It's Been A Long Time

Before I write anything, I need to commend my Michigan State Spartans for an impressive showing during their first two football games. It is a great start to the season when you know you have a much better record than Michigan and Notre Dame. Sparty and I give them a thumbs up. Go State!!!



Wow...I can't believe it has been so long since my last post. I have been up to quite a bit recently and therefore haven't had a chance to update this blog...so here goes with the short version of my past two weeks...pictures included.

By my count, I have been in five states over the last week including New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland. It was my first time to Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey so needless to say I was pretty excited. I also experienced the first of all first...a trip to New York City, but I am getting ahead of myself. Let me start where I left off about two weeks ago.

First - About two weeks ago the final member of our community joined us. Sara was on her vacation for the summer and joined us just in time for the start of the school year. I will give more detailed information about all community members as promised, but I have far too much to write currently. The below picture is Sara, Denis, and myself at Lasalle University's first football game of the year. It was a miserable game in which they lost 28-0. I love football and I was bored watching, but I did get a free t-shirt out of the deal (obviously the one in the picture). For anyone that really knows me, they will know a free t-shirt was worth it.



Second - After the miserable Lasalle football game, Sara, Denis, and I headed to Lake George in upstate New York to enjoy a weekend with other Lasallian Volunteers and some Brothers in an A-Frame. It was a great weekend of relaxing, riding in a canoe, watching the Sound of Music, playing games, and hiking up a mountain. But it was started and ended with a trip to Brooklyn. One of the volunteers didn't have a ride up, so we took a little detour and drove to NYC to pick her up. It was probably one of the best decisions we made during the weekend. We stayed in the Brothers community in Brooklyn which is beautiful for one night. They treated us to pizza and beer in their garden and great conversation. The Brothers sent us on the road the next morning with all sorts of great food and feeling very refreshed. We had such a great time that we are considering spending Thanksgiving in NYC. After leaving Brooklyn, we headed to the A-Frame which is right on the Hudson River. It was a great weekend overall. There is a slide show of pictures below for you to peruse. You will notice some great outdoor shots with some New York City flare including Yankee Stadium among others. If you can't view this slide show from your email, just click on the link to my blog and you can view it there.



Third - Myself and two of the Brothers in my community, Bud and Leo, headed to Northeast Philadelphia for a retreat. It was three days on getting to know one another and team building before we start the year at the Spiritual Center. I should probably clarify here because I am not sure I have thoroughly explained this. My job as a volunteer is split between two places, West Catholic High School and the Christian Brothers Spiritual Center. At West, I work in the Guidance Office and at the Spiritual Center, I work with Bud and Leo. We create and put on programs in our community for young adults. The focus is on spirituality, service, and social activities. So Bud, Leo and I headed on our retreat which was led by Sister Maria of the Sisters of Mercy. We stayed in the Sisters community and Maria led us through various activities everyday. It was really quite nice getting to know the Brothers and spending time in the Sister's beautiful home. The slide show below contains pictures from the week.

Also, some history I experienced over the week. The Sisters live in a home that was built by Rachel Avery who was part of the women's suffrage movement in the early 1900s. Rachel Avery was a personal friend and worked alongside Susan B. Anthony. When Susan B. Anthony would come to Philadelphia for meetings, she would stay in Rachel Avery's home (the house I was staying in). Maria was telling me this one night over dinner and I was quite intrigued. Come to find out that "Aunt Susan," as Rachel Avery referred to Susan B. Anthony, would stay in the pink room on the 3rd floor. Turns out I was staying in the pink room on the 3rd floor. It was really neat to be experiencing a piece of history like that. I included pictures of the room along with the house so you could experience the history with me. The dog in the pictures is Midas. He lives in the community as well.



Finally - I traveled done to Baltimore this weekend with Denis to hang out with some other volunteers and watch another pitiful Notre Dame game. It was nice to visit a new place and Baltimore has some really cute areas. We stayed the night with the volunteers and Brothers who live and work in Baltimore. They have a nice home which happens to be right next to a prison. I did not get any pictures of the prison. It was interesting because you can hear all sorts of noise coming from the prison from announcements over a loud speaker and also inmates yelling and what not. Friends and family often park outside the prison and yell to inmates on the inside. Apparently, it was someone's birthday the other night and a few cars pulled up to celebrate with their incarcerated friend/family member. I did not get to experience this while we stayed in the community but I did hear all the other noises. I don't have many pictures of this trip, but I did manage to get a few shots of Camden Yards.



I hope you have enjoyed this marathon of a blog entry. I am impressed with anyone that made it this far. If you did in fact read the whole blog, why don't you comment on what was your favorite part of my travels or something you thought that was interesting. I am eagerly awaiting your responses.