Harlem House in the Hurricane

Life in Harlem continued as usual for the girls in my house. Well, as usual as can be with a hurricane happening outside.

Let's just say growing up in the California desert didn't really prepare me for this.

the subway station closest to my house, in preparation.

after the hurricane. seeing it like this is so bizarre!

Work was cancelled for all eight of us for Monday and Tuesday, a couple of girls went in to work yesterday, two more of us had work today, and the rest of the girls have the rest of the week off because they are on the same schedule as public schools, and those are all officially closed for the week. We prepared by buying canned foods (the line at Trader Joe's was ridiculous), filling jugs with water, and gathering all of the candles and matches in our house. Luckily for us, that all ended up being unnecessary. We spent our time cooking, baking, and eating lots of food, and watching lots and lots of movies. Sunday night was the scariest: the lights flickered intermittently, the wind rocked our house (literally), and scary noises were coming from our rooftop (our table and grill were having a fun party up there). I decided to move my mattress away from the two windows that are normally surrounding my head and slept on the floor. Too far? Well...yeah, but I just wanted to be safe. 

All in all, it turned into a great few days of relaxation and community bonding, so that was very nice! It's kind of surreal seeing pictures and hearing stories of the destruction, though. To know that some people have lost their homes, even their lives because of this hurricane while I, just a few miles away, got to enjoy a mini vacation with my housemates. It just doesn't seem fair! But, it's not all bad. Images of humanity's kindness are also floating around the internet, and those keep me thinking optimistically. It's in these disasters that we can show how caring and compassionate we are, and I love seeing the people of this stereo-typically heartless city come together to help each other out. My heart goes out to all of those who's lives have changed in the past few days. Once again, I am reminded of how blessed and lucky I am. I will continue to pray for everyone affected and thank God that I am okay.

Bilingual Blessing?

I feel very very fortunate and blessed to have grown up bilingual. I learned Spanish before English because my parents were relatively recent immigrants by the time I was born. Throughout my life, I’ve been able to put my bilingualism to good use in singing, vocabulary, learning French, translating, eavesdropping, talking about people without them realizing it…the list goes on and on. I specifically remember being called to the office during class when I was in middle school. I was worried that I had done something wrong, especially after hearing the “oooh” coming from my fellow eighth graders as I walked out. The people at the office had actually just called me in to help them translate the needs of a family that had come to our school but only spoke Spanish. It was then that it really started sinking in that my ability could be helpful not only to myself for fun and selfish reasons, but also in a professional setting where it was sometimes very necessary and possibly uncommon.

But, I didn’t do anything to earn this. I didn’t go out of my way to study Spanish. I didn’t have to put in any hard work into learning how to freely use a new language. I didn’t have to go through hours of homework, quizzes, tests, conversations, reading, practicing, all of that just to become somewhat competent in Spanish.

Yet, I’m still reaping the benefits. I am a competitive candidate for placements anywhere and everywhere solely because my parents came from South America to the US and chose to teach me Spanish at home.

I tend to wonder whether or not it’s fair to me or to those that I may “beat out” for a spot somewhere. Did I get into UCLA just because I am a minority and got decent grades in high school? Did JVC accept me because they wanted a greater diversity in their 2012-2013 group? Did I get chosen by my job site just because they only have a few other bilingual people on staff, and they thought my Spanish speaking skills would be helpful when translations were needed? Or have I been accepted into these competitive positions and others based on my own merit? Did they see that I work hard and put my best foot forward? Was I recognized as someone who is passionate, or just someone who is in touch with her Hispanic side?

I know I’m so lucky to know Spanish, and I will be eternally grateful to my parents for teaching us their native tongue. I know of so many other people who have immigrant parents who chose to not teach their kids the languages of their home countries, and they all wish they had learned it the same way I did. I feel ungrateful for second-guessing the doors that have opened for me due to being bilingual, but sometimes, I just can’t help it. I am constantly smacked with the reality that shows me the amazing and unique opportunities I have been given, and I just hope that I truly earned them and didn’t take them away from someone else who was more deserving.

May We Never Forget

I felt so honored to be in New York for the anniversary of September 11th. I still remember sitting at the kitchen table at home and seeing the news broadcast...and now, here we are, eleven years later.

I met up with Megan, and we went south to where the World Trade Centers used to stand. We unfortunately couldn't go in to see the actual memorial because all of the passes had already been reserved for the day, but we're hoping to make a trip down there in the future.

We found this fire house that was right along the border of where all of the construction is currently happening.

We also happened across this small gift shop-like place that had some displays dedicated to 9/11 along with books, keychains, and stuffed search and rescue puppies.

"This flag is created from the names of those who perished in the terrorist attacks of 9/11
Now and forever it represent their immortality
We shall never forget them"

As we started heading home, we heard bagpipes! There was a small procession right outside of the same fire house that we had originally passed -- bagpipers and policemen in uniform. It was very intimate, and I just felt so lucky that we got to witness it. 

here, the men and women are holding a salute to those represented by the memorial wall.

I just...I cannot express how it felt to be here for these special moments. 

The Brown Rice Debacle

I almost burned the house down the other day. 

I have this thing where I'm not fully capable of cooking brown rice. Which is actually pretty unfortunate because I LOVE brown rice. I just always somehow end up burning it. It's just...never been burnt this badly before.

I forgot that I needed to check my rice. Until I heard the fire alarm. 

I ran out of my room into a hallway filled with smoke, turned into the kitchen to find (thankfully) there was no fire other than the one on the burner, turned that off, and frantically fanned the air around the alarm so that it would hush up and stop alerting the masses. 

On the bright side, I scrubbed that pan so hard and so well that it's almost unrecognizable! Super shiny. Still old, but, I think my SOS sponge attack helped remove stuff that had been caked on there for years.

So, you know, moral of the story--be careful.

And don't tell my roommates...

"Oh, I'm an educational advocate for kids in the foster system."

This is what I tell everyone who asks what my job is. I can't seem to find a simpler way to get my point across, so that's what I came up with.

I feel as though that pretty much sums up what I'm doing. So far, I've been mostly making a looot of phone calls. I have a list of clients that I'm in charge of, and things that we're trying to achieve for them: bussing to/from school, transferring schools, enrolling in certain programs, etc. I make calls to administrators, nurses, mothers...and it's hard for me because I am the MOST awkward on the phone. So, I'm learning how to contain that and seem normal and grown up (pretty sure I sound like a twelve year old on the phone). I'm still in the process of learning--the NY public school system is a crazy maze, and it's all new to me! But I'm asking a lot of questions and doing a lot of research when I have down time.

My role in the company is a part of a team that focuses on kids who are in the foster system. We have connections with a few foster facilities in the different boroughs, and that's where most of our clients come from. I haven't met any of my kids, which is kind of sad, but I do feel as though what I'm doing is worthwhile! Although I did expect more interaction with kids, I am okay with doing good for them from behind the scenes.

Everyone at my job is extremely nice! They've all been incredibly warm and welcoming-I feel so so lucky. I have my own little cubicle (legittt) with my own computer, phone, and even nameplate! The feel is more corporate than I was expecting, but it makes me feel secure. They recently got a complete office make-over (over the summer), and everything is so new and pretty!! I'm really enjoying myself. 

This chance to work in a relaxed environment, surrounded by passionate people, in this amazing city is PRICELESS. I cannot believe I've finished my third week of work now, and I can't wait to see how much more I will learn, grow, and help!

(side note---It's  officially been a month since I left home!)

Ruined for Life

Well, I am almost done with the second week at my job, and I'm feeling...still pretty overwhelmed. Not only do I feel extreeemely under-qualified for my position, but I have also fallen prey to the "what will I do with my life?" question. But, really, what will I do?? I'm currently struggling with pushing those thoughts aside and remembering that everything will work out in the end, and I need to enjoy the here and now. My decision to do JVC will carry me through this year, and I need to not let my brain get carried away with stressful thoughts that don't immediately affect me. 

So...JVC...a lot of people don't actually know what it is that I'm doing here. Basically, I heard about JVC through the UCC (University Catholic Center) during my sophomore year at UCLA. There was a panel of current and former JV's (Jesuit Volunteers) who came and talked to us about their experiences, and the plans started forming. Fast forward a couple of years, lots of thinking and praying, tears and stress and joy, and here I am in New York!!! 

JVC is centered on four main values: community, spirituality, social justice, and simple living.

Community. I am living in a community of 8 women. EIGHT. And it's going to be hard at times. I just feel so lucky to be surrounded by people who are going through the same things I will be going through this year; otherwise, I don't know what I'd do! It gives me someone to come home to, someone to talk to when I'm bored, excited, sad...friends to share a meal with, to do errands with, everything! And while it may get to be a lot to handle sometimes, knowing I have seven amazing women who are here to help me through the thick and thin is an incredible feeling. Everyone in my community has a different job, and coming home to hear about everyone's day is so interesting because we're all doing different things! It baffles me that we've only known each other for a couple of weeks because we're already pretty close, and this year and it's trials will only bring us closer!

Spirituality: Every week of this year, we have one Community Night and one Spirituality Night. This means we will set aside two nights of every week to come together and bond in different ways. In JVC, Spirituality doesn't mean we pray all the time and are all Catholic. Actually, only a couple of the girls in my house are practicing Catholics. JVC is based on Ignatian Spirituality in that we are asked to seek to experience God in all things. I think this will be a personal challenge for me because I find it so easy to go through each day without thinking about the role God has played. I'm trying to fix that, and I think JVC will help.

Social Justice: Every job offered through JVC is focused on a social justice issue. Education, immigration, HIV/AIDS, housing, homelessness, etc. By putting us in these roles, we are forced to think about the inequities that surround us, and our jobs challenge us to find ways to fix them.

Simple Living: I'm currently living on $100 a month. In New York City, that's pretty difficult! This seems to be the value that most people have trouble understanding when I tell them what I'm doing here. It's even been met with anger! People who just don't get why I would choose to do this or why JVC would put us through this. I see it as a way to truly focus on what's important. My house is paid for, my food (for the most part) is paid for, my monthly metro pass is paid for, and I get a little spending cash on the side. No, I won't be eating out at all the delicious places this city has to offer. No, I won't be buying all the beautiful clothes in the shops I walk by every day. No, I won't simply take a taxi to get somewhere faster. But, I will enjoy cooking meals with my housemates, I'll smile at the smell of roasted nuts before I enter the subway, I'll figure out how to make my LA clothes keep me warm in the east coast winter, and I'll soak in the culture around me even when I'm underground. I'm working for people who have even less than I do, and my vow to live in solidarity with them will ruin me for life, but, that's what I asked for.

Ruined for life. That's what they say. JVC ruins you for life. I'm already starting to see it happen. I'll feel bad for not composting my orange peel. I'm more aware of the way businesses treat their employees and how they spend their profits. I try to educate myself on the issues affecting the people I'm serving. I'm not a perfect consumer: I still love Disney, and I can't afford only organic, local products at the moment. But just being more aware is changing me. For life? Definitely. Ruined? Maybe in some peoples' opinions.

Right now, I'm just trying to enjoy the ride.

A Tumultuous Beginning

So, I am officially living in New York!!! FINALLY. I can’t believe that this is actually happening, and that I am actually here. I've been wanting to live in New York for years upon years, so to think that I'm here now...it's just crazy. I’m going to reminisce back to what happened just in my last day in California and my first day on my own. It wasn’t pretty.

So, I left home on Wednesday, August the 8^th. I had been playing phone tag with my Program Coordinator since the night of Tuesday, but we couldn’t seem to get a hold of each other. The last message she left me said that there were some changes happening, but that they’d send out an informative email that would explain everything. My last day at home was very nice. I got to eat breakfast with my parents and brothers and enjoy some Ampuero 5 family time which was something that I had been craving, but hadn’t been able to do for quite some time. Josh helped me mail all of my boxes to my house in Brooklyn (thanks, Jodgers!), and we met Nick at a Peruvian restaurant in LA for a “Last Supper” all together. We got to LAX to get my boarding pass when my phone binged with an email. I read it to find out that after a couple of people dropped the program at the last minute, myself and a few other volunteers had been moved around, and I was now going to be living in the house in Harlem with seven (yes, seven) other girls (so, yes, eight girls). That was a huuuge shock for me to deal with because I had already fallen in love with the Brooklyn house, and I was looking forward to a co-ed living situation of four girls and two guys. Nope. Trying to adjust to that new concept while saying goodbye to my family was definitely rough. I had no idea that saying bye was going to be so difficult!! I was feeling very melodramatic as I walked away from them, but then was of course stopped by security for one of my carry-ons, and I then had to go through an inspection with my whole family watching me, so that kind of lightened the mood a little.

My flight was delayed. OF COURSE. By about an hour. Which was incredibly stressful because my second flight (from Boston to Baltimore) was scheduled to leave just half an hour after my initial flight was scheduled to land. I was hoping against hope that the second flight would be delayed too, but, as luck would have it, I rushed into the Boston airport to find that the flight had already left. I needed to get to BWI by 12:30 to catch the bus that JVC was providing to take us to the retreat center. I dealt with three incredibly unhelpful humans at Jet Blue that were so annoyingly resistant to helping me out. I was emotional from leaving my home, exhausted from a lack of sleep, and hungry and thirsty after eating nothing since my Peruvian dinner. After lots of tears and lots of standing around, I finally decided to just to buy a completely new flight to get me to BWI on time (yayyy spending unnecessary money), and went through the whole security ordeal again. Whatever. I ended up getting there safely and on time, and that’s all that matters, right?

Retreat was amazing, and I met so many incredible people, and really started to feel the JV love that will be surrounding me this year, and for the rest of my life. Although getting here has been such an emotional and physical trek (my arms were sore for days after lugging all of my luggage around), I feel so blessed to have this opportunity, and I can’t wait for my year of service to truly come to fruition.