The End of My Vacation

This vacation was most definitely too short.

Today, I woke up early to go out to breakfast with my two of my best friends, Mina and Julie. I miss Ann Arbor so much! After that, Julie and I drove up to East Lansing to visit friends and her rabbit, Bandit. After that, we went to Panera, which is something that I have missed very much since moving to Miami. After that, we were supposed to get together with a few other people to make Christmas cookies, but I had to decline when I realized that I have not actually spent that much time with my family this weekend. Now I am home, trying to find a way to go seven months without seeing them. : (

-Aly

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you all got a chance to spend time with you family and loved ones - I know I did!

Yesterday I flew from the Fort Lauderdale airport into Detroit, and arrived at about 1:00 p. m. I couldn't believe how cold it was when I first got here! Dinner was at my house this year, and my aunt, uncle, cousin, and their three dogs had dinner with us as well. Being a vegetarian, I don't usually feast on Thanksgiving, but this year we had "tofurkey". I didn't not think I was going to like it at all, but it was actually delicious!

Today, I am spending more time with my real family, and some time also with my "family" family (my sorority sisters). It feels so good to be home.

Happy Black Friday for all of you out shopping today!

-Aly

601.5 Hrs.

I am so excited to be going home tomorrow!

Today was a really easy working day. For some reason or other, most of my classes and tutor session were canceled or shortened. In addition, it was Wednesday, so school was dismissed at 2:00, and J. A. was canceled as well.

-Aly

583.5 Hrs.

Things are still going really well here in Miami. The children were relatively well-behaved today, and it was an easy day since we only run BBL every other week, and this week was not one of those weeks. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I was actually able to wake up on time and start off my day relaxed rather than rushed, so that also helped my to have a good day. That, and also the fact that I only have to work two more days this week. ; ) One unfortunate thing, though, was that we had a team member out sick today, so we had to worry about covering all of his classes.

J. A. was great, and so was Starfish Corps. The kids are totally getting into P. T., and today we created Starfish Corps teams. My team named themselves "The Cool Kids".

-Aly

574.25 Hrs.

Miami weather is beautiful once again. I think that 80 degrees may be the average for today. Even though I am loving the sun and the warm weather, I am hoping that I see at least a little snow when I go back to Michigan this coming weekend.

Nothing much has been happening with me in the past few days. Things have been running smoothly at the school. The BBL that I planned for this week went over really well, too. The kids have also been absolutely LOVING Starfish Corps, and the lesson that I got to plan for Thursday seemed to be a big hit. On Friday, part of the day was a service day, so I spent my morning painting the outside of a building that is on its way to becoming a school. The cool part of the morning was that my commute to the service site was only five minutes! That is a huge difference from the two hour commute I normally have to take.

On Friday afternoon, we had a college fair/life after City Year fair, the result of which is that I am now seriously considering joining the Peace Corps after I graduate from college. We'll see what happens in the next couple of years, though.

Yesterday, I attended Team Leader orientation for Young Heroes. Young Heroes is the Middle School version of City Year. Last week, I applied and was accepted for a Team Leader position, so yesterday was my orientation day. Starting in January, every Saturday I will be spending my day leading a group of Middle School students in this awesome program.

-Aly

541.25 Hrs.

For some reason, I really had a short temper today and didn't really want to take anything ridiculous from anyone. It definitely didn't help my short temper that the kids were particularly crazy today. I know it seems like I say ever day that it was a crazier-than-normal day, but somehow the continue to surprise me with how wild they can be. The day seemed to go by quickly, though, which was a blessing.

Only eight more days until the break. Yay for that!

-Aly

532.25 Hrs.

As I may have alluded to before, the people I meet in Miami tend to be very odd. For example: today was a cooler day in Miami - the high temperature was at about 75 degrees. The wind, however, made it feel five to ten degrees colder. I thought that this was wonderful weather, especially for the end of November, but apparently, no one else in Miami felt that way. Most of the people I saw today were walking around in mittens, hats, and heavy winter jackets! How funny.

Today was most definitely a Monday. None of the kids I work with seemed like there were ready to settle into school for the week yet. For my first class of the day, I actually had to end up just having the kids sit silently with their heads on their desks. The rest of the day wasn't much better, other than for a couple exceptions. My second first grade group that is usually my worst group of the day did not cause my any headache today. The reason for this is that I took them out to work with each of them individually instead of trying to control all of them at once and by myself. Also, J. A. was awesome today; we ran our second Starfish session, and the kids absolutely loved it.

On the other hand, however, my team's closing circle was filled with complaints and negativity; that kind of ended my day on an unhappy note.

-Aly

Sunday Again

Another weekend is almost over, and once again, I did absolutely nothing this weekend. I don't especially enjoy being lazy, but I needed to be this weekend in order to get over the stressful week I just had.

-Aly

523.25 Hrs.

After spending the entirety of my day off on Tuesday purging my house of fleas, I have discovered that the fleas that were guaranteed to be gone within 24 hrs of the vet's visit are not yet gone. Because of that discovery and a few other things going on in the past couple of days, I have not felt much like updating. The feeling combined with the fact that nothing really special has happened since Tuesday are the reason I have for not posting since then.

As just stated, nothing really special has been happening. Wednesday was just like any other Wednesday, and Thursday was pretty much just like any other Thursday. The only exception to this is that we started Starfish Corps at R. R. Moton on Thursday. Starfish Corps is going to be a part of J. A. twice a week, and is kind of like a City Year for elementary school students. This is a program that is run in City Year sites throughout the country, and introduces young children to concepts such as leadership, community service, healthy choices and healthy living, protecting the environment, and the difference between NEEDS and WANTS. On Thursday, our after school students completed their very first day of Starfish Corps BTA. The kids had a lot of fun and got to play games, watch a skit, and make nametags for themselves. Starfish Corps gets its name from the "starfish story" that most people are familiar with that is about a child throwing starfish from the beach back into the ocean; everyone tells the child that he cannot possibly save all of the thousands of starfish washed up onto the beach, and he responds by throwing one more back and saying, "Well, at least I made a difference to that one."

Today, unfortunately, I had to take yet another one of my sick days. I woke up this morning with an awful migraine, and just did not feel like I could possibly make it into work.

-Aly

497.25 Hrs.

By miracles of miracles, today was a day off for CY because of Veterans' Day. As excited as I was about having a day off, I was also a little peeved that I did not know about it sooner so that I might not have had to take those days off last week to get Pip declawed. As is happened, though, today was a rough day for me anyway. Let me summarize my day for you:

-Wake up and while still in bed with Pip and Francheska, realize that Fran is infested with fleas
-Call vet to beg for an appointment for today
-Spend all day waiting around for the vet and feeling itchy because I now think I may have fleas
-Wash everything in the house, including the linens I just washed on Saturday
-Walk 20 blocks to Target to get all-natural cat litter, since Pip's bandages were to come off today
-Walk 20 blocks home and scowl at my friend who drove by and didn't offer me a ride
-Bandage up about twenty cuts I got on my hands from carrying the box of cat litter home
-Empty litter box and try to drag the bag of litter to the trashcan; it breaks halfway to the trash, so I spend time trying to find a broom with which to clean it up
-Walk to Walgreen's to purchase Boric Acid
-Max out credit card by paying for vet visit and flea medication for both Fran and Pip
-Spread boric acid over every square inch of my apartment
-Shower and frantically try to scrub all of the fleas off of me

-Aly

Another Weekend Gone

Plans for today: absolutely nothing.

-Aly

480.75 Hrs.

Friday was another Leadership Development Day. In the morning, we began with our usual P.T. and Unity Rally at Bayfront Park. After walking back to the office, we spent most of the rest of the day in reflection. On Friday, all 19 City Year sites used the whole day for reflecting upon the results of the recent presidential election, and what they will mean for us and for national and community service. Unfortunately, I missed lunch because of a meeting I had about the service day today for which I was a project coordinator. At the very end of the day, it was announced what City Year committees each member will be serving on. Thankfully, I received my first choice, and will be serving on the "Pick Your Passion" committee, which means that I get to choose any issue I am passionate about and spend this year working for that issue. After work, I rushed home to take care of my poor cat, who can not even get himself to his food and water bowls or the litter box. : (

Today, I was out of my apartment by 6:00 a.m. to head off to the service site. I spent five hours today working with Hands on Miami, which is an organization through Miami Dade Community College that organizes ninety community service projects a month for MDCC's students and other members of the community. Josh Young, who runs Hands on Miami, had asked a City Year Miami to send a couple corps members to be project coordinators for the day today, and I got to be one of them. My site today cleaned up a few miles of railroad tracks that have been bothering the community because of their condition. The whole place reeked of who knows what, and I couldn't take a single step without stepping on trash. I have never seen so much filth in my whole life. A problem other than the trash was a couple of "homes" that homeless people had set up near the tracks. We had to get rid of these as well. It was very sad for me to things that people had collected all of these items to help them survive, and that when they go back tonight, their things will no longer be there. The police officers who were overseeing the project said that this would help those people see "the error of their ways" and that they should get themselves to a homeless shelter, but I'm not sure I agree with the way we just threw away everything without the knowledge of the people who owned it. One of the "homes" even had a roof and walls that were nailed together! It was just big enough for a mattress, and whomever lived there had a massive area full of trash, assorted clothes, knives, dead animals, pillows, stuffed animals, bicycles and bicycle wheels, a cooler, and mound of peeled onions, tons of lemons, and "decorations". When a police officer went in and started pulling apart the walls and throwing out the mattresses, pillows, and blankets, rats and cockroaches swarmed out of the space and all over all of us who were standing there watching. It was disgusting, especially when several four inch long cockroaches crawled up my legs and flew into my face. Cockroaches are something that I never saw until I moved down here. I had no idea that they could get to be that big, and I most certainly had no idea that they could fly! I feel like I may have caught some kind of disease. Also, I have always been grateful for all of the things I have had in my life, but after seeing what I did today and thinking about what it would be like to have to lay every night with cockroaches and rats and to have to live like that, I feel overwhelmingly fortunate. If nothing else, I am glad that I will be coming away from this year with that feeling towards my life.

-Aly

Staying Home Yet Again

Because the vet canceled my appointment only an hour before it was to happen on Tuesday, I had to take another day off today to get my cat declawed. What a problem that has become.

-Aly

458.5 Hrs.

Again, much of the same today. The only difference was that there was finally a big blowup between some of the members of our team, which had to happen sooner or later. Basically, there are two people on our team who take control of everything we do and won't let any of the other team members help them out. Because of this, most of the team was mad at these two members and had been holding in their feelings for a long time. In the meantime, those same two members had been holding a lot of negative feelings towards everyone, who they felt were lazy and never wanted to help them with anything. This morning, one of the team members snapped and just started a screaming match with another member and that actually ended in tears. Throughout the day, the whole team was able to find several times during which we were able to talk about all of our feelings towards one another, but I wish that everything had not started in quite the way it had because of how victimized several people felt.

-Aly

449.5 Hrs.

Since today is election day, I wasn't required to go into work until 10:00 a.m. This was to give people the chance to vote who need it. I, however, had to take the whole day off so I can take my cat to get declawed. I wouldn't have done this if I could help it, but he is destroying our whole apartment.

This evening, a bunch of City Year members and myself are going to a poll watching party. Go Obama!

-Aly

441 Hrs.

Typical Monday today. Same old, same old, other than two new students in my fourth grade intervention group and the beginning of my fifth grade intervention group. BBL was also supposed to begin today, but the only group I had for today canceled. After school programming was also typical - kids complaining about not wanting to be there and me wanting to rip my hair out.

-Aly

Fall Back

Church today, and then working for the Obama campaign!

-Aly

432.25 Hrs.

Since I have been unable to post for quite a few days, let me relate to you whatever I can remember of this past week.

On Tuesday, the day started out with the first grade intervention group, the third grade small group, and the first grade small group that will be at the beginning of every day I spend at R. R. Moton. After that, I helped out in the library from 11:00 to 11:30 since BBL has not yet started. From the library, I immediately went to teach my fourth grade intervention group. On Tuesdays as on every other day of the week, I will be running a fifth grade intervention from 1:00 to 1:30, but that will not start until Monday. The last group I had of the day was a third grade intervention group from 2:00 until 2:30. After the students were dismissed for the day, J. A. ran as usual.

On Wednesday, my schedule was more condensed since the children get out of school an hour early on Wednesdays. My three groups in the morning were followed by a BBL section, my fourth grade intervention group, my third grade intervention group, and another BBL section with only a few short breaks in between. Because of the shortened school day, J. A. also was released an hour early, so my CY group took a bus three miles south to visit another school that corps members are stationed at.

Thursday was picture day and the day before Halloween, so the students were crazier than I have ever seen them before. I had a hard time controlling the students in any of my groups, and a lot of the day was spent by the teachers yelling at children to respect me more. It didn't feel very good to think that I couldn't control my students on my own, but I guess everyone needs a little help every once in a while. On Thursdays, my schedule runs as usual and without any BBL sections. On this past Thursday, however, I left the school at 1:00 in order to travel to Overtown to help out with the Halloween dance at the Overtown Youth Center. I was a bit nervous to be traveling there on my own since Overtown is the worst part of Miami, but everything turned out just fine. The Halloween dance was fun, and I even learned a few new dance moves from the kids I was chaperoning! The dance lasted until 7:00 that evening.

Yesterday, instead of having LDD at the City Year office, we met at the African American Cultural Arts Center in the Overtown/Liberty City area. For most of the day, we split into groups to complete various service projects; I got to paint some sewing tables for the drama and costume department there. The tables turned out beautifully. I painted a butterfly on my table, and some of the other has stars, and mountain landscape, and other such designs painted on them. The good part of the day was that we got to go home at 3:30! As far as yesterday evening, I was sick with a migraine and went to sleep early. I don't even know if we had any trick-or-treaters.

Today, I slept in until noon, and the only thing I have done so far is my laundry. I don't have any plans besides that for today, other than to relax.

-Aly