Orientation: Part Uno

Greetings from the St. Paul of the Cross Monastery in Pittsburgh! Orientation has officially started and though we have only been here three days, so much has happened already. After some rainy weather and a handful of delays, I arrived in Pittsburgh on Wednesday feeling a little nervous and having no idea what to expect. Earlier that morning, one of my fellow volunteers to Honduras had thought it would be very funny to jokingly tell me that he had decided to back out of the trip. Needless to say, I went into minor freak out mode and spent quite a while doing my darndest to convince him otherwise. Eventually I found out it was a joke and laughed quite a lot. On the arrival in Pittsburgh, we were met by Father Lucian (the founder of the program) and Karen (the director of the program) and spent the rest of the day catching up with old faces, new friends, and exploring our home for the next ten days or so.

Thursday brought us an orientation to orientation and an afternoon of life stories from the PVIs. In total, there are the four of us going to Honduras, six that are going to Jamaica, and two that are going to New York. It is amazing to look at where we have all come from and what we are bringing to the table. Between us all, we have travelled to Spain, done an archaelogical dig in Jordan, studied Spanish in Guatemala, and studied in London. Needless to say, everybody here is very inspiring and I am continually learning something from each one of them. Being surrounded by people with such passion and excitement is something I hope to not take for granted. At night, the Passionists held a vino y queso party for us. It was out of this world--mainly because we met Patty, a rowdy Pittsburghese lady with a huge personality and the best sense of humor. She taught us the ways of speaking Pittsburgh and told us the wonders of Kennywood.

On Friday, our workshops started with an in depth look into acculturation. We discussed at length the baggage we will bring as Americans to these new countries and the many cultural differences we will be experiencing. Thankfully for me, punctuality is not of high importance in Latin America and so we were told not to be too shocked if mass in the villages started a couple of hours late!!! In the afternoon, we were given time to explore and found a jump swing into The Mon (the river) and spent a while hiking down hills and climbing random sets of steps that seem to come out if nowehere! Luckily, there are a couple of huge Harry Potter fans here so some of us went to go check out the new movie and then listened to the Boogey Hustlers (a band) playing. There were some middle aged men breaking out some amazing dance moves and I was very impressed.

Today, culture shock was our big topic. We learned not only how to identify culture shock, but how to deal with it. We watched a video about foreign students and their first reactions to American cultures and such. As a foreign student (to a certain extent), it was strange watching them. In a lot of ways, I could very easily understand their feelings and perceptions of Americans but at the same time, I could also see the American perspective. I guess that is the blessing of being an American Brit. This afternoon, Father Lucian gave us a tour of Pittsburgh, his home town, and I loved it. If it didn't get so cold here in the winter, I think I might consider moving here. Tonight involved some serious pizza and ice cream eating and then a hookah bar!

Well thats a play by play of orientation so far. I doubt that the rest of my entries for orientation will be quite as detailed but hopefully this way you will kind of know what I have been doing here! Tomorrow, we have mass and then a free day. And the next week holds workshops on Adult development, the history of the Passionists, and some other interesting topics. I am very thankful for what I'm learning here and even this early on in the process, I can feel myself starting to really think about what I will be experiencing and how I will be feeling. There is a lot to think about and feel right now, but it is wonderful to be surrounded by people who are also feeling the same way and to be surrounded by people who care.