Work Stuff

This week Kid Power started up at two middle school sites. I spent every afternoon this week out at the schools. In my new position I am simply there as support and some guidance for the coordinators. It is a lot of fun because now I have the opportunity to get to know the students a little better as individuals and not worry about the group as a whole all the time. I was at Jefferson Academy on Monday and Tuesday and some of the students even remembered me from last year when I was there for the last two weeks of program. Those students have a ton of energy and get very excited over just about anything. I think they will have a good program this year so long as we can channel all the energy. On Wednesday and Thursday I went to Sousa Middle School. This is the first year we have a program at this school and it is going really well so far. The students are great and the coordinator is awesome. The school staff is also very supportive and the teachers who help out are all over the homework help. On Thursday a lady come to do pottery with the students. She had plain ceramic bowls for each of the students to paint. The kids were very excited and had a lot of fun showing their creativity.

The main problem with going to Sousa is that I have to take the metro and a bus to get there. It takes around an hour. Yesterday when I was leaving it was down-pouring so by the time I got on the bus I was completely soaked and then of course the bus had the AC on so I was freezing. It was a rather uncomfortable trip. I was happy that my book did not get wet inside my purse though.

Today I am not going into work because our house is leaving for retreat in just a few hours. I probably could have put in a half day, but that just didn't sound like fun. I am looking forward to a weekend up in the mountains with nothing to do but talk about the coming year and read a lot. I finally got a library card out here so I have a few books along. We are also taking a puzzle and games so it should be a lot of fun. I will make sure to take some pictures.

New Room!

Finally the pictures are here! First, The Before:

Yes that is a bare concrete floor.

Tiny, I know.

Now, The During:

And finally, The After:

And lastly, meet Marjorie. This was my room-warming gift from Corey

Time Flies

So I have to start with an apology; I promised to have pictures of my redone room on here by now and they obviously aren't. I have my room done and most of my stuff put away I have just been too distracted lately to post the pictures. The weekend of August 24th I flew home to surprise my parents. Their 30th anniversary was on the 27th so I went home. That meant that I had to just throw everything into my room before I left because the new MVSer's moved in over that weekend. I spent last week moving things around and trying to get organized, but there is still more to do. 

Until yesterday our house was full! For about a week there were 8 people living in our house. We have had a girl staying with us until she found housing and then with the new MVSers we were at capacity. Yesterday Cara and Erica (our guest) moved out so now we are down to the the 4 MVSers, myself (an associate), and Keith. It will be nice to have things settle down a bit. This transition of volunteers has been very drug out and has lead to a lot of overlap. I have really enjoyed this summer being in DC but I have just been way too busy. With fall coming I think things are going to be calming down a lot which will mean I should have more time to tackle a variety of projects I keep meaning to do. Included in the list is keeping this blog updated so hopefully I get a little better at that.