Upon the start of my second week in Omaha I was already starting to feel settled in. Our house was almost completely furnished (still missing dining room chairs) but my own space is finally mine! I put up all my posters (yes, JT is on my wall) and arranged my room. Yay, new temporary home! In Omaha, there are these super nasty spiders that are scary looking. We left our outside light on once when we were coming home late at night and one of the spiders put up a web by our front door that was INSANE. I almost walked right into it, thankfully Kelly didn't let me. We made Kyle get the web down in the daytime but another spider formed a web right over our back window in the kitchen. The spider hides during the day, but at night it is giant and terrifying. I just hope that it stays outside and does not venture into our house.
I explored a restaurant Roja that has Margarita Monday! They have $1.99 Margaritas! Yum. When you're living on an AmeriCorps budget, you've got to find the cheap ways to explore new restaurants. I went there with some new friends that I've made here (hallelujah). I also went to Crescent Moon which is right by our house. It's a cool bar that I can definitely see myself spending time at here. It's laid back and leaves room for good convo.
Before I came to Omaha, I was already looking up opportunities for a small part-time job. Half of my reasoning is for extra income, the other half is just so I have something to do on the weekends. I found a position to work in the nursery at a church and pursued it. Upon arriving here, I was recruited by the same church to actually be their Youth Leader. It's a small outside job (only Sundays and every other Friday) but it's perfect for my schedule. It doesn't interfere with the time I want to dedicate to my students during the weekdays and still gives me time on the weekends to unwind/explore Omaha.
I just happened to stumble across a small advertisement for something called "Educator's Breakfast" in my first week here. Every few months there is a morning session hosted at the Jewish Community Center where people from the education community come together to learn more about a topic. Team Omaha attended the breakfast and had the opportunity to watch the documentary "When We Stop Counting" about Crete High School in Crete, NE. They followed a few Latino students in the high school through their year of school. Each of the students had a unique story that was intriguing to learn about. Check out the trailer -->
Finally, we toured University of Nebraska -Lincoln! Here, people refer to it as Nebraska. Like there are no other institutions. The campus is flooded with "Big Red" banners and gear. It is the biggest school in NE and definitely has a strong reputation here. Also, the Huskers are a religion. I think that in coming from the Twin Cities (where we have multiple professional leagues) to NE (where they really only have this one football team) it is easy to see that it brings together so many people. You pretty much have to like the Huskers. Bad news for me though, the Huskers just joined the Big Ten so they actually go against the U in football. Also bad news, the Huskers will probably kill the Gophers. Yay, homecoming...
I also watched my first Huskers game on that Saturday too! I was invited over to a friend's apartment in Old Market (cool part of Omaha) to watch the game. While I don't have any shirts that say "Huskers" or "Big Red" on them, I did rock some red earrings. That counts, right? The Huskers won, of course, and I thought it was a good game. I feel like everywhere I go, I run into more people from MN. I met two different girls from MN that day- one from Willmar and the other from Lakeville. Crazy, right?
Kelly and I also discovered a Goodwill in Old Market that is the PRIME Goodwill. They actually go around to all the Goodwills in Omaha and take all the cool retro/vintage stuff and put it in this one! It was definitely a little pricey, but I found a few things I considered buying.
Team Omaha also made an AmeriCorps video, I'll try and post it when I find it!
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