One Month In And Completely In Love

Hello everyone!

It’s been a few weeks since I last updated, so bare with me if this gets a bit long…

Lets see, I left you all just before Labor Day, so we’ll start there. There is a JVC tradition where each house hosts a different party throughout the year. Usually a house will have a Holiday that they are traditionally in charge of, though there is some flexibility. These parties allow us to see each others homes and experience the different communities people live in, and also give us a chance to build relationships with the JVs serving throughout the Baltimore Program Office. The Labor Day party was held in Baltimore. The city was wonderful, if a bit of a culture shock after weeks in Bridgeport, and the party was a lot of fun. It was great to catch up with people we’d met at orientation and find out how people’s first few weeks had been going. Baltimore is a beautiful city, with a lot of character and just a really cool vibe. We loved seeing all the different buildings and homes, and on Sunday morning we got to go to a free art gallery downtown which was really wonderful! It was a really awesome opportunity to see new parts of the East Coast, and we all had a lot of fun!

Sophie’s (my roommate) parents have a place in Avalon New Jersey, so on our way back up to Bridgeport we stopped and spent Sunday night there. We got to swim in the ocean, bike around town, climb on the jetties and kayak in the bay—it was a lovely, relaxing way to finish off the long weekend. On our way back to Bridgeport we drove through New York again which was wonderful! We got to see the skyline all lit up and the Statue of Liberty and Citi Field (where the Mets play!). It was all very exciting, especially for those of us who’ve not really spent much (any) time on the East Coast (*raises hand*).

Work has been a little slow still, and a little… heartbreaking maybe? Definitely frustrating. We did not get the grant we were waiting on, which means we cannot continue the program we had going at the high school down the street. This is frustrating, because it was a program that the students really benefited from a lot, and it gave them a lot of resources, outlets and opportunities they might not otherwise get. The program provided homework help, SAT prep, college info/visits/application help, resume building, and a variety of clubs and activities for after school. It’s really sad to see a program like that fall away because there isn’t funding, and it was hard to be the one cleaning out the room at the high school, taking all the resources away. It made me sad, and angry at a system that leaves education and youth programs scraping for pennies. But then I suppose part of why I came here is to have my heart broken by things like this, and then to learn to live out of that heartbreak.

So now what we’re trying to do is get some programs going here at the Taylor Center that can at least somewhat replace the ones that we had at the high school. We were already planning on getting some teen programs going, as I believe I mentioned in an earlier blog, but this will shift our focus a bit. We had a focus group with some of the students about a week ago to get an idea of what kinds of activities and programs they would like to see, so we’re going to combine that with what we are interested in doing and move forward from there. We hope to have some programs going within the next couple of weeks. I should be a lot busier once that gets going, which I’m looking forward to.

Friday the 7^th we had some tickets to the Mets game, compliments of my housemate Adrienne’s work site, so a few of us made our way to Queens for the game! Traffic was horrific (apparently, even worse than normal for New York), so we were a bit late for the game, but it was still a lot of fun! I have a dream of some day spending a summer visiting all of the different major league ball parks, so seeing Citi Field was very cool for me, and being in Queens was awesome!

Saturday we had kind of a lazy day, which was nice after a long week. We went to a thrift store and found some really great records for 50 cents. We have a record player. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that. It’s really quite marvelous, and I have decided that every house should have one, always. Seriously, we play records pretty much every day. It’s wonderful. J

Sunday we went for a walk along the Sound, and then headed over to Fairfield University, where we were invited to join the Jesuits for dinner. We got to tour their new building, which was built to be super environmentally friendly (very cool!), and then we sat with them and had a really lovely meal. We were also supposed to attend the student mass that night, but one of my housemates got sick so we took her home instead. It was a little disappointing to miss the service—it was supposed to be really lovely—but we’re a community and communities take care of each other. It was a good reminder that we are not meant to go to church, we are meant to be the Church.

I spent much of the past week at work organizing, printing, sorting, folding and enveloping a mailing for a fundraiser we are having at the end of October. All I will say is that I learned it is possible to get paper cuts on your tongue. Not fun.

On Tuesday I finished the blanket I had been crocheting. Adrienne taught Hannah and me a few weeks ago, and it’s been really awesome to see a few rolls of yarn turn into a blanket. There is something very satisfying about curling up at night under a blanket you made. J We’ve moved on to scarves (because of course, the natural progression when you learn to crochet is to make a blanket first, then a scarf…), and those are turning out really well too! Pictures to come soon.

Friday night we had tickets to the Bluefish (local baseball team in Bridgeport), compliments of my housemate Meghan’s work site. People are rather inclined to give us free things. We’re taking them on a case by case basis, keeping the goal of simple living in mind, along with a desire to get involved in everything this community and this part of the world has to offer. The game was a lot of fun (as baseball games are prone to be)! While we naturally had no real stake in who won the game, my rowdy sports fan came out in true form and we all got really in to the game. It was not difficult, as it was a very exciting game (a grand slam even!). The Bluefish won, which was cool, and then there were fireworks after the game!

Saturday night we went to a fundraiser for Sophie’s work site. They needed some extra people to fill the seats, and we were available so…we went! It was a benefit concert, featuring a cover band who did everything from Jimmy Buffet to the Beatles to Fleetwood Mac. We were responsible for getting people out on to the dance floor, which we excelled at thank you very much, and we had a rather marvelous time dancing the night away.

On Sunday we met our landlord Ralphie and his wife Dolly. They were great, and it was really good to finally meet them (Ralphie is a detective, so his schedule has been a little difficult to work around). Afterwards, to celebrate our one month anniversary of being here in Bridgeport (which was Friday), and since we are excellent grocery shoppers and have been significantly under budget each week, we splurged and had a “fancy night”. We got dressed up, put some slow jazz on the record player, made fancy food (salmon, pasta, salad, etc), and fancy dessert (red velvet cheesecake cookies—so unbelievably good). It was a really lovely evening.

I can’t believe it’s been a month already. Time really does fly! We’ve been feeling so blessed, with this opportunity, with each other, with everything. This is such a cool thing we’re doing, so special. I am so completely grateful that I get to do this. It’s been amazing so far, and I’m so excited for the next few months! God has been so good to me through all of this, and I am learning and growing and experiencing so much. I'm one month in to this and completely in love with it.

Thanks for all your prayer and support—it means so much! As always, please keep in touch. I’m really just a phone call, an email or a letter away!

God bless,

Aimee