Today is the first day of school! Most of my girls will be going to new high schools today, and I’m very excited for them. They have each been working with a staff member to pick the public school they’d most like to attend, and have been applying and interviewing over the past few weeks. Luckily, I think almost all of them got their first or second choice schools. They are allowed to go to public school (as compared to having a tutor come to the building, like the girls downstairs) because they have proven that they have a bit of stability. They need to go to new schools because we want to take the girls out of their old environments in hopes that they won’t return to old friends and bad habits as easily. I think a lot of the girls are nervous about today. It is a new school, most of them struggle academically, and they have experienced so much trauma already that go above and beyond the regular scope of normal high school problems. I’m excited to hear about how today went!
Aside from school, I am beginning to enjoy going to work. Some of the girls approach me to say hi now, and I’m beginning to be included more in information that circulates around the floor. I was able to read notes from a meeting about all of the girls, which helped me to learn more about each of their current situations. There is more going on than I thought, unfortunately. For one thing, it seems as though drug/substance abuse is growing amongst the girls. It will be interesting to see how all of the ongoing issues play out.
In other news, the other three tenants of GSV are going well too. This weekend I went to the Jersey Shore with my roommate Krystina, and it was everything I ever thought it would be. HA! We went to the boardwalk and saw the famous Jersey Shore house and spent the next morning at the beach. We also had dinner with the GSV girls from Wikatunk and played games, which was a lot of fun. We also played charades for community night last night and had a really good time. One issue in community that’s beginning to arise is that two of the seven girls have different work schedules than the rest of us, and they often feel lonely or left out. We talked about it yesterday at a community meeting, and are going to try to be more cognizant of the fact that they aren’t always in the same loop as the rest of us.
I’m doing better with simplicity that I thought I would, but I also gave myself a head start from the beginning. Our first paycheck was $127.38, and from that we needed to buy our metro cards and food for two weeks. I bought my metro card on my own credit card because the machine couldn’t accept the $20 bills I had, so I essentially started off with an extra $89. Aside from that, I have been logging all of my spending down to the penny, and have been conscious of not buying things I don’t need, for example coffee every day.
In addition to the tenets going well, I also LOVE living in NYC. It’s such an exciting place to live, and there’s always something to do. The weather finally cooled down a little so walking around this weekend was nice, and me and some of the girls were able to check out the Labor Day parade in Brooklyn. We had poor timing and missed most of the excitement, but we were also able to go to Greenwich Village and see an art exhibit afterwards. I finally saw Alice, my friend from home who also moved to NYC, and had a really fun time with her as well.
Fall is coming, I have a trip to Montreal planned in October, Dave and Kim are coming to visit soon… what more could I ask for?
Aside from school, I am beginning to enjoy going to work. Some of the girls approach me to say hi now, and I’m beginning to be included more in information that circulates around the floor. I was able to read notes from a meeting about all of the girls, which helped me to learn more about each of their current situations. There is more going on than I thought, unfortunately. For one thing, it seems as though drug/substance abuse is growing amongst the girls. It will be interesting to see how all of the ongoing issues play out.
In other news, the other three tenants of GSV are going well too. This weekend I went to the Jersey Shore with my roommate Krystina, and it was everything I ever thought it would be. HA! We went to the boardwalk and saw the famous Jersey Shore house and spent the next morning at the beach. We also had dinner with the GSV girls from Wikatunk and played games, which was a lot of fun. We also played charades for community night last night and had a really good time. One issue in community that’s beginning to arise is that two of the seven girls have different work schedules than the rest of us, and they often feel lonely or left out. We talked about it yesterday at a community meeting, and are going to try to be more cognizant of the fact that they aren’t always in the same loop as the rest of us.
In addition to the tenets going well, I also LOVE living in NYC. It’s such an exciting place to live, and there’s always something to do. The weather finally cooled down a little so walking around this weekend was nice, and me and some of the girls were able to check out the Labor Day parade in Brooklyn. We had poor timing and missed most of the excitement, but we were also able to go to Greenwich Village and see an art exhibit afterwards. I finally saw Alice, my friend from home who also moved to NYC, and had a really fun time with her as well.
Fall is coming, I have a trip to Montreal planned in October, Dave and Kim are coming to visit soon… what more could I ask for?
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