then i saw fireflies

whew! it is CRAZY to think that only a day has passed by, since training had begun here. i am staying at a beautiful seminary out here in west philadelphia - it straight up looked like buckingham palace with a catholic statue flair to it, when we first arrived. i am with about 25 other teachers in the response ability program ( catchy, i know! ), but i am attending this teacher training with the group, though i am with the cabrini mission corps, with this other missioner, michelle. we're gonna be teachers/campus ministers at mother cabrini high school in new york! yay!

...yeah this is for real. i'm gonna be a teacher. a health teacher. and i'm gonna talk abotu fun stuff like puberty, drugs, and stds. hahahahaha, yeah, RIGHT?! :) i just received some name plates too for my classroom. DANG!

it has been quite the whirlwind so far, but God has been so good in bringing together good great people in my midst. whenever i hear the word LA ( there are some people here that will be moving to downtown Los Angeles to serve with their program ), i immediately think of santa monica and all the goodness west LA has brought me. and then i think of coupons. and then i immediately forget. HAHAHA...it is crazy to think that that was my life for the past two years, because to be honest, i can not even, maybe because i do not want to, but i can not even remember the feelings i had sitting in my cubicle - the negatives ones that would jump out at me when i would get upset. i think that's a good thing!

the homesickness is still there for sure. every time i talk to my mom on the phone, i know we are both crying a little bit on the other end. trying really hard to mask it as much as possible. we had a prayer this morning and we invited the spirit into the place wherever we were at - into the homesickness we were feeling, into the nervousness, the anxiety, the uncertainty. it is so good to talk to these other volunteers with me and hear their struggles and the challenges they all faced trying to get here. we all had to battle our parents in one way or another, whther it was good or bad, we were all faced with some crazy bumps along the way, but we all recognize the call that we each received. and we all responded in the same way. it's good.

to be perfectly honest though, i have yet to feel 100% completely comfortable here. given, it's only been a day, but still, like, i'm not quite there yet...maybe, we will see. i think it's cause it's hard for me to sleep in an unknown, unfamiliar place, and i'm starting to really understand that i will not be home for another 5 months. what the heck...so that is that. i am still so absolutely certain that i am supposed to be here, but it is just the living and the struggling with the effects of that decision, that hit me the hardest.

the humidity is unreal - i feel like, it's unfortunate. and it's not even that bad, but compared to socal, it's not exactly pleasant. :) that's ok though...we are living simply, we are eating well, my hair hates the humidity, and i saw my first fireflies this afternoon!!!! yeahhhhhhhhhh!!!!! haha as IF i love nature or something.

but there we have it. i'll try to post pics asap, but since they don't have wireless here, i gotta access everything through the seminary's library computers, and of course, facebook is blocked. YEAH, shoot, gotta keep those seminarians away from the real world. hahaha!

oh yeah, and 3 different people in the program have told me that i remind them of someone they know. shoot, so i'm unique. HAHA

until next time my loves <3

try your best and God will take care of the rest...