August 13 - 18 was the JVC East Orientation Retreat at the Bellarmine Retreat Center in the Blue Ridge Mountains on the Pennsylvania-Maryland border. Close to 100 people (all of the current JVs serving on the East Coast + staff) were there to pray together, reflect on the four values of JVC, and get to know the communities we'll be living with for the next year. We were blessed with gorgeous weather (a bit hot, but I'll take sun over rain), beautiful liturgies, and plenty of time to let our excitement and anxiety about the coming year percolate! It was great to start off the year with the entire JVC East community. I'm looking forward to reuniting with them for Re-Orientation in January.

On Tuesday morning we had a brief morning prayer and then left for our placement cities, which are scattered up and down the East Coast from Portland, Maine to Raleigh, North Carolina. Luckily, the drive from Blue Ridge to Philadelphia was one of the short ones! After successfully finding our way to our new home, we spent most of the day unloading the cars, settling the room situation (7 people in a 6 bedroom house makes for a somewhat uneven distribution of personal space...although we had no problem letting Christian, our only representative from the male gender, have his own room!), and surveying the eclectic collection of furniture, books, and decorations that had been left behind by roughly 15 years of Jesuit Volunteer communities.

Later in the day we were greeted by Melissa, Brian and Elizabeth (three former JVs), who came bearing much appreciated food and beer, plus some Philadelphia delicacies - soft pretzels, Tasty Cakes, and Rita's water ice (I'm still getting used to calling what is clearly Italian ice by that name). We have yet to feed ourselves since the start of Orientation! Brian and Elizabeth are our designated support people in Philadelphia, so they'll be helping us get acquainted with the city and the JVC experience.

Wednesday through Friday were spent making group visits to each of our placements, which was not only a great way to get a feel for the environments in which different members of our community will be working, but also to start learning our way around the city. My housemates' placements range from nonprofit legal clinics, to refugee and immigration services, to anti-death penalty advocacy, to homeless outreach. As for me, I'll be working as a case manager in a domestic violence shelter, which is definitely going to be a challenging placement and a huge change from the work I did last year. I'm not sure what to expect yet, but I'm looking forward to getting started on Monday.

Today I made a quick trip back to my parents' house to pick up the rest of my clothes, books, random kitchenware, and other necessities that didn't make it into my luggage for Orientation (plus several fans for our non-air conditioned house!) Tomorrow might include a trip to the Art Museum, as well as the start of our church shopping. We've gotten some good recommendations from FJVs and the Jesuits who live two doors down (although they might be somewhat biased towards their own parish...)

Now I'm off to haul my stuff upstairs and start unpacking!