Monday, September 5, 2011

ORIENTATIONS

Two orientations down and a more than necessary weekend of rest begins. Finally.  So, I moved into my house in Nashville on August 20th, unpacked my many many bags, realized how high maintenance my luggage made me feel, re-packed (much more lightly) for the first week of orientation in Stony Point, NY, and left for the airport in Nashville at 5:30am on August 22nd. 

Once we arrived at the airport we were informed that our flight to Philly was delayed resulting in other problems related to connecting flights and our time of arrival at LaGuardia in NY.  The lovely woman at US Airways took care of us and changed us to a DIRECT flight from Nashville to NY on an American Airlines flight, and we were extremely grateful.  We arrived in NY even earlier than expected and had time to spare before the shuttle driver Sammy came to pick us up. The ride with Sammy was an eventful one to say the least. This is mainly because we ended up with four YAVs along with seven of the Nashville YAVs in the equivalent of a church van; then you add in some New York traffic, windy roads, a mixture of accents and a blaring radio, and well, we’ll just call the 45 minute trip to Stony Point a very snug one.  
                     
                All of the YAVs and YAV Alumni at orientation in Stony Point, NY.




When we arrived at the Stony Point Center, we began meeting all of the other YAVs that will be serving this year in all of the different sites around the world and in the U.S. Then our first week of orientation officially began. It was very interesting, a bit overwhelming at times, and a great start to the year ahead for all of us. We discussed topics like critical cultural competency, the Myers-Briggs Personality Test, self care, housing issues and even culture shock  My birthday fell on the Friday (the 26th)  of orientation in Stony Point and the YAV staff brought out a cake for me at dinner. That night a large group of us went to the local Irish pub in Stony Point to celebrate mine and Gavin’s birthdays (Gavin’s birthday was the same day as mine and he will be serving in Miami for his YAV year). Seeing as Ashley (my roommate/ bunkmate for the year) is from Northern Ireland, she was happy that we were going to an Irish pub. We had a great time playing songs on the jukebox and dancing the night away. The pub, however, was about a mile away and we all walked there and back. Unfortunately, there were no sidewalks on these roads so we brought some flashlights to ensure our safety. When I left for the evening with my lovely crew I was one of the two in our group that had a flashlight though. Considering how dark it was and the absence of sidewalks I felt the need to turn on the flashlight and march with it shining on the ground by our feet singing “WE ARE HERE, WE ARE HERE, WE ARE HERE!” , from the scene at the end of Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who, just to make sure that the cars knew we were there on the side of the road. My song and march was successful though, because we had no close calls or injuries on our walk back to the center.
       
   Ashley and I at lunch one day in Stony Point


On the morning of the 29th, seven of us Nashville YAVs loaded up with Sammy again and off to Newark airport we went. We arrived in Nashville with no flight issues, no lost bags and no major problems altogether. Ben (our site director) picked us up, and we told him all our fun tales from orientation on the ride home. We arrived at the Cabana and settled ourselves in to prepare for the next week of orientation.

Back in Nashville, week two of orientation began with a semi-repaired wireless internet (thanks to Ben, for making it at least semi), a dysfunctional thermostat, and the joys of having a gi-normous closet. We had an ambitious schedule for the week including a trip to everyone’s work sites. We still have two more work sites to visit next week, Lee’s will be on Tuesday night and Kyle and Jay’s will be on Friday morning. We have been able to have a very relaxing weekend so far, and are enjoying that it will last four days. Everyone went to their churches yesterday, and had a great experience overall. I had already met with the minister of my church, we had breakfast earlier in the week so it was nice to see a face that I recognized when I walked in. Close to the end of the church service he called me up to the front of the congregation, handed me a microphone, and asked me to tell them about what I’m doing here in Nashville and what I’ll be doing at my work placement.  So, that was fun but definitely caught me off guard. Earlier in the weekend, we (at the Cabana) started working on our house covenant, which are the house rules for the year that all of us living here together will agree to abide by.  We also decided that we will be using a chore wheel to determine who does what in and around the house each month. And lastly we made a collective list of groceries and went grocery shopping at Aldi yesterday, Aldi was a fun experience for Megan, Ashley and I. Especially because Megan and I had never been to an Aldi before. The experience at Aldi was actually one of the few things that Ashley knew about that Megan and I did not.  There are Aldi’s in Northern Ireland, so Ashley already knew the ins and outs to shopping there. This was an interesting turn around because Megan and I had been explaining the way different things are here to Ashley for the most part.   
           
           Nashville YAVs: (L to R) Ashley, Kyle, Lee, Jay, Me, Megan, Allison and Sarah



For now the fun continues, including laughing until our sides hurt, hilarious language barriers and continuous adventures. We all begin our first day at our work placements tomorrow, so keep us in your prayers!  Hopefully all will go wonderfully!



Peace and love to all of you!