Week 1

So, I made it through my first week of City Year. It was long, intense, fun, exciting, over-stimulating, and a variety of other feelings.

In some ways, CY has felt like freshmen orientation. There have been icebreakers and team building games. There has also been lengthy, power-point lectures on rules and regulations. And, of course, extremely awkward moments with new people. The two major differences between NSO and CY are:

1. I get paid about $200/wk (as opposed to shelling out about $40,000)
2. CY is socially-minded.

In other senses, it's more like going abroad or joining the military. There's a whole new culture to not only learn about, but also to embrace. I have a month to become a City Year Corps Member. I need to learn the vocabulary and proper responses to certain questions/phrases, the CY pledge, all of the Unity Rally exercises, etc etc. I wear a uniform which must be worn in a very specific way. All of this is double-checked during "readiness check" ("Boots or Shoe! Black or White Socks! Pressed Pants! Belt! Shirt Tucked In! Name Tag! Heart! Mind! Soul!"). Of course, this isn't the military (altho, we are fighting for social justice) and not a foreign country (Sweden was never this welcoming).

Today was a bit of a change of pace. Instead of spending time in the office, listening to lectures or playing team-building games, we actually got to do service today (holla!). They split the 140 of us among 3 sites. Our site was all painting. My "Crazy" Team (temporary team until we get our permanent assignments next week) was outside doing maintenance painting on 2 four-square courts, 3 hopscotches, a kickball field, and a mural of the USA... We learned a valuable lesson today: the capital of Missouri is not St. Louis, but Jefferson City. It was exciting and I got to spend more time talking with people.

On a more personal note, I'm making friends. I'd rather not go into the details of these people in this forum (in case any of them run across my blog). Let's go with the general: I've really clicked with a few CMs (one of them perhaps too much, which is bad because he's Wex-reincarnate... yeah, no dating/relationships for me this year... "Single & Free!" I say). Others I've had some trouble connecting with... I get kind of a bad vibe from them, but I'm open to this changing. And then there's everyone else: people who I've met & want to know more and people who I haven't met.

Next week is the Basic Training Retreat (BTR). We're going out to W. Mass for 4 days. Rumour has it that even the most non-teary people cried last year... I cry a the drop of a hat... I'm bringing an entire box of tissues. More to follow... hopefully even pictures.