Week 1: California to Ohio

For those of you who have no idea (is there even such a person by this point??) I've moved to Cincinnati. I will be here for at least a year with Mercy Volunteer Corps. If you don't know what MVC is, I encourage you to look it up. I've explained it so much to every person I've spoken to between now and the last several months that I don't think I can do it anymore. But really, check it out.

I'll post a blog to keep you updated on my doings every couple of weeks or so, and I'll do my best to keep it interesting and such. So far, since I've just moved here, I'm only trying to do boring things like get to the grocery store without using GPS and go down the right staircase without making a wrong turn (more on that later.) My two roommates (Beth and Pat) and I are slowly getting used to living in Cincinnati and I'm trying my best to make it feel like a home, rather than view it as a transitional place. That may make it easier to leave but it doesn't make for very interesting time in between.

The three of us live in an old mansion built in the 19th century and owned by the Sisters of Mercy. They bought it from a doctor who sold it to them for a dollar. I'm also convinced he was abnormally tall because all of the crown molded mirrors in the bathrooms show about from my nose up. Fantastic. The house has something like seven rooms and five bathrooms and a parlor and built in bookshelves and a turret room and sliding wooden doors and some of the original skeleton keys are still in the locks. It's beautiful kind of, but not all the rooms are furnished and some are furnished in a mismatched sort of way. I like dreaming about what it looked like when it was first built and the types of parties they would have had. I hear the NYC community had cockroaches (shout out to y'all!) so I'll take the mismatched furniture. The street also has a lot of houses where the Sisters of Mercy live in community so we're always getting random visitors and invites to dinner and morning mass/evening prayer. They're all like sweet grandmas but I'm pretty sure I've gained weight already living here because the food is solid and every meal includes dessert (HALP).

Our house does have a really pretty grand staircase and stained glass window on the first landing that I enjoy going up and down every morning and night. I much prefer that staircase instead of the back (i.e. servant) staircase that is closer to my room because that one is super narrow and steep and creaky and makes me nervous.

Today Beth and I went up to the third floor and finally figured out which windows open to the fire escape. We got them open and went out and it was really peaceful and we felt like we were one with the big tree in our front yard. The cicadas were making a nice sound too but I've discovered they're actually pretty ugly in person (which I never knew because we don't have cicadas in Southern California) and I'm kind of terrified of them.

It's been important to me to also find a beautiful church with an active young adult group, because God knows how hard it was to leave my amazing community behind (I love you guys) and I just want to find something similar here as soon as possible. Then when I have real friends they can come over and fill up this big house and hang out on our fire escape. Shoutout to my pal Christian Duran for informing me that his friend, who I met last year, lives in Cincinnati. He's really the only person I know out here and he recommended his parish to me, as well as a ton of other fabulous women on Blessed is She. So I went to St. Cecilia for the Assumption of Mary and Sunday mass and there seemed to be a lot of young people there. I tried not to look too lost and Stephen, please forgive me if I followed you around like a lost puppy. I am an introverted soul who desperately wants to talk to people but has no idea how to begin. Story of my life.

He also took me to a parish called Old Saint Mary in the downtown district known as Over-the-Rhine (which apparently people call OTR and it took me several times of hearing that to figure out what they were talking about). Inside are several depictions of our Lady (Fatima, Guadalupe, etc.) and their mass was Ad Orientem which I was used to from going to San Segundo. It might have won my award for prettiest church I've been to in person. It's only about 15 minutes or so from my house but I'm sharing two cars with B & P so I can't just take off whenever I want. I'll be back though.

Tomorrow starts my first full week of work at Mercy Neighborhood Ministries which is a 13 minute walk from my house. B & P need the cars to get to their workplaces so I have to walk to and from work every day and also can't go anywhere after unless one of them is back. I enjoy it though, and the walk is through a quaint little shopping/eatery district, and I'll figure out walking in bad weather when that comes along. My job description is program assistant, and I'll just be doing whatever needs doing, but mainly within the food pantry, elderly services department, and worker readiness/G.E.D. programs. The ministry exists to serve the needs of the direct community within the surrounding zip codes, because they find that those areas are very underserved. The residents do not have the right insurance to qualify for assistance from bigger agencies or none at all, so MNM is there to pick up those who have been overlooked. The area where we live and work is a mixture of lower income/high income housing. Go one direction and you're in the midst of boarded down buildings, people loitering around, tenement-type buildings, etc. and go the other direction and you'll see mansions like the kind I live in, but modernized, with elaborate landscaping and couples out walking their dogs and pushing strollers every ten feet. It's a HUGE difference from where I lived in SoCal and also a lot less diversity (mostly white or black) but I'm thankful to be in this place and discover what it it's like to live differently, experience different sights, and push my comfortability limits.

I guess that's it for now but I'm only a text or call away for most of you! Also, if you ever have the hankering to send me a little card or letter or something of that nature, I'd really find it uplifting!

- Melissa