Visiting a church and dealing with (more) car stuff

I visited a church Sunday morning in the area. It was rather large, especially compared to what I'm used to. Coming in I found a spot near other people and took a seat. I enjoyed the contemporary praise music quite a bit. It was very upbeat and engaged the congregation. The sermon was based on Colossians 3. This is about casting off your old self and turning away from sin and living your life as Christ has commanded. The pastor was engaging and was enjoyable to listen to but as he preached he focused on the sins and at no point taught on how we should live or the joyful part of the passage. It was a very interesting take of the passage. I know the sermon was part of a larger series so maybe there is more to come. After the sermon they served communion and baptized a group of people. There seemed to be a very loose order for worship and very little community building within the service.

After the service I spoke with one of the members in the guest reception area. She was very nice and seemed to be interested in who I was as a person and what I was interested in. She told me a bit about the church itself. They have two services each Sunday and average about 1500 people (which seems gigantic to me). They also have a 22-30 year old, young adult group that meets on Sunday mornings that I might check out if I visit again. 

I had mixed feelings going in and had different mixed feelings leaving. I think I'll try a different church this weekend, just to see what else is out there. This church was a bit more conservative than what I am used to and quite large. I may be able to get over both of those things but I would need to find and become more comfortable in it as a community. 

I spent most of Monday trying to fill out some forms for the DMV so that whenever I end up going they would be ready. I also sat at a Starbucks and worked on the beginning of my Algebra curriculum so that I at least had an idea of the material I'd be teaching in the beginning of the year and could get a few lesson plan ideas before I met with my mentor teacher and had time to plan.

Oh cars! Talk about mixed feelings! I've been having a love hate relationship with my car for the past month or so. I got the transmission fixed and finally picked it up a week before I left for Virginia. I spent that week in and out of the dealership again because the check engine light was on. They would make it go off and it would come back on again within 30-100 miles of driving it. Needless to say I was really frustrated. Well I made it to Virginia and it is driving fine but of course the check engine light is on and it needs to pass inspection (both safety and emissions). In order to do that my check engine light can't be on and the error code has to be cleared out of the system completely. Oh doesn't it figure! So after playing phone tag with the dealer in NY and a dealer here in VA, I brought my car in to get the light looked at and inspected. Well of course there was a little bit more wrong with it that needed to be fixed and then on top of that they are trying to get the dealer in NY to cover the cost of the parts that are needed to fix the thing for the check engine light (which won't be in for about a week). I'm so frustrated! I've spent basically the whole day sitting at the dealer. I know I need a car to get from point A to point B and that the state needs to make money somehow by forcing people to get inspections before registering their cars and everything like that, but this is ridiculous! The car seems to be running fine, it would be really nice if I could just go to the DMV, hand my paperwork in and be done with it. 

Tomorrow is my first day of new teacher orientation. Needless to say I'm nervous beyond all understanding. I know I'll be fine and that I should just be super excited. In a lot of ways I am. I get the chance to meet other teachers who might be new to the area as well or at least new to teacher because they also don't have experience. But when it comes down to it, I'm really nervous about what I'm walking into. They haven't given us an agenda for what the day will look like or what to expect and I guess my type A personality is coming out a little bit in my desire to know what is coming. I'm sure it will be a good day and that I'll learn a lot. I'm trying to stay optimistic and not be scared or too introverted. We'll see what happens. 

Learning to be okay alone

Since my parents left on Wednesday I've had a great deal of time alone. I knew that the first week here would be difficult but this is pretty tough.

Thursday I ran a few errands and worked on unpacking the last little bits of things around my apartment. It was good to go out and see a few of the areas around me. Finally being done unpacking made it feel a little more homey, and being able to share pictures of my place with friends online made it feel a bit more real.

Friday I was able to go out and get lunch and wander around a mall with my one friend in the area. She's a good friend from high school. Other than when she helped me unpack the truck, we hadn't seen each other since last summer, but during high school people used to joke that we shared a brain. We easily finished each others sentences and just shared life together. It felt like we picked up right where we left off yesterday which felt amazing. As we were talking we even had a few different experiences which were very similar, it was kind of weird. It was great to spend a few hours out of the apartment with someone so close to me and we even found some great deals! $5 cute Jelly shoes:

Today (and the rest of this weekend) is when things are harder. My friend is out of town on vacation with her family so I don't know anyone here. I've never been very outgoing and I'm not really sure how to change that (any suggestions are welcomed!). I spent today at home. I started to look at my curriculum for school, which was a bit overwhelming. I wanted to try to be productive, but not knowing exactly where to start made it a little hard. I have ideas about some things but we'll see how it all comes together. 

Tomorrow I've decided to find a church to try. I looked up a few online and found a couple that I think I'm going to visit in the next few weeks. I've been considering looking for a new church for a while, but I have mixed feelings about it. I've had bad experiences at churches. When I go to a church I'm looking for true community, people to be genuine, for things to not be a show but a real worship experience, and for the experience to be Christ centered. Too many times have I gone into church and found them to be shows set up for people, or just social gatherings that seem to have very little to do with God. I've been hurt before at churches and that is why I'm hesitant to try to go back. On the other hand I know that they can be very powerful places to build relationships and communities, not to mention strengthen my faith. I'm very nervous to go but I also know that I need to get out and see people this weekend and hopefully meet some new people. 

I've spent the past few months unhappy with parts of my social situation, and now that I'm out of it, I definitely miss some aspects of it. I'm not sure if I am just missing having people around me or if it is the fact that I miss having options. I know it is important to learn to be okay on my own, and that this week will be a good learning experience for me but I'm not sure exactly how to do it. I definitely miss certain people and while talking with them online and on the phone has kept me sane the past few days it also makes me miss home. I know I have a lot to learn and that it is going to be a bumpy ride. I'm excited for what the next few days will hold. Once orientation starts on Wednesday I know I will at least be able to meet more people and we'll see where it goes from there. 

Packing...Saying Goodbye..Moving... Unpacking

Well the past week and a half have been crazy to say the least. I have felt just about every emotion to say the least.

As I stepped into my last week in Rochester I was overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I had that I needed to pack, in addition to the number of people that I wanted to see and say goodbye to before I left. Each day seemed to get longer as I worked to fit things in. I was spending most days packing and then lunch and dinner out with different people to spend quality time with some important people and say goodbye to them. I was also stuck at the car dealership a few different mornings because my car was acting up after they had fixed it the week before. The packing was slowly coming along. I was trying to get everything done by Friday night since my parents were getting into town then and we were planning on packing the truck Saturday morning.

Many of my friends I made an effort to see individually with either lunches or dinners throughout the week. I enjoy personal, individual and genuine time with people. Thursday night I have a going away party with a group of friends. It was an interesting night for sure. I made a few appetizers and we just hung out for the night. It was a difficult evening for me in multiple ways. Watching everyone around plan the rest of their summer was really hard. I know life will go on in Rochester even when I'm gone, but it was difficult to watch things get planned, especially when it was things that I probably wouldn't have even gotten invited to in the first place. In a lot of ways it didn't feel much like a party, it wasn't really a celebration of my time there. I had a good night and it was nice to spend time with people. It was difficult to say goodbye to people, especially since I wasn't sure when I'd see most of them again.

Friday I had to go to the doctor and then tried to finish packing, and had dinner with my parents and family friends. Saturday we picked up the rental truck and then packed it up. As we drove away I had a really hard time not breaking down as I thought about what I was leaving. We drove down to Virginia, stopping at IKEA first and then went to the hotel for the night.

Sunday morning we grabbed breakfast and then I signed my lease and started unpacking the truck and moving into my new apartment. My good friend from high school lives close by and was will to help me unpack. My department head at one of my schools brought 2 of her sons and also helped up unpack the truck. We got everything into my apartment in about an hour which was pretty amazing! Once everything was in we sat and drank some water and then made a game plan. My mom, my friend from high school, and I went back to IKEA to get a few more little things while my Dad built some of the furniture that we had bought the day before. Once we got home we went out to dinner and then watched Olympics and relaxed.

Monday and Tuesday we spent building and unpacking. We went grocery shopping and got cleaning supplies and all of the little things that are needed for a new place. I found out I needed a new hot water heater so they put one in today. Luckily it was just a few phone calls and things were taken care of. Really it was pretty simple.

Today my parents left midday and I finally signed my contract. It was hard to say goodbye to my parents. They helped a lot the past few days and knowing I'm more alone now was also hard. I spent the afternoon and evening doing the last little bit of packing. I'm hoping to have the rest of the unpacking done tomorrow morning so that I can start looking at stuff for school and start getting ready for school. I still have to figure out DMV stuff as well. There is so much stuff that goes into moving, it is kind of ridiculous!

Next week I start new teacher orientation so we'll see how that all goes. I'm getting nervous about all of it, not to mention not knowing people or my way around. Thank goodness for GPS!! I'm getting to know the area around my apartment but there is so much around it will take a while.