Spring Break!

Hi everybody! Hope you're enjoying March Madness as much as I am. It helps to be on spring break during the first rounds, so you can get a basketball overload. :)

I'm currently winding up my spring break, and I really should be doing my homework, but I decided that it's been too long since I last posted. (Aside: Who makes a homework assignment due on the Monday after spring break!? I know I'm in grad school, but this isn't a grad class, it's an introductory class that's about 80% undergrads. And it's a regular assignment plus a computer simulation assignment. Jerk.) Anyway...

The last time I posted, I had just found out that I passed my qualifying exam. Not gonna lie, passing that test made me feel really good about my abilities, and I'm still kinda glowing from that. I'm doing better overall academically this semester, and enjoying my classes and my professors more.

I'm also feeling more comfortable with my fellow students this semester. I put together a study group to work on the (very difficult) electrodynamics homework, and there's not as much awkward silence when we sit around between classes and stuff. I haven't really done anything with anybody since Chinese New Year, but still feeling like more of a cohesive group, which is good.

My sister and my aunt came to visit a few weeks ago, during Xavier's spring break, which was a lot of fun. I was really eager to have someone come visit me so I could show off the sights around my new city, and stuff like that.

Having a spring break has been really crucial this semester. In the fall, we had no breaks at all other than Thanksgiving, and it definitely got to be a grind. You don't realize how important those little fall break/academic day days off are until you don't have any at all. I was able to go home for the first half of the week, which was really great. I got to spend some time with my family, see some friends (fortuitous timing of spring breaks), and, most importantly, spend St. Patrick's Day at home.

Since I spent over a decade's worth of St. Patrick's Days traveling all around the city and performing with my fellow Irish dancers, it hasn't really felt the same since. So my parents took the day off and we did a bunch of our traditional St. Patrick's Day activities. I let my dad convince me to go to the parade, even though I skipped it for like the last six years that I danced, because I'm not really into parades. What's the point of watching St. Simon's second graders walk and wave while wearing stupid green hats? At least the weather was beautiful. Then we went to Sahm's Place, our traditional lunch place where we would go while we skipped the parade. After talking to my sister, who was going to school on St. Patrick's for the first time in her life, we went back downtown to the Rathskeller, a German restaurant that for some reason hosts a really great St. Patrick's celebration, and one of my favorite performance venues. The stage is tiny, it's really loud and hard to hear the music, but the audience is really into it (and drunk), and it's just a lot of fun. I had a great time watching it, but it really made me miss my dancing days. I was able to talk to the few people that I still knew who were there, so that was good.

Then I came back to the tundra to discover a significant lack of white stuff on the ground. Yes, spring may actually be coming to the Twin Cities. And as much as I love the snow, I'm ready for the warmer weather. I've been missing my bike rides -- I took a 7-mile bike ride/exploration the other day, and Alicia and I are planning a bike ride to dinner this afternoon, which I'm really looking forward to.

Hope you're all doing well, and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

MARCH MADNESS!

Hola Tod@s,
I hope everyone is doing well on this lovely March 19th. It's rainy in New York (the capital of the world), and I forgot an umbrella. So it goes...

Right now, I am watching b-ball games online...AT WORK! Shh. Do not tell my boss. Although, he would probably be cool with it if his beloved Kentucky team was in the tournament. Currently the Texas A&M/BYU game is stressing me out as a potential bracket loss for me, and so I'm writing this hoping that BYU can pray to their Mormon gods and rally for a win! This year is the first time I'm actually betting money on my bracket (A WHOLE TWO DOLLARS!!). Several of JV's in the New York Metropolitan region thought it might be fun, and I'm hoping to come out on top. I might win $30 bucks! That would be clutch indeed! Enough money to buy a megabus ticket down to DC, eh Stales?

Speaking of DC, I spent a lovely time in the District this past weekend. I was there to attend an Ignatian Teach-In on the subject of comprehensive immigration legislation, which was VERY interesting. Unfortunately, I was one of the oldest people there--most of the rest came from Jesuit Universities. Whilst not "teaching-in", I got to hang with the chicas living in DC--particularly Ms. L Staley and Julia Alexander. It was quite delightful. Although I'm sure it puts my hosts out having to cart me around and all, I really have a good time when I'm down there. It's just nice to step out of the "bubble world" that is JVC in NYC and spend time with different people, especially people of such HIGH QUALITY. Of course Sean, Alicia, and Mikey you know you all are of HIGH QUALITY, too, but you live so far away that it's impossible for me to pay to see you at this time. When I start making the big bucks look forward to visits.

Work is going well today. I've been very busy--lots of meetings, phone calls, e-mails, etc. However, in the midst of all of my work, I have to sneak in time to apply for jobs. Because I don't have the Internet in my home, I have to utilize all of my time here towards my murky "future plans". I've been applying for a fair few positions, but with the economy as it is, and me having very little "experience", I'm not incredibly hopeful. I'm applying for a second year of JVC just in case I can't find anything to actually make money with. Law school in 2010! Then I can finally stop worrying about that pesky "what am I going to do with my life?" question and instead can actually start making some damn moves towards doing something! (As you might be able to tell, I'm feeling a bit restless....)

Well...that's all for me here. BYU's losing by 16 points! GAH!

I also don't have work tomorrow...SUCKAHS!

Peace to all mis amig@s,
Kate

Hola Tod@s (note the gender inclusion!!!),
Happy Friday! I could not be more excited about being done for the week. Although this week hasn't been particularly stressful, I feel as if I'm in a period of "burn-out". Not to worry, these periods have happened before during the year, and I'm sure I will rally, but right now I am kind of going through the motions and waiting for myself to get re-energized--which explains the excitement I'm feeling towards the coming weekend! I think a lot of my "burn-out" comes from the trouble that non-profits are having that Alicia spoke about in her last post. February was a LONG MONTH, and I saw tons of new members who were applying for Food Stamps, Public Assistance and different types of housing benefits. I had at least one scheduled meeting every day, and then a series of "walk-ins" who would just come up telling me about how they lost their jobs and can't afford food or their rent. The last two weeks were especially difficult because two of the people on my "Legal Team--equipo de legal en espanol" were on vacation which left me to pick up ALL of the housing and Social Security cases that came through the intake. Needless to say, I am pretty exhausted and am ready for a break!
I have some pretty sweet plans for this weekend. Tonight I'm going to MOMA (the museum of modern art) for the Free Friday Night deal they having going on. While I've discovered this year that I don't really enjoy modern art, I do enjoy the movie exhibitions they have. Tonight I'm watching a movie called "ChopShop" about kids growing up in a poor neighborhood in Queens, and then I'm watching the French Connection. I might even get a cupcake afterwards!! Talk about un-JVC behavior! The frivolity of it all!
The rest of the weekend is pretty much up in the air. However, we will be having a pretty substantial amount of guests at our small Brooklyn apartment, so I'll probably try to get out of the house as much as possible. Sometimes when there's a TON of people around it makes me feel a bit claustrophobic--so I have to just get out and find stuff to do...luckily for me it's not that hard to find something in New York.
Next weekend I'm going to Washington DC for an Ignation Teach-In on immigration. I'm fairly excited about this for two reasons: 1) I love DC. I love my friends in DC. I look forward to seeing other JV's, and meeting totally new people. 2) It'll be great to learn more about the Catholic Social Teaching regarding immigration, especially in regards to the type of work I'm doing this year. I'll admit I came into this year knowing VERY LITTLE about immigration issues, and I've been working hard to learn more throughout these past few months. It'll be good to put it a lot of my thoughts together at the Teach-In.
That's about all I have for now, everyone. I love you all and miss you a lot!
Peace,
Kate

Fifteen miles on the ERIE canal...

So, Kate has posted on here three times in a row, and when she g-chatted me saying she was thinking of writing on it again soon, I thought well, so should I. Cause the rest of us are slackin'. :)

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go visit my friend Monica, who lives in Erie, PA. She is the one who had a miscarriage back in January, and was really lonely and depressed because she has no friends or family in Erie. I believe I wrote about this on my last post, but I can't remember. Anyway, I decided to look up what it might cost to go visit her, and as it turns out it wasn't that bad. So, I went. It was an AMAZING weekend, one that definitely touched me spiritually and got me thinking and reflecting about friendship, living in the present, and the importance of staying connected. We spent most of it just chatting about every sort of topic. If I added up all the hours of just sitting and talking, I'm sure it was well over 12. It was the first time in awhile that I was just absorbed in the moment and not worried about whatever else was going on in my life, and I came back feeling renewed and refreshed. God works in strange ways sometimes.

I officially got into the University of Minnesota School of Public Health majoring in Maternal and Child Health. I believe I advised everyone via facebookness, but I figured if not, I'd toss it onto here. I'm quite excited! I've officially accepted, so now comes the part where I figure out how to pay for it. Still working on that. In a few weeks there is an accepted student welcome day, so I'm going to go to that. Next fall I will probably be rooming with one of the girls in my program who is most likely going to law school at one of the many law schools here in the Twin Cities. That'll be exciting, and hopefully work out. She currently lives in the St. Paul house, so we haven't had the experience of being roommates yet.

This July through the first week of August I will 90% likely be in El Paso, TX. The program director is pretty sure that she's sending those of us that want to go. I'll be working at a place called Annunciation House. I know you're curious, so you should go to www.annunciationhouse.org to check out what I could be up to.

Work has actually been keeping me busy lately. I'm sure Kate you can attest to the fact that the tanking economy makes little non-profits get busier. We're actually starting to see the effects of the bad economy in pretty concrete ways now at Holy Rosary. My Bridging furniture requests have increased, and the enrollment in our English classes has increased substantially to the point where we almost can't take any more people. I do give the people credit though for dedicating themselves to learning English during their time of unemployment. I've agreed to help Pam the parish nurse start a little crocheting group. She usually gives prayer shawls to women that she visits who have suffered a fetal loss (miscarriage, still-birth, to infant death before 1 yr old), and a couple of the women have expressed the desire to learn how to make these shawls for other moms. Hence, I shall become a crochet teacher tomorrow, en español. This will be an adventure.

I've also had the opportunity to work on a business marketing research project. There's a group of MBA students from the University of St. Thomas who for their applied research class have to go and do some research for us, the client. The head of the project from the church's end is our development person, Mark, but since he's part-time, I'm the back-up. This week we've been working on phase 1, the interview phase, to get information to formulate phase 2, the survey phase. We've been interviewing people who come for different programs, so it has been good to hear their stories, which unfortunately are usually more sad than happy.

I think that's all for now. I hope everyone is well. I miss you all quite a bit, so keep in touch and let me know what is going on in your lives!

Paz y amor,

Alicia