November 1

It was a beautiful fall day in New York. The leaves are starting to change color here and it's so pretty. They fall to the ground too and I typically track them into my apartment, but it's more cute than annoying. I've never really experienced pretty fall colors, so I don't mind. :)

Today was productive. I went to a coffee shop with a friend from City Year and got a couple lesson plans done. I also worked on my resume....it's ALMOST done being edited. FINALLY. I'm just ready to have it completed.

It was 70 degrees yesterday. SO weird. And then it was 50 degrees today? Weird. It's like being in Louisiana with all these ridiculous weather changes.

Ready to get back to work tomorrow. I miss my kiddies. But overall, really good weekend. Went to dinner and drinks with some friends from City Year at Dallas BBQ, relaxed on Saturday, and got work done on Sunday. Decent weekend.

Schtuff

I walked up to this food cart by my apartment just to see if they had any Greek food. Well, turns out they didn't; HOWEVER, they did have a delicacy called COW FEET SOUP!!!???? Not okay....

I love my neighborhood. I had to go to the library to get some books for work today and as I was walking around there were families walking around with their kids in halloween costumes. SO CUTE. Mama's Pizzeria even had a sign in the window advertising trick or treating at their store from 4-6!

Service Day, Pigging Out, and other random thoughts.

I had a one day weekend. 6 days on the clock is hard and tiring, but the Service Day with ABC/Disney was pretty cool. We painted murals and walls at PS 129 in West Harlem. There were several actors and actresses from different Soap Operas there. Most of them were very nice and seemed genuinely happy to be doing community service. Wouldn't you know I found a southern boy with a thicker accent than my roommate's AND an LSU fan! We were conspiring to paint the walls purple and gold, but our plan got smashed. Oh well! At the end of the day, we had painted tons of things: walls of the basement with the word "welcome" in different languages, different fruits/veggies/healthy words in the cafeteria, canvas murals to hang around the school, and some different books and such in the library. It was a tiring day, but really cool to participate in some physical service at a school we don't typically work at. I really enjoyed working with the Civic Engagement team too.

Made up for the one day weekend on Saturday night...Woooo! Such a great game against Auburn. Sunday I laid on the couch alllll day. I don't think I moved for 8 hours. NICE. Jan and I ate so much on Sunday. Between the burrito, pizza, and Cinnastix, I'll be surprised if I can fit into my clothes.

This week is going pretty well at school. We did our last BBL 1.1 today (Bringing Books to Life, Unit 1, Lesson 1) and our teamlet ended on a really good note. The kids were just great today too. Even the challenging ones. I woke up on Monday morning SO ready to see them. I forgot how much I love working with children. Even when they mess up, it's hard to be upset with them.

For our EAST Harlem Committee, one of my jobs was to make the Event One Pager to hand out to potential representatives who will set up booths at our Career Fair. If anyone ever doubted the impact of City Year, take a look at these stats. I put them in the One Pager because they really drive home the idea of grassroots efforts.

• Graduated more than 12,500 alumni - diverse young people between 17 and 24
• Served more than 2,020,000 million children - 3rd through 9th grade students
• Completed more than 20 million hours of service
• Engaged more than 1,000,000 citizens in service
• Established 20 locations: 19 in the United States and one in South Africa. Two new locations are in the launch phase: Milwaukee and London.

I'm sure some people wondered why I didn't get a "real job" with "real money" and, truthfully, it crossed my mind before I started City Year as well, but I wouldn't change my decision for the world. This is such a rewarding experience. I already know how hard of a time I'm going to have letting go of these kids at the end of the year.

I'll update more later this week as I think of things. Have a good week, everyone.

Amanda

Exciting things at work

Quite a few exciting things are happening at work, so here's a quick update on a few of these things.

This Friday and Saturday I have the opportunity to work alongside about 20 corps members and the Civic Engagement team to staff the ABC SoapNation Event. We will be doing a service project with Soap Opera stars...guess I should catch myself up on the latest in SoapWorld! I will be serving as a Paint Captain representing PS 50, so I'm quite excited for the opportunity.

I found out today that I will be serving on the External Affairs Team for our E.A.S.T. Harlem event this December. It's going to be a Financial and Career Planning Fair and Workshop put on by the Harlem Zone. Our job on the External Affairs Team involves designing and implementing the advertisement strategy for this event...should be very exciting. It's something I have not done in quite some time, but I KNOW I'm going to enjoy using my creativity here. Very exciting. I actually didn't even apply for the position, but everything happens for a reason. I'm really looking forward to working on this team!

Lastly, we were assigned our Corps Member Roles this week. I will be the Learning Coordinator for Starfish (after school program) at our school in Harlem. Once I dive more heavily into this position, I'll give updates. As I understand it, my job will be to oversee our afterschool program, coordinate with staff at City Year and at our school, and help with planning of Starfish lessons. Again, very exciting stuff!

I hope this helps some of you who want to know EXACTLY what I do each day. This is just a glimpse, but hope it helps.

Week 2 in school!

I just completed my second week of official work in PS 50. I feel like our work weeks go by so quickly, but the days seem to go by somewhat slowly. I suppose it's just because 10 hour work days are LONG no matter how you look at it. I'm enjoying getting to know the kids though. They really make this job so worth it. I'm lucky because I get to tutor kindergartners during after school, but I will be doing BBL lessons with the 3-5 graders. I'll get a wide range of ages I get to work with which is refreshing. There are some absolutely adorable children though. Even the little "monsters" are enjoyable. I just try to see the more difficult students as a challenge for me to change up my ways to reach them. We will be doing our first Bringing Books to Life (BBL) lesson on Monday and I'm SO excited. We did a run through on Friday and I'm feeling really confident...it's solid.

Our PS 50 team is officially named the Weird Pack. We were sitting around the office on Thursday and it just struck me how awesomely WEIRD everyone on our team is. SO, we now have a nickname just so everyone knows about it!

Jan and I did a little shopping today. I got the most amazingly cute headwrap from Anthropologie. It was totally worth the 24 dollars! We ate at this Cuban place by our apartment first which was so good. Afterward we went to this bar right by Jan's friend's apartment in NoHo to watch the Florida vs. Arkansas game. That was QUITE a game. Florida is stupid and is overrated. :) Andre and Brian came over to visit for a little while and see the apartment. Now, I'm just catching up on sleep and TV for the rest of the night....both of which are very necessary.

Woooooo. okay goodnight!

Lately

So... it's been awhile! Sorry everyone. Work has definitely picked up over the past few weeks, but here's a little taste of what's been going on in my life here.

We finished training last week and received all our reds and other uniform parts. I thought I would hate the uniform initially, but I really like it. The kids recognize and LOVE City Year. I just finished my first full week in the school today. Our team has bonded, we are getting our lessons together, and getting more and more comfortable with the teachers, administration, and kids at the school. I had forgotten how much I love working with children. Some of these kids just melt my heart. They really are little angels. I realize every day when I go to work how much I have to be thankful for. That's all I could ever ask for in a job.

I was so lucky to have my bestieee Lizzie come visit me in New York for a few days over LSU's fall break. We had such a fun time! We saw Fame (the movie), In the Heights, explored around the East Village, drank too much wine (oops), watched the LSU game, went to the Astoria Beer Gardens, and just were plain lazy on Sunday (and maybe a liiiiittle sappy)--the NEW way to Channel Sunday! SO much fun. Made me realize how much I miss home, but how thankful I am for the people in my life.

Some funny and cool stuff happened at work this week, but here are just a few of the stories!

1. I got to lead final circle one day- that was pretty cool to get to step up into that role when our two bosses couldn't be there.

2. Approximately 12 fourth graders braided my hair on Thursday during recess- it was pretty awesome looking I have to say!

3. One of the little girls I tutor in the afternoon is so incredibly smart. She's only in kindergarten and read me an entire book that was above her level in the 100 Book Challenge the other day. She also decided it was a good idea to write my name on the outside wall of the school in the yard. OOPS! Looks like I will permanently be a part of this school! haha

4. I got to speak a little bit of French to a little girl from Africa who speaks "only French"--which I now think is a lie. I think she can understand a little English and is just pulling everyone's leg! She is so cute, but is a little troublemaker. I imagine I was a little bit like her as a child! haha

5. Oh, and I made a kid cry. OOPS!

The kids really make my day. I don't think any of this would be worth it if they weren't so amazing.

I am now preparing to leave for Baton Rouge in just a few hours. I'm SO excited to be home for a few days!!!!

Good Morning America!

Be sure to tune in to Good Morning America tomorrow morning to see some very excited City Year New Yorkers on the show!