Sunday, August 28, 2011
Just wanting to share the Storypeople of the day:
"Carries a lot of suitcases but all of them are empty because she's expecting to completely fill them with life by the end of this trip & then she'll come home & sort everything out & do it all over again."
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear.
The above mantra may be credited to Paula, one of our JVC Support People living here in Juneau. We are learning very quickly that it is not just a saying, but it is a perspective that you absolutely have to have if you're going to appreciate and enjoy Juneau. On the Saturday we flew into Juneau, it looked like this:
(Click here to see the rest of the album - pictures from the plane & a glacier!!)
Like, I took those pictures. they're not edited or google imaged or anything. That's JUNEAU. Truly incredible. However, it has rained every single day since we got here a week and a half ago, and this is quite typical. For those of us used to sunshine, it's been an adjustment. But the people of Juneau have a healthy attitude about it that is truly remarkable. For example, I live across the street from a beach. It is a real beach, with real sand, and real ocean water beyond it (well, channel water, which is like an extension of the ocean. I'll take it on a technicality. This is how you make lemonade.) Now at home, a beach day would be entirely dependent on weather. Not here. I've been to the beach most of the days I've been here, to picnics and parties and cookouts on the beach held, yes, in overcastness and drizzle and occasionally pouring rain. Yesterday at work, we took the kids to the beach for the entire day. We played on the beach, hiked, even played in the sand. Here, you just literally cannot put things off if it's a rainy day. Because then you'd never do anything!
So, in this Juneau spirit of embracing the outdoors all the time, regardless of weather, my roommate Megan and I both had a day off of work today and decided to go on an adventure. After running a few errands downtown that we'd had to put off since getting here, we set out on the REAL mission of the day: we went to get our xtratuffs!!! Xtra Tuffs are boots. but they are SO much more than boots. They are real, Alaskan fishing boots, they are on the feet of every local in town, they are hideous, and they are. the real. deal.
We've been looking all over town for them, but have been limited by the constraints of the bus system and our schedules. FINALLY Megan and I went to get our boots, and we were so pumped after finally finding them that we took them to the beach to break them in ASAP! And even though it was raining, we could not be stopped from trying to make it as much of a true beach day as possible:
Sunscreen, sunglasses, and a beach towel. We were not going to let the lack of sun stop us from finding some sunshine. And it was a great time!
In other news of challenges and endeavors and great adventures, I started working last Wednesday! I am a Case Manager and a Behavioral Health Associate for a city agency which works primarily with emotionally disturbed children and their families. Right now, it's a lot. I haven't yet been able to get a concrete definition of what either of these positions mean, how I should divide my time between the two positions, what i need to learn about each job, etc. But I am getting a feel for each job having begun to go through new employee orientation, and right now, the case manager part of my job is more intimidating than the BHA part. Yesterday, I acted as a BHA and spent all day with the kids, and the other BHAs at the beach, and I really enjoyed that part. Since my training so far hasn't been directly pertaining to my job(s), I'm still trying to grasp what each job even is. But, the people at my agency are GREAT. They are so kind and helpful, and even though I feel that this position has many sink or swim moments where I will hopefully swim but might sink, I feel supported by them, and that's important to me. I think the overwhelming part comes from trying to start learning my jobs before I actually understand what they are. I'm grasping that there's a lot of responsibility with the case management aspect, and that intimidates me a bit as well. But I do feel that this is a tremendous opportunity, to work with great people, and I am trying to take it one day at a time. The goal I've set for myself is to feel like I feel comfortable in my job by December, when I will hopefully not have quite so many "I don't know what I'm doing!" moments as I do now!
Hope this was informative and enjoyable. Hope it was legible - my dad made me change the font color because it hurt his eyes or something. Is this better, dad?
Love and miss!
(Click here to see the rest of the album - pictures from the plane & a glacier!!)
Like, I took those pictures. they're not edited or google imaged or anything. That's JUNEAU. Truly incredible. However, it has rained every single day since we got here a week and a half ago, and this is quite typical. For those of us used to sunshine, it's been an adjustment. But the people of Juneau have a healthy attitude about it that is truly remarkable. For example, I live across the street from a beach. It is a real beach, with real sand, and real ocean water beyond it (well, channel water, which is like an extension of the ocean. I'll take it on a technicality. This is how you make lemonade.) Now at home, a beach day would be entirely dependent on weather. Not here. I've been to the beach most of the days I've been here, to picnics and parties and cookouts on the beach held, yes, in overcastness and drizzle and occasionally pouring rain. Yesterday at work, we took the kids to the beach for the entire day. We played on the beach, hiked, even played in the sand. Here, you just literally cannot put things off if it's a rainy day. Because then you'd never do anything!
So, in this Juneau spirit of embracing the outdoors all the time, regardless of weather, my roommate Megan and I both had a day off of work today and decided to go on an adventure. After running a few errands downtown that we'd had to put off since getting here, we set out on the REAL mission of the day: we went to get our xtratuffs!!! Xtra Tuffs are boots. but they are SO much more than boots. They are real, Alaskan fishing boots, they are on the feet of every local in town, they are hideous, and they are. the real. deal.
We've been looking all over town for them, but have been limited by the constraints of the bus system and our schedules. FINALLY Megan and I went to get our boots, and we were so pumped after finally finding them that we took them to the beach to break them in ASAP! And even though it was raining, we could not be stopped from trying to make it as much of a true beach day as possible:
Sunscreen, sunglasses, and a beach towel. We were not going to let the lack of sun stop us from finding some sunshine. And it was a great time!
In other news of challenges and endeavors and great adventures, I started working last Wednesday! I am a Case Manager and a Behavioral Health Associate for a city agency which works primarily with emotionally disturbed children and their families. Right now, it's a lot. I haven't yet been able to get a concrete definition of what either of these positions mean, how I should divide my time between the two positions, what i need to learn about each job, etc. But I am getting a feel for each job having begun to go through new employee orientation, and right now, the case manager part of my job is more intimidating than the BHA part. Yesterday, I acted as a BHA and spent all day with the kids, and the other BHAs at the beach, and I really enjoyed that part. Since my training so far hasn't been directly pertaining to my job(s), I'm still trying to grasp what each job even is. But, the people at my agency are GREAT. They are so kind and helpful, and even though I feel that this position has many sink or swim moments where I will hopefully swim but might sink, I feel supported by them, and that's important to me. I think the overwhelming part comes from trying to start learning my jobs before I actually understand what they are. I'm grasping that there's a lot of responsibility with the case management aspect, and that intimidates me a bit as well. But I do feel that this is a tremendous opportunity, to work with great people, and I am trying to take it one day at a time. The goal I've set for myself is to feel like I feel comfortable in my job by December, when I will hopefully not have quite so many "I don't know what I'm doing!" moments as I do now!
Hope this was informative and enjoyable. Hope it was legible - my dad made me change the font color because it hurt his eyes or something. Is this better, dad?
Love and miss!
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
A Slice of Juneau
(it's a slice because the library is closing in 20 minutes, and that's not enough time to share the whole pie!)
We are here!! We are loving it!! but yes, we are a bit overwhelmed! I got to Juneau on Saturday night with my 6 other housemates. After flying all day, this town/city was an asbolutely incredible sight to see. Saturday was one of the most beautiful days Juneau had seen in a few weeks, and I have literally never seen anything like this place in my life, not from the air and certainly not on the ground. Juneau is a city with homes and businesses built into mountains, where an ethereal fog perpetually hangs low over the channel that Juneau overlooks. Although Saturday was the only clear day we've had so far (as in, it has poured every day since then), it is so easy to become overwhelmed by Juneau's beauty even as I stand at the bus stop with my boots filling with rain water. So, Juneau is a city of great beauty (and great amounts of rain!). I knew this coming in.
What I did not know, or expect, was the Juneau community that has not only welcomed each of my roommates and myself, but has taken a personal interest in each of us, both as individuals and as volunteers working to better the community. From the moment our plane landed, and I mean that quite literally, we have been bombarded with kindness, with gifts, with invitations, with guidance. It has been so overwhelming in the most fantastic way. Case in point: We landed at Juneau airport and walked to the baggage claim by ourselves. We knew that some former Jesuit Volunteers who would serve as support peopple for us in the coming year would be meeting us to drive us to our house, and they found us quite quickly. Four wonderful former jesuit volunteers greeted us and drove us to our house to set our things down. (the house is incredible by the way, and that's a story for another day). BUT, we had only been in the house for about seven minutes when one of the support people, pat, informed us that we were going to a wedding. right now. A former JV was getting married, and she wanted us at her wedding, for no reason other than the fact that we were the new JVs. So we piled into the car after an entire day of flying, having no dinner or change of clothes or anything like that, and we just went to this wedding. and it was great! people were so genuine and kind, and we even met the group of last year's Jesuit Volunteers (almost all of them; one or two had left already, and almost all of the rest are leaving this week). So we got to talk to them, which was so interesting, because we were moving into their house about 2 hours after they'd moved out, moving into the jobs that they'd had for the past year, and essentially taking their place. they were all so kind and such a helpful resource as we've frantically tried to get to know Juneau these past few days before starting work (tomorrow!!).
In short, I am loving it. I have never moved this far from home before, but I have also never had this easy of a transition before, and I absolutely attribute a lot of that to the community of the city and the community of my roommates. But at the same time, I have come into this with a healthy perspective that has absolutely been cultivated by the support of you wonderful people, and I cannot thank you all enough for that. I want to update more in depth later, but in the meantime I wanted to give you guys maybe not the whole pie, but just a slice of life as it goes for me right now. (not JUST because dan love told me to. i wanted to!)
I very much miss and love you all, and hope that things back east (for most of you, except a select few!) are going well for you. :)
We are here!! We are loving it!! but yes, we are a bit overwhelmed! I got to Juneau on Saturday night with my 6 other housemates. After flying all day, this town/city was an asbolutely incredible sight to see. Saturday was one of the most beautiful days Juneau had seen in a few weeks, and I have literally never seen anything like this place in my life, not from the air and certainly not on the ground. Juneau is a city with homes and businesses built into mountains, where an ethereal fog perpetually hangs low over the channel that Juneau overlooks. Although Saturday was the only clear day we've had so far (as in, it has poured every day since then), it is so easy to become overwhelmed by Juneau's beauty even as I stand at the bus stop with my boots filling with rain water. So, Juneau is a city of great beauty (and great amounts of rain!). I knew this coming in.
What I did not know, or expect, was the Juneau community that has not only welcomed each of my roommates and myself, but has taken a personal interest in each of us, both as individuals and as volunteers working to better the community. From the moment our plane landed, and I mean that quite literally, we have been bombarded with kindness, with gifts, with invitations, with guidance. It has been so overwhelming in the most fantastic way. Case in point: We landed at Juneau airport and walked to the baggage claim by ourselves. We knew that some former Jesuit Volunteers who would serve as support peopple for us in the coming year would be meeting us to drive us to our house, and they found us quite quickly. Four wonderful former jesuit volunteers greeted us and drove us to our house to set our things down. (the house is incredible by the way, and that's a story for another day). BUT, we had only been in the house for about seven minutes when one of the support people, pat, informed us that we were going to a wedding. right now. A former JV was getting married, and she wanted us at her wedding, for no reason other than the fact that we were the new JVs. So we piled into the car after an entire day of flying, having no dinner or change of clothes or anything like that, and we just went to this wedding. and it was great! people were so genuine and kind, and we even met the group of last year's Jesuit Volunteers (almost all of them; one or two had left already, and almost all of the rest are leaving this week). So we got to talk to them, which was so interesting, because we were moving into their house about 2 hours after they'd moved out, moving into the jobs that they'd had for the past year, and essentially taking their place. they were all so kind and such a helpful resource as we've frantically tried to get to know Juneau these past few days before starting work (tomorrow!!).
In short, I am loving it. I have never moved this far from home before, but I have also never had this easy of a transition before, and I absolutely attribute a lot of that to the community of the city and the community of my roommates. But at the same time, I have come into this with a healthy perspective that has absolutely been cultivated by the support of you wonderful people, and I cannot thank you all enough for that. I want to update more in depth later, but in the meantime I wanted to give you guys maybe not the whole pie, but just a slice of life as it goes for me right now. (not JUST because dan love told me to. i wanted to!)
I very much miss and love you all, and hope that things back east (for most of you, except a select few!) are going well for you. :)
Monday, August 1, 2011
Good juju for Juneau
As if the alliteration in this blog’s headline weren’t enough (I couldn’t resist. There are far too many quality Alaska jokes not to acknowledge them. Juneau what I mean?!), I thought it was only appropriate to describe how I’m feeling about my upcoming year of service in Juneau, Alaska with the phrase, juju. Good juju, to be more specific. In other words, there’re good vibes in the air. Big things are happening, big changes that I’m about to fill you in on.
(changes large enough to warrant, oh I don’t know, creating an entire blog about them, and to hopefully interest you enough to keep up with them!).
But more importantly, there’s good juju happening here. Can you feel it?
I'm spending the next year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest, a partner of Americorps that places volunteers in underserved areas around the Pacific Northwest. During this year,I've been placed at Catholic Community Charities of Juneau, Alaska, in a new position that works as both a case manager and a behavioral health associate. Simple living, spirituality, community, social justice are the four components, priorities, values, that JVC Northwest is built on, and that I’ve committed my next year to exploring. JVCNW houses me and six other members, who will be volunteering at different organizations around the city. It’s a program that I’ve got a lot of faith in, a lot of excitement about, and a lot to learn about. Always more to learn.
Although, some minor obstacles in the process of learning about my new home in Juneau might suggest that we'd all be better off knowing as little about Juneau as possible. Initially, I turned to my Googling talents to try to paint myself a picture of the environment I’ll be moving to. I would not advise that anybody do this. Not to brag, but I’d like to brag that I’m a pretty good googler, so take note: an enticing Google profile Alaska in the News does not make. Recent headlines include Alaskan plane collisions, Alaskan bear maulings, and generally anything that Sarah Palin does.
I dug deeper. A google maps search of my Alaskan address returned a photo of this lovely piece of property:
Hmm. The landscaping could use a little work. I guess the whole condemned-haunted-house vibe could be addressed also. Perhaps I should bring curtains?
Thankfully, a virtual walk down my virtual street showed me that at my address was actually a much more adorable, livable place to call home. Clearly, the google map guys must have just been having a laugh while taking a break from driving their little mapping car around the entire world when they linked my address to a photo of the Addams family mansion. Because this house was cute. It was blue. And it pretty much directly looked out at this:
And then I got an email that I actually would be living at an entirely different address, so I repeated the process and am similarly satisfied.
I’m rambling about my house largely because at this point I have little else to ramble about. I’m still a week out before I leave for Camp Orientation outside of Portland, which will go from August 8th to August 13th. I could talk about packing and buying hiking boots, but that would pretty much guarantee that nobody ever reads this blog ever again (and if that happens, then what’s the point of a blog? if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, was it really a tree? Or whatever.)
But on a more reflective note, I’m ready. I am really, really ready. I am looking forward to every aspect that this experience has to offer. I’m looking forward to striving to limit technology and connectivity. I’m looking forward to snail mailings, both receiving and sending. (you are too? Great! My address is 315 E street, douglas, ak 99824!). I can’t wait to meet my six wonderful roommates. I can’t wait for a new city. I feel ready for my job. Well, kind of. Okay, not a lot. I do feel utterly underqualified, being largely unfamiliar with the field of social work. So, there’s that. But more importantly, it’s a field that I want to be familiar with, that I’m seriously considering pursuing and that I’m feeling, I’m hoping, I have a knack for. And how could I possibly decide to actually do that without experiencing it first? And finding this position, in this location, with this program, is also something that I took my time with, and really thought through. I talked to a lot of people, I asked questions, I got second and third and thirtieth opinions on everything, I changed my mind. I took my time, and while in the past that’s never seemed felt like a really okay thing to do, I realized that not only is it okay, it’s necessary. And I have a lot of faith that for some reason, the next step for me that I’ve finally arrived at has to include this specific job, working with these specific people, living in this specific situation, in this specific place: Juneau, Alaska.
(changes large enough to warrant, oh I don’t know, creating an entire blog about them, and to hopefully interest you enough to keep up with them!).
But more importantly, there’s good juju happening here. Can you feel it?
I'm spending the next year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest, a partner of Americorps that places volunteers in underserved areas around the Pacific Northwest. During this year,I've been placed at Catholic Community Charities of Juneau, Alaska, in a new position that works as both a case manager and a behavioral health associate. Simple living, spirituality, community, social justice are the four components, priorities, values, that JVC Northwest is built on, and that I’ve committed my next year to exploring. JVCNW houses me and six other members, who will be volunteering at different organizations around the city. It’s a program that I’ve got a lot of faith in, a lot of excitement about, and a lot to learn about. Always more to learn.
Although, some minor obstacles in the process of learning about my new home in Juneau might suggest that we'd all be better off knowing as little about Juneau as possible. Initially, I turned to my Googling talents to try to paint myself a picture of the environment I’ll be moving to. I would not advise that anybody do this. Not to brag, but I’d like to brag that I’m a pretty good googler, so take note: an enticing Google profile Alaska in the News does not make. Recent headlines include Alaskan plane collisions, Alaskan bear maulings, and generally anything that Sarah Palin does.
I dug deeper. A google maps search of my Alaskan address returned a photo of this lovely piece of property:
Hmm. The landscaping could use a little work. I guess the whole condemned-haunted-house vibe could be addressed also. Perhaps I should bring curtains?
Thankfully, a virtual walk down my virtual street showed me that at my address was actually a much more adorable, livable place to call home. Clearly, the google map guys must have just been having a laugh while taking a break from driving their little mapping car around the entire world when they linked my address to a photo of the Addams family mansion. Because this house was cute. It was blue. And it pretty much directly looked out at this:
And then I got an email that I actually would be living at an entirely different address, so I repeated the process and am similarly satisfied.
I’m rambling about my house largely because at this point I have little else to ramble about. I’m still a week out before I leave for Camp Orientation outside of Portland, which will go from August 8th to August 13th. I could talk about packing and buying hiking boots, but that would pretty much guarantee that nobody ever reads this blog ever again (and if that happens, then what’s the point of a blog? if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, was it really a tree? Or whatever.)
But on a more reflective note, I’m ready. I am really, really ready. I am looking forward to every aspect that this experience has to offer. I’m looking forward to striving to limit technology and connectivity. I’m looking forward to snail mailings, both receiving and sending. (you are too? Great! My address is 315 E street, douglas, ak 99824!). I can’t wait to meet my six wonderful roommates. I can’t wait for a new city. I feel ready for my job. Well, kind of. Okay, not a lot. I do feel utterly underqualified, being largely unfamiliar with the field of social work. So, there’s that. But more importantly, it’s a field that I want to be familiar with, that I’m seriously considering pursuing and that I’m feeling, I’m hoping, I have a knack for. And how could I possibly decide to actually do that without experiencing it first? And finding this position, in this location, with this program, is also something that I took my time with, and really thought through. I talked to a lot of people, I asked questions, I got second and third and thirtieth opinions on everything, I changed my mind. I took my time, and while in the past that’s never seemed felt like a really okay thing to do, I realized that not only is it okay, it’s necessary. And I have a lot of faith that for some reason, the next step for me that I’ve finally arrived at has to include this specific job, working with these specific people, living in this specific situation, in this specific place: Juneau, Alaska.
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