USC Week One: Oriented Yet?

Wow, a week! That was fast, and slow, and impossibly long, and really really short. I have known my housemates for technically only a week now, seven days. That is not a long time but here, we have bonded. The house started out with eight people, and (not unsurprisingly) we have a myriad of backgrounds and perspectives and experiences. We laugh a lot, we play games and drink, we plan pranks and gather around the dinner table. The week truly was action packed, so I'll give you a quick day-by-day, but don't expect this for every week! That just isn't going to happen :)

Day 1 (Sun) - Total whirlwind of activity, moving in, meeting everybody. That was quickly followed by answering the same questions again & again. Where are you from? Where did you go to college? What house are you living in? What are your placement sites? It was a little bit overwhelming, a lot crazy, and super fun.

Day 2 (Mon) - Today's buzzword: intentional community. There's an interesting style of facilitation, I'm often reminding myself to participate. Today I got to check out the HRAC, that's an intense orientation. Beers in the backyard led to some fun conversation and the creation of a quote book.

Day 3 (Tue) - So we are touring around different places that volunteers will be serving in the afternoons. It's amazing and awe inspiring to see the passion of people touring different sites. Today we found out that one of our housemates is leaving. Sad sad day, just wasn't working.

Day 4 (Wed) - After touring HRAC for a second time I am very excited to go to work there. Worked on all the Americorps paperwork in the morning. Americorps has this awesome pledge, and crazy rules.

Day 5 (Thu) - Workshop on feedback, I wasn't impressed but that wasn't the point. More tours of placement sites, it's amazing how all of these places work together and refer clients to others services and are so interconnected. D took off. :( sad. Almost called you to be a part of the house meeting!

Day 6 (Fri) - The most emotionally draining and involved day by far. Today we shared our faith stories/journeys with our housemates. I feel privileged and in awe that in 5 days we have been able to come together as a community, to create a safe space that people can share this deeply personal aspect of their lives with one another.

Oh yeah! We got paid our first months stipend! You can talk about seventy-five dollars, and try to imagine it, and rationalize it all you want. When you are holding those 5 bills in your hand the reality hits you pretty fast. SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS. FOR ONE MONTH. REALLY? How's this going to work?