Pressed for time

I'm in Chicago!!!!!

So this is going to have to be quite fast as I have only a short time before I have to be at another event here at orientation. Things are very tightly packed together. There's so much to orient and so little time to do it!

So far there's not much to say. I guess to start out we're staying at the University of Chicago and meeting jointly at McCormick and Lutheran Theological Seminaries at Chicago, a mere three blocks away from our dorm. It's funny to be in college housing since I've just gotten used to the idea of not going back to school (which actually didn't take that long to become accustomed to, oddly enough). We got here on Sunday and had to sit in the airport for SIX HOURS because of a mix up with the buses that were to pick us up. The funny thing was to watch how everyone reacted to it. I was thinking how much I was dreading orientation because at this point I'm quite ready to leave. Being here feels a lot like limbo for me. Then I thought that this is really a reflective time, to be away from what I'm used to, to assess things and get my head straight and really think about how life is going to be like. Case and point, the airport. Time is very relative in the Philippines or so I've been told. You can have an ETD, but could end up waiting around for hours. It won't do any good to complain about it, it won't change anything and will just hurt the situation. So being able to be in the States still, in my comfortable culture, and think about what that situation will be like in the Philippines, without having to be there...well, its a nice thing to be able to do.

I'm really getting close to the other YAVs. Unfortunately, most of them will be going elsewhere, and just like all of my friends at home, I won't be seeing them for quite some time once I leave. However, I have met the other Philippines YAVs and even the Lutheran YAGMs and have started a good friendship with one of them. I feel a lot better have a travel buddy early on. Things should get exciting.

Oh, and mentioning the YAGMs...we happen to be here in community with a Lutheran program that was, as I understand it, modeled after the YAV program. There are three more of them than there are of us. I hate to use that language of us and them, because we have gotten along quite well. We do joke from time to time about "the Lutherans", but it's all in good fun and not meant maliciously. The only thing that has separated us was when we learned they only had to raise 35% of what we have to. Apparently three Lutherans are worth one YAV. I'm joking of course, which you have to be able to do sometimes, otherwise one might actually start to resent the situation.

I'm finding that laughter and lightheartedness have so far been the best remedies to any fears or anxieties that I've been having. In bad situations, arming yourself with a sense of humor is the best defense, at least in my opinion.

Well I must be off to our next event: three hours of story sharing, whatever that entails. We do have a free evening after that, however. We were going to catch a Cubs game, but unfortunately we are poor volunteers and the Phillies are somehow a "prime game".

Alas

Peace, I hope