guess it's time for a real update

Hello blog world. Family... friends... random people... I guess since it's been almost 2 months since a real update... it's about that time.

Rhode Island is amazing. The people I work with have been amazing. The kids are a bunch of doodoo heads, but that is expected I guess, considering the fact that they are troubled teenage boys. I have been called every combination of swear words imaginable, as well as various cartoon/movie/tv characters, random nationalities, a grandma, a white mountain climber... oh the list goes on forever. It has been a hard few months, to be completely honest. There have been a few times where I ask myself what the hell I am doing here... wondering if I'm really made for this job. But I always wake up the next morning and try again.

Fortunately, I have people amongst my coworkers that I can go to if I need to vent/relax. Let's recap a bit... I went to Orlando with a coworker of mine, T.Jay. We started out as mere coworkers.. and when I found out he was going to Harry Potter World, I immediately squealed in excitement for him and declared how jealous I was that he was going. He then proceeded to ask if I wanted to come with him. I figured... why not? This guy seems nice and friendly. So from that point, we became friends... which slowly evolved into a relationship.. and we've been dating for over a month now. The end. So that is T.Jay in the pictures... he's very nice to me. Oh, and as for the picture of the penguins... T.Jay and I went to Boston a few weeks ago and we went to the Aquarium there.. where they had a giant penguin exhibit. Penguins are fun, so that was exciting.

I will be flying home for Christmas... I'll be home from Dec 24-28. I hope I get to see as many people as I can in those 4 days!

So this update was short and sweet... today is November 19.. and we all know what that means... HARRY POTTER 7!!! Off to the movies I go =)

love and miss.

long time no write...

Picture Post. because i haven't been on here for over a month. and a lot has happened in that month. Picture time!

Sleeping Beauty's castle in Disneyworld. with T.Jay
me and t.jay in front of Hogwarts!!
oh hello there Hogwarts!
some delicious butterbeer from the Three Broomsticks in Harry Potter World! Butterscotch amazingness.
Boston in the fall is beautiful. I can never get over the changing leaves!

Happy Fall!

So it's fall! The leaves are beginning to change here and some of the colors are so beautiful! I have the next few days off, so I will definitely be walking around tomorrow and snapping some pictures of my town. I will also most definitely be running tomorrow morning, as I just downed a whole pint of Ben and Jerry's FroYo Half Baked. It was delicious and soo worth the 6 miles I will be completing tomorrow hah.

Gosh I haven't written in here for two weeks. Whoops! It has been a busy few weeks, as I am finally getting into the groove of working and feeling more confident in my abilities to work with these crazy groups of children. My days at work consist of waking the kids up, enduring some cursing, walking up trails, eating, walking some more, hearing some more cursing and disrespect, eating, inappropriate conversations about drugs, some sports, being serenaded "California Girls are unforgettable daisy dukes bikini's on top" [if i had a penny for everyone time I heard that song... I'd have 2 dollars], showering and having about 30 minutes of peace to myself, eating, then probably some game, some more inappropriate conversations, then bedtime.

My time off away from camp consists of lots of cups of tea, sleeping, napping, some running time, walking/wandering around town, eating, shopping, errands. I eat a lot here. I need to stop eating so much! Ha but the food at camp is so damn good and I forget that I'm not a teenage boy like everyone else around me. I'm finding that since I spend so much time with these kiddos, I'm starting to talk like them! Not out loud anyway, but I definitely hear my thoughts and laugh, because I'm definitely using there lingo. I'm starting to eat like them too! Bad Meli. I bought a big yoga ball today that I need to pump up and start using.

Let us see what else is there to report. I'm going to Orlando, FL in T minus 10 days. Craziness that's so sooon! I have today, Tuesday, and Wednesday off, then 5 days of work, then another day off, then I fly out on the 6th. We'll be doing Disneyworld, Harry Potter World, Universal Studios, and whatever else is thrown our way. Ahhh! Such a geek but I'm super stoked.

I'm flying home around Christmas time for about 5-6 days. It's going to be a quick visit, but I am excited to be home for a bit and see all my family and friends. I miss you guys! I just checked airfares the roundtrip flights around the dates I think I'm free.. and damn they're pretty expensive! Since I won't be booking any flights just yet... I expect to be paying about $600. That's riidiiculous. Ah. But it must be done. The main reason they're so pricey is because the dates I'm free are just before Christmas to the 28/29.

Well that's about it for now. I will definitely be updating this after my trip to Orlando and talking about everythiiinggg about the trip.

So for now... Stay cool everyone! [mostly for the LA people, cuz I heard it reached about 108 today!]

hellooo!

So I guess I've been MIA for the past few weeks ha.. they have been busy busy! There is way too much to recap from these past few weeks because I did a loottt. I'll sum it up nicely for you guys though. I'll keep it short and sweet.

I did my training in North Carolina. Wooo I am not a big fan of North Carolina! The training part was good.. I feel a bit more confident in my abilities now. I got bit/stung by a lot of insects... mainly mosquitos and spiders. So that wasn't much fun. Met some awesome people, learned some awesome things... had little mini reunions with friends I had studied abroad with. Tons of fun!

My times off from work have been fun. Mostly getting to know everyone I work with and exploring what I can of Rhode Island. I go walking around a lot by myself in my little town.. mostly to get a feel for where things are and just to get out of the house sometimes. It's nice walking around my little town... get to call some people and mostly relax and clear my head.

There isn't much else to say really. I am enjoying work and having a grand time with my new friends here. I am seeing my roommate from Spain tonight! Ahh I am excited. Last few weeks have been awesome because of all the reunions I've had.

So that is all. Short and sweet. Mostly to report that I am still alive! Woohoo.

Ciao! =)

on a rainy morning.

So it's about 8:15 in the morning over here... the skies are grey and it's raining. It's all really pretty though and sounds incredible. It's early enough where everything is pretty quiet and all I really hear right now is the sound of my typing and the rain falling down a little harder.. then gets a bit softer... it keeps switching back and forth. It's nice.

So my week of work was interesting. I did alright. I still felt pretty clueless but not as uncomfortable, so I guess that's a good thing. I'm leaving for training today for 10 days in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina. I'm kind of excited to see a new state, get trained, and learn some new skills that would be very helpful in this line of work. It's a week of training in a hotel.. where I get CPR/First Aid certified, learn deescalation techniques, problem solving skills, and how to restrain and get out of restraints and anything else these kids will throw my way. The second part of training is called Hard Skills Training, where I spend 4 days at a camp down in NC, learning the everyday routine of camp and all that fun stuff. Everyone has told me that it's good that I got to experience camp for two weeks because I go to training with real scenarios to ask questions about and get feedback on. So that's good I guess, though these past two weeks weren't the best.. but that's okay. I'm learning.

Enough of work though.. I like to keep that at work and not think about it. So my 2 days off were fun. I got off Thursday night, so had a full 2 days off, Friday and Saturday. Both days were a lot of fun! I told my roomies that I wanted to be active on my days off instead of just sitting around the house watching Netflixs. My goodness... we were very active! Hah but so much fun at the same time.

So I decided Friday would be my fake birthday-day since I was working on my actual birthday. So I just had to make it amazing! Friday started off with a 6 mile run through the streets of Wakefield. I got a little lost, but that's expected since I turn on random streets. Good thing I keep my phone on me and can use google maps to find my way back hah. So the 6 miles were fun. Then I went rock climbing! Which was amazing by the way. I went to an indoor rock climbing gym with 2 other roommates. Gosh that shit is hard to do, especially little me who never uses her upper body for anything! But I made it to the top each time I climbed up... which was about 4 times? I think that's about right. My arms felt like jelly at the end of it all but I can't wait to climb again. Afterwards a bunch of us went out to the local Mews Tavern and had some fun there, playing cards and having a grand ole time. Yay for Friday Funday.

Sattuurdayy we went to Jamestown, a little island off the coast, connected by a bridge, and went into the ocean. The boys cliff jumped. I wanteddd to jump too! But I couldn't bring myself to jump from that height, so I can't say I cliff jumped. I would say I just hopped into the water from a rocky edge. It wasn't a cliff hah. And we swammmm to this little rocky spot. Man I can't swim for very long. Damn upper body that I never use for anything. Oh well. That was fun. We just hung out the entire day, walking around the rocks and relaxing. Good times were had. I saw Inception! Strange movie, but good at the same time.

So that's the weekend in a nutshell. A lot of fun. Glad it waited until today to rain or else my 2 days off would not have been as fun and active. I miss everyone at home and hope it has been an amazing few weeks there! I've been taking pictures and stuff but have been lazy about putting them on the computer. I'll get to that today though so you all can see where I've been these past few weeks.

Oh and short side note. I'm going to Harrryyy Pottter World in October! hahah so excited about that.. I'm such a nerd but cannottt wait.

Alright that is all. Ciao!

one week later...

Hi everyone.

So I survived my first week of work at camp! I have too many bug bites to count ha and they itch... but that's okay! There is so much to go over from camp. But I don't really feel like going into the details right now because it's too much! So let's just say that the teen boys are okay, some are cool with me, some tell me they'd date me, and others flick [flip?] me off on a regular basis. It's been aaweessome.

The bugs are crazy! Like I just said, I have a lot of bug bites all over. There are flies and ants and bees and spiders of every shape and size and every time I see a bug I give a small shudder and pretend it doesn't bother me. The boys can't see that I'm weak! hah. All I do is sweat and swat at bugs and use a dirty smelly port-a-potty and smile while I'm doing all that! Working with children with special needs has given me patience and the ability to show no real reaction... but it's hard not to react when a guy with a verry colorful language is flicking [flipping?] me off and yelling obscenities at me. It has been a fun week.

The people I work/live with are pretty frickin' awesome! I have hung out with 6/9 other people that live in this house. And I must say they're all pretty cool people! Let's see... there is Rachel, she is from Arkansas. She is fun she likes to sing just about anything. Then there is Britta from New Hampshire. We have the same friends! Small world but she studied abroad in Granada, Spain the semester after me and she knows some of the kids I was there with. Crazzzy. Next there is Hector from Irvine, CA! Then there is Brian from Buffalo, NY. He's fun. They're all fun. Megan is from Massachusetts somewhere... Anna is from someplace I haven't had the chance to really hang out with her at the TO house. Nick is from Ohio someplace. He's a talll big bald guy. Last is Josh.. who I haven't talked to a whole lot yet but eventually we'll chat. So far, we all get along great but I guess it's too soon to really tell hah since I've only been here a week.

It is back to work tomorrow until next Friday I think. That is a long stretch of work for being so new! But I'm okay. Mixed emotions sometimes, but overall the experience has been positive. I feel that once I know what I am [and should be] doing, things will be okay. I feel a little useless when the kids get escalated, but everyone tells me with time I'll know how to react and respond to their escalation. For now, I am just supposed to develop relationships with the boys and establish some trust with them. So that is what I am doing.

Anyway, that is all for now. Goodbye family and friends! =)

tomorrow's the day

So Wakefield is an adorable little town. So many trees! Went on a run Saturday morning with Nick, a roommate of mine.. it was a grreatt run. It was about 5 miles in total but took us probably 1.5 hours ha because he was showing me around and we did a lot of walking. I have a bike path directly in front of my house that is probably about 7 miles in length total, but it's beautiful... covered in trees.

There are a lot of cute little stores along Main Street. A food co-op just down the street from me has a bunch of veggie food options, which is awesome. One of my other roommates, Brian, and I went to Mews Tavern last night [Saturday] and played some pool. It was nice to get out of the house and see what's around. Good times were had.

Tomorrow's the day I go into work. Ah! I'm not really sure what to expect but that's okay, I'll go in and just talk to the teenagers. Brian reassured me yesterday that I'll be fine. So it's comforting that he thinks I'll be okay. Apparently some of the boys from his group had been asking about me also, wondering when I will make my grand appearance ha. I shadowed his group during my 3-day visit last month, so he said they're excited for my arrival. It'll be a series of adventures for me but I'm looking forward to it.

That is all. No computer while at work so I'll check back in next weekend! =)

finally made it.

I finally arrived to the little town of Wakefield, RI. It's a very cute, quaint little town. I live just off Main St., which is theee main street of this little town. The street has a lot of cute little shops and places to eat, and I'm looking forward to wandering around tomorrow checking things out.

The roommates/co-workers that I have met so far seem pretty nice. Very chatty and pretty normal, so that's always good. I was worried they'd be all weird, but nope, people from the East Coast are quite normal.

The house is super cute.. this older white house that is a little rickety in places.. it has character. I'm sitting outside on the covered porch taking in the scene. So I guess right now this isn't deep thoughts from the deep woods. More like deep thoughts from my porch ha. But that's okay.

Everyone else in the house is asleep... I was asleep but I decided to leave my jetlag as is and sleep it off tomorrow. A combined total of 3 hours of sleep is pretty good for me. My stomach is mostly confused about what time it is. It's grumbling and asking for food. Stomach I already ate lunch! It's only 4:40 here. I ate Subway around 1:30 so shush.

We are going out tonight to some Italian place for dinner and drinks/wine. So hopefully it's some good fun!

I'll check in tomorrow and let you know how the town looks on my wanderings.

=)