Wednesday September 29

I got up early and ventured over to Newburn on the other side of Newcastle to check out a rowing club. It was kinda rainy and I was the only person who showed up to row! It was too choppy on the river so I just did an erg work out instead. It was nice anyway and I hope that more people will come! For now I will try it a few more times and while I am learning sculling it will be fine if there aren’t many people but a main part of why I wanted to find a place to row was so I could meet other people, hopefully some around my age. There is another rowing club I found and want to try out as well.

Kids Kabin was a pretty normal day. Melissa and I were in art and of course the activity we had out as a suggestion no one wanted to do. Oh well. We like having ideas out but they can really do whatever they want to do.

Thursday September 30

Today was my 23rd birthday! The day started out with a nice table display! On the table my flatmates put all my “favorite things” include the jar of Nutella and bottle of ketchup! They had a bagel for me to eat since the nickname I got during our AMA training was “bagels” (I was the only mid-westerner and they all thought I said it funny). They also had a massive “Birthday Girl” button for me to wear and I did wear it all day.

I went to common ground and got many happy birthday wishes from the clients and the staff.
At Kids Kabin, I had cake #1 during the staff pre-session meeting that Abby and Melissa made.

Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, so good!! I was in art again and part way through the session the cookery group came in with two more cakes for my birthday! There were 4 kids in cookery that day, 2 brunettes and 2 red heads and they made the cakes according to hair color. The red heads made a “ginger cake” that didn’t actually have any ginger in it but they dyed the icing orange. They must not have mixed the food coloring all the way or something because it honestly looked like there was a cheesy pasta sauce on top of the cake!! The brunettes had normal chocolate frosting. Another special touch to these cakes was the chocolate covered chilled corn flakes they put under the frosting.

After Kids Kabin Abby, Melissa, and 4 of the staff/volunteers from Kids Kabin went out. Our first stop was the Salsa Café where we got nachos and sangria. After the massive nacho platters were cleared we went to two other pubs for a drink at each one. It was a fun evening.

We parted ways and headed to the bus stop at about 11:30 pm and ran the last few feet to catch the 39 bus but upon requesting a ticket to Walker (the neighborhood we live in) were told that this bus was only going to Byker (neighborhood before ours but about a 20 minute walk from our flat) and were told that the 40 is the one we want so we got off. Upon consulting the schedule we found out that there were no more 40 buses and that was the last 39 bus of the night!! So that meant walk or take a cab….we all decided to walk at least part of the 3 miles home since that would be an expensive cab! It was a beautiful night and we knew the way home. It was well lit the whole way and actually didn’t seem like that long of a walk. We were all a bit upset with the bus driver for not knowing there were no more buses we could take!

About 30 seconds after I got home and turned my computer on I got a Skype call from my parents that quickly turned into a conference call with Emily and Patrick! It was great to talk to everyone at the same time!!!

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone!!!!!

Friday October 1
As we normally do, we went to the sisters’ house for morning prayer and breakfast. This is where I got birthday cake #4! Lemon drizzle…yum!! I can say with certainty that I have never had 4 cakes for one birthday before!

After we got back from prayer/breakfast my flatmates gave me their gifts….a big tin of Cadbury chocolates and socks they decorated! I love fun socks! They think my Central Minnesota Federal Credit Union socks are hilarious…can’t argue with free socks that you get in your school mailbox!
In the afternoon we went in and learned about bike wheels and then helped out with bike repairs.

In the evening we went to a mass for Fr. Bill, who led the Holy Island retreat, since it was his 40th anniversary. It was a nice mass and it was fun to see people we met the weekend before. We were also introduced to many new people and socialized for awhile before heading back to our flat.

Saturday October 2
Unlike most Saturdays, we worked today. A group called the Art Fanatics came to KK from 10:45 -2:15 so we were there from about 10:15 to 3:30. For some reason there was a power outage about an hour into their time and we were all confused! We couldn’t tell if it was a power outage or if we had blown a fuse somehow! After checking the fuse box we decided it must have been a power outage. Luckily most of what they were doing did not need electricity. They were a fun group and did some nice work!

We had wanted to go to “Romeo and Juliet” that was showing at a theater in Newcastle but didn’t get tickets in time. So we decided to go to “Eat, Pray, Love” instead. It was a good movie but we all left craving Italian food!

Sunday October 3

I got up pretty early for a Sunday because I wanted to go to Tynemouth and try the rowing club there that meets at 10 am on Sundays. It was sprinkling/raining but I figured that I would go anyway since rain is pretty common and rain doesn’t necessarily mean the water would be choppy. The water was a bit rough so we didn’t row but I erged for a little bit and then went on a jog with the group. I have not been running/jogging in a long time but it felt good! I was much happier with the atmosphere/group dynamics here! There were people my age (as well as older people) but most importantly, there were people unlike the other club I tried earlier in the week. I took the metro to Tynemouth which was clean and fast! Apparently there is a huge market in the Tynemouth metro station on Sundays and I had a good time wandering around the market when I was done even though I didn’t buy anything.
I went shopping with Abby in the afternoon. I was on a hunt for a cheap flat sheet since we don’t have any in our apartment (all our beds have a fitted sheet and a duvet) and they are just apparently not very common or cheap here! It is just so strange but I am not willing to pay £7 for a piece of fabric! The search will continue but I doubt I will find one! Melissa went over to the big shopping mall in Gateshead (across the river from Newcastle) and she even looked in the Ikea but they weren’t cheap there either.

For mass we went to the chaplaincy in Newcastle for Newcastle University and Northumbria University. It was their welcome mass and we liked it the best of the masses we have been to so far! The music was what we are used and there was no Latin! We will definitely be going back but are also going to try out the Sunday evening mass at one or two more churches just to give them a chance as well. We met a student studying abroad from the states which was fun and were able to tell him where to find ranch dressing! Apparently no one in his group had successfully located ranch in the 3 weeks they had been here.

Monday October 4
I slept in and did various things around the house like cleaning my room and vacuuming the flat as well as finishing the preparations for the cookery session with the local primary school. I went to the school to help walk the kids over to Kids Kabin with their helper teacher. The session went really well and they all gave me hugs at the end! They are so cute! When we were walking back to the school one of the kids asked me if where I was from and I said America. Then she asked me to say “hello” how I would say it at home so I said “hello”. She then said “No, like say hello in your language”. Haha. Apparently she was under the impression that we spoke a different language in the United States so I explained that even though we have some different words and a different accent we speak English in the United States.

Tuesday October 5
I normally go to Common Ground on Tuesdays but we had a training session at Kids Kabin from 9:30 -3:15 so I had to skip Common Ground for the day. The training was interesting and it was all about child development and things we can to do help build them develop in positive ways. It was a very interactive training session which was nice! The two ladies doing the training session were very nice and we will have another training session with them in 2 weeks.
Melissa and I ran cookery today. It was a bit chaotic but still fun. One of the volunteers has a gluten allergy so we convinced the kids to use the gluten free flour to make one of the pizzas but they were all a bit weary of it! No one else seemed to mind when we handed it out though. It is amazing how much of a mess 4 kids can make though! I think I can safely say this was the messiest I have ever seen the kitchen after a cookery session.

The last few days have been really nice out with more sun and warmer temps than we have had recently. It is on days like these that I miss MN falls and having a back yard and lots of outdoor space to use! I am inside most of the day either at Common Ground or at Kids Kabin and by the time we get home it is getting dark or it is dark if it is a street session night.
That is about it. It seems like a lot has happened since I last wrote but when I sit down to write about it, I can’t really think of anything interesting to share!