Fuller Center-Americus, GA

Hello all! I'm not even sure where to begin because so much has happened in the last 8 days! I have spent the last week in Americus, Georgia with Dickinson College students working at the Fuller Center for Housing for their spring break. I am incredibly happy with how this trip went, we had some hiccups along the road but I had a wonderful set of students and I am incredibly pleased and thrilled with all the work they did in 5 days through working with the Fuller Center.

Finding Geocashe

Day 1 (Saturday) : We left for Georgia last Saturday  in 4 degree where and ended up spending the night in Columbia, South Carolina, which is about an 8 hour drive from Carlisle. We got to Georgia by driving 3 minivans, two which were from Enterprise and were insanely nice. I didn't realize that fancy vans had full on outlets in the car to charge laptops and all of that jazz. The vans went smoothly and we only "lost" one along the way, meaning they took a wrong exit and we had to meet up with them at the next exit. When we got to our hotel, it was fairly nice, however... one of our five rooms had the case of the bedbugs (many of them), so I had to go to the hotel desk and complain to get another room and that it was not acceptable. While we were there, there was a cheerleading and baseball tournament somewhere nearby and there were a ton of children running around as well. Though the rooms weren't the greatest, the food in the morning was pretty good. I had grits readily available at any moment and they had good coffee. We left the hotel on Sunday to drive four hours to get to Americus, Georgia. 
Day 2 (Sunday) :When we entered Georgia on Sunday, we went on a hike and had a picnic at Lake Oconee. This was a very nice location, the lake was large, lots of picnic tables and it was a great day for a hike. While we were hiking we found a geocache, which was really cool since I had never seen that before! Inside the box was a tiny Beanie Baby, a pair of sunglasses, a little notepad and pen, and other random objects. We wrote in the notebook that we are on a service trip, but we have been lost for days and contemplating cannibalism, we have lost 3 students due to dehydration and we left a mini deodorant, and other small items. When we started on the hike, we thought it would walk around the lake, but the trail ended, so we had to turn around and walk back.  After the hike, we loaded the vans and headed the remaining 4 hours to Americus. When we arrived we stayed at United Methodist Church. The church was really cool, it had a full kitchen with two refrigerators, microwaves, stoves, and it was supplied with cups, bowls, and plates. Right off the kitchen was the room where all 11 of the girls slept, we were surprised and they brought us all cots, so we didn't have to sleep on the floor! The four men stayed in another room on the opposite side. The floor in the kitchen and dining area was black and white checkered and they had different tables and booths to sit in. They also had a room called Foundry, and that is used for youth group, but it has a foosball table, ping pong, and air hockey. When we arrived that night, they prepared supper for us and we got to talk to some of the members of the church. There were two bathrooms for us to use and a shower in each, so it was wonderful to have those facilities. We also played a lot of fun games throughout the church. There were 3 floors and a sanctuary that made perfect locations for hiding spots for hide and seek and the opposite game called sardines and live action Mafia. This church also had a full daycare and preschool, where about 80 children come everyday. I was shocked to find out that their youth group has about 40 students, which is totally different from St. Stephens in Harrisburg, that has less than 10 students. The youth director, Charles, was so very helpful and wanted to know what he could do to help, he was welcoming and kind to all 15 of us there.

PaintingTrim

Day 3 (Monday): First day at one of the work sites! We went to the new downtown office of the Fuller Center for Housing and got to find out more about this organization and get our hands a little dirty. The Fuller Center is branched off of Habitat for Humanity, Millard Fuller worked for Habitat but later got fired for conflict of interest. Millard was a millionaire by the time he turned 27 and he found his marriage was crumbling because of money and he decided to do what the Word of the Lord said to do, so he started the Fuller Center for Housing. Fuller Center builds homes for people who do not have any other options and it is a fairly complex application. Each applicant has to do "labor equity" which means they have to be involved with helping the house and they have to be able to pay back their affordable mortgage, because their mortgage is what creates others homes. We worked very closely to a man named Kirk who is the one that got us to Americus, he gave us directions and helped show us the town later in the week. He has done so much and has had a variety of jobs, but his passion is Fuller Center. We also met an incredible man named Thad this week. Thad is a recipient of a house because he got in a car

Playing Chess with Jordan

accident when he was 38 and became paralyzed and he needed a home to let him become independent again. Ever sense he received his home 20 years ago, he has been heavily involved with Fuller Center. He is the one who taught us how to use power tools, he was motivation and encouragement for us all week and he truly cared that we were there. On the first day, I worked on touch up paint around windows and helped take down ceiling tiles and repaint them because they had over 25 years of smoke damage to them. Other students help sort over 10,000 tools for the tool library and others created a floor and helped knock down a wall. That night, Kirk invited us to play chess with some children that live in a Habitat house, though Fuller Center is separate, they still have a large connection. Playing chess is hard and I played an 8 year old and lost miserably. Jordan has been playing chess for 1 year is very good at it. The kids at chess were all happy that we joined them and we could tell that it meant a lot of them that we joined. We ate pizza for dinner that the church provided and then played a game of Sardines (opposite hide and seek).

Improvements of the office!

New floor

Day 4 (Tuesday):This was our last day at the office site, and I got to use a power tool called a plainer, which took part of a door off to make it even and be able to shut better. This door for the bathroom locked many students inside and had them cry for help to get out, so I am happy I could relieve some emotional problems by helping the door not be stuck. I also was able to teach some of the guys how to use this tool, which was pretty cool! The tool library got finished, all ceiling tiles were painted and put up, the floor was finished and we were able to work with Thad and Kirk more closely again. After the work day, we joined Charles and his college students for dinner and worship a few miles away. I had fried chicken, fried okra, mac and cheese, and buns for dinner, I don't think that could be any more southern. After worship, Charles took us all to Sonic for ice cream and then we headed back to the church for nightly reflections and a game of Mafia.
Day 5 (Wednesday): First day at the house location! This house is for the Lewis family, which is a husband and wife and their four children ranging in age to high school junior to 10 years old. We got the house at 10 am and the drywall installers just finished an hour or so before, it was completely dusty, wood floors, and exposed drywall. Our jobs for Wednesday and Thursday was to prime and paint all rooms, install tile floor, paint doors, and trim and any other jobs that were asked. Also on Wednesday, I had a very special day, I spent the night with my brother in Dublin, GA! He drove 1hr and half to come get me and take me back to see his house for the first time. We ate tatortot casserole, watched Man of Steele and Foxcatcher and just caught up with each other! This was the first time we had seen each other in a year, which is incredibly exciting! I spent the night and returned to the house site the next morning. 

Thad and I

Day 6 (Thursday): I arrived back to Americus in the morning and today was the day the doors arrived and I helped lay down grout for the floor tiles. I received a lot of positive words from Thad about laying grout, which was incredibly meaningful! He was so helpful in teaching me what to do and how to do it. It was a great feeling seeing the change from drywall to fully painted walls to floor being laid in the kitchen, hallway, and bathrooms! An incredible change!! That evening, the students prepared dinner and then we played one of my favorite games- Newly Georgia Game, which is like the Newlywed game, where they answer questions about their assigned partner. Not all of these students knew each other and they did really well during this game! They had many laughs and all had positive words about the game! At this point, everyone was starting to feel the long days and manual labor. We normally went to bed around 12:30am and got up before 7am. Our reflections all week had been great and I truly felt like I have gotten to know the students and we all felt like we really did make a difference in Americus. We had random people on the street stop us and thank us for our work and dedication to Americus. We had people stop us at restaurants and thank us. We were event featured on the front page of the Americus paper! Everyone is so appreciative of all that we have done, which I thought was really cool and wasn't expecting it in the slightest. Through talking with people in Americus, people do not really travel far away from here, but if they do, they usually come back. I asked Thad if he lived anywhere else or travelled far  and the furthest he has ever travelled is Miami, Florida, which is one state away. I found that very fascinating. 

Giant Peanut in Plains, GA

Day 7 (Friday): This was our last official day in Americus, we spent the day travelling and learning about the city. We went to a local elementary school and read to the classes. I read to a 2nd grade class Hooway for Wodney Wat, which is one of my favorite books, ever. They all enjoyed the story and all the students were fascinated about why we were in Americus and how old I was. After that, we went an saw the Fuller Center offices and how everything happens and gets scheduled. We then went to Koinonia Farm, which is a self- sustaining farm that has amazing chocolate, pecan trees, blueberries, grapes, and corn fed beef. We stayed here for lunch and had tilapia and hush puppies. There was a gorgeous farm dog there that was wounded from a fox, he was protecting the land and  I was able to pet him for awhile! His brown eyes totally melted me! We then went on at Andersonville, which was Georgia's largest Prisoner of War and Missing in Action camp! This was very interesting and moving. I was standing on land where 13,000 men and some women had died for fighting during the Civil War, we also saw the cemetery and all the different monuments that other states gave to Andersonville. The cemetery reminded me a lot of Arlington, which is a place I really want to go during my time on the East coast! We then moved to Plains, Georgia which is wear President Jimmy Carter is from and I had peanut ice cream! Plains is very proud of their peanut heritage and Jimmy Carter, it is plastered everywhere! They had really neat antique stores and I saw all sorts of things from baseball cards, to comic books, to stained glass and everything in between! We went out to eat that evening at a restaurant named Pats and then finished the night with reflection and a game of Mafia!
Day 8 (Saturday): This was our day of goodbyes, we said goodbye to the 80 degree, sunny weather and started our trek to the north again. We drove to Roanoke, VA where we were planning to spend the night at a local hotel, but the hotel had broken windows of people trying to break in, it is known for prostitution and drugs.... so we didn't stay their. We completed our drive home that night and arrived back at 3am (today).

Andersonville Cemetey

Dog and Koinonia Farm

Tonight we will be having a closing dinner to finish up our trip on a positive note, which is good! I will be back in Harrisburg tonight, which I am excited for my own bed! This week has been incredible, I feel like I have grown up so much this week and I gained great relationships with students and truly solidifies that I want to work in Student Affairs! I am so blessed and happy that I was able to be apart of this trip, we had a great team and I am very pleased, moved, and appreciative of everything that happened this week!

Crossing Things Off My To-Do List!

I think this week has been very productive in many ways. Work has been pretty busy because we leave for service trips in less than one week! Also, my graduate school interview happened and is in MSU, Mankato's hands. I also finished my first book binding book and have started to work on my second!
As I stated, service trips are heading to their destinations in less than one week! I will be going to Georgia with 11 students, 2 student leaders, and another administrator. We will leaving next Saturday around 8:00am for our Americus, GA adventure. We will be driving our way to Georgia, which is about 12.5 hours but we will be stopping in hotels on the way their and back for one night each way. We will have 4 people in each room so it will be a little tight, but that is what service trips are all about- getting to know each other in close corners and helping however we can! We will be at The Fuller Center during the day and we are spending nights at a local church. This church is allowing us to use their full kitchen and 2 full bathrooms, so we will be able to shower! I am getting very excited for this trip for multiple reasons; I have never been on a service trip before and I will be seeing my brother. I think I will definitely learn a lot from this experience, I will be learning new skills involving handy-work and carpentry but also how different students work together in a week. I am sure I will learn new conflict-resolution strategies as well as get to know the students. This week at work, I will be preparing about 14 first-aid kits to put in each vehicle that is going on trips, helping create contact lists, making and printing maps and road instructions to put in each van, sorting out t-shirts and water bottles for each trip for the students, and taking in coffee and tea fundraiser forms and placing an order for that! I am starting to brace myself for a busy week- I think it will go very quickly but it may be very tiring in the process.

Color Scheme for second book, also all materials used. 

Cover of first book with button

First attempt at book binding

I have officially finished my first book in book binding! This is the second week we have had this class (we didn't have it last week because of snowy weather). I am thrilled that we were able to finish it this week! I have been thinking about it a lot the past two weeks because I have been wanting to finish it! It does not look perfect, but that isn't the point of book binding, it is supposed to look hand made. I love the creative aspect of it, being able to cut or tear paper the way you want it, decorate however you choose and then be able to bind with whatever color binding you want. Binding was not easy, but I also do not have a background in sewing, if you know how to sew, this would probably be very simple. When I first go to class, I didn't realize that you binded with two needles, which is why it is called 2- Needle Coptic bind, this upcoming week, we are going to try to do 4-Needle Coptic bind, which is exactly how it sounds, using 4 needles. We are having our class on Friday evening next week so we can finish the book, we had "homework" this week to cut each of the pages which are called signatures, and decorate our covers, then we will actually bind it in class since that is what is the hardest part. I have loved learning this new craft, if you know me, I love being crafty. I love painting and scrapbooks, I know a little about how to knit and crochet and cross-stitch, so this is a new trade for me! I will try to make the second book, which is a little bigger, more clean and neat, but still colorful and fun.

Interview Ready Picture

As stated, graduate school is now in the hands of MSU, Mankato. On Friday, I had my individual interview with the program Counseling and Student Personnel- College Student Affairs, I feel that my interview went really well! I think I showed my personality well, I just hope I didn't scare them by being overly excited and eager to do whatever they ask. They asked some questions that I didn't expect- one was what was the last book you read and why you read it. I was genuine when I answered, I have been reading Harry Potter the past month and now on the 4th book, I was genuine with my answer but after thinking about it, I don't really know if I should have said that particular book, not that it is a bad thing, but because it's not related to psychology or anything related to an "adult" book. They also asked questions about self-awareness, conflict mediation, counselling. and about why you want to be in the program. I will find out in two weeks if I will be accepted into the program or not. I did receive praise from Dr. Lewis about submitting in graduate assistantship forms in weeks early, because I was not their to meet and greet with the different directors of programs, I am not able to ask questions, so she said it was great that I turned them in early so they could read them before they meet other candidates.
Other exciting things that will be happening soon- I will be joining Tina's family for Easter and will be watching Harry Potter movies all day, everyday! Tina and I will soon be watching Pitch Perfect to prepare for Pitch Perfect 2 in May. We are going to call this marathon "Pitch Slapped" and may involve a fruity drink. I am very thankful for Tina and her family, they have been so welcoming to me the second I got to Harrisburg, I spent my Thanksgiving with them, attend art museum events, Tina has given me countless rides, picked me up and took me to the train station and many other things! I'm very lucky to have met such a special family!
I will most likely not write next week, so stay tuned for a long blog! Till next time.
Love,
Katie

Service Trips and the Scary Future!

This week has been a week of ups and downs! It feels like February is barely chugging along. You would think since it is the shortest month, it would be by quickly but that is not happening for me! One of my favorite expressions in the world is "It's moving slower than a snail with a limp" or "it's moving slower than a stampede of turtles through peanut butter." This week has been a series of highs and lows but I think it is ending on a high note. I am really hoping that once February ends, things will pick up and be more exciting- I can go outside more, anticipate nice weather and do some more adventures and possible go home in April.

Americus, GA is located at the Red Star "A"

Service Trips are fast approaching and people are scattering around the office trying to get things done and send 55 students on service trips to Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, and Michigan. I am working on the logistics of getting t-shirt sizes sent in and printed, working on maps and booking hotel rooms, working on coffee and tea fundraiser, making sure all students have turned in and signed their waiver and all of that jazz. There are so many things that go into a service trip that I had no idea happened. There are so many factors going on- the office, the location we are going, the organization, service trip leaders, service trip participants, and then the weather. All of things are going on simultaneously and its hard not to miss something. I have multiple Post-it notes going and I am constantly checking my to-do list and calendar. I am very excited to go to Georgia, it will be a great experience for me because I have never been on  a service trip before! We will be helping at the Fuller Center in Americus, GA. This is an organization that is much like Habitat for Humanity, it was actually a part of it and then separated a few years ago. We will be building during this week- I am not sure what we will be doing yet, but I will assume its a house. I do not have much experience when it comes to building things, I can use a hammer and paint but when it comes to saws and drywall, I am not very helpful! I will definitely be learning new skills at this! I was looking into the statistics of Americus, GA and about 42% of the city is in poverty, only about 45% of the city has a degree above a high school diploma and most of the families are single mothers. This will be an eye-opening experience for me. I am learning that my role of an administrator is actually just to remain on the sidelines until I am needed. Things like credit card issues, getting lost, conflict management, and working with the organization first hand are things that I will be focusing on when things get tough but in the mean time I will be working just like the other students and letting the service trip leaders run the show, which is really cool! I am excited to see students lead and see different personalities come out. I think it is important for students to take initiative and do things and this is a great opportunity! I met all the students that will be going on this trip today and I think we have a good team and it will be a smooth and easy week of service!

Beginning of the snow

One downfall this week was pretty crappy weather. The East cost keeps getting hit with storms and cruddy weather. Harrisburg got about 5 inches of snow on Saturday but that snow and some ice caused my book binding class to be cancelled as well as hold my friend back from coming to see me and Pennsylvania. But, have no fear, she will be coming in April! So, I will patiently wait for that! We were able to catch up via Skype and she gave me advice and helped me calm down for my individual graduate school interview on Friday.
I had a panic moment on Friday when I received a Skype phone call on my smartphone that I recently got and it was the CSP program I am applying that for grad school and either I didn't understand what was happening or they got the wrong day, but I had a group interview that I thought I had next week. I had to leave Friday morning meeting and go on Skype. Because I was not anticipating this, I was wearing an Iowa sweater, slightly wet hair, jeans, and sat in a stairwell leading up to the 3rd floor in my house. The interview was a little awkward because I was the only person that was not physically there for the interview but I was able to give my opinion when it came to talking about a case study. I have confirmed the date and time for my individual interview on Friday and I will be completely ready for it. Having my group interview on a different day really caught me off guard, the good thing was I didn't have time to feel nervous or anxious, I just had to do it. I only hope I made a good impression on them, especially since I didn't look as nice as the people who were physically there. Also on Friday, I had an interview with Residential Life at MSU for a graduate assistantship program that I think went really well! I have applied to six different locations at MSU for this including: New Student and Family Programs, Learning Communities, Greek Life, Community Engagement, IMPACT, and Res. Life. I am eager and excited to interview for these, but I am not that patient when it comes to finding out if I get into grad school or not. I do have a back up plan if I do not get accepted- I will apply for educational leadership at MSU if I do not get into CSP. I would still be able to do higher education with Ed. Leadership, which is what I would like to do for a career!
This upcoming week is a big one- grad school individual interview via Skype, getting closer to service trips, starting and finishing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and going to Beauty and the Beast for Layla!
With me luck with my interview- words of encouragement appreciated :)

Now, that's a party!

Sycamore House

The Sycamore House had a party fundraiser in the Uppercroft of the church on Friday! We hosted an event called Party Gras and all the proceeds from this event went to the Sycamore House budget- this money is used to travel with, buy new materials, and prepares. This event was much like Mardi Gras because we had lots of beads and streamers, live music, Cajun food, and fun decorations! I spent my Friday morning creating different cards to put on the raffle table; I used lots of feathers, markers, and then put it all together. I was a little nervous about the attendance of this event because right before the event was Choral Evensong and those who attended Evensong were encouraged to come to Parti Gras and the attendance for Evensong was very small. But, I was definitely proven wrong! This fundraiser raised over $1,000 for the Sycamore House. The live music was really good, there were a few older couples that went and danced to songs and were adorable. This is one of the first times I had Cajun food, my stomach doesn't handle spices well, so I've always been nervous to eat it. I tried "alligator bites" but was disappointed to find out it was catfish, I ate jambalaya, king cake, and corn bread. We had the restaurant Crawdaddies cater and it was a hit! The raffle prizes were a range of different things from a Posh Spa Basket, Yellow Bird Cafe' gift card, Little Amps gift card, to St. Stephen's Cathedral framed drawing- there was everything in between. This event was fun to dress up for, I was able to wear my sparkle purple sequence shirt and it was totally appropriate and I wore my new Toms!

Valentine's day package

Earlier this week, I received a wonderful Valentine's day package from my mom that had two new pairs of Toms, my favorite oatmeal, chocolate, and face wash. I was very excited to receive this package! On Valentine's day, I didn't do anything that exciting. I went to a class at Susquehanna Art Museum and learned how to book bind. We did not get completely finished with the project, but it is very interesting. I didn't realize how long and time intensive it is to create a book and bind it together. I can't imagine what it was like in the old days and making leather bound books by hand. This book binding class is happening for the next 3 Saturdays and its fun to work on! Tina is the Art Education Director at the museum and she tells me all about the fun and different activities that go on at the museum!
Work this week went really well, I have been busy working on service trips! As mentioned before, I am taking  a group of students to Georgia. I am working on making different routes we can take (all service trips will be driving to their locations). The drive from Carlisle. PA to Americus, GA is about 13 hours and students can only drive 10 hours in one day, so I am working on booking hotels and finding the best possible routes. I am doing this for Georgia and South Carolina. Service trips are happening from March 7- March 15th, it is coming very quickly! The office is working hard to make these trips the most successful as they can be.
This upcoming week is a rather exciting one- I will be having a visitor come! My former IMPACT Graduate Adviser is coming to Pennsylvania going to spend Saturday with me! I am very excited for this because she is my first visitor that I have had since coming to PA! I am trying to figure out all the different things we can do in one day- maybe go to Dickinson, see the market, Midtown Scholar, that sort of thing! We will see!
Also, this week I have a graduate assistantship interview with Residential Life at Minnesota State and I have my Counseling and Student Personnel- College Student Affairs interview on Friday, February 27th. All of this is really coming together, I am trying to be as positive as possible for the interviews, I am not very nervous about them, but I want to prepare myself for best (and worse) case scenario!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Katie

Philadelphia Round 2!

My new phone!

Let me tell you- this week has been busy and exhausting. I am presently watching clips from previous Olympics. I watched Tara Lipinski, Sarah Hughes and Charlie White and Meryl Davis skate, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte swim, and then moved into Winter X Games. For as much as I am not a snow bunny, I sure love watching it all. I am doing this because I don't feel like doing anything else. I went to church and sang in choir and then retrieved to my bed for the rest of the afternoon and messed around with my new phone and my laptop. Folks, I have joined the smartphone world! This is pretty big in the life of Katie, I will be able to get picture messages and even go on the internet, pretty exciting stuff!
This week was so busy and exhausting because I had something going on every night as well as working 8 hour days at work. On Monday and Thursday night, I had choir rehearsal to prepare for service on Sunday as well as a performance that is happening next Friday called Evensong. We are learning 5 new pieces of music and rehearsing twice a week instead of one to prepare for it. On Tuesdays, we always have community dinner. Lately, we have not had that many attend, we had 7 people attend this week. We prepared breakfast food including eggs, pancakes, and sausage. I think it went well and I had fun at it. We have guests in our house from 7 till after 9 most Tuesdays. On Wednesday I went to Red Robin for the first time with my mentor Brigette, who was in the house last year and I can confide in a lot. I really enjoyed Red Robin, it was tasty and I really liked the atmosphere of it!
Work this week has been busy because I had my event- Community Service Fair! I had about 15 different organizations looking for volunteers come and table and recruit volunteers. I thought the event went very well- logistically it went without a hitch. Sound, food, most of the organizations were all there ready to go. I had all the tables, chairs, and everything prepared and ready well in advance. I had about 50-60 students attend this event. At first, I was pretty discouraged. Coming from MSU where there are 15,000 students, 50 students is not a very good percentage- but Dickinson has less than 2000 students. I got feedback from the organizations and they said that they got interested students and that it was well worth their time for tabling for two hours, which is what I really needed and wanted to hear! I definitely think this was a good and successful event, but I think I should have done it last semester- lesson learned and notes for next year were made!
I return to my old desk starting on Monday since our administrator that was on maternity leave comes back! I am a little sad to go back, I really liked having multiple jobs and wearing different hats. I got to interact with students much more because they came to me with many questions, but I think I will keep busy with just my work! I also go the exciting news this week that I am officially taking students on a service trip... to Georgia! I am very excited about this and I hope it will be a wonderful learning experience for me! I will be in Georgia in March, which is coming up very quickly! Pretty crazy to think about, actually!

Absalom Jones

The Sycamore House headed to Philly on Saturday to meet the Episcopal Service Corps house in Philly and met up with the New York- Staten Island crew again! We met the NY group at our retreat in the Poconos. We arrived in Philly around 9:30am and Philly is about an hour and 45 minutes away from Harrisburg. The first thing we did when we got to Philly was go to Absalom Jones service in West Philadelphia (....born and raised, the playground is where I spent most of my days...). This service was an experience I will never forget! There was so much life in the church and absolutely no pews. We all sat in chairs around the outskirts of the room. This was primarily a black church and it was so much more easy going and uplifting. Members were much more "into the service". They had a whole procession where they took all the flags and walked around the church, they had an African drum session, full drums set choir, boys and girls club singers, and a powerful sermon. It was very different from St. Stephens, which is much more traditional and clear cut. The service on Saturday was very good, but was very long- it lasted about 3 hours. Which, put the rest of our schedule for the day behind because we didn't realize it would run so long. The next thing we did was go to Reading Terminal Market. And, WOW! I have never seen so many different vendors, so many people, so many smells, and so many different food options in such a confined space. They had Greek food, Chinese, Mexican, Seafood, bakeries, sit down restaurants, chocolate stations, arts and crafts, and everything in between. I was overwhelmed by everything. I have attached a link to the website because I don't think I can do justice in explaining it- http://readingterminalmarket.org/merchants. After the market, we walked to the Philly house and met the members of their house and played games, drank beer, and ate pizza with them and the NY group. I thought the day was fun, I wish we could have done a little more around the city, but it was a good experience.
This week seems like it will be less busy- in theory. I have choir on Monday and Thursday, with performance on Friday at 7pm. After the performance the Sycamore House is having a fundraiser called Party Gras, which is like a Marti Gras party. We have Crawdad's catering, king cake, and musical entertainment. All the money raised from this will go to the Sycamore House in funding the rest of our retreat to Virginia and for the house next year. I have never had crawdads or king cake, so all of this will be an experience for me! I will let you all know how it goes!

Have a wonderful week- I am going to continue to be lazy this evening and watch the Grammys. Hunter Hayes is nominated, so you know I will be watching!

Love,
Katie

Good things are happening!

Happy Sunday! This has been a pretty emotional week both physically and mentally. I have got some news that I am very excited to share with you all! But, I will save that till the end :) This weekend has been very good- I have had some time to relax and even bake some cookies for Tina's birthday that happened on Friday! This is my first time making peanut butter blossoms on my own. I have helped rolled balls with my mom countless times over the holidays but have never made them all on my own. They turned out very good! I am proud of myself! I really do enjoy baking!
This past week has been busy at work. Spring Break applications were getting turned in this week, but they started off very slowly. On Thursday, we had 11 applications turned in. For the 4 service trips, we need at least 44 students, so I was getting a little nervous about that. The service trips will be going to Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, and South Carolina, with 10 people going on a trip (at least). On Friday, I heard that we got 53 applications turned in that day, so we are definitely over the amount of students needed for the trips, which also means that we have students to pick from that would be best for the different service trips. Interviews are taking place next week and I may be helping give them on Thursday evening.

Community Service Fair Poster

Tomorrow, I have a pretty large event happening from 12-2 in the Student Union. I am bringing a Community Service Fair to Dickinson! This fair will have 17 different organizations from the Dickinson College community, Carlisle community, and Harrisburg community. The different organizations will talk to students about the different volunteer opportunities that their organizations holds for them. I have many different groups including the YMCA, Salvation Army, Dickinson Farm, Therapeutic Horseback Riding, and Project SHARE. I am hoping a lot of students will come to this event, I have not promoted it as much as I normally would have because I am sitting in the office more as the administrative assistant, but it is in a high traffic place, right at lunch time, so I hope people will stop in!
On Saturday, St. Stephens had a brass/organ concert at 7pm. This event was incredible! St. Stephens choir directors brother, Jonathan, come in and preformed a concert for the community with the help of a brass section from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. I have never heard such a loud sound inside the church before. I never realized the different acoustics it had and how incredible things can sound in it! The organist is well known internationally and even has a Grammy. He performed a song by Bach called Jig Fugue and told the crowd that it is originally a harp/piano song, not organ. So if you are able to see his feet, watch them because he literally does a jig to play the song. I had to ask questions about the organ, I have heard it hundreds of times, but I don't really know that much about it. In a standard piano, there are 88 keys and 3 foot pedals. In an organ, there are 66 keys and 44 pedals, which explains why he was doing a "jig". I was very pleasantly surprised about this concert, it was much better than I thought it would be and I definitely enjoyed it!

Interview Email

Now for the exciting news! As many of you know I have turned in my Counseling and Student Personnel- College Student Affairs application and was waiting to hear back about an interview. Well, a day after all my references were submitted, I got an email stating that I have moved on to interviews! I am very excited for this opportunity! I found out this exciting news via email from the secretary on behalf of Dr. Jacqueline Lewis. The email stated that group and individual interviews will take place on Feb. 20th in MSU, Mankato and there will be a lunch with professors and staff and then an opportunity to meet with the different graduate assistantships available in the fall. I emailed back asking if there would be subsidizing costs for me to fly back to Minnesota or if I am able to do a Skype interview. They will be reviewing my application and letting me know of their decision! This is all starting to feel real! I am very excited to move on to interviews, I am not guaranteed a spot in graduate school, but I don't feel very nervous about not getting in- which I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing! We will just have to see. I am eager to find out if they will be sending me to Minnesota, I think it would be great for me to meet the professors and they can meet me personally to see if I am a good fit for the program. Wish me luck!
This upcoming week is going to be busy! On Monday night I have choir rehearsal, Tuesday is community dinner, Wednesday I am going out to eat with my mentor, Brigette, Thursday will either be interviews at Dickinson or choir rehearsal, Friday is Friday meeting and I am going to get a smartphone and grocery shopping! Busy week ahead for me, I am sure I will be sleeping a lot over the weekend!

Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Katie

Go Bears!

What a week! I am beginning to feel better after my e.coli/kidney infection! I have been off my 11 day antibiotics for a couple days now and have felt fine, just very tired. When I get home from work around 5:15pm everyday I am just exhausted. After talking with other people who have also had a kidney infection, they said that is very normal. I can tell you first hand, that kidney infections are not fun! It's definitely a blessing that I realized something was not right early on, otherwise I would have been one sick person!
This week I did two things that were new to me in Harrisburg. I helped with the flower gild in St. Stephen's and created arrangements for Sunday service and I went to a Hershey Bears game in Hershey, PA.

One of my flower arrangements

Both arrangements

I don't know a lot about flowers, I know the basic kinds and that when you cut flowers, you cut at a angle but other than that, I am clueless. I helped my housemate, Shannon and my mentor Anne with arranging flowers this week. Anne was the head of the flower gild and taught me all about how to arrange. You never want to put flowers on the same plain and the strongest color flowers should be in the center. It is important for eyes to want to look at the whole arrangement, so you do different levels- highest in the back, lowest in the front but it is also important to want to draw the eye out, so its not vertical. My color scheme this week was red and pink with some accents of white. The greens should be the outline and what is used to put the eye horizontally as well. Anne had to coach me through it quite a bit because I am a very symmetrical person, so what I want on one side is what I want on the left, but that is not the case in small flower arrangements. Luckily for me, I made arrangements using the same flowers, so I was able to make it symmetrical to each other, but the flowers are not the same on both sides on each arrangement itself.  I'm pretty pleased with my first go around of flower arrangement. They make different arrangements every week and make them on Friday afternoons. I didn't realize how time intensive they are. My arrangements were small, but the alter arrangements are very large and took almost 3 hours to create. Anne purchases these flowers from a wholesaler every week at a discounted price and then creates the arrangements. I think I will definitely help out in the future at lease for the time being! I won't help out as much in the spring because that's when its mum season and I am allergic to chrysanthemums- so that is not my place to be!

Youth group fun

Silly faces with Layla

First fight of the game

On Saturday, I got in my hockey fix! I had not been to a hockey game in months, which is pretty odd for me! I think the last game I went to was a Minnesota State Mavericks game- in April! I went with the St. Stephens school and Youth Group to a Hershey Bears game. All together there was a group of about 60 people there and it was such a fun experience! The Hershey Bears are a minor league hockey team for the Washington Capitals. Now, I am a Penguins fan, so the Capitals are not my favorite team in the world, but it was definitely fun to see! I wore my penguins scarf I got for Christmas and my Pascal Dupuis jersey and didn't get heckled once. There was even another fan on my side of the arena that was wearing a Dupuis jersey! Pascal Dupuis is my favorite player, who is injured this year because he has a blood clot in his lung from having ACL surgery. The game was in Hershey, PA which is only about a half hour or less away from Harrisburg. The Bears play in the Giant Center, which is where a lot of concerts are held. The game was really fun! I had fun explaining the game to kids from youth group and cheering for a team. There were quite a few fights, so I'm not sure if the team they were playing (Binghamton Senators) are a rival of theirs or not. There were 5 different fights and the first one broke out 15 seconds into the game and many other fights

Bears WIN!

 happened throughout the game. There was some tension to the referee, Terry, because he took away a Bears goal. Most of the game, fans booed him and made fun of him. The Bears ended up winning in overtime! They scored about 2 minutes into the overtime period. I was excited to see the Sell's at the game, I took some fun pictures of Layla and had fun explaining the game to her.  The attendance of the game was 9,700. It was Faith and Family Night, so there were many different churches in attendance. We had 200 level seats, but I don't think there would be bad seat in the venue, I could see everything and the energy of the arena was a lot of fun! I was really impressed with how much the players and staff acknowledge the fans. They always had something going on in the stands, whether they were interviewing a fan, a blimp dropping money, playing intermission games, or just doing simple things like the fans of the game, kiss cam, or having people dance and showing them on the jumbotron. I would definitely love to go to another game, it was a lot of fun and I definitely felt like my Iowan/Minnesotan self!

The many faces of Layla

Work has gone very well this week! It has definitely been busy with the students back, but it is so good to see the students! I am doing two jobs, administrative assistant and then community service intern. I have been busy with scheduling and dealing with budget things like invoices and ordering supplies and items as well as planning for my event on February 2nd called Community Service Fair. I have about 15 different organizations coming in and tabling about what students can do to volunteer at their organization. I have things from Salvation Army to YMCA to a Therapeutic Riding Center that with children who are physically disabled. I am hoping that many students from Dickinson attend this event, I need to do a lot of promotions the next week or so to make sure it is a successful event! I also found out this week that I will officially be going on a spring break trip with students as an administrator! I will either be going to Georgia, South Carolina or Alabama. I am really hoping to go to Georgia because I would be able to see my brother, who I haven't seen in about a year! He lives in Dublin and I would be in Macon, which is about an hour or so away from each other! Let's all hope for Georgia!
Also this week, I have officially signed my lease and contract for living in Mankato next fall. Whether I get in grad school or not, I will be there at least working and hopefully attending grad school as well! I have everything done for grad school, waiting on one reference but that will be done soon! So wish me luck and send good wishes about grad school! I have also completed my graduate assistantship applications, so I am also waiting on that but I need to find out if I make it into the program first. This is the only program I have applied to, so I am definitely hoping for the best! I can definitely see myself working in a college setting. I'm not sure if I can see the exact location, I am interested in many things including residence halls, working with first year students, student activities, advising. I could see myself doing all of the above!
I am not sure what all I have going on this week- I don't think it will be too crazy, but I guess that is always surprise!
Have a wonderful week!
Love, Katie