Departure

Well, we're all done with Sly Park. It was tons of fun, and really educational for me. Some of the weeks went by smoothly, others brought up painful issues that needed to be overcome to reach not only the kids, but their parent chaperones as well. I have plenty of pictures, but I'm too tired to post them up here. I wish there was an easier way to post up albums on here. Instead, check out this video one of the Sly Park teachers made one week. I think it gets the gist of the camp across:

The teachers were all super cool and I hope I can stay in contact with them in the future. We even had a going away party for our team at one of their houses (more on that later). Patrick, the guy who made that video, had a really neat little camera: a mini-camcorder, I think they call them. Simple video cameras designed to whip out of your pocket just in time to see that guy fall off his skate board and then upload it to you-tube. I liked it so much I got one for myself, so expect to see a lot more videos from me in the future (or videos period).

Tomorrow morning, we leave for our next project: 2 months in Los Angeles tutoring and mentoring high-risk youth at inner city schools, as well as helping a flat-broke community center develop sustainable projects like community gardens. We're living in a church basement in Inglewood (ground zero for the LA riots and favorite stomping grounds of Crips, Bloods, and who knows who else). Needless to say, I;m nervous.

I'm also tired. I think I'll turn in early tonight, we have a 6 hour drive tomorrow morning. Talk to you all when I get there.

Happy New Year

Well, I didn't get around to making a new post at home. See, th
is is why I can't be a writer, even though everyone says I'm good at it: I just don't have the drive to keep it up. When I'm not working, my mind is shut down and writing, even when I'm doing it for my own leisure, seems like a chore and I never want to put the effort into it. But I'll try to be better.

My flight back to California was almost a disaster. After everyone was onboard at LaGuardia, the pilot comes on and says "plane's broke, everyone off." While I appreciate not flying in a broken plane, making my connection in Dallwas was pretty much out of the question. There were only a few more flights out of New York that day, all of them full, and most of them arriving AFTER the last flight to Sacramento left from Texas. I would have had to stay in a hotel (paid for by AA) in dallas all night, then take some flight to Sacramento the following day, and get driven up to our project by an assistant team leader in a minivan sometime Monday afternoon. Instead, I managed to make both flights on standby; 8 miserable hours of flying and arriving at 11:30 sunday night, just in time to get up early the next day for the project. I kind of wish I'd opted for the hotel room. Curse my sense of responsibility!

We are now working at Sly Park. Its a science education camp for 5th and 6th grade kids to stay for a week and learn about ecology, geology, astronomy, and all that good stuff. Each team member is a cabin leader and chaperon in charge of 20 or so kids. Its a lot of fun but I feel like I didn't get a chance to see my teammates for the entire week. We're separate for most of the day and we have to be on duty 24 hours a day. You know, for the kids. Internet connection there is pretty much non-existent, so I'll only be making updates on the weekend. For now, heres some pitchas:

Homecoming part 1

Huzzah, it's Christmas break! (actually it has been for the past week and a half, but you know how I am with promptness.)

My flight went smoothly and without any delays, despite flying directly into the heard of the "storm of the century, Blizzard '09" (I guess they forgot about the other Blizzard '09s they had in January and February?) which dumped approximately 0 inches of snow on my house. Laura was nice enough to meet me there and ride the train back with me since SOME people weren't willing to brave the storm and pick up their son at the airport. Thanks Laura, you get a Christmas present now!

My time here has been...uneventful. I forgot that though I may be in vacation, most of my friends are not. And I haven't even heard from some people who I wasn't as close with but was still eager to see. Was I that unpopular? So it's been a lot of wine-and-Godzilla evenings for me.

My parents, as always, got me way too much for Christmas. I told them that the tickets home were enough, and I really meant it, but sure enough, come Christmas morning, there was a bunch of stuff for me under the tree. And to top it off my mom bought me new glasses as an early birthday present. I am extremely grateful, don't get me wrong, but the whole thing has started to bug me. For one, I really am bothered by how much my parents spent on me, and two, I am even more bothered by the fact that, at 25, I'm still almost completely incapable of taking care of myself financially. My parents buy my plane tickets and eye care, pay my cell phone bill, and have temporarily taken on my student loan payments while I'm in Americorps (possibly the most financially unsound move of my post-college life). They justify it, of course, by saying that they paid a certain portion of my sister's college expenses so this makes it even. But I still feel like if I were a better son and a better person, no justification would be needed because money would be needed. I'll pay them back someday, I swear.

Lets see, what else. Got a new phone. Rather a second new phone, cause I had to return the first new phone I got cause I hated it so much. I actually assumed I would do this; the only available phone they had in Sacramento was a Samsung and I have never met a Samsung phone I could tolerate. But I didn't want to make a cross-country flight without a cell phone, so I took it. The guy said I could return it within 30 days if I didn't like it (he neglected to mention the $35 restocking fee. Thanks, asshole, see if I ever come to your store again.)

I suppose thats about it for now. I'll do my best to get off my lazy ass and throw up another post from home before I go.

Oops.

So, I accidentally put my phone through the rinse cycle. (Tech tip of the day: don't do this). I have heard tales of electronics surviving this kind of abuse; mine did not. For those keeping score, this is the second death-by-water experienced by one of my phones, and the second major electronic device I've destroyed in as many months out here in California. Laptop? DS? I love you guys but you should probably be on guard around me.

We spent the day helping at a clinic handing out H1N1 vaccines. It was at a high school. High schools out here are weird, by the way. They're more like mini colleges, with lots of buildings spread out over a campus. I guess it makes sense in a state with no real winter, and where most school buildings were built after 1800.

But the vaccine. Against my better judgement, I got one. I don't know why I was so against it. Maybe I was afraid of contributing to the evolving super virus, or didn't want the government's brainwashing serum in me. But they gave it to me in nasal spray form. What a great idea these things are! Where were they when I was a kid? Maybe if I didn't have some nurse stabbing me with the ferocity of a serial killer back at the pediatrician's, I wouldn't be so mortified about going to the doctor today.

Anyway, enjoy getting H1N1, suckers!*

*you probably will not get H1N1

Yum

The California Burrito: a heart attack in a tortilla topped with diabetes sauce. Each bite takes a week off your life. Carne asada, cheese, sour cream and French fries rolled into a flour tortilla and I don't even know what kind of sauce. It weighs at least 4 pounds. $4.89. Open 24 hours. I think I will have one tonight.

Look, I found a blog!

*dusts it off*

Well here I am finally, back for another overdue post. I can't blame it on being too busy or lacking internet. Im usually just so tired by the end of the day, writing up a blog post always seems like too much work. Especially since I don't have my own camera, and have to download any photos I want to post from friends' facebook pages. And theres so many pictures I want to show!

Lets see, what have we missed? I went to San Francisco last weekend. which was actually pretty cool...for the most part. Remind me to not go with underage kids anymore. For all the talk of SF being a super-liberal city, they are very strict about IDing at the door. So if you don't want to face the choice between ditching your friend and wandering around all night not being able to get inside anywhere, leave the kids at home. Ill show everyone pictures soon.

Our project at the Partnership sucks. Theres no sugar coating it. Oh, we know that we're helping, and that they'd be having a hard time dealing with the holidays without us, but there is no overriding task that we're trying to accomplish. We barely interact with the poor families we're serving, and the chores we DO do from day to day are just that: chores. Busy work. General maintenance tasks that they struggle to come up with for us every day. Its pretty hard to keep team morale up. Fortunately, its almost over; just another week and a half and then Im home!

My ISPs are coming along nicely: after this weekend I'll be pushing 40 hours and have gotten my lead out of the way. That's 40% done!

Also, if anybody is looking for a killer workout, try the P90x series. We did one video for PT on Monday and my ass and thighs are still killing me.

the Balance

Man, where have I been? Between limited internet connectivity and long work hours, its been getting hard to find time to post things.

The lonliness of a deserted campus continues. Fortunately our job at the partnership has been getting busier as the holidays approach, and I've been trying to get ahead in ISP hours. Did I explain ISPs yet? Of the 1700 hours of service we need to complete the program, at least 80 need to be independent service projects that I come up with myself, or help a fellow corps member with. Today we got up at 6 to go work in the kitchen and warehouse at the homeless shelter. Doesn't get much volunteery than that!


Last friday was family night at the Partnership. We set up dinner and activity for the kids. I'm afraid that I still feel a bit awkward around children, especially when half of them speak Spanish or Russian. Their being poor also makes it hard...we can't assume they have a TV to watch SpongeBob, or can read Harry Potter...so its hard to find common ground with them. really depressing stuff.

But we try.
I can't believe we've been here over a month, and that Christmas break starts in less than a month. I really really really can't wait. And why can these posts NEVER turn out as well and interesting as I want them to?