I Can't Think of a Creative Title...

I have now been in Louisville for a little over two weeks and I feel settled in. I really think this will be a great year and I am so glad I decided to do this instead of going straight to grad school or a "real job."

My second weekend here was also fun. Friday night we went out to Bardstown Rd., the place to go in this city it seems. There are several bars & restaurants along this road and most places stay open until 4 a.m. However, we only stayed out until midnight, but it was fun. We need to learn where to go though. There is a lot to choose from. The highlight of the evening was when a random drunk, old guy yelled at Keith "How ya doin big guy?" while he was walking down the street with his five female roommates.

Saturday a few of us went thrift shopping in the afternoon but I had no success. We also tried out a local coffee shop. It was a neat place, however I have to admit the iced cafe mocha I had was not as good as Starbucks..and it was more expensive. Speaking of Starbucks, I am having communication issues with the manager at the store I want to transfer to (which happens to be on Bardstown Rd.) I have talked to her a few times and she always takes my number and acts like she is going to call me back, but never does. All I want is to work one weekend shift a week for a little extra money to help pay for my cell phone bill (and so I can still get free stuff). Hopefully it works out, but she is never there when I call or come in.

Anyways, Saturday night all of us went to another free performance that our roommate Ben was in. If you know what "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind" is, it was like that. It was a fun show. All the interns wrote their own two minute plays and they were all performed, in random order (chosen by popping balloons). Some of them were pretty out there and I definitely didn't get them. Theatre people are weird (in a good way...) There was a lot of audience participation which made it fun. Two interns happened to use me in their play (we were sitting in the front row). One girl had me stand up so she could hug me (and I am talking a long embrace) and another guy showed me a piece of toilet paper that said "I could ____ you" on it. (it was actually blank). Yeah, your guess is as good as mine on that one.

On Sunday we visited another church, Jeff St. Baptist Church, which was about a fifteen minute drive. It is where most of the participants ended up going last year. It is not your typical church, but I liked it. First of all, let me say that it was nothing like what most people think a Baptist church is like (a.k.a the phrase "have you been saved?" was not used, which I consider a good thing). And they don't meet in an actual church, but an old building of some sort. It is a small church and we were definitely the most dressed up people there. This church openly accepts gay and lesbian couples, so there were a few of them that morning. It's not something I am used to, but I decided it is a good thing because you know what, God loves everyone. Everybody there was very welcoming and they had a potluck dinner in our honor (that's two Sundays in a row we got free meals!). I really like the pastor there, who is a woman and very good at what she does. I might go to that church once and awhile, but I really liked the Presbyterian church last week with the Spanish & English service. I think I will be more likely to attend that one regularly, plus it is closer. And I'm sure we will visit a few more before we settle on one.

Although a part of me misses college, it finally dawned on me how wonderful it is not to have school work to worry about! I am used to Sundays being the day I cram everything I should have done over the weekend into one day. However this Sunday was nice and relaxing. The sermon happened to be about observing the Sabbath and making sure you have time to rest, reflect, and be in community with others, and now I actually have time to do that! What a wonderful thing that is.

Work was a little hectic today. More kids than usual were in the library wanting homework help and we were understaffed today. I realized it is not possible to help ten different kids with their homework at once. But I tried. It is really interesting to work with kids from so many different cultures. I can now officially say that all the kids attending are minorities (I thought there was one white, American girl, but then she started speaking Bosnian. She had me fooled).