knee. I was bleeding and my dad gave me his handkerchief to wipe the dirt and blood off. We had only gone about 1.5 miles, and I decided to sit down and let the blood stop before continuing the run. The fall wasn't really that bad, but it definitely made me watch my step more in the forest! I took a picture of my Dad while I was sitting down on the trail waiting for the bleeding to stop! But besides the fall, that run was really awesome. We spent almost 3 hours out there (took longer cuz of the bleeding and stopping for mud).

On Sunday it was Easter and we went to our church, Mission of the Atonement, which I really love going to. It's a Lutheran and Catholic church in Beaverton that is progressive and social justice-minded. The Lutheran paster, Paster Laurie, had asked me to speak about JVC and my experiences so far this year. I was stressing a little bit because I'm not a good public speaker. But I wrote down mostly what I was going to say and I ended up explaining the organization a little bit, but mostly about the 4 values and how living them has changed my life. Many people thanked me afterward and I think it went pretty well! I got a laugh from the congregation when I told the story about a little 3rd grade boy. I had told the class that they could ask Google a question and you would find the answer. So he Googled to find out if Michael Jackson was really dead. He posted on his blog "I found out that Michael Jackson is not really dead." haha

After church, we went back to the Beaverton house and I made a pesto pasta dish with red peppers, tomatoes, tofu and raw cheese to bring over to my Aunt Elaine and Uncle Don's house. They were having chicken, so she had asked me to bring something vegetarian. It was the first casserole-type thing I've ever made and it turned out great! I didn't even have a recipe, I just made it up! :) It ended up being a hit at dinner as well, even my cousin who doesn't like tofu had some!

My cousin's youngest daughter, Morgan, is in kindergarten and is really adorable! She apparently wanted to invite me to her birthday party this year in January, and her mom had to tell her I don't live here anymore! aww!! When we were at my Aunt Elaine's house, Morgan asked her dad if she could hold my hand. So cute! We were playing around with my phone and I took a couple pictures with my "Cam Wow" app! hahaha! And then when we got back home I took a few pictures with my mom also!


So, it was a great weekend! a lot more things happened after that, but I am tired of typing now and I'll give the highlights:
--getting a pedicure with my mom (and they offered us beer!)
--hanging out with my friends (Liz, Chrystea, and Bethany!)
--having LOTS of awesome Asian food (including my fave! Thai E-San #69)
--watching The King's Speech in my parents' new built in home theater
--meeting with the directors of my mom's new documentary film
--spending time with my parents!

It's been an amazing week and I'm getting very excited to move back to the Pacific NW!

Also--I'm going to the Blazer game tonight! (They're in the playoffs and they have to win tonight to keep going....GO BLAZERS! RIP CITY!!)

I fly back to Tucson tomorrow afternoon. It's been a great vacation, but I'm also ready to go back to my second home:)

"Yo Yo Chips!" AKA: Why I love my job

Lately I have really been enjoying my work!

I've gotten to know the kids better now (finally learned all 200 of their names! Yeah it took me all year, but whatever haha) On Wednesday I was on my after school duty watching the kids leave, which is usually pretty boring besides the occasional "Bye Miss Devlin!" but this day, my "sister" (Angelica in the 4th grade) was out there with a couple of her 4th grade friends. They asked me if I wanted to play "Signs" which I had never heard of. Basically you make up a gesture and say something with it. Angelica did "Yo yo chips!" and moved her hands by her shoulders. I ended up going "Whaa??" and moving my hands up. Once everyone has a "sign" then we go around and say ours then someone else's, trying to mess them up. It's kind of confusing to explain, but it was really fun! I'm supposed to be on duty from 3:15-3:30, but I ended up staying out there playing until almost 3:50 with Angelica and then with Mya, one of my favorite 5th graders (who I used to tutor in Math)

Then on Thursday, Mya asked me if I wanted to play Signs again, and I told her "yes! after school" I ended up playing it both Thursday and Friday with a variety of the kids including Angelica and Selina from 4th, Liliana from 2nd grade, Angel from 1st, Mya, Andrew and Elissa from 5th. They are so cute! On Friday after our staff meeting, there was a 3rd grader, Joanna, who had been stuck at school for 2 hours and her parents were still not there (later found out her mom's car broke down). So, even though I wanted to go home, I decided to play I Spy and 20 questions with her. I ended staying with her for half an hour, and it was really fun!

Then today, Monday, I went outside for the morning announcements and Selina came up to me and gave me a really good hug. It was so unexpected and adorable. After she left to get in line, Joanna came up and gave me a hug, telling me her mom eventually picked her up. I'm not sure if there is a better way to start off the week than hugs from kids. So awesome. Love it.

Besides becoming friends with the kids, I have also really started to like teaching. I'm teaching Excel to the 5th and 6th graders and they are actually absorbing the knowledge and liking it! And I taught the 4th graders Powerpoint! They were presenting their Powerpoints to the class last Tuesday and I was so proud of them:) Also, on Friday, I got to team-teach with Mrs. Molina a math lesson to a mix of grades that was really fun. Our school has decided to do something we call STAR Fridays where we put the kids into classes by math level instead of grade and we work on what they need the most help with. It was great!

Now thinking about teaching in the future excites me. Like thinking about setting up my own classroom, creating rewards for the kids, grading papers, having my own discipline system, planning my own lessons (non-computer ones), etc. I've been thinking about teaching grades 3-5 or maybe middle school. I do really love the little ones also, but they can be difficult and when they are a bit older there is so much more opportunity to teach them some really cool subjects!

So: My plan at the moment is to do JVC for one more year in Spokane, take the rest of the year off (travel? work? volunteer?) until June 2013, when I will start grad school in Education at either University of Portland or Lewis and Clark. Then, I'll look for a job at a school.

I have been thinking a lot also about my other passion: film. I really like making films and am glad that I majored in it at Santa Clara. I still think I'd like to work with films as well, but the day-to-day of being an editor would require me to sit alone in an editing booth for many hours on end and I just don't think that's what I was meant to do. I think film may end up being a hobby or side project at this point. I'm thinking of bringing my camera to Tucson to make a short film (or two) before I'm done here. But besides that I don't have grand plans for film in my future. I'm much more excited about teaching at this point in my life.

But, who knows what the future holds. Maybe I'll change my mind ANOTHER time! It happens a lot....

"A JV going to Vegas? That's like an oxymoron"

--my co-worker (haha)

So, I went to Vegas and Mexico the last two weekends. I know, not very JV of me! The Vegas trip was to visit with my brother, my friend Chrystea, and my friend, Pear, who lives in Vegas. The trip ended up costing me a lot more money than I had anticipated (ohhh I have to pay for food AND gas?), but it was still really fun! It was great to see Pear again (my Thai sister!) and we had some amazing Thai food with her!

In Vegas, we spent two nights out. The first night was at a club called Tao. It was a Saturday night in Vegas during spring break season, so it was pretty crraazzzayy. Our names were on the list and we still had to wait like an hour to get into the club. At least we were comped thanks to Sean's friend who is a club promoter. The club was HUGE! (Biggest club I've ever seen, about 4 or 5 floors, big pool area, etc) And the drinks were overpriced of course (like $14 each!)

The second day we hung out in the pool before going out to a club called Pure. Chrystea's friend Sammi was also visiting from LA. That club was a lot less crazy cuz it was Sunday! We didn't have to wait:) But Sean had to leave before night time, which was sad! I only got to see Seany for one day :/ I hope I get to visit LA soon and see him!!

After Vegas, Chrystea made the 7 hr drive down to Tucson with me and spent a few days here. I got to show her around, take her to Casa Mariposa, and to our new favorite spot-Gate's Pass! There was such a pretty sunset the night we went!!watching the sunset

And then this last weekend we went to Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point), which is the closest beach to Tucson. It's about a 4 hr drive and we went just the four of us casa-mates! It was a great relaxing time to read on the beach, lay in the sun, and swim in the ocean. We ended up using community money to pay for the cute little casita we stayed in, which was good because I used my whole stipend in Vegas!
Us at the beach:
From these trips I have concluded: Vegas is pricey and I love the beach. Ok, I already knew both of those things, but whatever;)

Decisions, Decisions

So, I just realized I never blogged about my decision for next year. After Re-O in January, I decided to apply to a second year of JVC, but this time in the Northwest (closer to home! yay!) The first half of my JVC year, it never occurred to me that I would even want to do a second year. But, after reflections at Re-O I decided to apply.

The real decision came when I was accepted and had to choose whether to do the job or move back to Portland. Both options sounded awesome. If I did another year of JVC I would be able to live in community again, in a new city and live the four values for an additional year. But if I moved to Portland I could hang out with family and live with my sister when she gets back from Guatemala. I could still volunteer in the area and work on my mom's documentary while applying for grad school. And my budget wouldn't be quite as tight as it is now. After stressing about it for a few days, making pros and cons lists and imagining myself in both positions, I decided to accept the JVC NW job.

So! this is what my life will look like starting in August--I will be moving to Spokane, Washington (I've never been there!) My job will be at a women and children's shelter called St. Margaret's ( Website ) It looks really cool. I'm not entirely sure what my job will be there. In my interview the JV that has the job now said that I will be working with the women in a clothing closet to help them learn about business. I don't really know anything about business, so it sounds like I'm as qualified for that job as I was for the one I'm doing now ;) She also said I will be working late one night a week having dinner and hanging out with the residents. Apparently this time is well liked by the JV's because it's more informal and everyone is back from school and work. I also may be doing some other tasks around the shelter but not sure what those are yet. She mentioned something about me making my own schedule which I would like a lot!!!!

But--back to my life here. My job is going well and of course my community is amazing. All this thinking about next year has kind of distracted me from what's going on here. I want to make sure I make the best of the next 4 months before I have to leave. I actually am leaving for a big chunk of April though, which I have been feeling kind of bad about. This weekend I'm going to go to Vegas and meet up with Sean and Chrystea, which will be exciting, but I'm also missing Jen's birthday weekend. Then, I'm going to Portland from April 21st (Thurs) to the 29th (Fri) and miss Easter here as well. I think both trips will be really fun, but I hate leaving Tucson and missing out on stuff. Basically I want to be in two places at once, and since I don't have Hermione's necklace that's not possible.

Speaking of reading young adult books, I have read all three of the Hunger Games books recently, and if you haven't read them yet---well just do it. They are awesome and addicting and yeah....I read them all in about a week's time. And my whole house has read them now too. They really are that good.

Training for my First Marathon

So.....training for a marathon is HARD!!
I know this probably sounds like an obvious statement, but I just had to say it. I'm training for my first marathon, so it's definitely a new experience.

Here's a little story about how I got here:
Growing up, my mom was always a super runner, doing marathons and being awesome. I never thought I could possibly ever run a marathon. When I was little, I HATED running. Absolutely hated it. When they made us do the mile run in 4th grade I wanted to skip PE. Don't even get me started on the 12 minute run! But I still looked up to my mom for running so many cool races.

When I was in high school, I injured my knee playing basketball and had to get 2 different knee surgeries for my meniscus, which the doctor told me looked like "swiss cheese." And he also asked me if I was really 17, not much older because of what the MRI of my knee looked like. I assured him that was my age, and was very worried I would not be able to play basketball or run again! (A little dramatic, but I didn't know!)

In college, I started to run for exercise and it became fun. I enjoyed going on runs and listening to music on my iPod. I played ultimate frisbee and we had to keep in shape, so I ran at practice and on the weekends. Sophomore year, my mom and sister (who became an amazing runner as well) convinced me to do a half marathon. I trained for this mostly by doing 5 mile runs. I did run one 7 mile run, but that was on accident because I got lost!

I went through college thinking that doing more than 13.1 miles would kill my knees and I would never be able to do it. Then, this year I ran my second half marathon in Tucson with my housemate Jen. After that, she convinced me to run a marathon with her in San Diego in June. She has since decided to do the half, but I'm sticking to running the full. I have decided it's one of my life goals to finally run a full marathon.

So, that's where I am today. I still have never run more than 13.1 miles, but on my training schedule my long run is 13 this week! And soon it will be 15...and eventually in June I will be running a full 26.2 miles! It's a very scary thought and I have decided that if I need to walk for part of it that's ok. I just really want to cross that finish line. And my mom has decided to run it with me, so we'll be crossing that finish line together.

"Parental carbon units are heading your way"

--A text from my mom haha

So the parents and relatives descended upon Tucson last week! It was an awesome craziness!! Mom and Dad got here on the 19th and left on the 25th. Some highlights were:

• Teaching Mom and Dad to play Settlers of Catan (the board game that we're obsessed with!) and Mom won!
• Going out to Asian food (Indian and Thai! Jen can handle more spicy food than I can!)
• Casa Mariposa on Wednesday, introducing my parents to the wonderfulness of the their house and unexpectedly seeing Father Matt there! Cece, Maggie, Daniel and Jeff's parents were also great additions to a very crowded but fun dinner! I made peanut butter brownies:)
  
• Going on a run with Mom and Dad through the U of A and showing them around my neighborhood.
• Bringing them to school with me and teaching 2nd grade with them there. The kids were so cute when I was like "Can anyone guess who these two visitors are?" They all raised their hands eagerly and I called on one of them who said of course, "Your parents!!" And and I had the class teach my parents a bit about input and output devices. So fun!
• Going to the Rodeo Parade (the longest non-motorized parade in the US) and finding out I like motorized parades much better because they actually have floats and not just a whole bunch of horses and bands. Seeing Ronald McDonald in a sombrero was entertaining tho! These two pics are from the parade.
• Mini family reunion with Mom, Dad, Bob, Kathryn, Bill, Carla, Don, Elaine, Mario and Kimm at Bob and Kathryn's. Oh and Mom and Dad almost bought a house there!
• Introducing the parents to Barrio Brewery where my Mom and Bill tried all 11 kinds of beers in a sampler! Of course the Razzberry is their best beer. I didn't have to try them all to know that;)

Ok that's enough bullet points. I was going to write more stuff like how we went to San Xavier mission, had a party at our house with everybody, got Eegee's, went to Sabino Canyon, went to Mexican with the Chavez family, had some great meals at Don and Elaine's hotel, etc. Basically it was a VERY busy but FUN week!!!

<-- That picture was taken by Kimm btw. [Bill, Carla, Bob, Kathryn, Me, Mom, Dad, Mario. Elaine in front of Bob and Don is kneeling down]

So, after the parents and relatives took off, our house drove up to Phoenix! We went to go visit Casa Bart who came and visited us in the fall. (and we saw Casa Truth too!) It was really fun re-connecting and having a barbeque. We even grilled vegetables and pineapple! And we went on their roof! It made me want a roof to watch the sunset on. Ok I guess I've always wanted that:)

Anyway, we got back last night and hopefully there will be some downtime before our next adventure. In the meantime, I'm very involved in the book series "The Hunger Games." I read the first one in 3 days and am now addicted. Just like with Dragon Tattoo, Twilight, and Harry Potter, this series has an addicting pull to continue reading!!! (ok it's also written for young adults, but who cares?;)
Sooo yeah that's what I'll be doing!

Gettin Re-Orientated and Stuff

At the end of January, we left Tucson for 5 days to go to Aptos, California. Why does this town sound familiar? Oh yeah, that's because we had Orientation there too! And it was surprisingly about the same temperature even tho Orientation was in August and Re-Orientation was in January! Ok this one was a little colder, but not by much!

Annnyywayyyy so I was expecting it to...well...suck. But it didn't! It was kinda good! (not great, still had to sleep on the cots and be around like 80 people constantly) but it was good. The beach is soo pretty! I miss it living here in the desert...And it was also a great time to reflect on the year so far. We're halfway done!

Before Re-O, I think the four of us were stressing about what to do next year. Not that we aren't anymore, but I felt like after Re-O, we all came away with a little excitement over the opportunities. We have all decided to at least consider a second year of JVC. I am thinking of doing a year in the Northwest (maybe Seattle?) because it's close to home, but would still be far enough away that I could be present in the community there and not get too distracted. I have really enjoyed this year so far--my job, living simply, and in community. I think another year would be great! I'm also torn though because living in Portland sounds really good too. So, for now I have decided to apply to JVC Northwest and I might change my mind later!

Yeah...Re-O was fun. The best parts were sitting on the beach, playing games and hanging out with the other houses, and being in the rain. Yeah I'm weird--I miss rain haha. Oh and another thing was I got to go back to Santa Clara! So weird not being a student there anymore! But I went to the Bronco and saw Cora! And then in the morning I had breakfast with Rachel!! That was awesome!

Now, I'm back at work. It's going pretty well. We got 20 netbook computers through a grant for the school, so I have been busy setting those up (2 per classroom) and teaching still. I'm not tutoring as much anymore since Title 1 has started for both reading and math. I'll miss my little tutor groups, but now I'll have more time for the other random projects that get thrown my way:) Right now I'm struggling with Microsoft Excel trying to figure out how to graph something without gaps in the x axis. Maybe I'll call my Dad...

And the kids are as cute as ever. I missed work on Monday because I was sick, which meant I didn't get to teach pre-k again. They are soo cute I miss them :( But I'm teaching 1st grade today, and they are (usually) good. Little Anthony V. came running up to me today as I walked into school. He said "Hey Miss Devlin! Do we have computers today? And I said yep! And he goes "Yes! I LOVE COMPUTERS! And going to the library. That's fun too!" Aw little Anthony. So adorable.

So, yeah. I also got to see Bob and Kathryn on Friday, that was really nice~ We went to dinner and had some tasty pizza. A whole buncha the Devlin family is flying in next week, so that should be exciting!!!!

Recent Happenings

So, the Tucson tragedy has been all over the news. A man about my age brought a gun to Safeway and shot a congresswoman, killed 6 people, and wounded many others. When I first heard the news, my housemates and I were at a brunch with a JV from Alaska and her parents. We watched the news intently at the restaurant, and have followed the story since then on the Internet.

I was having a difficult time describing how I felt the other day, but I'll try to put it into words here. At first, it felt very weird. I didn't know any of the victims or the shooter, and the grocery store was up in the North of Tucson, which is not that close to us. Not to say I didn't feel very bad about the shootings because I did, but it didn't feel like it happened that close or that it could have happened to me.

Then, in the following days, when we learned more about the victims and I thought more about some of the things we have done here (like going to protests) I thought--wow I could've been at something that could have broken out into violence. And that 9 year old girl that died could have been one of the 9 year old kids that I teach at this school. That's when it started to feel more real.

Then the other night, I had a nightmare about everyone I saw had a gun and was trying to shoot me. It felt very real in the dream and when I woke up and went to work I found out about the protests that were going to happen at little Christina's funeral, so it wasn't a great day. (luckily the Westboro church will not picket her funeral because they made a deal with a DJ for airtime, but they are still picketing the other victims' funerals, which is ridiculous and makes me sad/mad:(

Yesterday, we went to go see Obama speak at the U of A. Jen and I didn't get in because the line had about 13,000 people in front of us and only 12,000 could get in. We ended up going to the stadium right next to where Obama spoke and watching it on the jumbo screen in there. (with about 13,000 more people) This is when I felt the most connected to the Tucson community. I loved Obama's speech and it made me tear up several times just thinking of how devastating this is for the victim's families and for the community. But we will stay strong and Tucson is a great town. Like the president of the U of A said, it's a city that feels like a small town. Some people on CNN are saying it was strange there was so much clapping at the speech and it should have been more of a memorial than a pep rally. I felt however, that the speech was very appropriate and the clapping was all of us joining together to agree and applaud what he was saying. It didn't feel like a campaign speech to me at all. I thought it was amazing and I was so glad I went.

This weekend, after the tragedy and before Obama's speech, I drove up to Phoenix to see the parents and for the Oregon game. They didn't get me tickets, but it was still fun and we went to the official tailgate party. It was a much needed break from all the sadness in Tucson. It was great to see the parents and they are coming back in February!

I think today, after hearing Obama's speech about us coming together, I am feeling a lot better. I continue to pray for the victims and their families as well as the family of the shooter. Gabriel Giffords is recovering in the hospital right now and I hope she makes a full recovery. It's such an inspirational story to see her recover. When Obama said she opened her eyes for the first time yesterday, I was so happy.

Update for my previous blog: I put photos on Facebook from Guatemala: HERE

I went to Guatemala!!!! And now I'm back at work...

So, Guatemala was definitely an experience. It was my second trip there, but VERY different than my first time visiting in June. For starters, we spent an entire week in Antigua, a cute little touristy town that has great restaurants, cobblestone streets, and is surrounded by volcanoes. (<---) The vacation started out very relaxing, going to nice restaurants for lunch and dinner, and eating out A LOT! It was pretty much the opposite of JVC where we eat out like once a month. (seriously) And I got a pedicure.
Awesome.

My mom, dad, Sean and I took Spanish lessons at La Union Spanish school in Antigua. My teacher, Dalia, was great. I'm very much a beginner in Spanish, but started to understand a bit of what she was saying. We went over the basics like Ser and Estar, conjugating verbs, and learning vocab as she spoke to me in Spanish. The lessons were really cool cuz it was one-on-one the entire time, just having conversations in Spanish. I got a book too, which I will be studying with this year along with Rosetta Stone to improve my Spanish! It was fun also because we played games like Scrabble in Spanish and Basta! (Categories)

My favorite thing we did while there was we took a trip to the volcano Pacaya. We got to hike up a bit and see an amazing view of Antigua and like 4 other volcanoes. On Pacaya we roasted marshmallows because there was so much heat coming from the little caves. I have pictures I'll post to facebook. It was the best day!!!

On Christmas Eve, we went to eat at a very nice restaurant and I had pumpkin ravioli (yum!) or maybe that was what I ate at another place..hard to remember, but it was good food whatever it was! We went to a Christmas mass in Spanish and I was kinda lost. And by kinda I mean really. Those words were not covered in my lessons at La Union haha. I pretty much spaced out. It was a long service. But nice. In Antigua, at midnight on Christmas Eve, they set off tons of fireworks like it's New Year's Eve. So, we stayed up til midnight and ran outside our little guest house we were staying in to view all the fireworks around us. It was really cool!

We left the next day in a micro van to drive 8 (ish) hours to San Martin, Erin's site with Peace Corps. This is when the trip took a serious turn. Erin's house is not someplace I would want to live. It's great that she can do it, but I like having a shower and not being afraid of getting sick if I use a little bit of the water, and stuff like that. It was totally fine for the visit (except I was like deathly allergic to her house and woke up several nights having a hard time breathing), but I wouldn't want to live there for 2 years. I'm so proud of my sister for being able to cope with all the things she does. She's amazing!!!

The coolest thing we did in San Martin was take a hike up to the ruins. I wasn't prepared for a hike, I wore my Converse sneakers, but then Erin reminded me the the kids from her village that were going with us were wearing old sandals and they would love to have my shoes. So, then I felt bad for complaining! The cutest little girl, Stephanie, follows Erin around the village and she came with us along with 2 other girls and a boy. The ruins are mostly covered in grass, but the view from the top shows all of San Martin, so it was really worthwhile to go up there. We brought a little frisbee and Sean and I played with Stephanie. I took some pictures (and she took one of us!) that I'll put up too.

After 3 days in San Martin, we were ready for the next place, so we went to Todos Santos, the town closest to Erin on the way back towards Antigua and the capital. It's about half hour/45mins from San Martin, but much bigger and touristy. It's famous for the people wearing traditional Mayan dress and the men wear red pants with stripes and white hats. I really liked the red pants and want some for myself!!! At this point, my mom and Sean got pretty sick. Mom was the worst. We spent two days in Todos Santos, just hangin out, going to the market, and eating Guatemalan food at the comedors. We had some blue corn tortillas that tasted sooo good!

On New Year's Eve day we left at 7am to take the long ride back to Antigua. The ride wasn't quite as long this time, but still it's a van ride. It's MUCH nicer than taking the camionetas (chicken buses) all the way back! whew! We got to Antigua in the middle of the day and Erin and I went for a run. It was hot and my stomach was hurting, so it didn't go that well for me. Then, for lunch we went to a delicious crepe place where I had my favorite--banana and nutella with vanilla ice cream!! yummmm!

For dinner, we went to the nicest (and expensive!) restaurant in Antigua. On the way there we almost got hit by the fireworks as there were men with crates of fireworks on their backs shooting them off into the crowd. It was cool/scary!! And the crowds were huge for 7pm! The restaurant didn't have anything vegetarian on their special New Years Eve menu, but they did have one mushroom thing left that my mom ordered. I wasn't feeling that hungry and neither was she. We ended up sharing it even though I didn't eat the mushrooms. They had decorated our table really nicely and put real fireworks on it, so of course we lit them at the table! They were only sparklers and the waiter looked at us weird, but whatever. We aren't fancy enough for them anyway;)

And then........later that night I started to feel worse and worse....and I decided to take a nap before the crazy New Years fireworks. I ended up falling asleep until midnight when the insane amount of fireworks going off woke me up. I tried to shake Sean awake, but he didn't wake up, so I ran upstairs as fast as I could to catch the fireworks from the roof. It was really pretty. Everyone was shooting off the HUGE ones on their own so it was all over the city! The view up there was amazing. We had watched the sunset behind the volcanoes up there earlier that night and I loved it. But when the fireworks were going off I did not feel well. I decided to go back to bed when they died down a bit.

At about 5am I woke up and felt even worse..and then the puking started. I won't go into that...but it was nasty...

I was sick the rest of the next day and was really worried I'd get sick on my flights home, but I didn't! And today, I'm feeling MUCH MUCH better!!! yay! I'm back in Tucson and at work. (It's lunch break, so I can blog hehe) Being back at work feels like I never left. We have new software and headphones for the kids to use, which is super helpful. The kids talk to each other less when they are plugged in! Phew! And I forgot how absolutely adorable the little ones are! I still have no idea if I want to be a teacher in the future, but who knows! Maybe!

My New Year's Resolutions are:
1. Run my first marathon in June (and then another in December)
2. Learn Spanish and use Rosetta Stone
3. Learn how to play the guitar (for reals this time!)

Soooo hopefully I stick to those. I haven't really started them yet, but it is only the 4th day of the year:)