From Louisville

Hello from Kentucky. The move went well. It's always a little stressful, especially with my family, but I'm all settled in now. I like my room a lot. It isn't as small as I remembered (although still small) and I already have it all decorated. All my roommates are really nice and I think we will get along well. I felt like I was on the "Real World" on Sunday. I was the third one to get there and when someone new came we were all like "new roommate!" and ran to meet them and help them carry up all their stuff. Of course this is a much tamer version of that horrible show. A couple of my roommates are Mennonite so of course we have played the Mennonite game already and found connections. One of my roommates has actually made out with my cousin..so that's fun. So far we have just done orientation stuff. We don't start working until next Tuesday. I don't really know what my hours are going to be yet. I know I will be doing some administrative tasks like scheduling and possibly writing their newsletter, and also helping with the after school program. And as I've mentioned, the community center I am working at is connected to our "apartment" so I don't have very far to go to work. Just so everyone knows, we have one spare bedroom and an abundance of couches and futons for visitors to sleep on, so feel free to visit anytime! I like the setup. We have a nice place to live for this type of thing. There are six of us living here in the program, and another guy Ben living with us who has a theatre internship here, but not part of the program. For future reference, my roommates' names are Katie, Andrea, Alysa, Emily, and Keith. We are learning that Louisville is actually a pretty neat city with lots to do, including lots of free stuff! This city is pretty big into the arts which is really neat. There are always free concerts and art festivals going on. So it sounds like I will have plenty of cheap stuff to do, plus I'll most likely be working two jobs. I don't think I will get bored. This promises to be a great experience. We discussed today how a program like this isn't just designed for us to help others. We are only going to be here a year, we can't accomplish that much..but we will gain a lot from the experience. I'm looking forward to a great year. Well I should go since one of my roommates wants the computer. I could go on longer, but I will stop.