Since it's cloudy (though not raining for the first time in SIX DAYS), I thought it was time to get you all up to speed on my current adventures here in the Pacific Northwest.
On Friday evening, I took a lovely drive with my friend Stephanie through Washington's Black Hills to get to her family home near Aberdeen. Actually, it was dark, but it was lovely when we came back on Sunday. We had a very relaxing weekend watching hours of Glee, How to Train Your Dragon, and eating chocolate chip waffles (thanks, S. Sharon!). My absolute favorite part of the weekend was visiting the ocean. I've been to the ocean a fair few times in my life, and even to a cold ocean. But I had never been to a wicked, stormy ocean before. As soon as we got out of the car, I could taste the salt (Stephanie thought I was totally crazy, but I'm from Minnesota...we don't have that kind of air). It was raining, not really hard but enough that our jackets got wet withing a few minutes, but I ran up the little approach road and started doing the Alyssa dance - twirling around with my arms out - and just drinking in the power of the water. Stephanie looked at me like I was nuts. I walked along the edge of the water, soaking wet, and realized what was so weird about the stormy, grey, turbulent ocean - I couldn't see forever. That's usually my favorite part of going to the ocean, being able to see the water meet the horizon. But the clouds and rain were so dense that I could only see a few hundred yards out. When I stated my shock at this limited visibility, Stephanie called me a tourist and laughed at me...so we drove home to get dry clothes and have a wonderful family meal with her parents. And then came the beautiful drive through the hills - it was raining on and off, but the fall colors have started to show up (finally!) and it was quite pretty.
I thought, after a calm weekend like that, I should be right back on Pacific Time and everything would be great, but by early afternoon on Monday I was totally wiped out. S. Anamaria borrowed my shoe for her book box project, S. Redempta got a personal email from Ruby Payne, and my inner clock was still halfway in Minnesota trying to connect me to this world again! A nice long nap and some coffee helped significantly. Now, by Wednesday afternoon, I feel like I'm again on the same page with everyone AND I'm in the right time zone. And I've submitted nearly all my grad school applications - now, as Anamaria told me, I just have to pray!
For my lesson today, Ann Marie, the director of the BWSC, asked us volunteers to share something about how our two months of service so far have affected the people we're serving. Well, I came back and now Anamaria has bronchitis...Ok, serious. This is a hard question because I'm not used to measuring my own success - I've always had teachers and professors to do it for me. I think the most important difference I've made by being here is simply being able to understand and work with the current American college system. I know how to do research through a library website. I know how to head a paper with name, date, etc. I know how to take notes for a research project. I know how to interpret phrases like "visual essence" or "golden lines" for a literature class. My role is to be here for the sisters as a source of raw knowledge they can't possibly have because they didn't grow up in America. I also have a rather uncanny sense for English grammar, which is helpful for editing papers written by people who are still quite new to the language. In essence, I think my presence here enables S. Anamaria and S. Redempta to present their ideas to the English-speaking world more easily than they otherwise could - they tell me what they're thinking, I write it down or say it back to them, and we both understand what they're trying to say so when the words come out on the page, I know if they've captured their idea well or not. It's a fascinating process for me, because they come from a largely auditory culture - they hear and speak what they heard - while I'm such a reader/writer. We are able to bridge the worlds, though, or at least we're getting better at it.
Pictures to come!
Peace and love!
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