There have been so very many things, its better to try and just give you the boring vacation slide version:
- Golden Birthday in the city! No one from work showed up to the dinner but thankfully I had made 2 friends who invited a friend and we all had dinner at Times Square in Olive Garden then walked around. The Dave and Buster's was such a rip but there is a DDR machine there. My co-workers did join me for a birthday lunch and my manager treated me. Though I have no family in New York, I definitely feel like I have friends.
- Earthquake...in New York? Yea. And I missed it. I was in an elevator when it happened. But just a few days later....
- Hurricane Irene hits Queens, where I live. Power outages, flooding, downed branches and trees. But I was fine and the city turned out to heed the cautions well. Other places along the Atlantic coast were not as fortunate,
- Labor Day Weekend I finally find a place to live that I can use the address! I could have waited until the end of September since I had already paid through then, but for so many reasons I wanted to move immediately. The feeling of being unsettled, having to walk into the apartment complex behind others or wait for someone to come along and let me in was grating every day. I needed to set up things like doctors, food stamps, and more but without an address, I was immobilized in such an inconvenient way. I found a basement in a home a few bus stops down from where I was. A co-worker and now dear friend spent her Labor day helping drag and carry my suitcase set and a cart of things on the bus and down to the new place. I banged my ankle pretty good and ended up sick the next day, but we celebrated with the movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes which was good.
- The basement is part of a 2 story home, small bathroom (have to physically sit at an angle when I am on the John!!), no working lights for the stairs leading down, and a washer dryer that I can't use. Not to mention the poor reception, but I do need a new phone so that could just be my fault. The family on the first floor has a loud and noisy young boy of about 4 who runs and screams and jumps between 9 and 11pm most nights. I talked to his grandmother and I think things will be a little better from here on.
- Work. The whole reason I am in New York, to help students with their literacy, is far from my mind as I traveled sometimes 2 hours one way to either the main office or other Site Coordinator sites to help set up their schools. I finally moved into my classroom and it took 2 days of clearing and cleaning before I could even start setting up my actual things. We found a newspaper from 1969 that headlined "Man Walks on Moon"! My co-worker joked that we would end up finding the Declaration, but when we did it just became hysterical. The fact that it was a fascimile didn't matter, the room hadn't been cleaned in years and the former teacher had pictures, cards, wedding planning documents, and more personal items there. Le sigh. I officially start running my site on Monday morning but I have to be there at 8am. Since I have two buses and about an hour commute, I have to get up at 6am.
Granted, all the difficulties have been trying and frustrated, but at the end of the day, I am working, I have a place to live, I have food, and I can continue to count blessing after blessing in my life. Even though I have been reprimanded for my tardiness, because I didn't pick up interborough transportation instantaneously, and could lose my job because the transition was harder for me than anyone else, I still think this experience has taught me a lot about myself and I have noticed how lessons I have learned in other seasons of my life coming through...just keep swimming is a big one. If I am laden with bags, shoes hurting my feet, and I am lost in Manhatten and need to find the train for a probable 2 hour commute, I just breath and walk and remind myself that I am strong. Stopping is not an option. So many other times when I was younger, I found myself on my own in a pinch and simply had to rely on myself. There was no use in whining or complaining, explaining the unfairness, or seeking sympathy from strangers. Sometimes I was completely and literally by myself and I had to get home or get to work and I just made it happen. Carried over $100 worth of groceries from the store many times in Illinois through the snowy winters up stairs...because I did not have a choice. Biked through the snow to get to work on time because they buses were so unreliable I had nearly lost my job. And that list goes on. I have been carried in those moments by my Lord and through Him I can look back and honestly marvel at how I got over.
