my new home away from home!

Today was the day!!  We had to wait basically all day, but we finally found our school assignments for the year.  We had a few lectures and stuff in the morning/early afternoon, but basically the whole day was spent in anticipation for the school reveals.  When it was time, we circled up in our crazy teams one last time.  Our PMs gave us each a puzzle piece and we had to find the other people with pieces that fit ours.  This kind of stuff always secretly kind of freaks me out because I am always worried I'm going to be the last one still trying to find their puzzle.
Luckily, my piece was the sign that has the school name on it, so I knew right away which school I was at.  I'm going to be serving at the Neighborhood House Charter School in Dorcester, which was my one of my first choices! I'm so excited!  Also, one of the girls from my crazy team who I've been eating lunch with and hanging out with all week is on my team.  I couldn't be more happy.
To give you a little taste of what NHCS is like, it's a K-8 school and we'll be serving grades 1-8 so the full range.  Even though it's a charter school, it has a lot of the same problems as a normal public school.  Almost 80% is on free/reduced lunch which is higher than the city average.  The school is located in Dorcester, which is also one of the lower income neighborhoods surrounding Boston.
My TL and PM for my team seem cool, too, which is a bonus.  I thought my TL,  Erica, would be a little harsh, but she's actually so sentimental and personable.  I can see us getting along well.  My PM, Danielle, is a little intense and overly excited about everything, but I'm sure I'll need that come February when Virginia Beach meets Boston and I have to trek to school in a blizzard.
We're going on a retreat starting on Sunday until Tuesday where we'll really get to know our teams. I'm so excited to have something permanent.  I feel like now I can get excited because I know where I'll be for the next ten months.

My wonderful Ubuntu Crazy Team!  I'll miss you all!  What a great first week!



To end, I'll leave you with a quote.

"Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve.  You don't have to have a college degree to serve.  You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve.  You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love"
- Martin Luther King, JR.