1/27

I don't even know what to title these things anymore now that we're into the semester. And might I add that it's extremely difficult to keep up and be consistent. I'm already falling behind!
Ok, so since Wednesday, on which I forgot to tell you, our friend who we see at the Metro stop everyday brought us Ferrero Rocher chocolates! A 12 pack each! That was very generous of him. That was the day we found out his name: Louis!
Thursday was the second day for interviews and setting up internships. I tried calling and emailing people. I called Sarah, the program coordinator and she gave me another name to contact (which ended up being a dead end), but she also consoled me and told me that there's really not a whole lot that I can do about them not calling me. And she said that if I didn't start Tuesday, it would be okay. I spent all day by myself because Lydia did have interviews and Erika was at school and Juanita was at work. But before they all came home, I left to go hang out with Dino. That was good. We had Thai food, and he brought me some stuff I had left at home. Like my guitar. I'm so glad I have it now, except for the fact that it's out of tune. But I suppose that's easily remedied.
Friday was our first day of Community Organization and Social Change. We talked about the differences between charity, relief, community development and community organization and a little bit about how we're doing with homesickness and such. I realized that I was a little hungry for communication. You all can read this and feel connected to me in a way, but I'm lacking contact with you guys. Please feel free to call me. I'd probably love to hear your voice and know how you're doing! After class, some of us decided we'd go to Chinatown and then to my house to watch Arrested Development! Well, before we went there, Jesse had an interview, so Lydia, Josh and I went to Starbucks and chatted it up for a bit. Then we met them in Chinatown after they had managed to pick our teacher from off the Metro. So he hung out with us, and we all ate fried bananas (which were delicious!) and then went and got $2 combos from ABC Seafood, which isn't only seafood. There wasn't room to sit in there, so we went to a bakery that Paul (our teacher, whom we call P. Diddy) showed us. There we ate, sampled pastries that Paul bought us and drank boba! Good stuff. We laughed and told stories. I'm pretty sure I've never hung out with a teacher outside of class before. One of the coolest things ever! :) After that Aicia and Jesse came over and stayed the night. We watched first 7 episodes of Arrested Development and then they went home. And we did our homework. Kind of. I can't rememeber what Saturday was like. Oh! I talked to Allie for almost an hour. That was really good. I definitely felt better after that. And later, most of the LA Term students got together and we ended up at the same restaurant that I went to on Thursday. The food was just as good the second time. (If you want good Thai food in LA, go to Tip's House. Or Alice's restaurant, but I haven't been there yet.) Then I came home and went to sleep. End of Saturday.
Sunday started with my meeting Christy and Brittan to got to church at Immanuel Presbyterian. We made it for the last bit of the bilingual service and the whole English one. I think I'd probably like the bilingual one better, but that's ok. The worship music was odd, and then I realized that it was probably from Africa, so I looked in the bulletin. Sure enough, the first song was in Zulu and the second was from Tanzania. Then came the sermon. It was the first time I'd ever heard a female pastor speak. She talked about no worrying so much about what you're supposed to do in life. It's about how you do it. God gave you passions, but he wants you to live for Him. It was definitely different from what I'm used to. I felt like I was stuck in the early 90s. Next week, I'll try F.A.M.E. (First African Methodist Episcopal) or the Church of the Redeemer. Anyways, after church, I went with Christy and Brittan for a quick stop at the Coffee Bean (my first time ever) and ordered a Winter Dream Latte. When I had gone to Starbucks last, I ordered a Vanilla Rooibos Latte. I realize that I absolutely adore tea lattes. They are delicious! You should try one. And shortly after that, I met up with Alicia and Jesse and Lydia and Brianna and Bethel and Josh to go watch some more Arrested Development at Alicia and Jesse's homestay. (Noticing a pattern?) After about 4 episodes, there were just four of us, and Jonathan joined us, too. We ate dinner with their family, which was great. They made their own Jamaica and Horchata! It was so good. I'm starting to see that I'm pretty in love with new beverages. I guess you could say I like to drink. ;) Or not. Then, because it was dark Jonathan and Josh came with me to make sure I got home alright and ended up sticking around for a little while, mostly doing homework. Then as the bus pulled up for them to leave, we all gave each other hugs, and the bus started to pull away! It was the funniest thing to watch them chase it down for 13 seconds.
Monday we talked about our reading (the first 3 chapters of The Powers That Be by Walter Wink) and discussed spirituality and systems for a while. Then we split into four groups and walked around South LA on another sort of Scavenger hunt, but it was more for observation than anything. (We have to use it to write a paper. Boo.)After class, I came home and had my telephone AC interview. I can't tell you whether it went well or not, but I can tell you I'll either get the position or I won't. :) But really, I'm not upset with the way I represented myself, because I was honest in what I thought. Wednesday is the group interview, so I'll be on APU campus for a few hours. Christy and Brittan came over for GossipGirl, but it was a rerun, so I was very upset. We think it'll be a weekly thing now, them coming over to watch it after yoga. That was the end of Monday pretty much, except for the fact that I toca'ed the guitarra for a little while and got a phone call from South Central LAMP (because Sarah had given me the Executive Director's cell phone number). She told me to go to the open house and talk to (yet another) person who could help me.
So this morning, I got up and was on my way to South Central. When I got off the bus, I couldn't remember the address, so I asked around, walked a little bit in the wrong direction, then realized I could call the organization. I pressed 4 and the recorded message told me that I had to go to 104 West 47th. The problem was that I was at 1000 47th street. So I walked West. For a while. When the numbers started going up again, I knew something was wrong. Then I realized that the address was for 47th PLACE. Not Street. So I walked up half a block and started looking around. From what I could tell, there wasn't a 104 West 47th Place in existance. So I called the operator, and she told me that they operated out of the building on McKinley and 48th Street. The problem is that I had passed McKinley fairly early on in my journey. I had to walk back to almost where I started. I finaly arrived and actually talked to the person I was directed to! Luckily, I had brought my resume with me just in case. She told me that they were in need of someone to do administrative work. Not what I expected. I had really wanted to do something with ESL, but they had only the idea of individual tutoring. If I did that, it'd be rocky at first and it wouldn't start for a while. I'd mostly do paperwork and phone calls, which is not really what our internship is supposed to be about. I still haven't heard from CHIRLA and I'm not sure about South Central LAMP. I'm just frustrated with it all. I wish I could know. And I wish it would work out soon.
Pray for it. Please. It's stressful when everyone else started work today and I'm still looking for an internship. Also, pray for what I'm learning and that my mind and heart will be opened. That I'll be able to go deeper. I'm going back to APU tomorrow for the interview, and hopefully I'll see a few friends. Continue in prayer for my church search. And that's all I can think of for now. I'm a little sad inside, but I'm not sure why. So pray. Prayer is always good.
Goodbye for now, folks!
Teej :)