Catch-up on Vida in Omaha

Good news and bad news: I've been so busy here in Omaha (good) that I have not been able to keep up on blog posts (bad). Sorry to all of those that check this religiously. I usually separate my doings week-by-week, but I'll just use a theme format for today. 

Junior Coach Position

Sadly, I’ve yet to step into my high school and meet students. Along with an expansion to a new city comes a process of being approved for EVERYTHING. We were approved my principal at South a few weeks ago, but have been held up at the district level. I completely understand why they want to be thorough in their approval process, it’s still disappointing that at the start of Week 8 here in Omaha I’m still working in an office from 9-5.

We did, however, get our new supervisor Bryan. We met him over breakfast at  Wheatfields, a little breakfast place down in the Old Market area that actually has gluten free pastries. For the first time in my whole life, I was able to order a breakfast entrée and actually choose a side for it. I’ve gone on my whole life always asking for a fruit cup substitute. It was awesome! Anyway, Bryan is great. He has a lot of experience from serving in the Peace Corps and is challenging me every week. It’s been refreshing having someone new in the office.

I went out to Creighton’s fall job fair two weeks ago to recruit for AmeriCorps members for next year. Crazy, right? I loved being able to talk with people and connect with other nonprofits that were there. I was surprised by how many “corps” organizations were there, an entire row! It definitely speaks to the mentality of Creighton students and how many are committed to doing a year of service.

Something interesting about Nebraska that stands out in the higher education world is that the government is committed to sending almost 2,000 more high school seniors to college on an annual basis. The Post Secondary Education Committee outlined here exactly how many students from each high school in the state of Nebraska need to attend college. Not a surprise, my high school ranks number one as the most populated school with the lowest college-going rate. I pulled together an analysis of how these goals line up with our organization and I think that it can help with our expansion here in Omaha in coming years.

Although I don’t have any students, I was required to teach two practice lessons to my coworkers last week. Surprisingly, I was terrified. I was very nervous to teach to my peers, more than I’ve ever been in a classroom. After my second lesson, however, I felt right on track. It was a great reinforcement of why I’m here and the job I will be doing in the future. Since Team Omaha will be behind in our lessons when we start sessions, it was interesting to see how much we’ll need to cut out or condense in our future lessons to stay on track with ACT preparation.

First Lutheran

My experience at First Lutheran has been a preview of the challenges I will face at South. I’ve been working with a group of middle and high school students to help lead them through confirmation class and it’s been a challenge. Some of our youth come from a very unstable background and it is apparent in their values and priorities. They seem to be attached to their cell phones more than any other kids I’ve met before and I think it might be because it is one of the few possessions that they have direct control over. As a youthworker, I know that I will never really get to know these youth for a couple of months because I need to gain their trust first. Right now I’m seen as the outsider and I’m working to build a relationship with each individual youth. It’s crazy hard with my limited hours at the church. Today, I actually had to teach Sunday School to all of the K-5 students and had a great time. 

Social

There have been so many random things I’ve been involved with over the past few weeks, I’ll just outline a few of them. I've joined a Life Group from Candlewood and am loving it! I get to spend multiple nights a week with other amazing women. I’m part of a book club where we’re reading “Crazy Love”, go to a Bible Study on Thursday nights and hangout with the girls randomly throughout the week. A bunch of the people from Candlewood all live in the same apartment complex so we had a tailgate party for a Husker game a few weeks ago and then watched the game together. I counted over 50 people in one person’s apartment watching the game on a projector against a living room wall. What a true Husker experience. I mean, other than actually attending a game.

One of my friends, Maria, lives in a great apartment in Old Market where there is an actual pool and hot tub on the roof of the building. We had a rooftop grill out and it was fun. I love getting to meet other people that are friends with my friends here. For this rooftop party I ventured to Wohlner's a local small market that has a great meat counter. I purchased a preseasoned burger patty and was thoroughly impressed with the quality. At this store, they will actually grill your meat behind the counter. So, I could have bought a steak and had it made to order at the market. Seems a little intense if you ask me. Now watch, I’ll end up doing that someday.

I haven’t really ventured out on the town too much lately, but on Friday night I headed over to Blazin Pianos with Kelly and Maureen. It was entertaining, but not as good as I thought I would have been. The piano players were a little rude to the audience and I felt personally offended sometimes. They were good and I had fun, but I don’t think I’d ever go back there. I’d be interested to see how Shout House compares.

Homeward Bound

I came home last weekend to surprise my mom for her graduation! I’d been planning this surprise for over a month and was excited to spend time with her for an extended weekend. I drove home with my friend Lydia and surprised my mom on our front doorstep at about 11 p.m. last Thursday. I had a surprise to top that one for her when I informed her that I also talked to her boss and got her the next day off of work without her knowledge! Boo yah! Anyway, it was fun to spend time at home with my family and celebrate my mom’s amazing accomplishment. At one point, she was working full-time, serving on city council, going to school part-time and volunteering with a local nonprofit. I still have no idea how she managed to balance it all.

Group Shot

Here's Team Omaha!

Week 3: It's Official.

So, Team Omaha is pretty legit. We went to the Mayor of Omaha's office last Monday to meet with other AmeriCorps VISTAs. While we were hoping for a photo op with the mayor, but we were unsuccessful on that front. He was "out of the state", whatever that means. It was encouraging to meet with others in Omaha who are serving especially because there are so few of us here. In the Twin Cities, I feel if you didn't serve with AmeriCorps you at least know what it is. Here, I explain the program to people I meet every single day. At the mayor's office we found out that there are about 20 other VISTAs at Metro Community College, the big community college here in Omaha. We're trying to connect with them now to learn about things that they are doing for free or cheaply. Also, having friends is good too. 

As we're starting from scratch here, that means that we have no official office let alone have furniture for that office. One of my tasks upon arriving here has been to scope out businesses that we think might be willing to give us in-kind donations of furniture/office supplies. I was successful at getting a trunk-load of office supplies from another nonprofit (literally my trunk is full of office supplies). We've had a few meetings at Creighton University with people in admissions, multicultural services and other academic programs and I got to thinking Hmm...maybe they have a bunch of random furniture sitting around somewhere. After getting in contact with the right people, we were invited to "go shopping" through their old furniture. We walked into a warehouse on campus and were given a tour of all the desks, chairs, file cabinets and cubicles that have been used throughout the years at Creighton. We post-it noted whatever we wanted- it was awesome! Who doesn't love free stuff? There were definitely a few items that we avoided but overall I was impressed with the quality of the office ware there. We have about 12 chairs, 6 desks and 3 filing cabinets on hold at Creighton now. I felt so accomplished after that morning. 

Although at this point my school hadn't been approved yet by the principal, Kyle's school was in the process. We were invited to meet with the counselors at Northwest High School, where Kyle will be stationed this year. It was interesting to listen to the questions that they asked our organization so we could learn more about their concerns and excitement for us to be at their school. Also, it was just refreshing to be out of the office and in a school. It reminded me of what I signed up for this term of service. 

I did something very adult-like that I think made my move here official: I found a dentist. I somehow missed my June cleaning for my dentist in Hudson and needed to get in asap. So, I looked up reviews of dentists that were approved through my insurance and went for it. I ended up choosing Dundee Family Dental and was very impressed. The hygienist I had was great and actually chatted with me about my move here (she LOVED that I folded my mattress in half in the back of my car) and the dentist was pretty familiar with Minneapolis. It always makes me feels more at home here when people are familiar with the Cities. It seems like the distance just becomes shorter and shorter from home. 

Another momentous occasion at our house this week was getting cable. I tried to setup an antenna for my tv, but our house is in a black hole for signals. I could get about 2 channels in and they only worked if no one moved around on the second floor. So it almost never worked. We had a mess getting the cable hooked up, every time that I called Cox for service I was told something different. The responses were anything from that we needed to come to the service center to show proof that we lived in our house to putting down a yearlong deposit on our account. It was all very strange. Kelly called and finally got one straight answer. Anyway, I was gone when they came and setup and discovered that our cable cords are a mess. The cable guy couldn't really figure out where all the cords came in and went out of our rooms, which is a little strange. You'd think it would be pretty clear where one cord goes in and comes out. So, Kelly and Kyle tried to plug the cable in my room into the tv and anytime the end of the cable got close to the tv, it sparked. When I got home, I did a little research and learned that you shouldn't plug cords in when electronics are turned on. Kelly and I unplugged my tv, screwed the cable in and plugged my tv back in. When I turned the tv

I got a gym membership this week and have been utilizing it at least every other day. I missed working out and  being active. During this past summer I was naturally active with my job (chasing kids around on field trips outdoors) so I never really felt that I needed to be active or get outside. After being here for a week though, I felt my body getting restless. I'm trying to get on a running and strength training plan, so if anyone has any suggestions please send them my way! 

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to read these weekly postings, it means a lot to me to have people reading my writings. Let me know if you want to be added to a list so you are emailed when I update weekly. Onto the next week!