There are NO WATERFALLS to swim in in the Denver area. Pshh.

Well hello there!
Sorry it's been a while. Since my last post a lot has happened so I'll try to fill ya in.

So I mentioned I was in Austin for the 4th of July, but I did NOT mention that the city of Austin is far too wonderful and liberal and appealing to me for it to be located in the state of Texas. Real talk here, I've been quoted to say on numerous occasions since that life-changing weekend that if it weren't for those two pesky letters (T and X) I'd have to add to my address, I'd love to live in Austin someday. But even so this doesn't mean I wont try with great vehemence to convince loved ones to move there, which would thus enable my need to experience the city more. It. Is. Wonderful. That's all there is to say. Now go see it for yourself (and be a doll and relocate to there too).

So that was the 4th of July weekend. It was followed by four days of work (two at Da Club and two out with the Summer of Service kiddos), then yet another vacation! Real covert-like, the great conspirator Mark Mraz pulled a fast one on my siblings and snuck buddoned me a plane ticket to our family vaca that I was supposed to be missing. (Yes I just inserted a beloved Mrazism, "snuck buddoned," into normal writing, which in this context basically translates to "slid along under the table," but where's the fun in that? Is it obvious I'm itching to get home?) So I got to romp around on the beach for four days with my sibs-plus-one-friend and my dad! SO WONDERFUL. But...there was a huge void that no amount of crabbing and speaking in Mraztastic tongues could fill with the absence of my mom. She's in "poopy grad school" this summer and couldn't make it to Virginia Beach this year. This is a mistake we won't be making again any time soon.

The family vacation brought me right up to, yes, the very last day of work! It honestly flew by with little-to-no sense of finality, and the only component that actually made it feel like it was any different than any other day was that I toted my camera around for an hour at one point to document the kiddles. Oh and I guess I got a few more "Miss Katie I lov yu an wil miss yu!" cards/signs than usual. But the day ended and we packed up our storage closet and the next morning at 7am we were on the road.

This round taught me how important it is to me to have positive relationships with my coworkers aka my teammates. I always thought that was a given but, in the absence of happiness surrounding the actual project, it amazed me how happy I still felt in my heart as a result of my relationships. Being someone who likes to live what she believes, I've never so chronically hated my circumstances to the extent I did the last two months. If I'm not happy with my circumstances I've always made great strides to make them more conducive to my happiness. So being in a good job/living situation/major/WHATEVER always sort of guaranteed my happiness, regardless of my attitudes toward the people I was surrounded by. And while I still maintain that that approach is the healthiest, I guess what I learned this round is that with the right outlook on the PEOPLE around me, I can really get through anything. And this was an action I had to make myself. My teammates didn't change...people really don't change that much...but suddenly I found myself willing my patience and openness to stay intact when situations would arise where I'd typically pass judgment or get irritated. I'm not saying I was the image of Christ himself the last two months...I certainly had my number of demon-induced freak outs...but my point is that this was the first time in a long time that I saw amazing results from an attitude adjustment. Crazy right?!

I'm back in Denver now, and will be here until GRADUATION! on July 27th. My overall mood is general complacency about being too over-the-top with my good byes here (they never seem perfect enough awayway), and serious excitement/anxiety about moving on to the next chapter of my life. I HAVE TWO MONTHS AT HOME!!!! Woohoo! It breaks my heart that not everything that comes to mind when I think of "home" can stay that way forever, but I'm happy to get back to my roots nonetheless. And then I'm taking on New Orleans again, this time for eleven full months. Yesss.

Oh ps, I turn 23 tomorrow. OLD.
K miss you!
kt

Art?

So art is difficult to define. Right? I mean I consider myself to be borderline introspective, but I still can't fully appreciate what it means to call a sheet of canvas painted one solid color "artistic". Clearly I'm missing something. But on the other hand I do know what it is to be moved by objects people create. So I know just about as much about art as you do. Well long story short, someone thinks I can make art! My teammate Cody and I took a shot in the dark and asked a coffeeshop owner if she'd let us add some pieces to the local art collection she had up on her wall. Within eight hours we already had wall space, an arrangement of our "work" (Cody's pencil drawings, my photographs), and one sale each! Dear Darlene From Houston, you gave me a dangerous confidence booster.

So perhaps another blog is on the way...Katie's Photographs?

More later...I'm in Austin for the fourth!
Katie

#

Well hello there! I'm in an altogether spritely mood at the moment. You've all heard of snows days, but have you ever had a rain day? Yes that's right, when you live in a place that's prone to hurricanes, work is known to be canceled due to rain from time to time! And that's what's in store for me tomorrow. So that narrows down my actual work days to six (we actually have eight, but I've banked my personal days for a trip woohoo!), meaning exactly two weeks until we LEAVE FREEPORT, meaning exactly 27 days until graduation. Heck. Yes. Now all I have to do is survive the tropical storm that'll be hanging around us for the next six days and I should be good to go.

I've had a solid week. First off, THANK YOU to everyone who responded to my poll, whether it was through text, email, calling me, posting here, whatever, your insight has been very helpful. I'm pretty sure I've made my decision, so if I actually do get offered the job for Choice #2 this week, I'll know what my approach will be. Not telling till then though.

I must admit, I've grown to borderline love SOME of the kids here at the club. Despite my best efforts I actually find myself looking forward to seeing SOME of them on the days that I'm here. And ya know what's even more surprising? The kindergarteners are my favorite! See I really took a fast liking to the fourth graders back at the beginning, probably because we bonded over our shared disgust with the kindies as a species, but now it's like, bye bye friendship bracelets, hellooo tea parties. And ridiculously mature things being stated with speech impediments. And WIGGLINESS. They are so wiggly, the kindergarteners. So hilarious.

Was that just a whole paragraph about working here that didn't have an underlying complaint? It may have been.... Who knew.

So yes, I began to realize last week that I will definitely miss some of these kiddos, and that I will think about them from time to time once this spike is over. It was a heartwarming realization. After having a less-than-awful week, I managed to follow the excitement up with a more-than-outstanding weekend. My team leader set up a service project in Houston, and since it was so far away AmeriCorps agreed to put us up in a hotel for Saturday night. A whole bed AND cable? Awesome! So we spent a few hours volunteering at a really progressive inpatient treatment and rehab center for men in the Houston area, called it a day around 3pm, and made it back to our hotel in time to see the last depressing hour of the soccer match against Ghana. Ugh. Then after a dee-licious spinach pizza pie at a Mediterranean restaurant, I started making arrangements to meet up with a most ideal partner in crime, the one and only Anya Gersib. A gay pride parade was involved, along with a bar shut down and a rooftop view of the Houston skyline, in the making of a wonderful and memorable night with my dear college buddy. Oh and we got LADY GAGA fans! For REAL!

The next day our team-plus-Anya ate brunch at about the most picturesque cafe I'd ever seen, and then spent the afternoon perusing a couple Houston art museums. It had been so long since I'd submerged myself in art like that; I was overdue. Some of the works were just so against the grain it was uncomfortable...but in that good way that only art can make you feel ya know? There was one in particular, by Maurizio Cattelan, that stopped me dead in my tracks. As I had rounded the doorway to the next room of the museum, I was met with an enormous room with wooden floors and bare walls painted pure white. The contrast from painting-laden walls to this emptiness was enough to set me off-kilter, until I saw what the actual intention of the emptiness was. There in the middle of the floor, perfectly spaced and placed in alignment, were no less than twenty-five dead bodies underneath white bedsheets. The curves of the bodies, where the bedsheets folded and creased, gave way to an understanding of who were the kids, the men, the women (the pregnant women), the people clutching babies on their chests, and so on, amongst the dead. Even in walking right up to the bodies, there was no doubt that if I had a sudden fit of insanity I could rip off each and every sheet from these people and see who the really were. So imagine my shock in realizing that they were made of marble. MARBLE. Perfectly smoothed out rock made to imitate holocaust victims. Woofta. It was worth getting a scolding from the docent just to reach out and feel it for myself.

So I got my volunteering, my party, and my intellect on last weekend. Who could ask for more? And then this week has chugged its way along to what's going to be a ridiculous day off tomorrow, then it'll be FRIDAY (at which point I should have heard back from Choice #2), then another weekend with a trip to San Antonio and AUSTIN planned, and then FOURTH OF JULY! Then ANOTHER DAY OFF WORK! Then work, then A TRIP!! And then I LEAVE FREEPORT!! Safe to say we've reached the home stretch people.

Love you!
Miss Katie

Polllllllllllll!!!!!!!!

So I'm going to take some opinions here. I'm just curious what kinds of results I'll get:

If you were GUARANTEED the SAME benefits and pay for both, got to live in the AMAZING city of New Orleans for both, and naturally got to meet some really REALLY neat people at both, would you:

1. Spend 11 months of your life doing a completely random job that has NOTHING to do with your professional interests but that will probably give you some real-life-how-the-world-works expertise (house maintenance and repair, perhaps...) before you buckle down and start grad school?

or....

2. Spend 11 months of your life working in a unique area of your field of professional interest that you can't really get anywhere else and that would serve as a nice mental segue from roaming the country for the last year to grad school in 2011?

All responses are invited! Thanks :)
kt

Yay, dads.

This doesn't need to be a long post; you all know that dads are great. In my experiences working with kiddos it has become more and more clear what the product of an unstable home life can be. I don't need to remind you that if you have a solid male figure in you're life, you are lucky. I always gravitate to describing my upbringing as pretty normal, both parents still married and stable and whatnot, but we all know that that scenario is not the norm. So if you have a papa that you're proud of, that you look up to, I have two pieces of homework for you: 1. Do like I do and appreciate the rarity of your situation. 2. Call him right now!! :)

Love ya daddy dear!
kt

Ten days already?

I honestly can't say I have a lot to report on this guy. Oink oink weekend feels like it was FOREVER ago...these days are such a blur. I will have to admit, this week has been the first in a long time that I haven't been curious about the internet world every single day. To what can I attribute this lack of interest? Why, friendship bracelet making of course!!! Seriously I have created a monster virus that is sweeping the Boys and Girls Club. I can't stop making bracelets/necklaces/rings/bookmarks (yes bookmarks). It's to a point now where I'll be working in the art room and actually trying to convince the kiddles that yes of COURSE their dad would appreciate a bracelet for father's day! I should probably teach them so we can sit for the entire hour making bracelets, right? I have a problem; I accept this. But I have no interest in overcoming it anytime soon. So I guess this means if you have a hankerin for some jewelry made with love, holler at me.

Holler at me. Yes I said it. And I'm allowed to, wanna know why? Because I feel, in a most peculiar way, like I have been personally invited into the wild world of hood slang by the older group of kids I'm working with separate from the Boys and Girls Club. So there. This hardworking, honest, genuine group of seven 14 and 15 year olds collectively manages to teach me a new slang phrase every time I go out on a project with them. It's funny because I'm not that old, but seriously I can't understand half of what comes out of their mouths the first time. And they're always calling me, "Miss," regardless of what they're saying. "Yeah sure Miss, let's head to Buc-ees for lunch," "Naw Miss I can't say I agree with that," or my favorite from today, "Honestly Miss, I don't care one bit." I'm reallllly trying to push the simple "Katie" on them, but a decade and a half of training is making this request one that's nearly impossible for them to meet. So I've settled for Miss Katie. Fifteen year old kids are calling me Miss Katie. Bagh the south is hilarious. Anywho this group has been wonderful to work with and also, as previously mentioned, provides that out I need from Da Club every once in a while. So it's a positive situation across the board.

Another positive concept: Tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!! We have no real plans this weekend but the beach will most definitely be involved. Okay more later.

kt

SIT DOWN AND COLOR A PICTURE!!!!!!!

Well lookie here it hasn't even been a week since my last post! You're welcome.

Oink oink weekend was exactly how I had imagined it: taking an entire two days to get to and from a town four hours away and making hi-larious and de-licious (and sometimes both!) stops along the way. I saw the world's third largest fire hydrant, naively spent $12 on a baked potato (it would've been worth $10 though), played on a castle park to preemptively burn calories, saw (and considered purchasing) the world's largest gummi bear (but went with a 1/2 pound of lethally mouthwatering fudge instead...), consumed FROG LEGS AND ALLIGATOR!!!!, had iced coffee and "Hummingbird Cake" while enjoying local art at the darlingest coffee shop in eastern Louisiana, ate an original beignet at another adorable Louisiana cafe (to which we were welcomed by the local attention-loving mutt), and, of course, sampled yet another town's version of seafood gumbo. Woofta. I may or may not have kicked my own butt in the gym today as retribution for my decisions over the previous 48 hours, but let me tell they were so very worth it. I must say I do love road tripping. And themed road trips? Go, to, bed! So much fun. Expect pictures (aka evidence) of all of our adventures soon.

Don't let this mislead you in any way, but even if this weekend hadn't been so blastastic I would have still loved the opportunity to get away from this stupid building for two days. So no, nothing's changed. I'm still miserable here. But here's something cool! I am assigned to take the 14 and 15-year-old Summer of Service group on Mondays, so today was my opportunity to get away from the Club and all that it implies (little kids, to name one), and work on a service project with these older-yet-still-young bucks. We went to a nearby bird observatory and build a boardwalk to prevent birders from sinking into the mucky mud after rain storms. Despite the horrific volume of mosquitoes and intense humidity, it was awesome! My group is really a fun bunch. I just remember hating those awkward years of my life so much that it's pleasantly surprising to work with such self-aware and mature little people at that age. And they're FUNNY. Seriously they are already comfortable enough with us to poke fun and even tease a little after only four days. It's cool to see; I'm looking forward to Mondays every week now. (And bonus: Yet another excuse to get away from this building! Woohoo.)

So....yeah I'll leave it at that for now. Maybe the regularity that is soon to befall Sun Three in the upcoming weeks will improve my currently dreary 'tude. Hang in there with me!

Miss ya!
kt

Solid source of dairy?

I have decided that goat cheese should be incorporated into my everyday life. Ignore the fact that a tub of goat cheese costs about what I make in one day on my paycheck; I will make this happen. As should you.

Okay love you!
kt

Another update from Texas!

Well hello again! As I type this I'm wearing my Justin Morneau Twins jersey in hopes that through osmosis it will help them beat Seattle. I have yet to watch a single inning of a game this season (cable? Pshhhh yeah right), but I've been finding myself putting on this jersey more and more these days...I think I have an itch.

Anywho it's been an interesting two weeks. Let me start with what I absolutely loved about the time since my last post: MY SISTER CAME TO VISIT ME!!!!! Yes that's right, this is the longest I've ever gone without seeing a fellow Mraz, and so a reunion, no matter the size, was overdue. We had such a blast. I must admit that I was already supercharged when I picked her up in Houston because it was the first time in almost six months that I got to drive alone in a car! And drive over 65mph? And back up without a ground guide? AND GET COFFEE AT THE PICK UP WINDOW?! It's amazing what becomes "the little things" over time. So just that span of four hours where I could go wherever my heart desired was extremely therapeutic for me. But the fun hadn't even started!

The first night Bets was here we came back to Freeport and she got to meet most of my teammates and Laurie, one of my sponsors from the Boys and Girls Club. Laurie had us all over for a Memorial Day Weekend barbeque so we got to meet her family and some of her in-laws. This lady is a hoot--I really look up to her. She reminds me in some ways of a certain mother of two blonde-haired kids I know.... So we got to enjoy a dock, some burgers, good conversation, CRABBING, some lawn games, etc. etc. etc...all the stuff that goes along with a bbq. Then we were off the the hotel where...drumroll please...A QUEEN-SIZED BED ALL TO MYSELF WAS WAITING FOR ME!!! Agh again it's the little things. But I couldn't spread out wide enough. This was a fair call from the cot I've been resting my head on at night these last few weeks.

The next day we set off for Galveston, TX. It's known to be far more beach-y (aka tourist-y) than Freeport and it was only and hour or so away, so it worked out nicely. So we bummed around all day at the beach, napped, ate a delicious yet extremely bizarre dinner that involved multiple strangers engaging us in awkward conversations, and then bar hopped around Seawall Blvd that overlooks the gulf. I can't get over how great it was to just go out on TWO peoples' agendas in a CAR and not have to worry about van curfews and all the other mumbo jumbo that goes along with this program. (Can you tell what the rest of my last two weeks has been like? Lol) So we had a blast, as we always do.

What day are we to now? Monday? Oh, the day we learned how to SURF?! Haha oh yeah now I remember. We spent two hours on Monday morning being taught how to surf by a charismatic sage by the name of Brian, and let me tell you we don't really suck! We actually picked up on it really quick. I'm confident that the next time I'm at the ocean I'll be able to rent a board and give it another go...I'll be riding tubes in no time. Following the lesson (which, may I add, went longer than we paid for because we were so much fun) we grabbed some grub then morphed back into beach bums. A shower, followed by the purchase of oversized hats, followed by a daiquiri, followed by a delicious dinner ending in a gorgeous sunset, and then a stop at our new favorite Galveston coffeeshop, Mod, later, we were pooped. We had a good night's rest and then set off for Houston the next morning. Betsy got to see where her clinical will be starting in August (a REALLY pretty area!) and we scoped out the area for what she can have for entertainment while she's there. Then it was time to say goodbye. It stank but it always does. Really if I had spent that weekend with any of my friends it would have been spectacular...just getting away from NCCC for a few days was unbelievable. But having my sees be the one to entertain me brought it to an entirely new level...I'm extremely lucky to have such a remarkable friend for a sister. :)

But despite the Powers of Betsy, my living situation right now is still pret-ty rough. Living here at the club is not the party I tried to fool myself (and all of you, ha ha!) into thinking it would be. Let's be realistic with ourselves. Having to pack up every morning and pretend that you don't, in fact, live in the exact building where kindergarteners chronically pee on the walls during the day is crappy. Waking up to sixteen mosquitoes going gang-style True Blood on me is frustrating. Being the first to the bathroom in the morning and flipping on the light only to be met with a group of oddly familial cockroaches is ridiculous (were they just conversing?).

But the deeper issue in all of this is my lack of control of the situation. In joining AmeriCorps it was understood that I had to relinquish most of the control I had over my circumstances. And so sleeping on an air mattress in a random church for a month was nothin. Having to allot at least 90 minutes round trip for YMCA visits, alright. What's that? I didn't get any of the spinach AGAIN? AND WE'RE DOING TAXES FOR TWO MONTHS?!??! AGH! But it's been fine. It has all been reasonable and fine and most of all...EXPECTED. But this living situation feels like a new low for AmeriCorps and it's really stressing me out. And you all know that I'm not a wimp. So this is the real deal. My team is resilient, but we all feel the same way. Now there's a sliver of hope that we get to move to another Boys and Girls Club building, so I'm really trying to rack up good karma the next couple of days to help that tip in my favor. Let me know if you need any good deeds committed anytime soon.

And despite our living situation I will say that the Boys and Girls Club as a project itself is...okay-to-legitimate. (Haha sorry I'm such a downer!) It'll definitely pick up once summer officially starts, because not only with the club be on a more consistent routine, but our other project will begin as well. Along with working at the club we're also going to be Team Leaders for the next five weeks, working with 14-17 year olds on two service projects a week. They'll be like a mini-AmeriCorps NCCC. So while the projects feels pretty unstructured and confusing right now, I'm feeling positively about things picking up next week.

Well okay, more updates later. To come: Maire, Cody, and Katie's OINK OINK WEEKEND through the bayou!

Miss you all, love you
Katie

I saw a washed-up shark AND jellyfish today!

Alright I promised. Hello there again! Sorry it’s been so long. I feel generally caught up with most of you to a point where I want to be, so good job staying in touch.

So. I find myself in the unfortunate-looking beach town of Freeport, Texas, where I will be residing for the next nine weeks. My home is now an entire Boys and Girls Club building, where from the hours of 7:30am to 6pm I have to make believe I did not, in fact, sleep next to that floor-to-ceiling shelf of Legos in the corner of the little people playroom. My bedroom is wherever I decide to set up my cot for the night, and is also the gymnasium. If I want. I can actually sleep wherever the heck I want in the building because guess what, I literally live at work. I’ll keep you posted about how things are going on the job, but let me tell you I’m pretty sure I’ll be more stoked to talk about the BEACH that’s a FIVE MINUTE DRIVE FROM HERE! Maybe it’s the summer daze laze, maybe it’s the fourth round (aka fourth quarter, fourth year, etc) instinct in knowing that I’ve finished all my extra AmeriCorps stuff, maybe it’s the FRICKEN BEACH ITSELF, but I’m really feeling the pull of relaxation this round. So...get excited.

Want to know how I got from filing taxes in north Texas to here? What the heck I’ve been up to the last two months? Well sure I’d love to inform you! In the last few weeks of Round Two in Texas, our team was given a list of projects that were coming up for Round Three. Unlike the other three rounds, third round on the Denver campus is a shuffle round, so we individual Corps Members get to choose which project we specifically want and then get put on a team of new Corps Members from our unit who wanted the project too. It’s about the most insightful concept I’ve seen AmeriCorps NCCC throw at me yet. Regardless of your personal opinions of the people you get put on a team with, you’re at least guaranteed a group of twelve people who actually WANT to be where you are, a notion that I’ve come to appreciate the implications of more and more when it comes to group dynamics. Anyway, two of the five projects offered for Round Three were in New Orleans, and I knew with absolute certainty that I wanted one of those. My gravitation toward Nola had continued to grow throughout Round Two and I hoped that getting back to that tragic old gal of a city for Round Three would head me in the right direction for getting a job there when this is over. (Spoiler alert: I was right.)

So I left Burkburnett, Texas knowing that, 1: Next round I’d be off to New Orleans again to work for the New Orleans Are Habitat for Humanity...again, and 2: I would greatly appreciate it if I never had to live in north Texas again.

Transition week happened, that highly-intense, overly dramatic stretch of days where you suddenly find yourself passive-aggressively arguing with friends from other teams that your team is the best, or if not the best then at least better than theirs; where you sit through agonizingly long meetings that only with a good book of Sudokus in your hand can you see to the end; where you probably drink a lit-tle more than usual but who cares, you’re rekindling with friends from other teams; etc., etc., etc. So that standard rite of passage happened. Then it was back to beautiful Nawlins with my fresh new team and fresh new team leader, Sarah!

For your sake I’ll just give an overview of the eight-week spike back in New Orleans, even though the entire experience deserves its own blog:

1. As opposed to Round One, where all 12 of us stayed together on one work site the entire time, this round we split up every week to a different work site almost each time.

2. Also as opposed to Round One, we lived in an actual Habitat for Humanity house. (Woohoo!) Yes, twelve people, one bathroom. But whatever we liked it.

3. Our house was wayyyyyyyyyyy...out in St. Bernard Parish, which led to a ridiculous commute but inevitably a new perspective to New Orleans, since the community we lived in was not the community we were speciifically serving.

4. After four weeks of work, violence hit an all-time high in New Orleans and AmeriCorps NCCC headquarters shut down our projects for a week, deeming our work sites too unsafe to work at. An entire week. With far less than a day’s notice we had to pack up our belongings and move out of the Habitat house (because guess what, there would no longer be a Habitat project if “they don’t shape up” and move around our work sites to safer locations) to a communal camp with all the other NCCC teams down there at the time. The move equated to ten minutes away from our original house. Ten minutes. Seriously, politics. Anyway it was sort of fun because not only were we reunited with some other Denver teams, we also got to make friends with Corps Members from other campuses in Maryland and Mississippi. So despite the frustration of feeling as though we were letting down our sponsor, it ended up being an okay deal. When it came time for a team vote on whether or not we should move back to the house, the proximity to downtown swayed our votes to actually stay put right there at good ol’ Camp Hope. (RIP...we just heard it shut down last week.)

5. BUT no less than a day after we returned to work with Habitat (where nothing had actually changed at all...surprising...), my purse got stolen off a work site. I wrote an email to a friend about it last week, and I know this seems lazy but it was the first time I actually put it into typed words and I’m just going to paste the email here. It explains my attitude the best:

A huge first happened to me a month ago...my purse got stolen. Right off my worksite. The very same kids whose neighborhood I'm trying to improve were bored and decided to make their day more interesting by seeing if they could sneak under a house that had...no exaggeration...40 volunteers busily going about their business. It was nuts! The biggest blow was my first child, that big black camera that I LOVE and bring everywhere to document what my life in AmeriCorps is like. I was so worked up about losing that that it didn't occur to me till 30 minutes later that my iPod touch was in there too. Ugh. Ironic that literally the two nicest things I own are the things I use most frequently and thus keep in my purse. Damn. I also had my cashless wallet in there so not only did the kids wind up empty-handed in that department, but they opened up a massive process of replacing my stolen cards and IDs. It's the weirdest feeling to walk around with nothing proving that you are who you say you are. And they didn't care that I still kept my first bus pass from Sweden in there. Or my Coe ID. Or memorabilia from other places I've been. Ugh it was just shitty. It definitely challenged my worldview, but I was pleased when I discovered that even in such a vulnerable position my heart still went out to those kids. They couldn't have been any older than 12...not young enough to be excused for their actions but not old enough to be labeled as bad apples. They're just kids. They're bored. And their community has taught them that regardless of what they WANT to do with their lives, they're just going to end up like the other Ninth Warders and never leave and eventually make a living in the streets just like all the other generations before them. So why not get some practice with breaking the rules? They have nothing better to do anyway. After school programs are laughably nonexistent in New Orleans, their probably single parent (most likely mother) has to work her ass off just to make ends meet, and the older boys who inevitably become their idols are doing far worse than purse stealing. So even though I'm obviously upset to some extent at these three boys, I'm more passionately emotional about how failed they've been by their community.

6. Coincidently, this experience also helped solidify my need to spend another year in New Orleans. (For revenge, ha ha!...just kidding) It’s such a tragic city, and I absolutely love it for that exact reason. I began the interview process to work with a different AmeriCorps branch called State and National while I was down there...one position I have in mind is with the same Habitat affiliate I’ve been working with throughout AmeriCorps. It’s nice that they already know me and are familiar with my capabilities, ya dee ya dee yada. There are other opportunities for State and National in New Orleans that I’m looking into also. But consider this my public service announcement that I’m moving to New Orleans for a year, woohoo!

7. I went to Jazzfest while I was there, which is arguably the second biggest event the city puts on after Mardi Gras, and saw Drake, Simon and Garfunkel, and a bunch of local New Orleans bands for an entire day! With Jayson Schmelzer as a special guest! What a blast!

8. And finally I really really disgustingly fell in love with my shuffle team. They gave me a lot to live up to for this fourth and final round with the original Sun Three.

And...now I’m here. In the Gulf of Mexico. I’m already sunburned from laying out on the beach for too long today. It’s going to be a great round.

More later!
kt

SLACKER

Okay. So...I realize I have A LOT to catch readers up on. Sorry. I'm not going to post quite yet, but this is a disclaimer that there WILL BE POSTS TO COME SHORTLY!!!! Okay talk to you soon :)

Howdy partners!

I’ve lived in good ol’ Burkburnett, Texas for…exactly 6 weeks today. (Isn’t it weird that every time I’ve written any of these Texas town names that I’m dealing with here, I’ve had the uncontrollable urge to precede it with “good ol’”? It’s a necessary component to all of their names. Sorry, State of Texas, for being so condescending but consider it a term of endearment.) SIX WEEKS! And all of it has been a mystery as far as you’re concerned. Well no more! Today is the day I reveal the truth about my fast-paced, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants life for that last month and a half. (Excellent. I believe I have now adequately set you up for disappointment due to the basic lack of excitement that Texas has brought me :))

As many of you know, my project here is focused on filing taxes for low-income families. So after two weeks of being back in the classroom (which was awesome! I miss school!) all thirteen of us earned a VITA certification (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) that qualified us to do taxes at the Advanced Level. It sounds slightly cooler than it is. I mean, yes it’s great to have a better grasp on this immortal and eternal entity in the lives of all Americans that is taxes, but believe me anyone could get this certification. You could do it. Actually you should go get it right now so struggling families will no longer feel that the only way to get their taxes done is by PAYING some refund-robbin’ root-tootin’ sonofagun big time corporation to do so. Go ahead, get a move on. I’ll wait. I have all the time in the world because there’s not a darn thing to do around here. Luckily our work days are long, varying between either nine straight hours of taxes or a half day of going door-to-door and a half day of tax prep, because otherwise I’d drive myself crazy. You can only dive into so many books, can only watch so many TV shows, can only blog so much (haha :)) before going cross-eyed. So yes the longer days have been nice. We’ve actually had a ton of people from the community step forward and sponsor fun activities for us too, so that’s been keeping me at least mildly entertained. I’ll put up pictures (probably), but we’ve been provided everything from basketball tickets at the local college, to box seats at a D3 hockey game, to a tour of Sheppard Air Force Base (a pivotal U.S. base, actually), to a “Day on the Ranch” filled with horseback riding, paddle boating, canoeing, longhorn appreciating, and skeet shooting!, to a sponsored day trip to Fort Worth to see the legendary Billy Bob’s Honky Tonk, etc. etc. etc. We’ve gotten countless handouts in the forms of food, resources, even news coverage. All in all we’ve had an outstanding amount of hospitality thrown our way here; so much in fact that we haven’t really had many days off at all. So I’ve seen north Texas. A lot. And a lot of it. And on top of its fair share of noteworthy characteristics, it has also served as another place to mark off my list of future locales. So thanks for that, north Texas.

This work is definitely meaningful, so don’t confuse my natural boredom toward where I’m livinig with complacency. I have had some crazy interactions here.

One of my favorite “kinds” of families are the ones that were clearly working day in and day out to get themselves back up on their feet. The kinds of families that pull themselves up by their bootstraps even when they’re going without boots. The kinds who come in and give you six W-2’s and when you look back at them to express your amazement it is only then when you see the bags under their red eyes for what they’re worth. The kinds who are covered in tattoos that are turning blue with age, one of which is a tear drop underneath his left eye, who provide you with identification cards clearly stating that they are not to leave the state of Texas, and who despite their blatantly obviously haggard pasts have still managed to hold three honest jobs, stay married for ten years, and raised three heartbreakingly delightful children, all under the age of thirty. The kinds who end up getting the smallest refund you’ve seen all day but who jump for joy at the sound of it. The work I’m doing here obviously doesn’t have the benefit of considering itself to be as glamorous as, say, building a house in New Orleans or working on a trail in Boulder, but the importance of it shouldn’t escape a critic. I get to help people in need every single day, and with each new client I get a new sense of the way our system both assists these families in some ways while simultaneously keeps them right there where it likes them. Most of them will never get out of their income bracket, and most of them are not to blame for that truth. It’s just a byproduct of our society; if you don’t invest in education you miss out on an investment toward your future. Okay, I get that, but what about these people who couldn’t afford good education in a million years, America?? The people who weighed the cost of dropping out of 7th grade against losing their alcoholic dad’s farm, their livelihood?? This project has given me an up-close and personal look at the byproducts of our polarized culture, and no degree of boredom with Texas could cloud that vision.

So anywho, I know where I’m headed to next! That’s right, back to Nola to work with Habitat for Humanity again!!! It was my first pick for projects and I’m ecstatic. We shuffle up next round so all of the five Sun Unit teams are mixing around and melding into five new teams. By the sounds of it my new family will be just as baller as my current one, so it’s going to be a blast.

Keep in touch with me! Hope you’re doing well!

kt

Wtf it's DECEMBER?

This project is passing far too quickly for my taste. Positive occasionally to a fault, I rarely dwell on the aspects of work that piss me off, so I know I was bound to fall in love with this project. But I really really mean it this time...I love working with Habitat down here. I love New Orleans. I love construction. I've even grown fond of our commute in ways because of the music time I can squeeze in before and after work. (Let me just fill in here, since I don't believe I've mentioned it yet: We were supposed to be put in a quaint Habitat for Humanity House for the duration of our time here, but a week before we arrived we found out the house hasn't been approved by the city yet, and we would be "temporarily" staying at a church 14 miles away. As you can assume, temporarily became permanent, and we've been living in a big multipurpose room, sleeping on air mattresses, walking down the street a block and a half for showers, and sharing the church with the preschool, AA, and the laypeople for almost a month now. I wanted a house, sure, but I cant complain about the laundry angels. :))

So anywho, long story short we only have FIVE FREAKING DAYS OF WORK LEFT here! Ridiculous. The student in me knows that the next step in grad school, but I must confess spending a year working with Habitat has never looked so appealing....

Update on our house: We have a roof! And we'll continue shingling next week!! Our house is looking more and more like a home every day, with OSB boards up on most of the interior walls, windows, a front porch, the whole shebang. And not to mention, due to events during lunchtime on Thursday, our house is now officially part of the neighborhood in my mind. It's a long story but suffice it to say that a babbling man promptly sat down on our porch, talking to himself, then proceeded to roll up a joint and smoke it. Right there in front of us. A rite of passage, if you will. :)

Well like I said, we leave in a week. Grr. Today I'm heading to a coffeeshop (first time in forever!! :)), then the Art Museum, then heading to somewhere in the French Quarter to watch the VIKES!

Love you miss you
kt

The city that care forgot.

Well I just have to accept the fact that I'm not making this blogging thang as much of a priority as I once was. I feel like an apology is in order but even that seems like more effort than I feel like giving. It's just been so natural to ease into the...get ready for it...Big Easy, as if the city just opens its arms and welcomes any stranger off the street. New Orleans is amazing! I've been to big cities, and the lights and the sounds and the smells are all the same. But that's where it stops. New Orleans has this essence about it that I've never seen replicated: Neon lights lining small, gridded cobblestone streets, street performers and live jazz on every block, the iconic fleur de lis stamped on every car, window, and flag in site. What other city has their own logo that permeates such a massive majority of its peoples' lives? It's fantastic.

My job is also fantastic. I'm out in the sun all day, hammering nails, installing walls, putting up roofing, etc. etc. etc. all for the cause of helping a family get a home! It's such a great project. Especially in this location. New Orleans is still greatly feeling the horrible effects of Hurricane Katrina, even though it's been four years since it hit. The neighborhood we're working in is a perfect example: Interspersed between the occasional house that HAS actually been restored, there are hundreds and hundreds of houses that are falling apart at the seams. Windows are boarded up, warning messages are written in spray paint: "Don't you DARE enter, mother [you-know-what]," and some houses look like they were never even returned to after the storm. If you look closely, you can see the watermarks from where the waters flooded all the way to the roof of some houses. In short, there are massive amounts of work left to do down here. And it's easy to become saddened by the fact that even though we are definitely working our asses off to build SOMETHING beautiful amidst the disrepair, how much will one house actually contribute to improving the whole problem? But that's an illogical approach, I know. One house at a time is the only way to go you know? One family at a time. I just wish there was more government assistance I guess, but that's another story. :)

Anyway, I'll put up pictures from here and the work site to give more of a visual. We also just found out today that...yes..we'll be in Wichita Falls, Texas for our next spike!!! It was our absolute last choice, like literally dead last, but still in Texas so it'll be alright. :) We'll be...drumroll please...HELPING TO FILE TAXES IN RURAL TEXAS!!!! Haha so random. But whatever, I need to learn about taxes someday right? And we'll be helping out people who really need to get their lives together, so it should be promising.

Well how are things with all of you?? I want updates. Personal life for me is all over the place right now. I'm doing everything I can to stay focused on the task at hand here, but my heart and mind for the most part are residing in Iowa. My most positive of thoughts are going that way. Love you guys.

Katie

MOUSE IN MY ROOM!!!

In related news I JUST SAW A MOUSE SCURRY ACROSS MY ROOM!!! :) I'm not killing it. Or tattling on it.

So much for keeping this updated.

Well a lot has happened since the last time I posted, that's for sure! For sake of preventing readers from dying of boredom, I won't recount every detail of the last two weeks. Let's just continue on as if this break never happened.

So I have my permanent team!!! It's so great. Last Thursday all the Team Leaders gathered all of us Sun Beams (what I like to call the members of Sun Unit :)) on the soccer field and taped obscure words on our backs, then directed us to figure out how we were connected. They let us mosey around the field for like ten minutes, utterly bewildered by the seeming lack of order in our words, before our business-only Unit Leader gathered us around and requested that we return to our rooms, there had been an incident. Well as many people assumed, but as I was oblivious to, it was all an act. The soccer field was a distraction for all 55 of us Sun Beams so the TLs could run into our dorm and set up the REAL system for the team revealing: A campus-wide scavenger hunt! It was awesome. The clues led us around campus for an hour and slowly but surely our teams were revealed to us. And my team is great! I got the TL that I wanted, and am on a permanent team with people who are going to be a blast to spend the next nine months or so with. I am closer to a few more than others, which is nothing but encouraging because now I'll have three-day road trips to get to know them. :) And we were told our first project....We're going to New Orleans!!!!! This is going to be amazing. After spending a week doing Katrina relief work in 2007, I swore I'd go back someday to pick up where I left off...and now I get to! Our cargo van is all packed up and we're almost all ready to go. I can;t wait to get this show on the road.

Along with the work we do as a team, every member of our team each has to assume a team role or two throughout the course of the year. I'll be using my experience in the Coe Admissions Office to recruit new members for the NCCC! I'll be able to go to colleges and high schools and talk to people about the program, so clearly up my alley.

I think I'll leave it at that for now. Keep ya posted!
kt

Allow yourself to become more of who you are.

Well hey!
So the last time I blogged was this weekend, and not a whole lot has gone down since then. Which is nice. I can keep these nice and sweet from time to time :) Today felt just so productive to me! We had our first baseline, to start off with, so let me explain that:
I'm beginning to pick up on the fact that while Americorps is obviously a program that recognizes the importance of helping others, it equally tends to emphasize the concept of personal growth. So to go along with that aim, we will have periodic baseline tests to track our personal physical improvements. We run a hilly 1.5 mile course and then count our sit-ups and push-ups for a minute. It's nothing big, but it will be nice to track over the year. They emphasize the absence of competition with each other and presence of competition with ourselves, which I love. So we did our first one of those today before lunch.

Then after lunch we had this three-hour long session with the campus counselor to sort of establish an emotionally safe environment within our unit. Naturally there were people who groaned throughout the whole thing, but I definitely found it to be extremely meaningful. I think it's important to not lose sight of why we're all here and what it means to be here. So bring on the occasional touchy-feely time :)

And tonight I played tennis then went to yoga! After only two sessions, I can already tell I'm really going to enjoy having yoga classes here. I just feel so full of love when they're over! A new habit? I think so :)

Well I hope everyone's having as excellent a day as I am! Much love!
kt

First few weeks!

Well alright. So I officially arrived here to the gorgeous Denver, Colorado ten days ago, and it could easily have been ten weeks ago. You know how it goes; it's just like freshman year of college again. We're all jam-packed into dorms (dorm, actually. Singular.) and all up in each others' business more than usual in attempts to "weed out the crazies," as my roommate Heather so eloquently puts it. It's remarkable how quickly we can rest on our assessments of one another, really. I mean it's not to say that people surprise us (as they always do) or that people don't change, but I can confidently say I have a good grasp on the majority of the people in my unit at the moment. And that's comforting. :) But let's back up.

I am part of an Americorps branch that usually employs about 1,100 people a year. (300,000 applied this year...abooyah. :)) At this Denver campus, I am amongst roughly 250 fellow Corps Members who are here to spend the next ten months working on service projects across the states of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and Kansas. We 250 Corps Members are divided into four units. I'm in the Sun Unit...obviously the best one. :) (We like to say, "Do work, Sun!") This first month is purely dedicated to training and team building, so we're basically spending every day with our unit and separated into teams that keep changing. After this month we'll be neatly divided into five permanent teams, but until then we've been moving around to get to know everyone else. Like I said, basically college all over again. To those who know me, you know that I thrive in environments where get-to-know-you games are plentiful...I'm basically a perpetual camp counselor. Haha I really can't turn it off! But at the same time, I am currently finding myself thrilled to not be away from home for the first time like a lot of the people I'm surrounded by at the moment. Unlike my first year at Coe, I'm not energetically seeking out new friends around every corner; while I'm pleased to meet every new face and hear every new story, I'm feeling quite content with the friend group I've settled comfortably into already. Does curiosity eventually just die off completely? Or am I just more relaxed? I've been wondering this from time to time.

But Denver is about the most breathtaking city I've been to. I love the downtown skyline, which is complemented expertly by the mountain range to the west of it. Our dining hall looks out onto the mountains, and I look forward to the sunsets out there every night. :) This is one of those places that makes me feel useful in my current job. The beauty here is the kind of stuff I want to help preserve. Who wouldn't want to volunteer to make America a better place once they've seen this place?? :)

As fun as it is to make new friends, explore the area for our favorite bars, and get lost downtown until we know it like the backs of our hands, my fellow CMs and I are itching to get to the grunt of our jobs here. We had our first campus-wide service project yesterday and IT WAS REMARKABLE. You know how whenever you volunteer in groups there are always the people who won't help at all, then the people who will help but will complain the whole time, then the people who will help but distract everyone else's focus, and THEN the small percentage of people who are consistently mindful of WHY they're there and WHAT their objective is? Well guess what? People who apply for Americorps are ALL the foruth type of people. We're ALL here to help and "get things done." ("Get things done" is the Americorps motto of sorts, and sounds utterly wimpy and ambiguous, if you ask me. Lol.) So it's just insane for me to be surrounded by ALL all-stars of volunteerism. Can you imagine how much 250 of us got done in six hours of work???? A lot. Apparently Americorps is constantly surprising non-profits with how freaking productive we are. It's something I'm really proud to say I'm a part of. :) And yesterday was great--we crowbarred and sledgehammered the crap out of old gardens to make room for new ones, wheelbarrowed pile after pile of dirt to add layers to a track that the Elementary School will enjoy by the end of the month, and mentored hundreds of 8th graders all the while. It was so awesome. I can't wait to get to my first project site.

Well I'm going to wrap this up for now...but welcome back to my blog! I'll keep you posted with new happenings here in gorgeous Colorado, and I'd love to get life updates from all of you too! :)

kt

Season Finale.

As I write this I am sitting at my family's kitchen table in Apple Valley, Minnesota. My dog and two cats are lounging in the living room near to me (the dog is actually snoring), and for the first time in the last supercharged week, this house is quiet. Finally some time for reflection.

Let's back up. The last story I left you with was the snowmobiling day preview, and now all of a sudden I've hopped countries and have been in the States for a week. Surprised? Good! That was the plan. About four months ago, I discovered that all my classes in Sweden end by December 15th. My immediate thought was, Oo that's great I can travel freely then until my flight on January 5th! But then I invested in my Eurail Pass, and then I visited six countries in a month and a half, and then I found out how few people were actually going to be around for the holidays, etc. etc. etc. Either way, my gut/brain/heart combo were encouraging me to rebook my flight and get home before Christmas. 

But at this point I found myself in a position of power: I was the only one with the knowledge that I could easily get home before Christmas. Meaning I could potentially surprise the living daylights out of my family if I so desired. Well consequently, I DID so desire. :) So Uncle Mike, my godfather and travel agent, and I got on the planning committee to arrange my travels back to the States before Christmas. I decided to let Patty and Mark (my parents) in on the whole ordeal as well...they'd be crucial in the behind-the-scenes preparation for my return home. But my two lovely siblings, Matt (17) and Betsy (23) would be kept in the dark until I stepped foot in that front door. So by early November the plans were set and I'd be heading home on none other than Christmas Eve!!

Now fast forward a month, when I discover my grandmother has lung cancer, and I think to myself that I'm so glad I'm going home to spend another Christmas with her.

Now fast forward to my last few days in Östersund following snowmobiling. One by one everybody departed back to their respective homes: some for the holidays only, some for good. What I posted in my last blog stayed true in the drawn-out goodbye I gave to Östersund, and has stuck around since; I'm not sad at leaving my place from the last four months, but instead happy at what I can take away from it. The last few days all blend together in a sweet memory of lazy chatting and random acts of craziness. Although I was very much looking forward to going home, and although I knew I could count on Matt and Betsy to not open up this blog in those last few days (bless their hearts, they love me but they have enough reading to do as it is without spending hours reading their sister's incoherent ramblings :)), I still decided to play it safe and cut off blog posting until I was safely back home. Part of me was also scared to jinx the whole trip as well, so it was best to not talk about it.

Now fast forward to December 23rd, while I'm on the 6-hour train to Stockholm. A little girl falls in love with my stuffed penguin, Herr Blåbar ("Mr. Blueberry") and runs around with him for hours. I'm thankful that she gets sick of him just before we pull in the the Stockholm train station, because it's awkward to be 21 years old and kindly trying to reason with a two year old about coughing up the stuffed penguin of yours that she's fallen in love with. 

Now fast forward to that night, as I toss and turn for hours in a 20-person room at my hostel. I wasn't going to be able to sleep anyway; I had too much running through my head: The generic I'M SEEING MY FAMILY!! I miss my cabin. It's Christmas!!! I wonder what Sandra and her parents are doing. What am I going to get for breakfast. What if I forget something. I get to use my old cell phone!! I get to drive!!! My room at home is always cold and it a complete and utter uninviting mess. Östersund is so pretty. What am I going to do for New Years? When will I make time for myself? How much time will I need for myself? I hope Nana's doing okay. Am I going to cry at some point? AMERICAN MEN!!! Is someone puking?! Will the difficulty of this situation ever hit me?

Now fast forward to 6:30am the next day, with me awake and in the "shower" three hours after falling asleep. I won't go into detail, but it was the most disgusting place I've ever been, and I've been to Amsterdam. YUCK.

Now fast forward to me being at the airport three hours early. What a way to go. I again have pulled out Herr Blåbar (who, by the way, took quite the scrutiny amongst the weathered travelers sharing my room the night before...nothing screams badass like a stuffed penguin...), and with that action have again caught the attention of a three year old Swedish child. Remember this little boy, because he shows up in the story later. I hop on my flight to Amsterdam, and a witty two hours later find myself on land in Amsterdam, getting ready to dash to the next gate for the last leg of my journey, and sharing goodbyes with the two Dutch characters I chatted with on the flight. 

Now fast forward to me, on what they call an Airbus, starting my 9-hour flight across the ocean back to the place I call home. We are flying into the sunset the entire time...so awesome. I see Little Swedish Boy from the Stockholm airport again, and he again sets his sights on Herr Blåbar. It's clear to me that Mother of Little Swedish Boy is growing weary, so I offer to let Little Swedish Boy hang out with the penguin for a while. Throughout the course of the flight the three of them (Mother, Boy, Penguin) will come visit me; all the while Little Boy will be clutching Herr Blåbar like his life depended on it. 

Skip ahead an hour to lunch time, when I ask the friendly flight attendant how much a glass of wine would be. Friendly flight attendant coyly informs me that all alcohol on the Airbus is complimentary. I order a screwdriver, accept her offer for an extra "dash" of vodka, and thus establish the entertainment I'd be taking advantage of for the next few hours. Nine-hour flights are strange: you have enough time to get drunk, watch a movie, pass out for a four-hour nap wake up hungover, watch another movie, and still have enough time to fight off the hangover for when your mom and dad come pick you up. All the while flying into the sunset.

Now fast forward to the last 30 minutes of the flight where I get up to track down Herr Blåbar and find him buried underneath the finally serene, sleeping body of Little Swedish Boy. Swedish Mom makes grateful eye contact with me, finally relaxed as her child sleeps. I hesitate, smile, wave it off, give her a thumbs up, say Happy Holidays, and return to my seat. How could I take it back now?

Now fast forward to the Oscar-winning performance Patty has in answering the house phone and pretending I'm someone from work in desperate need of not one but TWO people to help jump cars at Barnes and Noble?? Mark and Patty valiantly steal away from Christmas dinner with the kids to help.

Now skip ahead 20 minutes--yes 20 minutes--when I'm already through customs and in possession of all my luggage, casually waiting outside for Patty and Mark. I had expected a lot more trouble getting back into the States, but I'm not complaining. Finally the moment arrives, and the parents pull up alongside the curb, Patty jumps out of the car literally skipping to me, we all hug six or seven times, it's all very perfect. Matt and Betsy are still sitting at home, still very clueless. On the trip back we scheme the plan of attack for The Surprise.

Now skip ahead another 20 minutes. I'm waiting out on the porch, peaking into the house. Mark has just called Matt upstairs, and the whole family is in the kitchen near the front door. On cue, I ring the doorbell. Mark comes over to answer it, yanks open the door, and I step into its frame to throw out my arms and shout, "MERRRYYYYYYY!!!!! CHRISTMASSSSSS!!!" Matt and Betsy freeze in the foyer. When Matt finds his voice again all he can make out is a sharp, "NO. WAY. NO. WAY...." over and over again. Betsy's face explodes with tears and pelts them out like bullets. They both rush over to me and embrace me in this gloriously awkward hug/lift maneuver that couldn't have been more perfect; I don't know who was holding what but I can be certain that my feet left the ground.

It has all been perfect: the surprise, the response, the reaction, the hours of talking and opening presents, the catching up, the midnight mass, the Christmas morning with the family, the skiing, everything. It feels so surreal to be back here, part of my feels like I never left.

My Uncle Mike debriefed me at Mraz Christmas on Saturday. It was difficult; the first time since being back that I'd been challenged to talk about what I learned and experienced. I shared a lot, he shared his insight; it was a very meaningful discussion to me. I don't know if I'll ever have an epic moment where all the amazing concepts I learned over the last few months will come together and I'll suddenly by capable of capturing the ways I've changed in words; I think they'll slowly come to me over the rest of my life. What Uncle Mike and I talked about most this weekend, though, was how touching it is to feel that I'm more aware now of how similar we all really are in this world. We all have something to fight for; we all have something to lose; we all are striving for happiness; we all are constantly trying to find our own place. Regardless of country or culture we are all looking for something, and if we could each understand what the next guy is looking for, maybe we could all realize that we aren't really all that much different from one another. That's one idea I can already say I took away from this experience.

So you may be wondering about the title of this posting. I'm thinking a couple things at the moment. First of all, I think I might be coming back now and then to add little tidbits of reflection as I struggle to superimpose all the insight I gained in a notoriously amicable country onto the projection of our notoriously World Superpower country. It would be a sad story to discover that what I learned doesn't apply in the context of our American culture. You could consider these added reflections the "extras" to the show's first season. Second of all, this blog may be getting a new name. I might just start using it for all my travels. I'll be heading to Sicily for two weeks for May Term, so perhaps that will be a Season Two? We'll see. But until then, take care, and thanks for all the support over the last four months. Your warm thoughts and hopeful prayers reached all the way across the ocean to my cabin. :)

Bye for now,

Katie

And then there were...

Maybe it's just that this has been the longest, most drawn-out good bye period ever fathomed in the history of the world, but I'm not sad right now. Of the seven people I felt closest with this semester (although all of us 30+ exchange students definitely formed a family here), two of them still remain here with me. Some of them have returned to Germany, some to Canada, but regardless of the space that will divide us in a matter of weeks I still haven't been able to muster up more than a few tears in the last week or so. I'm just not sad. I actually tried to force the tears at one point, thinking I was just repressing everything and just needed to let it out, but it turned out that there wasn't anything I was holding back! At first glance this doesn't seem like me: I've always been a huge proponent of the once a month healthy emotional breakdown, and I haven't had one yet in the last four months. 

But I've been thinking...I'm more happy than anything right now. I savor the way I've spent my time here; I cherish the friends I've made; I embrace the ways I've changed and the circumstances I've encountered that led to those changes; I'm happy with everything I've experienced in the last few months. So why cry in sadness? These friendships are just starting in the long run, right? These people, this place, they're all snapshots in my life's collage. Some of them will show up again, and some won't. It's okay. Really. I feel good about everything right now. 

In related news, I'm taking the next step to becoming a true Minnesotan tomorrow. That's right, Sandra schemed us into a FREE afternoon of snowmobiling tomorrow! Don't ask me how she did it...she could sell sand to a camel...but for a few hours tomorrow we'll be shooting around her friend's private property on her brother's snowmobiles. Sweet!  Wish me luck. :)