I made it!

I'm here! And it has been quite the crazy adventure. Last Sunday, my mom and I drove down to Portland and spent the night there, watched a movie and just hung out. Then on Monday, we drove down to Mollala where I spent the next five days at JVC orientation. The first day was really relaxed, I met all my housemates, Ariel, Abby, PJ, John, Justin, and Joe. (Yes, there are a lot of J names!) we went to a smudging ceremony, a Native cleansing tradition of fanning cedar onto your face a body and then a big welcome. The next few days were a blur of social justice, community, spirituality, simplicity (the 4 values of JVC) and wishing we were in Bethel already. I spent my nights in a cabin with the other 13 girls going to Alaska, except for one night that I slept outside with some new friends. That was really nice until I was woken up at 4:30 because it was raining. Speaking of new friends, I hung out a lot with my new housemates, other JVs and the awesome SU JVs. I was really lucky to have Kristen, Katie, Matt, David and Trevor around. Whenever I felt really overwhelmed, I had them as a steadying force. I also found myself feeling really comfortable around my housemates. We are all suuuuppppppeeeerrrrr different but we get along really well. I'm excited for this year.

Speaking of this year... let's get back to my adventure. On Friday, the whole JV crew sang Trevor and I happy birthday, we had some talks about simplicity, then we had a super fun banquet with lots of FJVs (former Jesuit volunteers) and our communities. After that, I headed to our big meeting area and prepared for mass. Ariel and I were in the choir. The missioning liturgy was really cool, we presented mandalas (sp?) that we all made as a community and recieved a Jerusalem cross necklace, similar in theory to the Search necklace I wear a lot. Then it was time for goodbyes and bed.

Saturday morning at 4:15, all of us that were heading to Alaska woke up and went to the airport. Never in my life have I had such a lucky day of travelling. Every single one of our three planes was delayed by over an hour. Everyone keeps saying this JVC experience will help me grow... and I've already improve my patience! Once we got on the plane in Portland we flew into Seattle, had a bit of a layover there, then sat on the Seattle runway for a while while they fixed the toilet moter... or something else super vital. Then we arrived in Anchorage where we had a few hours. My housemates and I all headed straight to the Chili's for lunch/dinner and a farewell drink. (For those of you that don't know, Bethel is a damp town. This means that you can't buy or sell alcohol here but you can possess it. You can order it in Anchorage and pick it up at the airport but it is super expensive... my JVC stipend of $80 a month probably won't cover that. Haha.) After a few hours in the Anchorage airport, we hopped into a small jet, half of which was walled off for cargo. After about an hour and a half we arrived!

We walked into the one big room that comprises the Bethel Airport and were immediately greated by people clapping. Lots of FJVs and some of our future coworkers were there to welcome us. I met a lot of people whose names I knew I wouldn't remember and then hopped into a big van that could hold all seven of us plus a few tour guides. I met Fran, a JV last year that went to Seattle U whom I had heard a lot about. She and some others took us on a tour of Bethel. It didn't take long. The one paved street in Bethel goes in a big doughnut shape and just like a doughnut, there is nothing in the middle, just tundra. That's right people, I'm living in the tundra!

After a quick tour of the city, we went to our home. It is so nice! You know the first episode of most reality shows where everyone runs around finding tons of cool stuff and basically just freaking out? That was us. Then, once we calmed down a bit, our support person, Sally, came and brought us a dinner of delicious salmon, salad and homemade bread. It didn't take us long to realize that salmon will be a HUGE part of our diet. After our first meal in our new home we decided we should figure out where we will be sleeping. I ended up sharing a room with Ariel (we are sharing a room but its huge and we each have a full size bed.... Awesome!). The next fun realization that we had was that it was 11:30. It was still light out and it looked like it was 6 or 7. Weird. That will take some getting used to, though we will lose five minutes of sunlight every day. Basically, once I get used to the sunlight all the time, it will be dark all the time.

So, we all went to bed. I slept like a rock. Then, the next morning, Sunday, we all got up and Fran walked with us to got to the Catholic Church. That was really cool. The gospel reading was read first in English, then in Yup'ik. Then the homily was given in Yup'ik, then in English. There were also Yup'ik songs in mass. At the end of mass, we all were asked to get up and introduce ourselves. Then we went and had brunch with a bunch of lawyers and transplants to Bethel. It was crazy overwhelming at times to be meeting so many people, but it was great to hear how much people love living here. Its the craziest thing, whenever anyone who has lived in Bethel gets started talking about their experience, they get a glimmer in their eye and a huge smile on their face. I'm gonna take it as a good sign.

I have been constantly struck by the awesome community here. Everyone already knows who we are, last year's JVs made copies of our pictures and bios that were sent to our agencys and put them everywhere around town. I'm not joking about everywhere. Pretty much everyone in Bethel has seen my graduation photo... Good thing it was really original and said a lot about me. Oops. So, everyone knows us and has been expecting us, which is really cool. In fact, they actually planned a potluck for us on Sunday night. At our house. We found that out at the airport on Saturday night. But we all had some free time after brunch and before our potluck at 7. Some people unpacked, all of Ariel's stuff is all nicely put away. Abby and I took a nap. My stuff is everywhere (on my side of the room of course, Karen taught me well :) )After our nap we all got up and went to Pinky's park and played a pick-up game of Ultimate Frisbee. We met a ton of new people and re-met others. I found that I am not as bad as I expected to be and am really hoping we will be able to make it every Sunday before it gets real cold. When it does though, apparently they play broom ball! I'm gonna learn all sorts of cool things!

We played Frisbee for a while then headed back to our house to get ready for the potluck. Some little 4 year old boy ran in with his little dog because he heard we were there. There isn't a whole lot of privacy, people just kind of come and go as they please. That will take some getting used to but it is also pretty cool.

After our potluck we all hung out in the living room for a while then headed to bed. Today we went to the Senior center where Joe will be working, then to the Public Defender's where PJ will be working. Now Abby and I are at the library. Tonight we will be meeting our landlords and going over some logistics.

That's pretty much all I have time for right now. There is someone waiting for my computer, I will try and get back soon to update you all some more. Overall , this has been an insane, awesome, exciting and terrifying experience. I can't wait for what is to come!

Love you all!
Jill