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. :)