Louisville!

Alright. Here goes another attempt at keeping up with this blog.

The title is still appropriate...here I am two months into my third year with AmeriCorps. Changing and improving communities one step at a time.

It's interesting the variety of service I have been exposed to these past three years. I started out doing direct service, getting my hands dirty, seeing my hard work's results in front of my eyes. To working behind the scenes at a non-profit and helping to build the capacity of the agency, not necessarily seeing the outcome, but knowing that with all the hard work there will likely be multiple positive outcomes out in the community.

Louisville. It's possible here.

This brings us to me here in Louisville. Here in Louisville I am a VISTA Leader. This means I am supporting and guiding VISTAs here in Louisville to build capacity of non-profits. So I have kind of taken one more step back (or up depending on how you look at it) in the hierarchy of nonprofits and community service.

It was a slow start moving to Louisville. When I first got here I didn't have to work the first week as the place I work was under construction, so that gave Travis and I some time to get settled into our apartment (pictures to come when maybe it's not such a mess). When I was finally able to come into work, the construction was still going on and they were moving offices and everything was quite hectic. It wasn't until last week that I felt settled, with an office space, a computer with working internet, a phone to use, no construction noises, paint fumes or anything to distract me from my work.

A taste of what my apartment looks like
(although it don't look like this anymore)

Where I work is the Americana Community Center. The community center is a fantastic place serving a diverse population of refugees, immigrants, as well as US citizens. Americana provides a wide variety of services including Family Education, an After School Program, ESL classes, GED classes, and Citizenship classes. The reason my office is located in the community center is because the grant for the VISTA project I lead is through Americana. The project supervisor is my supervisor and is on staff here at Americana. So within our VISTA project are 10 (soon to be 12) VISTAs at a variety of nonprofits around Louisville. I am here to act as a support and contact for the VISTAs and their supervisors to ensure they have a pleasant and successful year.

So far, I feel really good about this position. I work in a great environment, with great people and the VISTAs are all very passionate about what they are doing, and that makes me even more motivated to do a great job.

Me and my fellow ex -SC VISTA newly VISTA Leaders Nicole and Liz

I was lucky enough to be able to attend a training for my position and travel to Chicago for 4 days. I. Love. Traveling. Every single bit of it. Something about it gives me such a sense of independence. I love relying on myself and only myself to get from point A to point B. It makes me realize I really am an adult and am responsible for everything I do. Chicago was great. It gave me a chance to see some of my lovely ladies who were VISTAs with me in SC who became VISTA Leaders else where. It also was a fantastic opportunity to meet a large amount of people who are just as passionate as I am. Every single one of these people was willing to commit to yet another year in AmeriCorps (don't know how many were as silly as me and doing it a third time). It also gave me an opportunity to see one of my very good friends who was actually on my team while I was in NCCC. She lives just outside of Chicago and was nice enough to play tour guide for a rainy, cold, dark night. I said "I just want to be a tourist" and be a tourist I did.

Our lovely tour guide Emma and a really cool shot of the Bean!

Living in Louisville has been interesting so far. Technically I live in Indiana (it was a bit cheaper) but the easiest way to explain it is New Albany is to Louisville as South Portland is to Portland. I can get to downtown Louisville in less than 10 minutes, while not living in the big city, but rather a separate, smaller city which is more convenient for getting to grocery stores, target, etc. while also having the ease of getting downtown for anything exciting that might be going on.

Pumpkin patch!

I have officially been here 2 months now, and I have to say, Louisville is all about festivals! There have been so many different festivals happening from art, to fall, to food, to beer. This city definitely has a lot of exciting stuff to offer, and as long as I'm willing to keep an eye out for things going on, I simply cannot get bored here. With it being what I am officially calling my favorite season EVER Kentucky and Indiana have a lot to offer as far as fun fall festivities go. Like always, attempted apple picking but I was too late in the darn season and all the apples had been picked. So. To the corn maze and pumpkin patch we go! Travis and I spent a day finding our way through the corn maze (backwards, mind you. We were confusing the heck out of everyone who passed us) and then took a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch where we each picked a pumpkin and will be soon having a carve-off. It's on.

Me and Travis in the corn maze. It was perfect weather.

My view from my transfer stop for the bus to work.

Now. I made a big accomplishment in my life this past week. My drive to work roundtrip is about 28 miles (everyone laughs at me when I complain about that, but come on guys, I went from being able to walk to Hannaford in 2 minutes, to living where I work with NCCC, to a 4 mile drive in SC, a 20 minute drive for me is a big deal, ok!?) But I am mostly feeling it when it comes to filling up my car with gas. When I have to fill my car up every week, we've got a problem. So. Being a good problem solver, I decided to become a big girl and learn how to ride the big city bus. Luckily, the public transportation in Louisville includes Indiana since it is a part of the metro area. So I had to consider the great money saving advantages, and then consider the time commitment. Is an extra hour and a half a day worth an extra $30-$40 in my pocket each month? As a VISTA living in poverty....YES! So I stepped up my game and bought some bus passes to first test it out, and I survived two round trips so far! (including my two long walks from the bus stop to my car being hit on by what seems men who just wait for beautiful women as myself to get off so they can talk my ear off hitting on me almost all the way to my car...) So being hit on aside, I think this whole bus deal will be my best bet. VISTA wants us to truly understand what it is like to live in poverty, well, here you go government, I GET IT!

I think I've caught you up mostly on what is happening in my life for now. More to come I am sure. Also. Just booked my flight home for Christmas. I am quite delightfully excited. Hope all is well my lovely people! <3