Monday, May 16, 2005

I need a job...

Well it has now been a week since we all graduated. Craziness. This past week I totally did a clean sweep in my room and it looks so much better! I threw away/recycled/gave away sooo much stuff. I do not think I have cleaned out my room since like fifth grade. It was pretty bad. And now it looks so nice and I rearranged the furniture and decorated. It feels like a home now. However, it will only be my home for a little over three monhts. I visited Louisville this past Friday with my mom and I liked it a lot. I am doing the program for sure, I just have to fill out the paperwork. I met with the director of the program as well as the director of the community center where I will be working and they are both very nice people. I met the people currently in the program as well. I saw where I will be living. We don't have our own house like I thought. Instead, we live in the upstairs of the same building where all the offices for the program are. And it is connected to the community center, so I do not have to go very far for work. Where I will be living actually used to be a convent and I am going to sleep where the nuns used to. They renovated it and it is really nice. The rooms are pretty small, but at least we all get our own room. There is also a nice kitchen, a decent sized family room, and another room at the end of the hall. There are two bathrooms and one laundry room. So it is not that bad. Oh, no cable TV and one shared internet connection for everyone. I think I can handle it for a year..one of the goals is to live simply (on only $250 a month!) We are in a nice area of town, only five miles from downtown and right next to the Churchhill downs where the Kentucky Derby is. There is a bus stop right in front of our house to go downtown. Susan (the director) drove us around Louisville and I fell in love with the town. It looks like there is a lot to do and I think it is better than Columbus. Oh yeah, there are a lot of ethnic restaurants around and we ate at a Vietnamese one for lunch. It was sooo good. I had pho and a cafe sua da and they tasted just like they did in Vietnam! (One year ago I was there right now..I miss it!) Louisville will definitely be a nice place to spend a year of my life. It is not hickish like I orginally thought it would be. My dad still does not understand why I would want to take a year off to volunteer instead of make money, but oh well. Anyways, hopefully I can make a decent amount of money this summer. I started working with Will again on Saturday. His mom just let go one of the therapists because she wasn't working out so I get her hours for now. So maybe I will get 12-15 hours a week. At least it is some money (especially since I am getting a raise!) I applied to five places last week, haven't heard back from anyone. The most promising is Starbucks..they said they are hiring for the summer and someone should be calling me this week. So we'll see. Last resort is I work at Tim Hortons again..but I really do not want to. I know they will hire me but I really do not want people seeing me thinking "wow it has been four years since we graduated high school and Maria still works at Tim Hortons." Starbucks is much classier..and I applied to the one in Dublin and not in Hilliard so I can avoid seeing people I know. Well this is getting long so I will stop. Cannot wait to see everyone this weekend!

Monday, May 09, 2005

I am a college graduate

It is definitely hard to believe that my experience at Bluffton has come to an end. The last few weeks of school were a blur, filled with paper writing, studying, and spending as much time with my friends as possible. My last exam was this past Wednesday (contemporary theories of rhetoric) and it felt so good to turn it in and be done (I started dancing around and did some cartwheels). The next few days went so fast. Graudation weekend was a lot of fun, but also sad too. I really am going to miss Bluffton and all of my friends. I guess everyone was right when they say college is the best four years of your life, but I am sure I still have some good years to come. :) After graduation was a little hectic, trying to find everyone I wanted to on the field to say goodbye. I know I did not get to officially say goodbye to all of you, but luckily I will see you all in less than two weeks! Then it will be a very sad goodbye. So my room is still a mess and I have no motivation to unpack and get organized. I will get around to it eventually. Along with scrapbooking my whole senior year and Europe trip, along with finding a job fot the summer. I am visiting Louisville this Friday. I will let you all know how it goes. Oh yeah..so far I have a 4.0 this semester! (But I am still waiting on three grades from Sue and Gerald)