This week has been a little bit of this, a little bit of that. There has not been one thing that stands out from the rest, so I guess it is just another week in the books of this adventure. I spent the beginning of my week recovering and reflecting about the Pocono Retreat and about the three other houses that were at the retreat center with us. I have come to the conclusion that that retreat was exactly what I needed at this point in Harrisburg. I enjoyed myself so much, mostly because I was around so many different people who have some common interests as me and it was in an environment where you get to know one another and I am a big fan of ice breakers and games. I felt energized the whole time I was there and I felt like there wasn't enough time in the day to do everything I wanted to do. I am excited for the retreat in Philadelphia in February because I will meet more groups once again, but the New York group will be there again, so I will be seeing some familiar faces again.
This week coffee has gone on sale! For any of you looking to purchase coffee, please do so from this link (
http://dickinson.universitytickets.com/user_pages/event.asp?id=162) all of the proceeds from this fundraiser go to service trips at Dickinson College, as I've stated before they are going to Belize, South Carolina, New Mexico and Arizona, Alabama, and Georgia. All of the coffee is organic, shade grown, fair trade, and CO2 emission free. It makes for a great Christmas present for coffee lovers, descriptions are on the site and its 10 dollars per bag. End sales pitch :)
Work has been going well overall, I have been doing a lot of fundraisers but I feel like I have made genuine connections with some of the students. I think its great that I see familiar faces and they will approach me or wave at me, almost like my students did at Minnesota State, Mankato. One thing I really miss about being at school is being an Learning Community Coordinator. Being an LCC was an incredible experience for me. I have had some of the greatest students and made many great friends through the process. I am very thankful and lucky to have had such a positive experience. After thinking about it, this adventure in Harrisburg is much like being and LCC. Most people that become LCC's by being in a learning community and seeing what you have to do that way. I was not in a learning community because I was a transfer student, so I came into it not knowing what to expect. I came into Dickinson not knowing what to expect and it is definitely becoming a great experience, just like what happened in Mankato.
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One load of boxes filled
with meals |
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| Students packaging meals |
On Saturday, there was an event going on at Dickinson called Stop Hunger, Now! This event is where you package food for children who are not getting fed or they have to work to provide their own food. This food goes to children in foreign countries or children who are being affected by disasters. The food we packages is going to West Africa to help with the Ebola families. The ingredients in the food is rice, soy, veggies, and then a packet that has 21 different vitamins and minerals. Each package of food feeds 6 and our goal of this event is to provide 10,000 meals and complete that in 2 hours. There were so many volunteers at this event and a lot of people were eager to package. Whenever we hit 1000 meals, someone would ring a gong and we would celebrate. We had a little mishap during packaging- the fire alarm was set off in the cafeteria and we were forced to evacuate and that really put a hinder on production. I was nervous we were not going to meet our goal, but I was pleasantly surprised. We packaged 10, 320 meals in less than 2 hours and that is including the 15 minutes we were forced to be outside because of the pesky fire alarm. I had done a similar event at home in Iowa called Feed My Starving Children. There are pros and cons to both, I would argue Feed My Starving Children was a bit more fun because it was like a competition, you are in groups and whenever you package a complete box, you scream a chant but the gong gave the same amount of cheer. It was a great event and was completely brought on by students, which is awesome!
I spent most of my weekend inside because it has gotten pretty cold in Pennsylvania. It has been in the 30's all week and I have decided to take on a new craft: I am learning how to knit, left handed! Being a dominate lefty, its been hard to learn because I have to mirror people most of the time but surprisingly it hasn't been too bad. I only know how to knit right now, but I will be learning how to pearl in the next day or so. My goal from this craft experience is to make a multicolor, cute, chunky, scarf! I know how to crochet, so I am eager to learn how to knit! Right now crocheting is definitely more easy but I am sure knitting will get easier as I get the hang of it better.
Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I am happy that I am joining a family from church for the holidays. The church has been very supportive of me and the entire Sycamore House. I had received invitations from 5 different families, they are incredibly sweet to invite me to join their family! The children of youth group made a Thanksgiving dinner for us and their families today (Sunday) and I was very pleasantly surprised on how good it was! Instead of green bean casserole they created broccoli casserole and it was fabulous! It was great food all the way around and it was very enjoyable to spend time with some of the members of Vestry and the church.
Choir has been going well- I missed last week because of retreat but I came to rehearsal on Thursday to find we are doing a song that I did in high school Concert Choir,
Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning. This song brings back many memories for me because in Mason City, at the winter concert, you proceed down NIACC's auditorium stairs in the dark, carrying a candle, and we sang this song one year. I loved the song then and I love it just as much now! I cant wait to sing this anthem in church in a couple weeks!
I am beginning to get antsy about coming home for Christmas, it is getting close and I feel like time will be going by very slow as it leads up to the day. I have 32 days before I fly out of Philly. I am eagerly waiting to come home. I can't wait to see my family and friends and spend time in my homeland, I never realized how much I would miss Iowa and Minnesota until I left, I am definitely a Midwestern girl, but the East Coast and Pennsylvania is starting to grow on me. I am usually very anti Christmas movies and Christmas music until after Thanksgiving but I broke my own rule and started watching movies, shame on me! But I have been enjoying every minute of it. Thanks to my brother Rick for giving me his Netflix account information to make this happen!
Graduate school application is getting started and I have been thinking and analyzing about my plan and creating a back up plan. My application for Counseling and Student Personnel, College Student Affairs is due February 1st, that is a very competitive major and if I get it, I will be very excited, if I do not I will apply for the program Educational Leadership, which I can potentially do a lot of the same things, like working with first year students, its just a more broad degree. That deadline isn't until July 1st and the program is actually a little shorter and less competitive. So either way, I have a plan. Applying for Graduate School has really brought out my Meyer's Brigg Personality Test. I am an ESFJ (extrovert, sensing, feeling, and judging) My judging is my planning and type A-likeness. I have living arrangements almost done, so I just have to get into grad school, cross your fingers, wish me luck, and send positive thoughts my way as I get closer to submitting it.
This coming week there isn't much out of the norm planned, it should be pretty uneventful, we will see if that actually happens.
Till next week,
Katie