The Vincentian Service Corps

Its been about one week since I have written last and I could could type forever! This last week I became a part of a bigger organization called the Vincentian Service Corp West. The program I am in has helped me decide what I want to do after college, brought me to California, started to change my thoughts and views, started on me on a path closer to God,  created a great network of contacts and friends in Silicon Valley, and most importantly gave me a new incite to serving the poor. And I have only been a Vincentian for a week!

St. Vincent De Paul was a good man and I can only hope to one day have a mind set like him. During our retreat we learned about the poor and how we can serve them this year. We learned about community and what it means to live simply. We learned about different forms of prayer and we learned about AmeriCorps. We even learned why each of us came out here.

The program is set up all around the US and I am apart of the Vincentian Service Corps West. In this branch there are 2 sites, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The LA house has 10 volunteers and the SF house has 7 volunteers including myself. The house I live in is known as the Pink Palace and I live on a floor with two other guys and the other floors are filled with four women. It seems like my house is excited to be active, the one thing I wanted in a community. :) They are excited to site see, bike, run, camp, hike, and just open to new experiences.

The 2012-2013 VSC West Volunteers

Vincentians live by four pillars: Spirituality, Living Simply, Community,  and Service. I love them all. I want to grow in my spirituality, I love living simply, community brings us closer, and I think service is a moral obligation of humanity. A wise friend once told me that the key to living a Christian life (to him) was based on three things: Friendship, Prayer, and Thankfulness. Since I have heard this, I have been striving to incorporate these in my life to their fullest. With the Vincentians, I think I will be able to take this to a new level.

I am truly blessed and greatful I have taken this opportunity to serve and grow this year.

My First Week in San Francisco

Well, I survived my first week here. Fortunately, it was a pretty slow week in terms of things I needed to do. I had my first experience in professional development days as a teacher, now to take on the kids (I would rather deal with adults any day). It will be a new and exciting experience for me and though I'm a bit nervous for it, I think I will do well once I understand how to be a teacher.

I was able to start to understand the public transit system here in SF which includes walking, biking, buses, and the subway. The subway is a bit of a scary place but I managed to puff out my chest and show everyone this Iowan boy ain't scared.

I think though my most exciting adventures this last week would probably be my running and biking adventures. They have taken me to the Golden Gate bridge, the beach, Golden Gate Park, Haight street, Market street, Corona Heights Park, Twin Peaks, and up lots of crazy hills. As much as I hate the hills though, I have come to appreciate them and the spectacular view they can give you.

A few pictures of my adventure to Twin Peaks

This is a picture of the hill I went up to reach Twin Peaks.. From that point almost a 900ft climb!

I have learned the number one skill I need to learn in a big city: how to clip in and out properly...

I went to visit my ISU triclone friend in South San Francisco and we went hot tubing and talked about Start Ups and the valley.

The other night when I was on my roof (yes, I have full access to my roof and it is awesome) after talking with one of my friends that is working at a start up company, I began wondering what my next step was. That made me realize something very nerve wrecking, where am I going? I have been so focused on getting out to San Francisco thinking that it would open up a door of opportunities but its hard to look when you don't know what that is. One thing that I have learned from talking to my friend, is that companies out here are looking for skill in a certain area. Coding projects, coding practices, new ideas, and big focus on mobile and web coding. I really don't know what my next step in life is yet, but one thing is for certain, I need to start coding. So if you have an idea, let me know!

The Adventure begins!

I made it out to San Francisco and have started my professional development days at De Marillac Acadamy. Next week I start my Vincentian orientation and after that I start my full time volunteer job helping with 4th graders and technology at the school! Its all very new to me an am realizing a lot about myself and how different a school environment is compared to a tech environment.

I am dealing with it all and I think will do well with the kids once I learn procedures but the one thing I don't think I will ever get used to is the WORDINESS of the atmosphere. I am used to tasks, numbers, important information, and a "down to the point" ideas. I am finding in the teaching world there is a lot of words and ideas given and then you have to process it all and come out with the end idea for the whole speech. This is very stressful as an engineer, but hopefully I will learn to deal with it.

I am not a man of few words, but I like to think that I pick my words cautiously when speaking to a large amount of people to make sure my point is well emphasized. Its a new learning experience, that's all I have to  say about that.

Being an engineer in a middle school (and 4th and 5th grade) environment, I think a lot of teachers and administrators have noticed some uncertainty in the way I am at the school. It's not so much that their is uncertainty, but rather the most basic things I need to understand about teaching aren't being discussed because to everyone else this is second nature. So many of the topics we have been talking about is high level discussion, improving your teaching skills, and how to plan your curriculum better. I know that I will learn how to teach and support soon, but its just stressful and frustrating how "green" I feel. Good new is though that I am going to teach an enrichment course and I think I will base it on basic engineering projects and experiments :)

Along with professional developement during the day, I have been exploring at night. I have been to the Golden Gate bridge and back (11 mile run with 1000ft climb), to the ocean a few times, Golden Gate Park, and Twin Peaks. Oh yeah and I went to AT&T Park on Monday and saw the San Francisco Giants loose to the New York City Mets too. You can see all of my pictures from these adventures in the links below.

My First Adventure in SF
Bike Adventures in SF

Riding the Rail

UPDATE: Find all my pictures in my Amtrak to San Francisco album.

I learned this last week Riding the Rail has two meanings, and I completed both of them. The one I would like to focus on though is my train ride from Omaha, NE to  Emeryville, CA.

July 27th 2012
It is now 11:30pm and my adventure begins and ironically I am exhausted already. All the packing playing celebrating, laughing, crying, and reflecting has exhausted me. I hope sleep does not evade me on the train.

July 28^th 2012

Yesterday I started a journey, one that I’m not sure where it will take me, but the one thing I do know is that I will learn a lot, meet new people, and hopefully understand where I am supposed to fit in the big world.

While I am writing this entry I am on the Zepher Amtrak headed to Emeryville, CA.

 This is my first time on a train and the furthest I have gone completely by myself. 

WOW the mountains are truly a spectacular site to see. Coming from Iowa it is truly a site to see how much man has accomplished to live in so many different places. I think school can only teach you so much about what engineers do, and then the marvels of the world can say the rest.

I was listening to a guide on the train and they were talking about how much work has gone into building the tracks and how they truly have shaped America. I have already known this, but to see it first hand, out of a text book is a humbling experience. The time, effort, money, and lives lost to accomplish a task we think so little of today. 

They talked about a tunnel that was 6.1 miles long and before the tunnel and the train were built it took 10 days to get over the summit of the mountain and now it is only 10 minutes! Can you imagine? 

Atmospheric pressure. Awesome. Unfortunately, the food my sister Erin packed for me was not quite enough to hold me over, but it helped majorly with cost because prices on the train are astronomical! I went to the dinning car to eat for dinner and the cheapest thing on the menu was $15! I had the chicken which was actually really tasty but it was not worth $15.75. It got me through the first day though. :)

The windmills remind me of home...

July 29th 2012

I cannot believe that I only got 4 hours of sleep last night. Late stop last night, early stop this morning and the time difference is starting to get to me. Oh and sleeping in a chair 2 nights in a row isn't a super awesome experience. 

I woke up to a new area, no longer the Colorado feel, but Nevada, dry dead Nevada. This was by far the most boring part of the trip. The one thing I did notice though was irrigating. In the midwest you hear of it, but you never really see an extreme case.

It really made me appreciate the midwest when I saw this. After sleeping through Nebraska, waking up to Denver, seeing Grand Junction, Salt Lake City, Reno, Sacramento, I was finally in the Bay Area.

A train over the water! Train on the bridge! Awesome! I was actually extremely excited about this. To see old technology next to new, coexisting and doing their each unique purpose. Did I mention that the bridges in the Bay area are amazing? I will have to learn about the structures and how they continue to stand with the two fault lines in the area- truly an engineering marvel to me.

There is so much traffic here! we just had 10 lanes converge to 4! The bay bridge that connects Oakland to San Francisco is a double decker bridge which means traffic goes west on the top level and east on the bottom. Apparently this didn't hold up well with the 1989 earthquake and so now they are building another bridge parallel to the first on on the east side.. Extremely interesting.

July 30th 2012

I am off the train now, had dinner with Lisa Engler last night, walked home to see more of San Fran, and had a great night sleep. Things have slowed down now and I can breath. I have today completely free and start orientation tomorrow for the school I will be volunteering at. Then next week I head down to Los Angeles for Vincentian Service Corp orientation. Hopefully once all that is done I will be able to tell you all a little more detail about what I will be doing here!

I'm here!

Plan and simple, I made it to San Francisco with no complications. I'm currently on my phone so this post will be petty short. I got all of my bikes and luggage into my new place and was able to take a shower after a 43 hour train ride (more to come on that later). Unfortunately the people that were living here before me are still not moved out, so I will be in a room on the main floor for a week before moving into my room on the top floor. Hectic! More I'm headed out for dinner with Lisa Engler to welcome me to SF! More to come later friends!

Life is moving faster

Life is moving faster and faster for me now.  July 1st came around and I knew after that, there was no turning back for my life. And when July 15th came by, I was pretty much booked until I start my new adventure. Then this last weekend came, and it hit me. I’m leaving.

I think there are 3 times in a person’s life that you truly see how people feel about you. They are the death of a loved one, marriage, and moving. I have a lot to say about all three, but in light of recent events in my life I will stick with moving.

My whole life I have always thought that there was something more out there for me.  I have always had my head in the sky, wondering what was next. I’m still not sure if this is a boy’s fantasy or if it’s a mans goal, but the thing I am sure about is I will not give up. As I have told many in my life, I believe I have been given a unique opportunity and I’m not going to let it slip through my fingers. I am single, I don’t have any debt that needs to be paid immediately, I’m not tied down by a job, I don’t have any “stuff”,  my family is healthy, and so am I. I truly  can do anything I want to do, and I feel morally obligated to do so. If any one of those factors was false it would be a lot easier to make excuses to stay.

Despite this being my decision, it has impacted so many people... something I never really saw coming. In the last few weeks I have had many conversations, celebrations, “one more” drinks, laughs, and tears. The thing though that I have noticed the most is the  honesty in people, including myself. I have learned so much about my friends, my family, and myself recently and I credit that with me leaving. I think we get so caught up in our own everyday lives we don’t take that time to sit with those we love (including ourselves) and just have a conversation with each other and truly be interested in what the other person feeling. With ourselves, I think  sometimes we get so scared of change that we pass off those chances to try something new, meet someone new, doing something crazy, or just doing something as simple as talking to “that girl.”

I learned from a great friend of mine that the community around you will truly shape the outcome of your life. I have truly enjoyed all the conversation I have had with everyone in my life these last few weeks. You hauve made my life what it is... I mean its not everyday you see a catholic spontaneously organized drinking triathlete who’s past times include blowing on a trumpet, abusing his body in the heat, and praising God in a devoted way while continuing to progress in school and nerdy activities and in the cracks of all that quotes Scrubs That 70s Show, Star Wars, The Office... and still has some time for mtv.... I owe this all to you, the good AND the bad.

I challenge all of you to continue to living life to it’s fullest and continue to have intellectually stimulating conversations (between the dumbs ones) with others I hope to sykpe you soon to see your shining robot face over the world wide web!

A time to Change

It has been a while since I have written here and I seem to have a lot of ideas on my brain so there might be a dense period of blog posts.

Last week I started a journey that gave me a glimpse into what is in store for me for next year, and possibly the rest of my life. Next year I'm headed to San Francisco to volunteer for the Vincentian Service Corp at De Marillac Academy. This is an inner city school  in the tenderloin of San Fran. From what I understand from my trip is that this school was built in this poor neighborhood because of the need to have a school in the tenderloin. North of the tenderloin is Nob Hill (rich people), to the east is downtown (rich workers), and to the west is the shopping area on Market St. (rich shoppers). So obviously it makes sense to have the poor congregate right in the center of this, unfortunately this is how cities like San Francisco work.

Because I will be volunteering at De Marillac Academy, they flew myself and 2 other volunteers out this last week to see where we would be volunteering. Let me tell you, it was a culture shock on all levels for me. Being in a city that large will be a completely new experience for me. Working with teachers and not engineers will be a big change. Teaching and substituting in the classroom will be nerve wrecking. But. I know I will be needed and loved there. From what I understand I will working with their IT infrastructure and their development office to help with event planning, and when needed... teaching.

I could go on and on about this adventure, but I'm sure I will be blogging all about it this coming year!