Since I last wrote our Program Coordinator came to town and stayed with our house/visited all of our work sites. Drew (as we call him) is such a great guy and example of what it means to be dedicated to a cause. Always a good time when he is in town.
Often times I forget that I have been living in a city that by many standards is a tourist destination. Granted most people do not make a drive through the Watts or West Adams neighborhoods when coming to LA, but I still have the opportunity to live within a short drive of so many amazing locations.
This past week Michelle and 7 of her friends came out to Laguna Beach for their spring break. This was the perfect chance for our house to make the escape down to the famous location that MTV shows are made about. So last Saturday we loaded up the 4 runner and made the hour or so drive down to the beach. It was a fun dynamic getting to introduce all of my roommates to all of Michelle's. We were only able to spend an hour or two down there but I will always take any chance I can get to lay around on a sunny beach.
One of the other JV houses had a party that night, and Michelle was finally able to meet the twenty or so other people that make up this fabulous group in LA. It was great and now she will actually know who I am referring to when I talk about people!
John and I (and 3 or 4 other JVs) are giving up alcohol for Lent and I am giving up coffee to boot. Should be a good time.
Last Sunday our house hosted an immersion group from the University of Detroit Mercy. I had never really heard of the school until this year, but it is a small Jesuit college in Detroit. They were a very engaging group, but it felt weird being one of the people that immersion trips now meet with. Just a year or two ago I was in their exact shoes. Listening to some of my roommates talk about their experiences, I almost became overwhelmed with the amount of knowledge that I have acquired so far this year in LA. It was a very good outlet to share our experiences with people who were actually captivated by our presence. Hopefully we convinced a few people to do JVC!
One of the Jesuit parishes in LA (Dolores Mission) hosted a solidarity night on "Fat Tuesday" as a way to show support for the men who do not have homes to sleep in. Every night they open up their parish and fill it with cots so that homeless men at least have a warm safe place to spend the night. On that night people were sleeping outside in the courtyard in order to get a small taste of what it is really like to not have a home to go home to. We had to be to work at 7 the next morning so we didn't spend the night, but it was an awesome experience to be surrounded by so many good people for a few hours.
Thursday night was "Mardi Gras", Verbum Dei's annual fundraiser. Julie, Carolyn, and I were all asked to help out with the event, so we were indirectly invited. The event was hosted at the California Club in downtown Los Angeles, and it was incredible. All of our tables were sold out several weeks in advance, so the room was packed with corporate sponsors, verb benefactors, and as always lots of Jesuit priests! I got the chance to meet Rick Neuheisel (UCLA Head Football coach) and a lot of other pretty big names in the LA business world. We worked the silent auction (awesome prizes!) and spent most of the night packaging items and running winner slips to the highest bidders. Overall, it was a great night and Verb was able to raise a lot of money!
This past weekend Julie lead a weekend service trip with Verb kids in LA and John/Cara went on a weekend immersion trip to Tijuana with a group from Loyola Marymount, so Carolyn and I had the house to ourselves. I was able to make one last trip to Laguna Beach Friday to say goodbye to everyone, which was great. The next day Carolyn and I went to Compton College to watch her cousin play a baseball game. Her cousin goes to Lafayette College and they are out here for a week or two playing some games over spring break. I always love baseball and we had some solid roommate bonding time.
Sunday the Jesuit residence near Dolores Mission invited us all over for dinner. Fr. Greg (from homeboy) cooked us an amazing meal and we had the opportunity to hang out as a greater LA JV community and with a few priests. The meal lasted for probably two or three hours, but it was one of those meals that could have easily lasted five or six if we had the time.
I found out that I get to help chaperon our Spring Break immersion trip to the border with Verb, which unfortunately means that I most likely wont be making it home for Easter.... But i am excited to go on it!
Miss and love you all! Update me on all of you lives, I always love that.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Re-Oriented
True to form, I have not written a blog post for well over a month now. I think that I might make one of my Lenten goals to write weekly? It might help increase the frequency of my insightful wisdom….
The last time that I decided to write a blog post was right before my family came out to LA to visit me, so that seems like a proper place to start this current post. It is hard to truly describe my experience out here without actually showing it to people. It is hard to explain people and places to my friends and family who have never seen more than the “Disneyland” side of Los Angeles. That is what made the short trip that my mom, dad, and sister made so special.
Every month or so we have an event at Verb called “Fiesta Friday”. It is pretty much a party with all of the faculty members after school to unwind at the end of a long week. It just so happens that my parents showed up on one of these special Fridays. They were immediately welcomed into our community here at Verb and what was supposed to be a quick introduction turned into a 1 ½ hour ordeal that nobody was in any rush to leave. My parents and sister were finally able to meet most of my coworkers and get a firsthand look at what my life has been for the past 6 months. In less than 2 hours I was able to show them more than I could have described in six months on the phone, it was great.
That night I was able to take them to my casa and, like most JVs, we all jumped at the opportunity for a free meal! I spent the rest of the weekend showing them the sights of LA. We had lunch at Homegirl café, drove through Rodeo drive, shopped in Santa Monica, and had lunch on the beach in Malibu. It really made me realize how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family and to have the opportunity to spend a year in such an exciting location (it is hard to beat 70 degrees and sunny in January too). Unfortunately they were only able to stay for a few days, but it was a welcomed experience. Everyone who can: come visit!
The week after my family left we had our mid-year JVC retreat (Re-O) up in Apotos, California. It is crazy to me that we are already halfway done with this experience; it feels like I boarded a plane for San Jose yesterday! That being said, it was such a welcomed experience being back together with all of the JVs again. It is so easy to get absorbed in the microcosm that is LA and Verb, so the reminder that there are so many people doing great works all over California and Arizona was a breath of fresh air. It is safe to say that many of the speakers and activities were a bit dull at times, but overall it was wonderful. I came away with two major themes from the retreat: I am surrounded by wonderful people in JVC (especially my casa) and none of us know what we want to do with our lives.
Throughout my life, and pretty much everyone else I knows life, there has always been the lingering thought in the back of my head thinking towards the future. When I was in Junior High I thought of high school, in high school college, in college JVC, in JVC grad school, etc, etc, etc… Why is this? Shouldn’t our real goals in life be to do the absolute best at what we are currently doing and not spend so much time thinking about our next move? This has been a struggle for me in JVC, remembering that I did not do JVC so I could prepare for law school but instead doing JVC because of the fact that I wanted to do JVC. This presence of mind is something that has grown stronger in me over the past several months and Re-O was another major snap back to the present. None of us truly know (even if we think we do) what our next step is going to be, so it is really in our best interest to just do our absolute best at what we are currently engaged in and the future will truly discover itself when the time is right.
Since I haven’t written in so long, my memory has been so flooded with activities that I am going to have to return to my old reliable format of bullet points…..
- John and I got a brand new (sort of) bathroom, I would highly recommend checking it out if you are in town
- We have had some great spirituality nights
- We made pizza with one of the JV houses for Valentine’s day
- Verb made the playoffs in soccer
- College acceptance letters for students have been rolling in, so great!
- We went to the beach
- I am trying to pick a law school…
- Our house is freezing
- Julie’s dad came and visited
- Went to a glee club performance by a historically black university (Morehouse college)
- Drove a couple of routes
- Filled up a lot of vans
- Kept realizing how awesome our faculty at Verb is
- Finished the CWSP section of the yearbook!
- Tried to change a flat tire of a school van during rush hour traffic: fail
- Have done yoga 4 times, VERY difficult
- Went to Omaha/Lincoln over Presidents day weekend: Awesome!
- Found out I am going to Mexico for a service trip in April
- Saw “Black Swan”- messed up
- Saw “The Room”- incredible
- Went “shopping” with John and Julie on Rodeo drive
- Climbed the Hollywood sign
- Went to the “Getty Villa”
- Caught up with some friends
- Missed you all
I am sorry I did not go into details on so many different things! Hopefully I will be able to fulfill my Lenten promise I just made and write more frequently. Until then wishing everone the best.
The last time that I decided to write a blog post was right before my family came out to LA to visit me, so that seems like a proper place to start this current post. It is hard to truly describe my experience out here without actually showing it to people. It is hard to explain people and places to my friends and family who have never seen more than the “Disneyland” side of Los Angeles. That is what made the short trip that my mom, dad, and sister made so special.
Every month or so we have an event at Verb called “Fiesta Friday”. It is pretty much a party with all of the faculty members after school to unwind at the end of a long week. It just so happens that my parents showed up on one of these special Fridays. They were immediately welcomed into our community here at Verb and what was supposed to be a quick introduction turned into a 1 ½ hour ordeal that nobody was in any rush to leave. My parents and sister were finally able to meet most of my coworkers and get a firsthand look at what my life has been for the past 6 months. In less than 2 hours I was able to show them more than I could have described in six months on the phone, it was great.
That night I was able to take them to my casa and, like most JVs, we all jumped at the opportunity for a free meal! I spent the rest of the weekend showing them the sights of LA. We had lunch at Homegirl café, drove through Rodeo drive, shopped in Santa Monica, and had lunch on the beach in Malibu. It really made me realize how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family and to have the opportunity to spend a year in such an exciting location (it is hard to beat 70 degrees and sunny in January too). Unfortunately they were only able to stay for a few days, but it was a welcomed experience. Everyone who can: come visit!
The week after my family left we had our mid-year JVC retreat (Re-O) up in Apotos, California. It is crazy to me that we are already halfway done with this experience; it feels like I boarded a plane for San Jose yesterday! That being said, it was such a welcomed experience being back together with all of the JVs again. It is so easy to get absorbed in the microcosm that is LA and Verb, so the reminder that there are so many people doing great works all over California and Arizona was a breath of fresh air. It is safe to say that many of the speakers and activities were a bit dull at times, but overall it was wonderful. I came away with two major themes from the retreat: I am surrounded by wonderful people in JVC (especially my casa) and none of us know what we want to do with our lives.
Throughout my life, and pretty much everyone else I knows life, there has always been the lingering thought in the back of my head thinking towards the future. When I was in Junior High I thought of high school, in high school college, in college JVC, in JVC grad school, etc, etc, etc… Why is this? Shouldn’t our real goals in life be to do the absolute best at what we are currently doing and not spend so much time thinking about our next move? This has been a struggle for me in JVC, remembering that I did not do JVC so I could prepare for law school but instead doing JVC because of the fact that I wanted to do JVC. This presence of mind is something that has grown stronger in me over the past several months and Re-O was another major snap back to the present. None of us truly know (even if we think we do) what our next step is going to be, so it is really in our best interest to just do our absolute best at what we are currently engaged in and the future will truly discover itself when the time is right.
Since I haven’t written in so long, my memory has been so flooded with activities that I am going to have to return to my old reliable format of bullet points…..
- John and I got a brand new (sort of) bathroom, I would highly recommend checking it out if you are in town
- We have had some great spirituality nights
- We made pizza with one of the JV houses for Valentine’s day
- Verb made the playoffs in soccer
- College acceptance letters for students have been rolling in, so great!
- We went to the beach
- I am trying to pick a law school…
- Our house is freezing
- Julie’s dad came and visited
- Went to a glee club performance by a historically black university (Morehouse college)
- Drove a couple of routes
- Filled up a lot of vans
- Kept realizing how awesome our faculty at Verb is
- Finished the CWSP section of the yearbook!
- Tried to change a flat tire of a school van during rush hour traffic: fail
- Have done yoga 4 times, VERY difficult
- Went to Omaha/Lincoln over Presidents day weekend: Awesome!
- Found out I am going to Mexico for a service trip in April
- Saw “Black Swan”- messed up
- Saw “The Room”- incredible
- Went “shopping” with John and Julie on Rodeo drive
- Climbed the Hollywood sign
- Went to the “Getty Villa”
- Caught up with some friends
- Missed you all
I am sorry I did not go into details on so many different things! Hopefully I will be able to fulfill my Lenten promise I just made and write more frequently. Until then wishing everone the best.
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