some changes made

I meant to update this before the weekend, but it seems like my blogging efforts are always thwarted by real life. It can be difficult to justify spending time explaining what i'm doing here at the expense of doing what I'm doing here.

Last week, I discussed with my supervisor my apprehension regarding my placement for the year. Initially, I would have been spending approximately 14 hours per week in the nursery in addition to spearheading the tutoring program, meaning I would be tutoring 6 elementary school students in addition to arranging the materials (including pulling books) for the other tutors and planning the benchmark testing and progress reporting for all the students. I'm excited about the tutoring program, but the nursery didn't seem like a good fit for me, especially for 14 hours a week and especially when my rommate, who majored in elementary education in school and would ideally teach kindergarten, is languishing underworked at her placement that she finds an almost equally odd fit. This week, we changed my hours so that I'm spending only 4 hours per week in the nursery. My leftover hours I am dividing between the environmental program, which addresses infestations and asthma triggers in the home, and the development department, which handles fund raising and donor relations. I've spent a little time in each of my new departments now, and I am looking forward to getting my hands dirty (literally; there's a lot of caulking involved in preventing and reducing infestations) and some mentorship from someone experienced with at a few aspects of the business side of non-profits. Once I've spent a little more time in my new placements, I'll let you know how they're going where they're headed.

On the homefront, this weekend we finally made it to the Met (the Metropolitan Museum of Art, that is). I went with Brittany and Katie between church services (I'm still attending the Unitarian Universalist church and the Catholic church, which provides an interesting compare/contrast opportunity most Sundays). Going through museums in a group is always an interesting experience. The nature of art is to draw the viewer into its world, but each of us brings a unique grouping of interests and experiences to that connection. Walking through the museum together, each of us were drawn to different paintings either because of experiences (maybe the subject was a place one of us had been but not the other two), interest (obviously Katie found the exhibit focusing on theater and music more compelling than Brittany and I), or taste (it might take the jaws of death to draw me out of a room of Monet, Mane, Van Gogh, Renoir, etc before I'm ready). Besides a chance to check out some amazing art, the afternoon also provided an opportunity to do a little sociological observation as well (sometimes I think I maybe shouldn't have taken AP Psych in high school. Maybe it just opened a can of worms for my people watching habit).

I've now spent about a month in more or less the complete opposite situation I've lived in most of my life: I am the minority. When I walk down the street in my neighborhood, everyone knows I'm not from here. At the agency, I'm the one left out of conversations as the Mexican and Puerto Rican employees and clients speak Spanish at a clip much faster than I can fully process. It's all definitely a new experience coming from a high school graduating class where I could practically count non-white/immigrant students on my fingers or a college where most non-white students were international and planning to return to their home countries at some point after graduation. Being the "other" who will never and can never blend certainly is interesting.

This weekend, my program has a retreat to Walden, New York (apparently not that Walden; that's in MA) with the other Harlem house and the Boston house. I'm definitely looking forward to getting to see a little of New York out side of the City, but the theme is Looking at the World Through the Eyes of the Heart or something like that and the itinerary looks pretty packed...so we'll see how much time I have to soak up the vistas.