welcome!

as always, good ideas never come to me in a timely manner, and this blog is no exception to the rule. the point of this blog is to catalog the events that take place over the course of my year of service as a VISTA. it is also around so people will no longer have to ask me what i'm doing in milwaukee.

Just some things i want to clarify up front...
1. VISTA=volunteers in service to America. it existed before Americorps, but it is considered a subdivision of Americorps now.
2. I do work in a school, but i do not teach.
3. yes, this is the first time living by myself. no, i am not scared about this. well, until that wasp comes into my apartment like it does every afternoon. then i'm scared shitless.
4. by now, you're probably realizing that this blog is not child-friendly. deal with it. my life is not child-friendly, and this is going to be my life in text form.

i moved to milwaukee on August 2nd. I came up two weeks earlier with my dad to secure a studio apartment on the east side of the city, as well as a car (a 2000 toyota corolla named judy. if you understand my love for belle and sebastian, you will understand the name). I left for pre-service orientation on the 20th of August, and it took me all that time to get this place set up. actually, it technically took longer, because i later decided to purchase a desk and a computer chair from cvs and craig's list (side note: never buy furniture from cvs).

pre-service orientation summed up (even though it probably deserves its own post):
DAY 1: arrive in Indianapolis way too early in the morning. shuttle to the conference center, only to find out that i no longer have a room there, because the colts are staying there and they were overbooked. about 20 of us later find out that we were moved to the holiday inn. we all bonded quickly over our disappointment of not being in the same hotel as orientation, as well as our excitement over the fact that we, unlike those staying at the conference center, do not have to pay to use the pool or wellness center. Ate an incredible dinner, during which Adetokunbo jumped on me and surprised/scared the crap out of me. Went out for beers later that night, during which my phone got a beer bath from my roommate.
DAY 2: we spent all of our time in orientation talking about poverty and eating really incredible food. I'm not exaggerating at all. I was very excited to talk about poverty at the beginning of the session, but quickly decided that all i wanted to do was go back to the hotel and crawl into bed. definitely not feeling the take-on-the-world feeling i had coming into orientation.
DAY 3: things got a little more interactive. still ate a lot of delicious food while talking about poverty, but there were more discussions and activities to do, including a group interpretive dance and listening to people sing about vistas failing at life. went out for margaritas with some friends and krista.
DAY 4: we got to pick our workshops for this day. I went to one on recruiting volunteers, which was fun. the woman running my workshop went to a quaker school, so we talked about that for a little. got sworn in, grabbed our box lunches (because we didnt eat enough during the rest of orientation), boarded our respective planes, and left indianapolis.

after pso, we had a week of training with parents plus, which is the non-profit that i am operating through. everyone there is very nice and fun to be with, even though they laughed at me for having a bachelor's degree in square dancing.

last week was my first week at maple tree elementary, which is the school i'm working at. i spent most of my time calling parents about the upcoming PTO meeting (september 16th) and getting acquainted with the school at the long-ass commute that i make every day to get there.

today is september 8th. though it is only a tuesday, it is the only day that i'll be at maple tree for the week. school was closed yesterday for labor day, i'm going to a conference in madison tomorrow and thursday, and friday i'm back at parents plus.

that's all for now. updates will continue. expect the next one to be from madison!