Would you notice if I got my eyebrows waxed?

As some of you may know, I kind of have an addiction to getting my eyebrows waxed (I get it done around once a month). Anyways, I don't expect anyone to really notice, and usually no one does. So I found it odd when a few kids commented on it yesterday at work (I got it done earlier that afternoon). The first one being Muya Muya. I don't think I have talked about him yet..and yes he has the same first and last name. He is a Somali Bantu and 14 years old. I think he is relatively new to this country. He is an interesting kid. I do not know if this is because of his culture or what, but he is very touchy with all the female staff members and volunteers. He is always trying to hold my hand or touch me in some way. He also likes to play with my hair and always tells me how beautiful it is. Yesterday I was helping him with his math homework and he started touching my eyebrows and asked me what I had done to them. He noticed they were shorter. He said he thought they looked better before. About a half an hour later, Tina told me my eyebrows looked really nice. Tina is 18 and has some sort of mental disability. She often forgets how old she is, can barely read, and tells me every day she needs help with her geography, although she means geometry. But she noticed my eyebrows. Before the evening was over, I had gotten a few more comments on my eyebrows. So it seems that the kids pay close attention to my appearance. I also found it interesting that when I was waiting for my appointment, innocently reading a magazine, this guy came up to me and in an angry voice said "Are you an Ohio State fan?" because I was wearing a Buckeyes t-shirt. Then he told me I needed to take off the shirt and get out of there. He said he's a Michigan fan. And although I am sure he has half joking, he didn't sound too friendly. Why do people take college football so seriously?? I guess I have to be careful when I wear my Ohio State shirt when not in Ohio.

Work is still going well. I am so glad I enjoy my job. It make this experience much more worthwhile. I'm glad that I am directly helping people that need it. Most of these kids come from poor households and their parents don't speak any English. For free, we give them a safe place to come and tutor them, which they really need. We recently started this reading program. If they read 20 books (of any level) they get 10 "good ones" which they can use to buy stuff at our "good ones" store. It's amazing how many kids are into it! All the sudden they all want to read. Once they read or do homework for 20 minutes, they are allowed to leave the library and go to the gym or gameroom, but a lot of them sit in there reading the whole time. I was shocked because I didn't think it would work. The after school program is still a little chaotic at times, but we are adding more activities which is good. The more things we have to keep the kids occupied, the better.

Instead of working this morning, Randy (the computer guy) and I were talking about traveling and started planning trips around the world for about a half an hour. He told me about this awesome website, www.airtreks.com You can plan a trip, saying all the cities you want to go to, and they will estimate the price of the airfare for you. Once I have some money, I am so doing this. Some of the trips I "planned" included stops in Seattle and Bangladesh. As well as cities in Africa, South America, Central America, and Europe (but not in that order). It's fun to dream. And for some reason Ludacris' "Pimpin all over the world" was going through my head the whole time I was doing this. You guys should check out this website. It's great! I guess if you are serious, they will plan everything for you. You can stay how long you want in each place. It's all up to you.

I Found This Amusing..

This picture was taken outside the restaurant Santa Fe Grill, where we ate on Sunday. I love going out to eat, which is something we don't get to do often due to our lack of money, so it was fun. It was a yummy Mexican restaurant and my meal only cost $4. Anyways, this stop sign made me laugh so I thought I would take a picture. It seemed very appropriate after the sermon we heard that day.

My First Visitor!

Abby Monnin gets the prize for being the first person to visit me here in Louisville! (ok, there isn't really a prize, but hooray for Abby!) She arrived Friday night around 8. I wanted to show her a little bit of the city, so we went to Bardstown Road, but it wasn't really happening while we were there. I guess we were too early. We went to Heine Brothers (local coffee shop with all fair trade coffee & environmentally concerned). Then we started watching I Heart Huckabees, but we were both falling asleep so we finished it the next day. Great movie by the way. I found it amusing. Abby best described it as "Bluffton on crack." On Saturday we went to Iriquois Park. I was trying to get us to the top of the mountain but somehow ended up in a car show with lots of cool looking cars and some guy tried to take a picture of my Toyotal Corolla (sorry is this is a bit of a repeat from Abby's blog!). The park is really pretty, but it is still a little too hot & humid here to enjoy walking around the beautiful outdoors for too long in the middle of the afternoon. I can't wait for the cooler weather to come and to check out the other parks in the city. Anyways, the reason Abby came to the wonderful state of Kentucky was because her friend Grace from the camp she worked at one summer was getting married in Lexington, which is a little over an hour away from here. Since she was only going to know like two people at the wedding, I went along as her "date." I felt like a wedding crasher since I had no connection to the people getting married at all! The first time I saw the bride was when she walked down the aisle. But it was a pretty wedding and I got a delicious free meal. Not only did I have seconds, but thirds. Everytime I go to a wedding I start getting ideas for what I want my own to be like. However there is one major part missing from my fantasy....who the groom is. I have to admit I am getting a little sick of weddings though.

Today I attended one and a half church services. We decided to try out a Catholic Church since I was going to have a Catholic friend visiting and a few of my housemates had never been to mass before. It was my third time. The first being Laura's wedding, the second when Reba and I went to church with Bob & Laura. We know we won't be attending a Catholic Chuch regularly (no offense Catholics!), but it was one thing we wanted to experience. However, we only got half the experience because the mass times we looked up on-line were wrong! We got there a half an hour late and walked in during the middle of a baptism. We missed the sermon. After the service, a member told us they just changed the time a couple weeks ago. Abby went back to St. Louis after mass, and since it was only 10:30, we decided to go back to Jeff St. which starts at 11:00. I really like this church. However I really like the Beechmont Presbyterian too (the one that was in Spanish & English). I know most of my roommates will end up going to Jeff St. every week. I think I will just alternate or something. Both churches are small and very welcoming. The pastor at Jeff St. is great. She gave such a Mennonite sermon today about confronting the powers. She mentioned the SOA protest coming up in November. We talked to her after the service and I think we will all end up going with a group from the church. I wanted to go the past couple years, but it never worked out. If you have no idea what I am talking about (which excludes Blufftonites), check out this website: http://www.soaw.org/new/

It was my turn to do the grocery shopping this weekend and I got to use my roommate Ben's food stamps. (he gets paid absolutely nothing for his theatre internship). So that was fun. My roommate Alisa went home this weekend and came back with the 5th, 6th, and 7th seasons of Buffy on DVD. That is also fun. And I watched the premiere of Desperate Housewives tonight. I watched a few episodes last season and liked it, but never had time to watch it regularly. But now I do. So that is fun as well. Hooray for postmodern soap operas.

Time for bed. I want to be well rested for my week at work!

The Apprentice

One of the contestants from the new season of "The Apprentice", which premiered tonight, is from Louisville. If you happened to watch it, he was the one that got to the helicopter first. Anyways, they had a "red carpet" premiere party for him downtown at the Lucky Strike. It is a bar/bowling alley. It was a pretty nice place. Definitely the nicest bowling alley I've ever seen! The party was "invitation only." This consisted of the guy at the front door saying "This is a private party, were you invited?" We weren't lying when we said yes though. The director of South Louisville Community Ministries (where a couple of my roommates work) had some sort of connection, so we got our names on the list, although they didn't seem to check it. Just me, Emily, and Andrea went, and we met a couple girls who were in the program last year and still live in Louisville. It was a fun night. We got our picture taken with Mark, as you can see. He was a nice guy. I doubt he will be the winner, but he did say "you'll be seeing me for awhile." So maybe he makes it pretty far. I have never watched "The Apprentice" before. Maybe I'll watch a couple episodes this season. Oh yeah, we also got free autographed copies of his book, "Millionaire's Roadmap." It's a financial planning book for those about to enter retirement. How exciting! We heard that if he ends up winning, he would take a 40% pay cut. So it sounds like he is pretty successful here in Louisville. Well that's all for now!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. If you look at my roommate Andrea's Xanga, which I have linked on my site, you can see a video she made of our "flat." It's on her entry from Wednesday of this week. It's just a quick two minute tour, including a cameo by me. So check it out if you are interested!

Well that didn't work

I had this bright idea earlier today while I was on my break from work that if I changed my template, my profile and links would go back where they are supposed to be. So I retyped in all the links and everything, and they are still at the bottom! I give up. However, when I looked at my blog on my house computer, everything is where it is supposed to be. My new theory is it depends on your internet browser. Our house computer has Mozilla Firefox or whatever and it looks normal. I have internet explorer and it doesn't. It's really not a big deal at all, I just don't understand what happened! Any computer geniuses out there?

The past two days of work have flown by. I don't think I will ever run out of things to do, since there at least six or seven people constantly giving me things to do. It feels a little hectic at times, but I will manage. It will get better I'm sure once I am used to the job. And the after school program is always chaotic, but that's what happens when you have sixty plus kids and not enough staff to go around. I am supposed to get a two hour break between jobs, but it does not often happen. However, I am not complaining. I enjoy my job. I would take this over sitting in a cubicle bored out of my mind with nothing to do any day. My contract is for 32 hours a week since we have seminar Friday mornings. However I think I was there at least 40 hours last week, so I need to work on cutting down my hours and saying no. It's hard to seperate work from home when I live where I am working!! For example, my roommates asked if they could use the gym in the community center to play basketball tonight. I went down with them at 8 to open it up since no one was using it. While I was there I was approached by the assistant director and one of the janitors several times and was given more things I need to do. I ended up working for a half an hour when all I wanted to do was unlock a door! The janitor in the evenings, Israel, speaks Spanish and a little English. So we have been having fun trying to communicate. I write him notes in the morning telling him what needs done, and then he approaches me in the evening to clarify some things. He realized today that I can write perfect notes in Spanish, but my speaking ability is not nearly as good. He's a cool guy though, we are trying to help eachother out. I think my Spanish will improve this year.

I feel like I could tell a million stories about the kids I work with. We have a lot of African children, and many of them have spent time in refugee camps. Life there was very different than here, and they have a hard time adjusting. A lot of them are very violent (they like to run around, hit eachother, poke people with sharp things, whack people with big pieces of wood, etc.) Most kids are rowdy, but these kids can get way out of hand, which adds to the chaos. I have also noticed that several of them have many scars, especially on their arms. It is so hard to help multiple people with their homework while trying to control the rowdy ones. I wish I could give everyone the attention they need, but is impossible. There are three very adorable Vietnamese children who come in every day. Two girls and a boy. I am positive the boy has a form of autism, probably Asperger's Syndrome. His actions remind me a lot of Will, although he can speak (but not very well). I hope I can eventually help that family, because I don't think they are doing anything to help him right now. Working with Will these past two years has definitely taught me the patience to deal with these children. If I haven't had that experience, I think I would be a little more stressed out right now.

Oh..and as of today, I am officially in the system of the Starbucks here and I should be scheduled next week, but we'll see. It's been awhile since I've had an iced caramel macchiato or a white raspberry mocha...can't wait to get them free again!

Warning, this is going to be a long entry

First of all, I would like to thank those who participated in my survey. So my blog looks normal in Bangledesh? Interesting. I'm glad to hear that everyone can see my pictures. Anyways, I had another great weekend. Friday night the pastor and a member of Jeff St. (the church we attended last Sunday) paid for us to go to a folk concert at a bar. Not typically my thing, but I won't refuse a free concert! I enjoyed it. And we split a pitcher of yummy sangria.

Saturday was the Americana World Festival, and since I work at Americana, I had to volunteer. It was in our neighborhood, about a fifteen minute walk. As I've mentioned, our neighborhood is very culturally diverse. All the cultures were represented with booths, food, and entertainment. I volunteered in the kid's area and had no idea what I would be doing until I got there. I ended up painting kid's faces/arms the whole time (four hours) nonstop. They just kept coming (two other girls were helping too). I have never painted faces before and I am not exactly the best artist, but I managed. Some of my creations turned out better than others. But little kids don't care, and it was free. I learned that it is hard to write the word "princess" on small faces. But several girls requested this, and even one little boy. A lot of the kids I work with were there. A few of them kept asking me for money. I felt bad. I wanted to give it to them, but I know I can't. After I was done volunteering I ate dinner there with my roommates. We had some delicious Vietnamese food. Then our awesome roommate Ben got us some free tickets to yet another play. This time, the Chicago-based play "Too Much Light Makes the Baby go Blind." It was awesome. And we got front row seats. The actors were right in front of me, on my level. They do thirty plays in sixty minutes and it is HILARIOUS. It includes audience participation. One of the actors came over to me and rubbed my head. If you have no idea what I am talking about, you should figure it out and see this show. The show changes every night, so we might try to go again later this week. After the play, we watched an Australian movie called "Danny Deckchair" at Keith's request. It was pretty funny. You can't go wrong with accents.

We continued our "church hopping" today. This morning we attended Paoli Mennonite Church in Paoli, IN, which was an hour away. We decided to go before the time change, because as Abby knows, it is great to leave at 9 a.m. and get there at 9 a.m. It is the closest Mennonite church and several of the members helped start the Urban Corps program here in Louisville. It's always nice to be back with the Mennonites. An older couple whose kids are all out of the house invited us to their home for lunch. We had pizza, homeade applesauce, and icecream. They had a beautiful home out in the country, surrounded by woods. Those who had proper shoes went on a hike, which did not include me. Alisa and I stayed back with Bonnie (the wife) who taught us how to play a new game. It's from Germany, known as the "bean game" and it was really fun. I won't try to explain it because it sounds dumb unless you play, kind of like Apples to Apples. A few of my roommates are rather musical, so they had a minor jam session with banjos and a guitair. During part of this I went in the basement because they had a piano! (I was excited because I haven't played for over three weeks now because I don't have access to one). It was nice to play again. So we ended up being there for quite awhile. They were so hospitable and it was a great afternoon. It was a nice "break" from the city.

So tonight there were at least 15 cars in our parking lot that do not belong to us and lots of teenagers hanging out. They are not supposed to be here because it is private property and the center closes at 9. I also recognized them as the Bosnian teenagers that are banned from the center and who (in my mind) are suspects for the car break ins we had. I tried to call Edgardo (my boss) but he did not answer. So I called the police myself but they were not at all helpful. A cop car came into the parking lot, talked to one of them for like two seconds, and then left. Stupid cops. So I called Edgardo again and he said he would be over. We turned out our lights and all crowded around the window to watch the unfolding scene. Cars kept coming and we thought it would be Edgardo, but even more teenagers kept appearing. A few minutes later, a car zooms into the parking lot and parks right in the middle of all the cars. We thought, oh this definitely is not Edgardo, but then out he comes! I don't think I have described him much....he's from Argentina, big, and scary. Seriously, I am intimidated by him. He's a really nice guy, but very dedicated to his job and nothing goes wrong in his center. He gets out of his car, talks to them forcefully with lots of hand motions, and they all leave. Unfortunately they just moved to the Vietnamese Catholic church parking lot next door. I can still hear them revving their engines. Damn kids. Edgardo stayed around for awhile picking up all their trash. How many executive directors do you know who whould do that? I wanted to go out and talk to him, but decided he probably wasn't in the best mood and the teenagers were still in sight. I really hope nothing happens to my car....(I didn't mention I had to walk through all of them to move my car which was parked in the street, so they all know which is mine now. I made Keith come with me so they wouldn't talk to me). Hmmm..that was a dumb move, but I didn't want to leave my car parked in the street either.

I apologize for my long entries. But I recently realized that this blog is for me as much as my friends who read it. I really want to keep a journal of my experience here, but I am too lazy to have a separate one (plus my hand hurts after writing so much!) So this is it. Of course I will leave out anything too personal ;) We talked about community and storytelling during our seminar Friday morning (oh, by the way, we have seminar every Friday morning with Susan, the director, so I only have to work in the afternoon!). Anyways, this inspired me to put more detail in my blogs, not that I didn't already. I think I will enjoy our seminars. Occassionally we will have assignments. It keeps the dork in me that misses school happy. I have several stories already about the kids I work with, but I think I am done for tonight. It's been a long day. I'll write some later. See below for a couple pictures.

A Couple Pictures

The top picture is outside Bonnie & Jim's house, where we spent out Sunday afternoon, along with the banjo they lent us. Below that you can check out my awesome face painting skills. This is Lule, one of the kids that comes to the after school program every day. She's in third grade and from Albania. She calls me Mario for some reason. I have to admit she is one of my favorites, although I can't let her know that. I like her older brother too. His name is Fatbardh, and it is pronounced like it sounds. A couple of the middle school girls had fun with that one the other day. I tried very hard to keep a straight face. We tried to explain to them that their name might sound funny if they went to another country, but they decided that "Deborah" and "Mirelle" would be perfectly normal all around the world, and that he should change his name when he is 18. Oops, there I go again, telling another story.

Survey

Question #1: When you view my blog, are the links at the top where they are supposed to be, or the bottom?

Question #2: Can you see all my pictures?

That is the end of my survey. When I look at my blog on my new laptop, everything is all screwy. However, when I looked at it on another computer, it was completely normal. I am confused. Is the problem with my blog or my laptop...hmmm...(and it better not be the second choice)

If you happen to view my blog, I would appreciate your participation in this short survey. Please leave comments.

I will update later about more relevant information. But I will tell you one thing now...last night two of my roommates' cars were broken into. Their rear windows were smashed. They attempted to steal Alisa's stereo, but just messed it up. They stole Keith's. I really feel bad for them because I know how I would feel if it was my car. Luckily, they did not touch mine (which was parked right beside theirs). I am assuming it is because it would have been nearly impossible to remove my CD player. We park in the parking lot behind the community center. This isn't a bad neighborhood, but obviously not the best. Lots of people like to hang out in the parking lot who should not be. I am pretty sure we witnessed a drug deal earlier tonight. Whenever we see people in the parking lot after 9:15 (when the center closes) we are supposed to call my boss Edgardo, who then calls the police. We called them tonight. Too bad we couldn't have caught the stupid hooligans last night.
Oh yeah, someone also stole Alisa's bike seat a couple days ago. Poor Alisa.

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).

Random Post

I decided to post just to tell a random story that goes along with this picture, which I just got from one of my roommate's today. Last week when we were still having orientation, we went out to lunch at this nice place called "World Cafe." At first we sat inside, but it was freezing, so we decided to sit outside with everyone else in the nice shaded area. Unfortunately, it was a little crowded and I ended up sitting directly in the hot sun. It was beating down right on my head. My scalp was burning so I decided to but my napkin on my head like a bandanna (yes that is a napkin on my head). I ate the entire meal this way and went inside to use the restroom with it on and got a couple strange looks. I asked the waiter to bring me another napkin since mine was on my head. I think he found it amusing. Ok that's all.

My Job Description

First of all, I have no idea why my links have fallen to the bottom of my blog and if anyone knows how to get them back up it would be greatly appreciated.

I can now tell people what I will be doing my year here in Louisville. My official titles are "facilities manager" and "after school program staff" at the Americana Community Center. As I have mentioned before, my place of employment is connected to the building I live in, which is extremely convenient. To get to work, I walk down a flight of stairs and turn left. My other roommates have to leave at least 45 minutes early to take a bus downtown (which is only a 10-15 min. drive, but as I mentioned the bus system is not the most efficient, but cheaper and better for the envrionment :) As to what my job entails: I come in 10-1 for the official sounding part of my job. Basically, I do the scheduling (lots of events take place there) and make contracts for those using the center to sign..and whatever other office type tasks need done. Then I come back from 3-7 for the after school program. Right now we have about 30-40 kids coming, but the number is expected to grow to around 60-70. Almost all the kids are minorities, representing many different countries and religions. The past two days I have been in the library helping kids with their homework, jogging my memory on fun things like least common multiples. We also have a game room, gym, art room, and computer lab. I will be stationed somewhere different every day. This will be the more exciting/challenging part of my job. If you did the math, I am scheduled 7 hours a day. However, there will be many days I will end up working more than this for one reason or another. For example, I was there today for nine hours because I had to attend an hour long staff meeting and come in early to organize things for the after school program. All the staff is really nice and I am sure I will enjoy working with them. A lot of those on the after school staff are college students or recent college grads like myself so maybe I will make new friends! The community center has only been open for two and a half years and it has been understaffed for most of them, so things are kind of crazy around there, so I do not think I will ever be bored.

Since we do not have cable, it has become a ritual for my roommates and I to watch Jeopardy at 7:30 every night. We have rushed through dinner the past two nights in order to watch it, which I find very amusing. And one of my other roommates likes Buffy, so we decided to start watching it tonight. All my roommates actually joined us for the first episode of the third season (since I do not own the 1st of 2nd I did a quick recap for them). I don't think all of them appreciate the show like I do, but two of them stayed for another episode!

My First Weekend in Kentuckiana

I posted some more pictures below. They show the kitchen and living room/dining room area in my "flat" as well as the outside of our building. And also the wonderful "Welcome to Kentucky" sign. I learned this area of KY is called "Kentuckiana" because it is close to the border of Indiana. When we were walking around last week we actually crossed the border and were in IN for a few minutes.

My first weekend here was fun. The first Friday of every month they have a gallery hop downtown. You can ride the trollies for free and they take you to all the galleries in the area (which are also free - hooray for free stuff!) There is also one the last Friday of every month in a different area of the city, so we will have to check that one out too. The first stop of our gallery was interesting. We were invited to a reception (with free food!) for all the community ministries in Louisville (there are 15). It was at the Frazier Museum, which was on the route of the trollies. It happens to be a historical arms and weapons museums. Those of us well educated in the Mennonite faith found this an odd place for a church reception to be. When you walk into the museum there is a huge cannon pointing at you. So we ate and chatted with many people surrounded by knives, daggers, and guns in glass cases. Due to our late start, we didn't get to see all the galleries so we will have to go back.

Saturday we went downtown to the WolrdFest. It would have been better if it wasn't so hot, but it was neat. There were a lot of booths and plenty of international food to choose from. There was also a variety of entertainment, including African drums, salsa music, and belly dancing. Oh yeah..one of my roommates broke out in hives while we were there. She has no allergies and nothing like this has happened to her before so she had no idea what to do. Luckily I am an expert on these things and had Benadryl and lotion to give her. She's fine now.

These next few Sundays we will be "church hopping" in order to visit a variety of churches. This Sunday we went to a Presbyterian church in our neighborhood and I really liked it. I plan on going back. We walked there, it took about 15 minutes. It was rather small and everyone was incredibly welcoming. The neatest thing about it (for me at least) is it is a bilingual service..both in Spanish and English! It is an old church, and as the neighborhood changed, they adapted which is awesome because sometimes churches have trouble doing that. When we sang hymns people sang in both English and Spanish, whichever language they knew. There was a mix of hymns and praise music. Some readings were in Spanish, some in English. The sermon was given in Spanish with an English translator (and I was excited to understand most of it before it was translated). After church there was a potluck and they insisted that we stay. We met three people our age who were very nice so we have new friends. The also insisted on driving us home in their van. We have plans to go to another church this coming Sunday, but I hope to go back to that one soon.

Sunday evening my roommate Ben (who has the theatre internship) was able to get me, Emily, and Andrea free tickets to a play called "Love, Janis." It was an excellent show, about the life of Janis Joplin. It was just as much a rock concert as a play. I really enjoyed it. So did the drunk guy next to me, who somehow snuck in a few beers. He was drinking and cheering extremely loud the whole time. Anyways, the theatre was really nice and Ben will be able to get us free tickets for all the shows! How wonderful it is to have connections. We only had to pay $1 for the bus ride home. Oh yeah..we have been riding the bus a lot this past week. It isn't the most efficient way to get around, but there is a stop right in front of our house and it is cheaper than driving. And public transportation is always fun....you always see some interesting characters.

That brings me to today. I went grocery shopping (for seven people) and did some cleaning. How fun! We all just hung out today, enjoying our last day of freedom. We start work tomorrow. I don't have to be in until 10:30 tomorrow. A girl from the program last year who had my job is going to help train me I guess. I have no idea what my normal hours will be though. Ok this is long enough...guess I had a lot to say. I'll update when I can actually explain what I will be doing at my job.

Some Pictures

Here are the pictures

Ok, so my new computer does not like Hello and PIcasa, so I will try this simpler method of posting pictures which I didn't even realize existed! This is the view from a lookout at Iroquois Park, where we went yesterday. You can see downtown Louisville. And below are some pretty wildflowers in the park.

This is my cute little room. Notice Rebekah's art in the background.

This is my roommie Andrea with our car that we named Edgar (we have one car for all of us to share). It is a 1980-something Geo Metro. It's a stick shift with no power steering and we discovered the other day that the defrost does not work at all (which was fun in the rain). Riding in it is an experience. Luckily I have my own car, however I don't plan on driving it much, especially with these ridiculous gas prices! But my two roommates who can drive stick have promised to teach the rest of us how to drive Edgar in our parking lot.

These are my roommates. In the back is Emily, Keith, Ben, and Alysa. In the front is Katie, Andrea, and me.