Thanksgiving

This holiday that comes around once a year is one for which I am always at a loss of words. I feel that the holiday should be used to show your thankfulness to people who matter in your life. I know this is something I should do much more frequently than I do currently, but I wanted to take this special opportunity to thank my friends and family.
There have been many experiences that I've had in my life that have shaped the person who I am today. Most of these experiences I have had thanks to my family and friends.
The first of those experiences I'll explain was my trip to Kenya. When I was in 8th grade my parents took my sister and I to Kenya. During this trip my entire view on the world changed. I left the U.S. looking at the world as it concerned me and started the trip with this very me vs. them mentality. I left Kenya and returned to the states looking at the world as one in which my role was to show others what a connected world we live in. That was quite the task to explain to my peers.
The next I think is the relationship I have with Leah. She has been my friend since the first day of 7th grade when she approached me on the way from English to Science (we debate if it was this way or vise versa). Anyway, she approached me and said in a terribly high pitched and excited beyond all reason voice, "HI, MY NAME IS LEAH!!! WANT TO BE MY FRIEND!!!" It wasn't that blatant but it really is quite entertaining when I look back on it. Anyway Leah has been one of those people that are there for me for EVERYTHING! Together we've been through loss of relatives, mild to clinical depression, loss of pets, as well as some of the happiest times in my memory. I love you Leah! Thank you!
I suppose another person who battles with Leah for that number one spot in my heart is my sister. She is and always has been there for me regardless of whatever it is I'm going through. I love her more than I could ever explain. She is three years younger than me, but I'm constantly learning from her. She is usually the first one I call when I get either good or bad news. She is one of the most energetic people I know and I feed off of that energy she has. I am really proud of my sister and love her so much! Thanks Scramps!
Katie would be another one I feel very thankful for. Katie and I met in 3rd grade and she always challenges me in every aspect of my life and the person I'm becoming. We don't talk as much now as we used to but every time we do it is just like going back to the beginning. I have learned so many things from Katie and truly am thankful for the relationship. I love you Katie! Thank you!
These are just a few of the people that I feel I owe thanks to on this holiday. Hopefully I will remember to thank them as well as the numerous other people who have helped to create who I am today.

To everyone whom I've left out of this list and will thank personally later thank you!
And to everyone - HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I think this picture is one of the great ones that embrace her personality. I was also remembering when she was very little we used to take her to parades and anytime a marching band went by she got really freaked out by the base drums and used to hide behind dad's chair.

The life of a dog...Juneau

My sweet, tender, and affectionate Siberian Husky named Juneau is going to be put down tomorrow. I thought I should give her a small tribute here as she has been such a large part of my life for so long. We got Juneau from some family friends when my family was living in Pennsylvania. I was around 5 or 6 at the time. She is a beautiful black and white husky with one brown and one blue eye, some of the trademarks of huskies. From the time she entered our family and we changed her name from 'buttons' to the popular 'Juneau' more affectionately Jubes, jubbies, or sweetie.
About two weeks after she joined the family we decided to truly adopt her and take her with us on a family vacation to Niagara Falls. The energy and exuberance she exhibited bounding about with her huge paws and wagging fuzzy tail.
Her entire life has been one filled with an overabundance of joy. When she still had all use of her legs she loved to run. She would escape from a door that was left open and run until we could catch up to her. I always remember being so worried that she wouldn't come back.
My dad would take her on really long runs and she loved to be outside and to be doing what huskies do best; running. The first winter we had her and we let her outside to romp in the snow she loved to pounce on piles of snow and disappear into the white abyss.
Juneau is still a puppy at heart and even once she lost much if not most of her ability to run she still tries despite the pain it causes. Juneau is a wonderful puppy whom I love and I am greatly saddened by the prospect of her imminent passing. I will always love her and miss her.
If anyone would like to share some thoughts please do!

A Sunday Afternoon

It is a Sunday afternoon as I'm sure you can tell from the title of this entry. It has been a weekend full of some really great times and then today - not such a great day. We'll talk about that first. I told one of my prof's on Friday that I was ill and that was the reason I wasn't in class, it was really because I needed some more sleep than I got and it was raining when I woke up. Anyway I had to email this prof to find out when the homework was due. I woke up Saturday sick, and today it just got worse. Talk about bad karma.

Anyway - the good stuff! Friday evening I got to spend with my sister going to a pumpkin patch, then to an art crawl, and then we took the pumpkins home to carve, and watch movies. Anyway it was amazing and really wonderful to spend a great evening with my sister.

Saturday morning I went with a few people to go check out River Fall's Student Center. It just opened (January 2007) and it is entirely green! It is amazing. They used over 90% of the old building in the construction of the new building. The majority of the materials used are from recycled resources. There are bamboo floors from sustainable forests, rain tubs on the roof that are used to flush toilets, light sensors to use as little electricity for lights as possible. They use as much natural lighting as possible and turn off lights if no one is around. It was super cool and we went because we're hoping to be able to convince Hamline's administration to make their new student center green as well. We're getting a new one within the next 5 - 10 years. So checking out one that is awesome was really exciting! After the trip to River Falls I went for a beautiful walk in the park and then got to watch Lost Season 1 episodes. It was great! So now, I have to get healthy and finish my homework!

First MPIRG Meeting and other updates

Hamline's MPIRG (Minnesota Public Interest Research Group) chapter had its first meeting of the year on Monday. It was really really exciting but before I explain why I'll explain a little about the org. MPIRG is a non-profit, non-partisan, student run, state wide social justice org. Ever heard of the Boundary Waters? Yeah, well MPIRG was behind the legislation that created the BWCAW. We also banned fluorocarbons, created the Metro Greenways, pushed the toughest environmental legislation in the nation to pass, plus tons of other stuff - check out the website...http://www.mpirg.org/
In other words we're pretty awesome! Anyway last year our attendance was limited to say the least and therefore this year we went all out during recruitment weeks and had 30 students in attendance plus the leadership for this year. We have a lot of really great and amazing projects planned and what looks like a great group to start the work!

On a completely different note as part of Wesley Scholars I got to listen to this amazing woman from Peru who is working for fair trade in her community. She started a group of women making various objects which are then given to several different groups of Fair Trade organizations. Her story was amazing. Peru in the past few decades has had some intense problems with poverty and governmental agencies. During the 80's insurgent groups (The Shining Path for example) gained large support because they were reacting to the government. The government then came in and began to kill participants of the Shining Path but because no one really knew who was part of the group many innocent and almost always poor residents were killed. The woman we talked to tonight was personally affected by this in several ways. Her mother died when she was 12 leaving her to be the head woman of the house and only a year or so later the government came and took her father. The government did this often during the time and it was referred to as 'disappearing people'. 90% of the people who were disappeared never returned. Yuna's father did, but only because there was one guard who gave him water at one point during his 3 + day interim locked in a cell with nothing to eat or drink. At the end of the time he was taken out to a field and the officer who had been nice to Yuna's father was chosen to kill him. Instead of killing him he shot at the ground twice and told him to go home. I'm not telling this story nearly as good as she did, but hopefully I portrayed some of the amazingness of the discussion in my note. It was wonderful!

Campus Kitchen

So the newest endeavor I've fallen in love with is the campus kitchen. Check out the link below, but for now I'll explain my fascination. On a monthly basis for the past year I've taken groups of students to Simpson Men's Shelter to serve dinner. Getting the food has been a dilemma each and every time. The majority of the last year we were able to get the food from Hamline's food service, but we had to pay an arm and a leg for it. I heard about Campus Kitchen last year and thought that it would be awesome for Hamline to have one (if you don't know what it is check out the website). So, I contacted the campus kitchen at Augsburg to see if it would be possible to get the food from them and we're going to get it for free! (Well if we have a few people go and volunteer - which is not a problem at all!). So now that we have food to serve at Simpson we also have an insider's look at a running campus kitchen and I have a meeting with the dean of students to start the ball rolling on a campus kitchen here at Hamline!!!!!!!! It is sooooooo exciting!


http://www.campuskitchens.org/

Back to School again

Well, it's that time of year again and I am back at school having a blast! This year I'm an orientation leader for new students. Specifically I'm in charge of a group of transfer students. All first year students have a three day orientation that started today and since the transfer students don't have to go to today or tomorrow I get to have a blast and help out in lots of other areas of the orientation process. For example: tonight after all of the required orientation things there was soccer and sundae's where people went to go see women's soccer and got ice cream sundaes. And then after that there were Piper Lawn Games where any incoming students who want to come show up and play tons of large group icebreakers. Things like Captain's Coming, Birdie on a Perch, among other things. (Ask if you have no idea what I'm talking about). Anyway orientation is so much fun!
Other things....I am taking Immunology at Hamline, Advanced German Conversations and Composition at Augsburg, Shakespeare at Augsburg, and German in the Media at Macalaster along with Band and Biosem this semester. I'm also doing some more volunteering at the hospital that I was volunteering at last spring. Plus I'm in charge of Hamline's chapter of MPIRG in addition to being the group leader for the Hunger and Homelessness task force, being in Wesley Scholars, and on the exec board of a new org that was started last spring. The semester is going to be busy but well worth it! I'm so excited! But very sad that it is winding down so quickly!

Ah, Sweet Summer...

Well as it turns out summer is quickly coming to a close so I thought I should put an update as to what I'm up to.

I've been volunteering at Medical College of Wisconsin doing engineered cardiac tissue research. I'm testing the stiffness and contractibility serially for cardic fibroblast tissue that I make from various strains of rats (rats that react well to myocardial infarction to those that don't react as well). It has been slow going but I'm learning a lot!

I also took the MCAT this spring and got my scores back and decided to retake them because I didn't think the scores were as high as I wanted them to be.

Tonight I finished taking an Anatomy and Physiology course that I decided would be fun and fairly educational. It was a good distraction and I learned some stuff, mostly anatomy things, but it was fun most of the time.

My german honors project is coming along slowly. I am researching the Armenian Genocide and working toward comparing perspectives of different nations at the time of the genocide. Thus far I have the american viewpoint well done, a great book for the german (written in Fraktur) that I have had extreme difficulty reading, and a french book or two that my advisor I think is working on, along with possibly a book from a turkish point of view.

I have finally decided on the medical schools I will be applying to which means that the only thing I have left to do is to finish up my personal statement and then focus entirely on studying for the MCAT again and wait for secondary applications to come rolling in. It is all very exciting but super stressful and really expensive! For the amcas (central application agency) just to start an application is $160 plus an additional $30 per school you apply to. Each school has a price for filing their secondary application that ranges from $50 - $100, the MCAT is $230 per time. This process is becoming very expensive, I hope and pray that I get in otherwise I get to repeat the whole thing over again in a year or two. Medical schools are trying really hard to be sure you are set on becoming a doctor before you apply!

I have some short vacations planned for this summer. This weekend I'll be spending Friday night in the cities and Saturday night and Sunday in Madison. Mid August I'll be headed up to the family cabin for some very relaxing rest and quiet study time. It should be exactly what I need.

Fall is coming soon which means I get to start thinking about classes - always a very exciting time of year! I think I have some real great ones lined up for the fall but for now that's all.

Earth Day

It is days like today that I love the feeling of being alive and everything that entails. Happiness, hope and love are absolutly amazing feelings and they can sweep a person off their feet so you feel as though you are floating.
This morning I went to Wishes for the Sky on Harriet Island. It was this huge public art event. Local artists made a bunch of kites (1000) that are all the same shape but lots of different colors and shades of blue and then each person who came was allowed to take a kite and write a wish to the sky on it, basically anything that you wish. Then you could go fly it and when your done you bring it back to be reused and more wishes put on it. And once the whole event is done all of the kites are going to be shipped to China where a similar event is going to happen. In addition to this very cool earth day event there was also a house made of bamboo with tons of wind chimes tied to it and a microphone where people would say their promises to the earth into the mic which was then on a loop so that under your talking were a bunch of other peoples promises to the earth. The people there were so many and so incredibly diverse. There were really old people, really young people, and many different races. It was an awesome experience of how people really can be happy and coexist beautifully! I couldn't help but smile and laugh and completly enjoy myself. It was an AWESOME event, I only wish I could have stayed longer.

My Internship (volunteer position at a hospital)

The following is a entry I put into a journal that I am calling my internship log. Because it is part of my school work I have to basically take notes on the things I learn. So I got into the hospital about 10 hours a week and normally do one of two things. Tuesday afternoons I do patient discharge which is basically wheeling patients around the hospital. Thursday early afternoon I do that as well and then at 3:15 I go upstairs to a nursing unit and help out there.

Yesterday I did the normal patient discharge early afternoon and then went up to a nursing unit for the later afternoon/early evening. I finished up with all of the normal stuff I do and then found out my supervisor wasn’t there so I asked if I could shadow a nurse. I followed one around and she had four patients, one of which she told me had found out 10 minutes prior that he was dying of cancer and there really were no treatment paths at this point. The nurse waited to go into his room until last. She went in and the wife was sitting on a chair and he was lying in bed hooked up with so many things going into his IV, there were six bags at least! The nurse said, “Dr. _____ came in to see you right?” and the wife broke down into tears and the husband (he had a trach tube in so he couldn’t talk) nodded his head. The nurse went over to the wife and put an arm on her shoulder rubbed it briefly and then went back to taking stats of the husband. The wife was still crying so I went over and put my arm around her shoulder and she leaned against me and started to sob. So therefore I was stuck there until she stopped crying. The doctor came in then while the nurse was testing stuff so she got out of the way to allow the doctor room next to the bed and I was stuck on the back wall comforting the wife. I say stuck not because I wanted to move but because I couldn’t. I listened to all of the things the doctor talked about and was almost appauled at his treatment of asking the patient and his wife if they wanted him to be resuscitated if his heart gave out or if he wanted to be put back on O2 if he stopped breathing. He basically told them there wasn’t much point to doing either. I agree with this statement but I feel the way he delivered it was unclear and not very friendly or considerate. But anyway this experience was an intense one and it was very reaffiriming. I do still want to be a doctor, even more now than before and I can’t wait to take the MCAT, and apply, and hopefully get accepted!

Link for Mardi Gras Indians

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi_Gras_Indians

I found this link it describes most of what I already knew but it could help clarify a few things. I'll be on the lookout for more information.

Another NOLA Post

I just got back to my appt after flying back to the cities. It has been a wonderful, long, emotional, intense, and many other emotions week. I will post another reflection in a day or two after I've had some time to rethink a lot of the stuff we have done, but below is what I have been writing for the week now that I finally have internet access again.

3/23/07

I find it extremely difficult to believe it is already Friday and we’ve been here a whole week.

Lets start with Monday. On Monday morning we woke up and started working with the church again, some students worked with Minh who is a beautiful gardener who volunteers for the church and she isn’t even a member. Other group members continued work on the fence. That evening we were invited to a bbq that one of the church members held and we met with the group that stayed in the house before us. They were stranded in NO due to the bad weather in the upper east. On a lighter note we saw the first ice cream truck while working. This is an ice cream truck that I feel has followed us around the city. It has a terribly annoying song that starts with a high pitched annoying “Hello!” and then continues with a song I can’t place in my directory of children’s songs. That evening most of the group went to Xavier University and looked around for a bit and then the majority of the group went out while Sharon, Jenny, and myself decided to go check out Hands On and see what they were up to that night. While going to Hands On we saw a spontaneous Mardi Gras Indian Parade. I’ll explain as much as I’m figuring out about this strange and unique phenomena. NOLA is known for Mardi Gras but many people just see the superficial partying that goes on. There are deep cultural roots to this annual celebration and I only know a little of it. There are at least two different groups the Mardi Gras Indians and the Mardi Gras Zulus. The Zulus are Afro-centric while the Indians are Native American/Afro-centric. The Indians go out and have spontaneous parades all day Mardi Gras day and all night on St. Joseph’s night. They dress up in these amazing feather costumes and march and chant and sing, it is really a sight to see. Each tribe starts on its own and decides where to go at the moment, they have no plans prior to the event. When any two groups meet they have a sparring to decide if one group can pass by the other. Right in front of Hands On when we were there we saw about 5 or 6 different groups all meeting and ‘sparring’ and chanting. It was incredibly interesting! I’ll try to find more information about it later. We also met Theodore George and his Grandson. They are two African-American males who both graduated from Dillard University and it was a lot of fun talking with them and learning about the Mardi Gras Indians and what they usually do as well as getting some dance lessons from Theodore George III (grandson). The whole evening was one of those random, spontaneous experiences that only seem to happen to me in NOLA. It was truly wonderful!

Tuesday we worked with La Vang (the church) in the morning If anyone is interested in learning more about the church the website is www.lavangshrine.net. Then we had a 1:00 meeting with Reverend Bowman who is the chaplain at Dillard University. She led us on a tour and it was great to see this University in such great community. We were able to sit down and chat with some students who were hanging out in the middle of the University. All of their gorgeous oak trees survived save one. I am currently wondering if the sense of community was there prior to Katrina or if it is a result of the disaster. The student population was significantly lower than pre-Katrina enrollment but the students and staff were the some of the most friendly I’ve ever met. Then we had a 2:00 meeting with Heidi Daniels who is a professor of education and the school board rep for the 9^th ward. She talked about her advocacy work with all the different communities and her role as school board rep. She gave many many statistics, most of which I can’t remember. One that sticks out in my mind is that post –Katrina there are about 800 – 1000 teachers that have returned but only 300 of them are certified teachers. Also there was a great advantage to Katrina regarding the school system. The school system in NOLA is and was terrible, but the fact that many families were able to go elsewhere during the storm and enroll their children in other school systems parents and students see that they deserve a better school system and that the status quo needs to be changed. Hopefully more people will be fighting for a better school system with more equality. Following this meeting we met with the Father at Mary Queen church which is another Vietnamese church in East Orleans. The church we are staying with (La Vang) was a mission of Mary Queen. The Father talked a lot about how the city decided to put a large dump into the neighborhood surrounding Mary Queen that was something on the order of about 4 football fields in area, going 60 feet underground and 60 feet above the ground to dump waste from the flooding in. The Vietnamese community decided that they were ok with the dump but didn’t want it so large and smelly so they asked the city to shrink the size and not allow it above the treeline and to put a synthetic shield over the top. The city basically shrugged them off and therefore the community decided to fight the entire project. They were able to halt the dumping of wastes and are working to get the city to remove the stuff they’ve already placed there. During this debate the Vietnamese community joined with the African –American community because both live in the vicinity surrounding the dump and together were able to accomplish this. The Vietnamese community discovered that the African-American community had been fighting a similar battle (there was a dump 50 feet from part of the community’s back yards). Together they were able to halt the dumping there and begin to make the area livable. This situation really gives me hope and just goes to show that diversity and intercultural/interracial connections are necessary for us to get things done in this world. The government was using the divide and conquer technique and it was working until the two communities that were divided came together. Tuesday night we also got together with all of the other HU students down here and had a large group reflection. It was held at the church here and Father Anton showed up and told his story and the story of the church during the flood. I’ll try to retell it but most of you know how terrible of a story teller I am. Father Anton, Father Luke, and a couple other people were staying at the church because they had come to be together during the storm. Once the storm was over they walked out into the street and quickly noticed that the streets were filling with water and the water was rising so they set out into the community to find as many people as they could and get them into the second story of a home they owned. They ended up staying there for several days and when the water was so high they decided to get another group of people (about 18) and bring them to the church. They were in another house in the neighborhood and running out of food. So Father Anton took the ladder he had taken up to the second story and climbed onto the roof and used the ladder to stretch across from rooftop to rooftop to get to the other group of people and bring them to the second story where they were staying. They ended up waiting out the flooding and finally a rescue boat came but Father Luke felt he couldn’t leave his church so he stayed for a few more days and finally when he was out of food and everyone else had been rescued he was airlifted by a helicopter and made it on CNN (if anyone saw that).

Wednesday we began the day by cleaning out storm drains in the Lower 9^th ward. The city normally cleans the drains to keep them from stopping up but has not been doing anything since Katrina and a few residents commented that they didn’t even do it before Katrina. Due to the lack of drain cleaning the streets still flood if there is significant rain in a short period of time. It was sobering and very emotionally intense to spend an entire day in the 9^th ward. There are still some houses that are standing very few have even been gutted let alone work being done on them to fix them. One of the houses that was right where we were cleaning a drain there was an open window that looked into what used to be a little girls room. There was a Dora the Explorer poster on her wall, and a cabbage patch doll that reminded me of the doll I used to call Suzie. Her bedding was little pink flowers. In the living room (there was a large hole in the wall) there were still family pictures pasted up on the wall, the ceiling fan was still in place but all the fan things were drooping down towards the floor. It was very sad to be constantly thinking of all of the families who lost not only belongings but family members due to this terrible tragedy. That evening we stopped by Common Ground which is where we were going to originally stay. It was huge and apparently there are 500 people staying there. Large operation! We then came back to the house cleaned up and a few of us spent some time in the French Quarter and ate Beniegts at Café du Mond.

Thursday morning we had the levee field trip. The same field trip I took last year with the same professor from Tulane. There were some additional facts he told us but for the most part it was what I learned last year except this year he was much more adamant about placing blame and finding the responsible party and making sure they were held responsible for their actions. The responsible party for anyone who doesn’t know is the Army Corp of Engineers. They screwed up and used outdated definitions for what a category 3 hurricane was and used wrong definitions for what the worse hurricane was that could hit NOLA in 100 years (this is the strength they were supposed to build the levees to). I’m pretty sure I talked about this in my blogging from last year’s trip so be sure to check that out. Yesterday afternoon we worked with the church and then went to a play entitled “Rising Water” that was “a New Orleans love story”. It was good, it told a personal story and made the loss very intimate.

This morning we went to City Park and planted bulrush, irises, magnolia trees, and oyster grass with a bunch of high schoolers and some students from Yale. It was a lot of fun and a great experience. Then Sharon, Cindy and myself went to see Elenora from last year. Check out the blogging from last year to see what a wonderful woman she is and what an amazing man her husband is (very cute too)! I’ll be sure to let you know what else is happening tonight and tomorrow morning for our final large group reflection.

Finally got online!

So I finally managed to find internet for my computer. I am currently sitting at University of New Orleans in their library on the third floor with about 5 or 6 of my group members all attempting to get online. I have been keeping a journal and will copy what I have written for the past few days below.

Today we woke up and got to work right away painting the fence at Our Lady La Vang church. We figured out our schedule for the rest of the week so stay tuned and you'll hear all about what wonderful things we have planned to do. I went grocery shopping and to Lowe's with Sharon. Shopping in NOLA is crazy. It was a Monday afternoon (3ish) and the grocery store was madness. There were people everywhere and the lines were crazy! We came here and when we get back we'll be doing dinner and meeting with a few Hamline alums (I think). Possibly we'll go to a thing that common ground has on katrina stuff. I can't remember the name of the talk but we'll see if we end up going.

3/17/07

Good morning everyone!

The first half day in NOLA was wonderful! Yesterday our flight arrived early (always a good thing for those of you who fly). We then drove to a couple places to drop other students from other groups off, the first was Xavier University. During the drive Sharon gained my trust as a navigator and I have been deemed trip navigator – I even have my own map!!! After the trip to Xavier we drove to the house I stayed in last spring and going there I got this sense of overwhelming emotion. The streets still looked the same, nothing had changed, not even the numerous houses that had pieces of the roof missing, or front doors boarded up, and the X’s on the front of the houses that marked when they had been searched were all still there. We met up with my group at Felicity house (the one I stayed in last year). Then we drove to where our house is which is the northern NOLA. We are staying with Our Lady La Vang, a Vietnamese church. It almost feels like a suburbs. The church that is hosting us is a beautiful church and they have been so generous to us.

Let me briefly describe our living situation. We are in a house that has been gutted, new sheet rock put up, the walls freshly painted, with one working bathroom (shower and toilet – no sink) and one working powder room (toilet and sink). The kitchen has no sink that works but a stove that does and I believe the refrigerator works as well. It is a lovely home or rather it will be eventually.

We got back here and Pa and I got settled (the two of us were the ones who came in yesterday whereas the rest of the group came in Friday). Father Antoine who speaks wonderful English took us all to dinner at this wonderful Asian buffet. After which we had a short group meeting and then all went to the French Quarter to experience Bourbon on St. Patty’s day. It was an experience. There was this random spontaneous parade going down the street. A float here, a large truck with people in the back throwing beads there, old men marching down the street in tux’s with large styrophoam rectangles that had lots of fake green carnations stuck in them which any woman could win simply by kissing the old man on the cheek. I got mine another way, I found it on a bench. I gained three strands of large beads during this rather unique parade. It was very enjoyable and then I managed to get us back to a place where we could be picked up by Sharon and went home.

This morning I woke up (one of the first I might add) to a bobcat and church bells, and many other loud noises. I’m headed out to see if there is anything Father Antoine wants me to do and to join the noise. Have a wonderful day!

3/18/07

I can’t believe it is already 11:30 in the evening. I am finding it extremely difficult to place today’s experiences in my realm of vocabulary and ability to describe. I’ll start by describing what we did. The actual stuff of our experience today.

The morning began with loud noises outside the doors and in the yard. I got out of bed, wrote my morning blog, and headed out to greet the morning. I got to do some small things with Father Antoine and then took a trip with him to Lowe’s. On the way I learned about the fate of the large oak trees that used to dot the street near where we are. They are all gone and there are numerous stumps. Father Antoine said they were all cut down because they died and the city used volunteers to plant new magnolia trees in their place. At Lowe’s I saw ‘do it yourself mold checking kits’, bleach, and Clorox bleach wipes. None of which I can recall seeing at a hardware store in MN or WI.

Our job for the day (or at least the one I worked on) was to scrape the rusted parts of this wrought iron fence they have going around the church and to paint it. I got to use a power tool with a metal filing round thing on the end to get rid of all of the rust paint chips off. Another group painted and another group did some planting of flowers etc around the building.

After our day worth of work we went to the lower 9^th ward. This is always an emotional trip and this year was extremely emotional. The changes in the 9^th were not at all what I expected. I really anticipated there to be some community members returning and living in trailors while they rebuild as there are in much of the rest of the city. I expected people to be working on making the environment livable, I expected so many things and the only one of my expectations that was fulfilled was change. I felt like I was walking into a jungle in the middle of the city. Everything was overgrown with green. The majority of the rubble that was there last spring had been removed and all I saw were empty lots that were overgrown with weeds. I saw 3 trailers (2 of which were FEMA trailers). From what I understand there were people living in all three of them. There were a few other residence sitting near their homes (or lots I suppose). I did not expect the 9^th to change from a living community of people to a deserted ghost town. The change was devastating. As a reflection piece my group stood in a circle embracing one another. Most of us cried, many of us were angry both with the lack of compassion for this lost community and the more than 1600 people who died and with a lack of respect for the community. There were 6 greyhound busses filled with college students on an “alternative spring break”. The majority of them never entered the 9^th they just stood on the outside and looked in. There were many vehicles driving around acting like tourists snapping pictures at other peoples disaster. In fact Common Ground said it well, they had a sign up that said “Tourists – Shame on you driving by without stopping. Paying to see my pain 1600 + died here”.

After the 9^th we transitioned to having a barbeque with a few members of the church and Father Antoine. The transition was just about as good as the one I just made (for those of you who don’t think I can use sarcasm in my everyday life and am very bad at it that was sarcasm). We then came back to the house we’re staying in and had a wonderful conversation about our thoughts and feelings throughout the day. We had some good starting conversations about race and the feelings race takes or rather took in this disaster.

I need to take a shower and will therefore end this passage doing very little justice to the feelings I’ve had today and to the experiences I’ve had. I’ve been here only a day and a half and I’ve already had a more meaningful experience than I did last year and I came home last year utterly changed and altered in my beliefs and feelings. This experience has been, is, and will be an amazing experience.

Update on Kelsey from Leah

Hi, this is Leah... I'm one of Kelsey's best friends. As we talking on the phone, she mentioned some internet difficulties, as in, not being able to get on. And I, stupidly, decided to allow her to dictate to me. She wanted me to let you know that she working on getting things updated. She has them all written out, she just can't get to the internet. She'll try to get them up tonight, but no guarantees!

NEW ORLEANS SPRING BREAK!

Well today the first group of HU students headed down to the 'big easy'. At this point I don't believe that New Orleans can be described as either big or easy. The population that has returned is still from what I understand dismal and the work that still has to be done is incredibly difficult and a long process ahead. I am very excited to be going down again and to see what has changed in the past year.
Last night I got a phone call from a woman named Elnora. Some of you may recall stories I have told about this amazing and couragous woman. I sent her a letter a few weeks ago saying we were coming down again and I am looking forward to the opportunity to meet with her again, she truly is an inspiration and it will be wonderful to see how she has done living in New Orleans over the past year.
I am terribly excited about this trip and can't wait until the plane flight tomorrow. I am a little uneasy due to the fact that I am the only authority figure going down tomorrow and am responsible for getting all the rest of the students to NOLA safetly. Don't get me wrong, I love traveling but group travel can be slighly nerve wracking and problems tend to arise when there are large groups traveling together.
I hope the rest of my group members have arrived safetly (or will in a few hours time) and I can't wait to be down there myself. I'll be sure to update as soon as I get a chance and let you know what I'm thinking and how things are going!

New Semester

Tomorrow begins a new semester, one that will prove to be quite exciting. I started an internship that is really just a volunteer position at United Hospital in St. Paul. I am enjoying it thus far. I've put in nearly 20 hours already. Up till now I've been working in an area called patient discarge escort service. Basically I cart patients around the hospital mostly for admitting and discharge. I get to meet a lot of patients and some even talk with me about the medical procedures they have gone through. That is the most exciting part for me. Thursday I'll begin a new area of volunteering. I'll be working in a Nursing Unit. I dont' know what I'll be doing yet, but I'm excited to begin it.
I'm only taking two real classes this semester: Physics and Death and Dying (religion course). My other courses are the internship, an independant study in German, band, and biology seminar. I'll still be keeping busy though, I will be starting a MCAT prep course in March and have to start studying for it soon. My date to take it is May 31st. The countdown has begun.
I have been applying for summer research positions at many different places. My number one choice would be an internship under a PhD student in German, number two would probably be in Boulder, CO doing cancer research and then all the other positions fall under those two.
That's about all for now, I'm still chair of MPIRG's Homelessness and Affordable Housing Task Force, I'll be planning the Famine for this spring, I'll be leading a group of HU students to New Orleans for reconstruction work over spring break, and still working three jobs on campus.