My Year Of Service - #1

Following the suggestion of an old classmate and a friend of my parents, I applied for an AmeriCorps position in February of this year. After several essays and interviews, I got multiple acceptance letters in June and ultimately went with a program in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The AmeriCorps program that I'll be participating in this school year is run by Notre Dame Mission Volunteers-AmeriCorps and today is my first day of orientation. Today I'll be meeting with other NDMVA volunteers and learning about the service sites that each of us will be working in. My service site is an inner-city Catholic elementary school.
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It has been quite a journey since the day I first submitted my application to AmeriCorps!
These last few weeks have been a bit of a challenge: packing, finding housing for my year of service, etc., but this last week was like finally getting that carrot on the end of a string.
I drove to Cincinnati from Chicago on Monday and stayed with a good friend. When I got to his house, my best friend from Illinois was sitting on his front steps to surprise me! The next day, the three of us visited what would be my apartment and then went sight-seeing for an entire day. We visited the Carew Tower, Fountain Square, Graeter's, the Purple People Bridge, and the Serpentine Wall.
After a long day in the sun, we went back to his house to find about 20 of his friends and family members waiting there to surprise-welcome me to Ohio. Not only that, but seconds after arriving, everyone in the room began to snap to a rhythm... And then my friend broke into song:

Josie Welcome to Cincinnati, girl
You'll be happily living in a world
Where we cheer on the Bengals and the Reds also Hello Ocho Cinco

Chili on hotdogs and fries
It is our speciality
So please have some pride
And if you do you'll see
The weather is nice at least sometimes
here's a hint : meteoroligists lie

if you like ice cream
there's nothing greater than Graeters
and Montgomery Inn's got the right flavor
i think that you'd agree to Skyline for lunch
and for dessert baby UDF caramel crunch

so Josie welcome to our metropolis
and actually, we call it Porkopolis
we wrote this ditty
to try to make you smile a little
Josie, Welcome to Cincinnati, girl

The party was fun and it was great to see so many familiar faces (and meet a couple new people as well!). I couldn't have asked for a more memorable first couple of days in Ohio. :)

The next day, I drove to Columbus and visited with my cousin and some former coworkers. Somehow, we managed to squeeze in a visit to the Columbus Zoo and see the baby elephant!
I hit the road again the next day, this time to eastern Ohio to visit family for a few days. It was nice to see them and I'm glad to be living a lot closer to them now (about 5 hours instead of 10, driving).

Sunday afternoon, I drove all the way back to my friend's house in Cincinnati and re-gathered my things. Monday morning we packed the cars and moved everything into my new apartment* (*rented room). Everything was done by 5pm!

Now I have merely one hour before my first day of AmeriCorps Orientation, and I am very excited! I'll get to meet the volunteers that I'll be serving and meeting with over the next 11 months and seeing the various service sites they will be working at.

I can't wait!