Thankful, thankful.

I will not hesitate to admit that I had approached this holiday with apprehension. As we’ve gotten closer and closer to Thanksgiving, the first official family holiday where we were made to be apart from our families and had to work to keep our own traditions alive by sharing them with each other, as our schedule for the day and the long weekend filled with plans and grocery lists and many other kinds of lists, I had no idea how this would go. I had the distinct feeling that we’d overbooked ourselves for too many dishes to prep in too little time, given too many affirmative RSVPS to too many social engagements, and generally planned a somewhat stressful day, not at all like the quiet and restful Thanksgivings I spend with my family. I was on my guard for this one.

It was perfect. In this place, on that day, with my strange and perfect little family of a community, this holiday was uniquely and exquisitely Juneau, and one that I will never forget. And it began, as I’ve now learned that all unforgettable Thanksgivings do, on the Wednesday before. As we dragged ourselves to work on that last day before a sweet, sweet, break, shrouded in the fourth day in a row of snow showers, I threw out my old go-to comment on the weather, “maybe we’ll have a snow day today.” It was a quiet day at work to begin with. It seemed that many had started the holiday early by grabbing more time with their families. By 3 pm, conditions were blizzard-ly, even by Juneau standards, and my office closed early for the rest of us. It was so incredible to have a snow day (well, a snow afternoon at least) to kick off this weekend. Such a blessing. I’ll never get sick of snow.

As I was leaving, a few of the women in my office were finishing up working in the kitchen to make a thanksgiving meal for some of the families we work with. They’d been working all day and had so, so much food. They were worried that nobody would come to the meal and that all the food would go to waste, and asked if they could give the JVs some food. I was absolutely overwhelmed as these women loaded up two boxes of food, including an ENTIRE. FULL COOKED. TURKEY. Luckily my housemate Maggie had stopped by to visit my office and would be able to help me carry it all; that’s how much there was! My boss helped us out by giving us a ride closer to the bus stop. I probably have never felt more ridiculous than I did trudging toward that bus stop, through a foot of snow, more snow falling so fast that it was coming down horizontally, holding an entire Thanksgiving dinner. It was hysterical. But I also couldn’t help but think how sad it was that this food couldn’t somehow go to somebody more in need. We already had donations coming to us, so many people wanting to make sure that we could have a full Thanksgiving, and we did have a good meal planned, although I think it it goes without saying that no food in our house would ever go uneaten. I struggled a lot with what my opinion was on what our community should do with all the food. Juneau does make a remarkable effort to make sure every single person is provided with a Thanksgiving meal. Maybe it’s that way in a lot of places and it’s just that this is my first year truly realizing it from working in social services, but the city-wide effort is truly an inspiration. A central location downtown served an entirely free thanksgiving dinner with over fifty turkeys present, and every single agency that myself and my housemates work at provided a Thanksgiving dinner for its residents and clients, as well as putting together Thanksgiving boxes to give to more people. But it does sadden me that even with all that effort, I’m sure that a full meal didn’t get to absolutely everyone. But it was such a blessing that CCS provided us with such wonderful food, such a selfless thing of them to do. We decided to take some of the food to the Turkey Trot the next morning, where donations for the food bank were being collected, and kept the turkey for our feast.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving continued with new experiences as my housemate Maggie took us out, introducing the rest of us to what is apparently a famous bar holiday known as Black Wednesday, the night before thanksgiving and the biggest bar night of the year. After partaking firsthand, I do have mixed feelings about this holiday, as it does interfere with one’s enjoyment of Thanksgiving Day, but honestly, we had a great time.

Let me tell you, everything about our Thanksgiving Day morning was unique. One housemate, Irene, had work from 8 am to noon, and another housemate, Shane, had to go to work at 2:30 pm. We had exactly two and a half hours to finish prepping our meal and eat it. In the meantime, four of us had wanted to go to the Turkey Trot, in costume (dressed as canned foods – I was cranberry sauce). The morning was a recipe for chaos, but we thought we had it all figured out – Irene would put the turkey in before she went to work, the rest of us could sleep until the turkey trot at 10, then we’d come back and finish cooking in time to eat around 12 30 or 1.

I awoke on this day, the morning after our Black Wednesday initiation, to a 7:30 am text message from Irene saying that the power had gone out and that somebody else would need to put the turkey in. Seriously?! The power went out on THANKSGIVING?! Luckily it came back on pretty soon and I was able to put the turkey in, then grab a couple more hours of sleep before the race. I woke up again at 9:40, and I think it’s safe to say that all of us had seriously mixed feelings about the Turkey Trot. We were torn between feeling loyal to the costumes that we had already created and wanting to show them off, wanting to donate to the food collection, wanting to participate, and wanting to sleep (the most tempting of them all). I don’t know how we did it, but we pulled ourselves out of bed and got into those costumes. As we started walking to the race, dimly aware that it had started five minutes ago and that we were actually already missing it, tinfoil can lids on our heads, we were hit by a massive wave of feeling completely ridiculous. We ended up arriving at the race 45 minutes late, stayed for exactly 30 seconds, and left to drag our canned selves home, but not before the local newspaper snapped a photo of all of us. SO we are officially immortalized in the Friday, November 25, 2011 issue of the Juneau Empire, on the SPORTS page which is easily the funniest part of this entire story, incorrectly touted as Best Costume Winners (really, I called and investigated after reading that in the paper – there apparently was some confusion because we hadn’t actually participated in the race, so they couldn’t give us a prize. I guess that’s valid.).

The rest of the day was more traditional, and equally wonderful – we had plenty of time to eat our meal and made it to a few additional gatherings around town before calling it quits with the social engagements and all going to bed by 11 pm. The entire experience was absolutely perfect for my community. It was strange not to be at home in North Carolina, for sure. But it was so cool hearing about the Thanksgiving traditions that my housemates have and trying to bring all of them together to create our own celebration of Thanksgiving. I am thankful for so much this weekend. I am thankful for the kindness of the people here, both those I came with and those I’ve met here. I am thankful for the fog that hangs between the snow-capped mountains and dips down to the channel. I am thankful for the family I have in my friends, the family I have in my community, and the family I have in my actual family, and their incredible support, warmth, and love. It is absolutely a blessing that I was here in Juneau, with these people, for this Thanksgiving, and it was definitely one I will never forget.


Happy holidays :)

I haven't written since last season!...

...And I say that because now it is totally, absolutely, completely winter in Juneau. Seriously. I'm wearing a wool sweater. And last night/today was also the third snowfall of the year, and it was a big one - about a foot of snow I'd say, although I struggle with depth perception so it might be like 2 centimeters of snow, I honestly can't tell. It is also getting dark at about 4 pm, so that's been a struggle too. My self-diagnosis of seasonal affective disorder has also been confirmed by housemates and coworkers, so I'm going to go ahead and say it's legitimate. I've been snuggling up to the house happy lamp (it simulates the sun, increases your vitamin D production,makes you happy, it's amazing) almost daily, so that helps. What an interesting change this climate has been for me - an adventure in itself. Did you know rain pants are a thing that people actually own?! They're like snow pants, but lighter. Very versatile - can be worn over pants, dresses, skirts, Halloween costumes. I didn't even know that rain pants actually existed! Although I don't think you have to live in Alaska to own a happy lamp; I personally feel that every home in Pennsylvania should come equipped with one, since Villanova gets roughly the same amount of sunshine that Juneau, a RAINFOREST, does.

Anyway. So I've been writing a lot, just not on here - mostly to people directly, or to myself when my thoughts get kind of sad or whiny. I don't want this to be a whiny blog. What a downer. It's been a tough month and a half or so, and I can officially say that the honeymoon period is over. Events of note include an area visit from our JVC Alaska area director, Danielle. Pretty much Danielle spends a week living with each JV community in Alaska, has a one on one with us, holds a meeting with our supervisors and us, runs a spirituality night, and just checks in to see how our community is doing. A few weeks later, over Halloween weekend, we had a much-needed five day weekend in Anchorage for our first of three retreats with the rest of the Alaska JV communities (We're hosting the next one! So excited!!). That was a hell of a weekend, oh.my.gosh. I say that because it was not exactly restful, but it was a very important weekend, especially for my community. With JVC come a lot more commitments than just your volunteer placement - namely, community is the biggest one, and it defines everything. Our Juneau community has literally become a family, and that's been amazing - we know each other, we love each other, and we make fun of each other (the trifecta of criteria for a family, I'd say!). But, on the other hand, how often do issues and conflicts come up within a family? QUITE often, and our community is no exception. This retreat was an incredible opportunity because, for once, we couldn't come home at the end of a long workday and push conflict under the rug because we didn't have it in us to deal with it. Instead, we had an entire weekend where we could intentionally communicate and grow together, without the distractions that work placements - a huge stressor for every single person, obviously - create. It was a tough weekend for us, to be sure. We hurt, we healed, we talked, we talked more. We were fortunate to have decided to take an extra day in Anchorage before flying back home, so we had an extra day to enjoy Halloween and the city together before going our separate ways back to work.

As for work, it's honestly something that is very challenging for me right now, in a lot of ways. But I told myself before I came here that I could do anything for a year, and I believe that I can. So I'm keeping at it. It has many low points, but it has high points too that are really there as long as I look for them. So I'm just going to keep looking. I understand this is all vague. Most days it would have been hard for me to even write this much about work, because of how completely it has been challenging me, but today is actually a very relaxed day, for once, and I felt up to saying a little something about it.

I feel that this is an incomplete update, but I'm going to try to get out of here before the snow gets worse and I get stuck at work FOREVER.

Pictures of snow soon :)

Ok. bye,

Liz