What crazy months!

Here’s the breakdown of what happened:

Teacher observations from about 7:30 - 10:00. Although I stayed to finish homework and wait for my friends who finished around 11:30.

School from 1 - 6 - filled with fun, projects, and research.

Practically every day we had something planned at night, a spirituality growth, general meeting for our community, and tons of various activities to help us bond as a community. All this while homework was packed on, but it has been super fun.

A few interesting moments:

Homeboy Industries http://www.homeboy-industries.org/. This has got to be the most sincere form of social justice I have ever seen. I suggest you read up on it and if you can, donate to the cause.

My commencement mass just happened. It’s the beginning of my next two years as a teacher and as a person who will partake and hopefully inspire social justice. Here are a few pictures from the mass: http://www.glennarthur.com/LMUPLACEMass/Photos.html. Of course, whenever you’re a musician, you’re always hidden in the back, so there’s not too many pictures of myself since I was playing the trumpet.

I also got placed into my housing site and will be living in Compton for the next two years. I don’t live too far away from my school which is a plus, but I will probably end up taking the bus for the first couple months before I get myself any mode of transportation. It won’t be too bad, I’ve used public transportation a lot the last… all my years of my life.

We had a community weekend, got to see a free concert in downtown LA, went hiking, had a small backyard campfire. A lot of chill time before I started doing anything related to work. My goals is to make a bunch of lesson plans and practice my instruments. Other than that, I have been reading, going to the beach, trying to exercise, and lazing about.

Work is going to start in just a couple of weeks, very exciting. Note to self - I have to put this as a private blog so my students can’t read any of this.

Hi Everyone,

This is just a quick rundown of everything that has happened since I’ve moved to LA. I’m not going into great detail, but I will talk about something of significance that happened on that day.

21, June: Got into LA around 7am and checked into the Custom Hotel, kind of a simple, yet chic place. It’s pretty close to LMU and they give discounts to LMU Students! I also went to a barber down the street of the hotel. The man who cut my hair is a barber who served in Vietnam. It was a more pricey than what I’m used to paying but it was worth it. The haircut he gave me was just as awesome as the banter he delivered towards the news and commercials on TV. Actually, I think his banter is better than his haircut - it was extremely difficult for me not to laugh at everything he said. He also had this motorized back massager he used on his customers after the haircut. I never experienced a back rub in a barber shop before that.

22, June: Moved into the on-campus housing and played a little bit of basketball, which I am atrocious at, and the C10s threw us a little pizza party later that evening.

23-25, June: We had a retreat at the beautiful Mission San Luis Rey. Learned about the Mission, went to the beach, and bonded as a community. Over the course of the weekend we had building exercising which covered the three pillars which PLACE Corps is built upon: professional, community, and spiritual development. I have to say spending time with my fellow PLACErs and understanding how we got here and how we interact with each other is a truly humbling experience. During the nights, we played improvisational games (like those found on “Who’s Line is it Anyway?”) I ended up playing a few games -  props, questions, and I was the host of house party. My guests were Charlie Sheen, Rebecca Black, and a gynecologist… I also had to figure out who they were while being an exotic dancer.

26, June: It was a pretty chill day, nothing too exciting. Had Church, a team building activity and we partied a little bit before classes.

27-30, June: First day of instruction, and getting a bunch of paperwork done for teaching at school. We are kept on out toes and rarely have a break.

1-4, July: OK, so I lied, this weekend is our first, and last break during the summer. A number of the cohort is going down to San Diego, but a number of us (myself included) will be staying here. At least I will be going to watch some drum corps tomorrow night.

And hopefully, I will grow into the type of person I want to be. I am in Cohort 11 (C11 for short) and I am surrounded by a bunch of beautiful, amazing, and inspiring people.

Yay, friendship.