Renew: Be Thou My Vision

I found this Renew screen print with curbside trash. It’s cool. I just put it up on my wall and was playing guitar, admiring my orange wall, when it made me think. Wednesday morning around 3:50, my mom and I sang Be Thou My Vision while we waited for the SuperShuttle to take me away. Sunday evening at church they sang it during worship. Even being tired or sick, you can’t really sing that song half-way. I think I’ve been a little sick and tired on and off for several months. I’m hoping this gigantic, bright orange thing on my wall will help renew my vision and just me in general. Hopefully, this blog, as an extension of my whole experience, will do the same for you? Or at least make you laugh :)

In other news, there was a snow day today for the schools. It was lovely out, though, cold, but...doable. I don't want to speak too soon, but I think I'm going to be able to handle the weather. Our little green plants sure can! However, it DOES get cold when it comes to taking a shower. Luckily, the novelty of a cute bathtub makes up for it. Here's an illustrative example of my joy at the bathing situation :)

My interview at Avenida Restaurant went well - she's supposed to call back this afternoon to schedule a night for me to have a try-out shift. The daycare interview was postponed until Friday. I'm planning on attending a church small group Wednesday night after my first day of the internship, though we'll see how I'm feeling. I might have found someone to play guitar with. I wrote some thank you letters, although I haven't found the stamps I brought along yet.

So I guess that's that. Oh! And I have two missing right shoes. I left them at home, or someone really needed left shoes at TSA.

Sarah

Settling in

Hi friends!

I am here, safe and sound. My traveling went really well. Apparently I stole the good weather, because my first two days were sunny and warm!

Christy picked me up from the airport, and her parents visited this weekend to help her buy a few things. They have all been very kind and hospitable, even taking me out to eat! It’s been a pretty busy couple of days, though, compounded by me getting a little sick after visiting the restaurant I’m applying to (uh oh!), but I’m resting up and still ready for the interviews tomorrow.

I’ve already done a fair bit of exploring. The first day I checked this “Crooked Bookstore” and walked around some. That evening I went to BuildaBridge’s initial introduction class for future volunteers. It was different, but good. The class was quite interactive and fun, with several different games I’m incorporating into my sample lesson for a daycare interview. The staff were quite friendly and encouraging, as well as excited about and committed to their work.

Friday I took the bus down to my internship, and it seems pretty simple. Plus, there’s an advertisement for a lawyer named Justin Bieber. So that’s priceless. Germantown Avenue is the main street that I live off of; it’s how I get to my internship and where lots of little shops are. It used to have a trolley, so the cobblestone, rails, and cables hanging overhead are still there. Makes for a bumpy bus ride, but it’s alright. On my way back on the bus, there was a cute little girl named Mimi, one of the really curious types, asking me and another girl dozens of questions. I was reminded of one of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories, “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” In that story a young white man and his mom take a bus ride. She makes him go with her because she doesn’t like riding alone on the recently racially-integrated buses. Plus a lot more, as there’s a lot more to the story, but you’ll have to read it.

Anyways, I thought of that because on my bus and his bus, there’s a cute black child that the white person (me) enjoys interacting with, and the child’s parent(s) who the white person doesn’t really interact with as much. Remembering it made me try to be more intentional in talking to the adult, and made me reflect on how I needed to do the same with my internship and just with every day. It is interesting to be in “one of the oldest racially-integrated neighborhoods in the country.” It feels very different at times, but it’s also been a pretty easy transition. I’ve had several people at BuildaBridge and at circle (a church group) talk to me about culture shock. I do feel it a bit, and I think I’ll be feeling it more. So there might be some fun stories out of that. But I’ve been struck by how most people/places/cultures I’m encountering have a kind of west coast twin: for instance, the circle church I attended reminds me of a tribe of l.a. church I went to, because they’re a bit slower maybe to hand out rules, and make good use of prayer/music/art. So I’m lulled into a sense of knowing, and then some little difference throws me off. Plus, when I went I was feeling sick, so that threw me off, too! Anyways, I want to see if there’s more local churches I can attend, too, since circle meets in center Philly, quite a ways away.

After church (which is in the evening) Christy and I took the subway and regional rail home, after visiting with a friend from Uganda, Charity. He happens to be doing the same internship another Ugandan friend of mine, Viola, is doing, so next weekend there’s going to be some sort of hanging out. I’m looking forward to it.

In the meantime, my room is coming together. I posted a few pics of it, and I'll post more of...more...soon. I didn't have to buy anything, it's all stuff that was left behind or left out on the curb or hand-me-down from Christy. I feel very lucky. And it’s still very nice and empty in the middle of the room, which helps my mind be less cluttered. I was tempted to buy furniture a couple of times, but I like this better. There’s actually weather now, with a little snow and “wintry mix,” so I’m listening to more of Jon Foreman’s Winter album while I try to get better and get ready for interviews and internships.

Yep. Pretty much.

V-Day

Welcome!

Well, you know why you're here. This time in 48 hours I will be one hour into my time in Philadelphia. But never fear. The power of technology lets us read blogs, go on facebook, skype each other and all sorts of stuff to stay connected. Perhaps I shall begin by giving the 411 of what I know I'll be up to at this point.

My last semester at Biola I went to the annual art conference and learned about an organization called BuildaBridge International. Their work involves three things:
1) Community: children's art classes in homeless shelters; summer programs
2) International: partner w/ orgs in other countries to run week-long arts camps
3) Institute: ed. opp through Eastern U for 10-day training, local & global

I'm going to be an Institute intern, learning more about the work necessary to plan logistics for such a thing. Hopefully my internship with the OC Music Awards has helped me prepare! If all goes well, I'll also get to be an assistant teacher in a hip-hop class. I'll be taking the bus to my internship from my place with my roommate Christy. She did the Uganda program I did a year earlier, and is now in Teach for America. It turns out a few of my friends from Uganda are also doing internships in the area, so I'm looking forward to reconnecting with them, too! I will also keep busy being cold. Very cold. Very, very cold.

I've been interested in Philly for years before this though, when I first learned about missionyear. Plus, I love the idea of being in the city of brotherly love. The last couple of days I've been doing a thought/art project leading up to the trip and to Valentine's day, drawing that big LOVE statue-type thing the city has. It kind of helped me get perspective on Valentine's Day. Actually, I'm preparing a Valentine's Day lesson for one of my two interviews scheduled. I joked with my mom about trying to schedule my flight on Valentine's Day so I could sit next to a a guy on the way over and be like...well, hello. :) It was a joke, but honestly it also wasn't. Let's me honest, I have less dating experience than some 8 year olds. It's scary. But doing the whole LOVE mural thing helped me be a bit more okay about that. Talks with people too about some recent marriages and divorces that have made me really think about love is. I hadn't read that 1 Cor 13 passage for a long time, and looking at that's been surprisingly...just, good. I'm really hoping these next few months will really stretch my ability to have love in difficult circumstances. How exciting :)

So thanks for reading all the way through, and check back here for more - hopefully shorter - updates and tangents and pictures and stories and, most importantly, stuff.