And it has begun!

I arrived in D.C. after spending a wonderfully relaxing weekend in Pennsylvania with some of my extended family. I then spent most of Sunday, the first day of orientation, wondering around D.C. with my parents before registering at National City Church of Christ.

The week of orientation was intense. I’ll try to take my time in thinking through a lot of the topics discussed during the week. However, to begin, here is a general outline of all we covered in that short span of time.

Monday: Community as a Spritual Practice.
We met with our houses for just a little bit, went to seminars on conflict resolution, health insurance, Americorp grants, and cycles of community, and had a time of reflection at the end of the day. That evening some LVC alumni took us out on a little city outing to both get to know us and answer some of our burning questions.

Tuesday: Dialogue as Spiritual Practice
This day was all about Anti-Racism training with Crossroads. Full of interesting discussion, but also long and intense. We got the evening to ourselves though to do whatever we needed to stay mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually happy! Can you guess what I did?!

Wednesday: Social Justice as a Spiritual Practice
Another day of Anti racism training which ended up leaving many of us feeling gypped. (More on that later.) That evening, however, I got to go on an outing for people thinking of continuing their theological education. I learned a lot about how the Lutheran church works and even got to play the Mennonite game with some people… QUALITY.

Thursday: Vocation as a Spiritual Practice
I suppose it’s important to know how an organization operates… we began the day talking about how LVC operates. We spent the rest of the morning walking to an area of DC with newly planted trees. We weeded, mulched, and re-did the watering system. It was hot, but brought life and beauty to the city, so I guess that was cool. I spent the rest of the afternoon free time at a cool coffee/bookstore called Busboys and Poets. It was named after Langston Hughes and was definitely a happenin’ place. (So check it out if you’re ever in DC)

Friday: Sustainability as a Spiritual Practice
This was the BEST DAY EVER! So wonderful. We learned how to make it in a city. Self defense, nonviolent resistance to sexual abuse and how to live wisely so as to avoid these things in the first place. I will be writing a very long piece on the self defense things I learned from Mary Langelan… and wonderful woman with balls of steel!

Saturday: ?? Last day ??
The morning of Saturday we had a sustainability fair and learned tips for cooking, personal reflection, living in a city with no money, free trade, VERMICULTURE (!more on this too!), environmentally friendly cleaning practices, and grey water uses. That evening I flew to Tacoma after getting drenched in the rain on my way to the airport and waiting at the airport for 5 hours because of a delayed flight. (That was probably the best thing ever! Ha.)

Since then I have been in Tacoma trying to get settled into the foreign city and house. The house, by the way, is beautiful. Simple, but clean, spacious, and equipped. (Exciting for me!) My housemates still aren’t all here so we haven’t picked rooms or gotten settled, but we’ve spent a lot of time spring cleaning and re-organizing things.

So, those are the neat clean basic overviews of my time so far, however, the good meaty stuff will follow. From the week of orientation I have a book of thoughts to process and share with you. Those will follow shortly. I'll also try to get some pictures of my new home up here!