To quote a former VISTA: “Your year in Americorps will be the fastest year of your life.” It’s October already? Wow, it’s only October?

Kids have been coming to the program for over a month now. This year it bolstered its largest attendance ever with over 70 kids – great for the mission, horrible for the people who have to supervise those antsy kiddos who are in their eighth hour of school by the time they arrive. As anyone who has known me for any amount of time knows, I’m rather…hesitant to willingly place myself in the presence of children. So this last month has really, really been a learning experience. The kids I deal with daily are between 4^th and 9^th grade, and the first hurdle to overcome was simply learning their names. The second hurdle was learning how to, well, interact with kids.

One of the other VISTAs, who works at the ESL department for the school district, advised me to “be more sarcastic.” It was great advice. I don’t know why, but the first time I told a kid that no, he couldn’t be excused to go to the bathroom, he instantly befriended me. I don’t understand it, but hey, I’m not complaining. Sometimes they even…hug me. Either they have very, very low expectations when it comes to interacting with adults, or my sarcasm is improving.

Now things are picking up, and although some days time feels like it’s crawling by and other days slip away before I can clear the crusties from the corner of my eyes, life in Louisville is taking shape. I’ve already been rejected for my first grant, and have possibly received my first. I’ve acquired and lost some volunteers, and some friends, and most surprisingly of all, have gained the trust of some of the kids at the school. Last Saturday on the front lawn of the school the Vietnamese community celebrated the Moon Festival (a tradition stolen from the Chinese, I believe). I shivered through about an hour of skits and dance routines in Vietnamese before slipping away, but saw at least a dozen kids from the school milling around with their parents, or dressed up for the celebration. Some of the parents have gotten to know me – last week I attended my first parent-teacher conference in, oh, 11 years. And that’s almost as gratifying as earning the kids’ trust – earning the trust of these adults who have come tens of thousands of miles from their homes and are raising kids in an unfamiliar city with unfamiliar practices.

And Louisville itself is proving to be a cultured little city. Every weekend there’s so much going on it’s impossible to attend every fest or show or karaoke night. (Still working on that last one…) This last weekend was the annual St. James Art Festival, which originated years ago as a tiny festival for local artists and has now grown into the largest art festival I’ve ever seen. It took me more than three hours to just walk by every booth there was! I’d have to say that my favorite act came from a blonde, bronzed man sitting on the ground gurgling out a hypnotic didgeridoo beat to an audience of at least 50 gathered spectators. He wore furry boots with bells and seashells sewn on that jingled when he stomped his feet.

These days are hectic. I’m registered to take the GREs in two weeks, and a tooth is urgently telling me that I’m going to regret not going in to see a dentist years ago. This has been a quick update. Hopefully ones in the future will be more, uh, how do you say, good.