After 2 days on the road, lots of laughs, and some amazing landscape, we arrived to our church on Sunday evening. It is beautiful here, and it always smells good. :) There are flowers everywhere, and today I brushed my teeth outside next to a palm tree. It's just a different kind world out here, and I am not complaining at all.
The church community has been so loving and welcoming towards all of us. They love having YouthWorks here and do what they can to accommodate us. We were recommended a little mexican restaurant for Sunday night dinner, so we tried to find it. However, on our way, we spotted the ocean and immediately tried to get to it asap. We ended up on Coronado Island, right next to the famous Hotel del Coronado. Running towards the ocean was one of the best feelings, especially after 2 days in the car.
On Monday, after getting our things out of storage and beginning to set up the site, we were invited to a Memorial Day picnic with the church where we got to meet a lot of the members and just enjoy a gorgeous day with some great people and delicious food. The rest of the week has been a lot of setting up, calling community contacts, meeting with them, finding directions for all of our activities, and visiting each of these activity areas. Unfortunately, this means we had to go to the beach 3 times. Hate when that happens. :)
Tonight, after a stressful day of dealing with finances and faxes, we are just relaxing with some of the local kids who go the church. Natalie, Junior, Nena, and Paloma come to see us almost daily and brighten our days with their smiles, laughter, and helping us re-learn Spanish.
I'm writing the rest of this from a Saturday afternoon standpoint, after getting distracted by the rousing game of uno and going to do laundry. That's right, we're that cool, we do laundry and eat ice cream right from the tub while we wait for the clothes to dry. It's little things like that that I'll remember most, I think. It seemed slightly ridiculous as it happened last night, but I already look back on it with a smile. We also found a great little bakery, Panchitas, right around the corner from the laundromat. It's little places like this that make me so excited about living in a city. For me, the zoo and other touristy attractions are great, but I want to know about the little bakery that has the best pan ducle and the little taco shop that looks a little sketchy but has the BEST tacos ever. :)
Today has been more brainstorming for how the weeks will run, mailing our weekly forms to the main office (waiting in line at the Post Office has to be one of the most awkward parts of my week, no one talks to anyone and you just have to find your own direction to stare at until it's your turn. Definitely different from Kendallville...), more office work, and then the beach again this afternoon! I'll be sure to take more pictures!
It's great to see how God is moving in each of us individually and as a staff so far. We all already feel like we've been together and here for a summer, and we have yet to know each other for longer than 2 weeks. I know the bonds we've formed now are going to help us through some of the long weeks when programming starts, so I pray that these relationships continue to grow.
And I'm now finishing this Monday evening. The past 2 days have been incredibly productive, making final contacts, finalizing directions and summaries of organizations, figuring out logistics, and praying and trusting hard that God will get us through the first week next week with no major mishaps! We could use your prayer in this right now; we're dealing with some program overlap and activity adjustments that was unforeseen until a few days ago. We know God is greater than any of that and will find a way to make it happen!
We have a PO Box set up now, so if you want to send some regular mail my way, I'd be happy to receive it! The address is YW: Alecia Carmicheal, PO Box 620130, San Diego, CA, 92162-0130-30.
The following are some pictures of the trip out here and of some of our community. For the full album, check out the album "You Stay Classy, San Diego" on Facebook.
Now my uploader is being dumb. Maybe it will let me post more later and I can just upload some pics. Or, better yet, just check out this link, it'll take you right to the Facebook album if all works correctly. If it doesn't, leave a comment and I'll try to fix it.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051961&id=56202899&l=ddefb5ad16
Chillin in the laundromat, eating our ice cream and waiting for our clothes...
Real live white go-go boots. One of many reasons why Cali is so cool. :)
Beach feet. Love it.
YouthWorks San Diego Staff 2010! Matt, Nicole, Alecia, and Stuart
Incredible.
Me, our Area Director, Heather, and Nilcole
