Cheers to Boston!

I was blessed enough to be able to chaperone a service trip for ten undergraduate students last month. We spent five days in Boston serving the homeless and taking in the sights and sounds of my (now) favorite city.

Kari (the other chaperone) and I were broken up into two groups, each having five students that we would be responsible for getting back and forth between service sites. While we didn't have to travel everywhere with them during their free time, we needed to know where they were heading and when they planned on returning to the hostel. Our policy was that as college students, as long as they traveled in groups, we didn't need to hold their hands every step of the way.

Day 1 -

We spent most of this day traveling. We left Kansas City at 11:30am, and had a lay-over for about an hour in Milwaukee. Then we went were on our way to Boston! We landed, navigated the public transit system to our hostel, and got settled. I had never stayed at a hostel before - it was quite interesting. I felt very glad to be staying with people that I knew already because I couldn't have imagined rooming with complete strangers. This was the situation for most people staying at the hostel and I just wouldn't have felt comfortable with something like that.

We spent the evening finding a great pizza joint and walking aimlessly around the area near our hostel just to check everything out. If you're ever in Boston, check out Little Steve's pizza on Boylston Street - it's great!

Day 2 -

We navigated the subway system once again to find our way to Pine Street Inn, an emergency overnight shelter that also serves lunch and dinner. Pine Street Inn has two separate facilities, one for women and one for men. Our task was to assist with food preparation in the large kitchen that adjoined the two sides of the shelter. Kara (one of the students) and I were assigned to making/wrapping sandwiches while the rest of our group carved turkey to be used for the evening meal. After we were done, the shelter staff fed us lunch and gave us a tour of the women's side of the shelter. It was amazing to see the services provided by Pine Street Inn, these people work so hard to give these individuals a sense of normalcy. We learned quickly that the homeless that visit the shelter are referred to as guests. It is a term of respect, and also an indication of their temporary status at Pine Street. The intent, they explained, is not to provide long term housing at their shelters but to give them a place to get in from the elements. Pine Street Inn does provide transitional housing for people that are receiving some sort of income. They are required to at least a small amount in rent, but it provides more stable lodging until they are able to find and afford a place on their own.

We had to leave Pine Street Inn and immediately head to our next service site, the Boston Rescue Mission. The Boston Rescue Mission is the oldest running soup kitchen in the United States! Here, we were able to get some interaction with guests since we served both their 3:00pm and 4:30pm meals. Serving the guests was the most eye opening experience. Many of the guests were surprisingly well-dressed, well-groomed, and well-spoken. If you passed these people walking down the street, it would never occur to you that they might be homeless. Each person was also extremely appreciative, and many made it a point to thank us for serving them that day.

After leaving Boston Rescue Mission, we were exhausted, but not exhausted enough not to explore more of the city. Several students headed to visit the Fine Art Museum, while myself and a few others ate at the scene of one of America's most popular sitcoms, Cheers. It was located in the beautiful neighborhood of Beacon Hill. After eating and a visit to the gift shop, we headed back to the hostel to just hang out and relax before the next day of service.

Day 3 -

We headed to our next place of service, St. Francis House. At this point, we were really getting the hang of the subway system! We exit the subway system to find ourselves right in front of Boston Common, but we can't explore because we've got work to do! We walk down just one block to St. Francis House and meet the volunteer coordinator, Kate. Our main task this afternoon is to serve the guests their lunch meal. St. Francis House is a day shelter, so guests do not stay there overnight, but they can spend time there during the day before moving on to an emergency shelter like Pine Street for the evening. Again, the guests were well dressed and many had cellular phones, and were friendly and appreciative for the meal.

This time, we were done with our service earlier in the day. We headed to a local coffee shop overlooking Boston Common to rest for a little while before heading out for a day of sightseeing. We walked all over Boston Common, looked at the residential area of Beacon Hill, and then just started walking. We explored Chinatown and parts of the freedom trail including the Old South Meeting House, the meeting place for the organizers of the Boston tea party!! We eventually got tired of exploring and found a T-station to get back to the hostel. The other group came back soon after we arrived and we each went our separate ways for dinner, which for me, was at the Hard Rock Cafe. The highlight of the dinner was sharing the place with a group of people in town for a video game convention at the start of their Pokemon themed bar crawl. Several were dressed as Pokemon characters it was quite interesting.

Day 4 -

This way our last day of service, and the both groups were finally together at St. Francis House. We were first split up into two groups: clothing and kitchen. I was in the group that sorted clothing, because St. Francis House also gives clothing to their guests. The guests come pick up their clothing in a room that actually looks like a retail store, called "Fresh Threads", with a counter of volunteers going to the back and retrieving items the guests request. It was very interesting to watch as the guests arrived at the counter, asked for an item, and the volunteer headed to the back to try and find it in the correct size. Soon it was lunch, and we all lined up to serve the guests. Some of us were out in the dining room cleaning tables, as well. There were so many of us, it was difficult for everyone to have a task, but we all had a good time.

After our service, several of us headed over the Harvard Square to see the beautiful campus. We stood in Harvard Yard, looked that statue of John Harvard (and took a photo of us pretending we were about to be hazed, ala the Social Network), visited the bookstore, and picked up some Harvard gear and the Harvard Shoppe. It was raining and we didn't get to see as much as we might have liked, but the campus was gorgeous and we all felt a little smarter in the presence of all that knowledge!

Day 5-

Since everyone was done with their service, the day was entirely ours. We chose to spend it as an entire group walking along the Freedom Trail. We actually started the Freedom Trail at the end, and working our way backward since the beginning was near our hostel and began at Boston Common, which we had already visited a few days before. So we started at the Bunker Hill/Breeds Hill Monument. Several people climbed the 294 stairs to the very top! After leaving Breeds Hill, we headed to the U.S.S. Constitution, where we had a formal tour and were able to climb three decks down into the ship. We also saw the Paul Revere House and the Old North Church, and ate lunch at the famous Quincy Market. It happened to be Snake Saturday, so the area was filled with people celebrating. At the end of the Freedom Trail, we were all exhausted and ready to relax for the evening. We were leaving the next afternoon, so many people needed to pack and prepare for the flight home.

Day 6 -

Our last day in Boston was probably my very favorite. Several people took the train ride to Salem and spent our day exploring the city famous for the witch trials in the 1600s. We were disappointed to find that many of the museums were closed for the season, but there was still plenty to see, including a bookstore that had books literally stacked from floor to ceiling. We also saw the House of Seven Gables, the setting of Nathaniel Hawthorne's famous novel, and his house as well.

All in all, it was a great trip. I loved Boston. The weather could have been a little better, but the person were friendly, and I really liked that it was a walking city. Kansas City is not a walking city by any means, and it was great to just take the subway and talk a few blocks to your destination. I can't wait to visit Boston again.

MAJOR FAIL

So, it's been months and months since my first attempt that starting this blog thing. I'm just not very good at this, but I want to be, so I'll give it yet another shot. Quite a bit has happened in the past 5 months - and a few things have been crossed off the my monster list!

The first big change - I got a new job! I was working as a graduate assistant with a two-year contract, and it is my original goal to get a new job towards the end of that contract. The university had other plans, however, and gave me a full time position in mid-December. This has been great is so many ways, but mostly because having a full-time salary instead of a stipend has eased many financial burdens we were facing at that time. I still get the benefit of tuition remission and getting to work with the students I've come to know and love!

Another big item completed on the list is our upcoming move. We have decided to move into a new apartment that is much closer to the university and will hopefully be closer to Joe's new job as well. He is applying for a promotion that would enable him to transfer stores. This new store just happens to be less than a mile from our new place, so that would work out wonderfully. The apartment is also bigger than our current place, with an extra bedroom and bathroom that we didn't have before. The apartment is on the first floor, which is awesome, and the patio overlooks a small pond with ducks swimming around and a nature trail right across the way. We also purchased new living room furniture for the place - yet another item crossed off the list!

Graduate school is going very well, I have a 4.0 so far. We'll see how long that lasts, but I am keeping my goal is having a 3.75 or above. I'm about halfway done with my actual courses, and then I'll start my thesis hours next spring if everything goes according to my plan.

Now that the weather has warmed up, I plan on tackling some of the local tourist items on the list.

Next update: my service trip to Boston! It deserves its very own blog post.