So i promised this story a couple nights ago... It was the second night on campus and a couple of us were looking for something to do. We decided to take the bus down to Dinkytown. First of all, we waited 25 minutes for the bus to arrive... the last one left basically 2 minutes before we got there.... And then finally, we got on the bus and went down to Dinkytown. Right when we got there, I looked at the bus schedule and noticed that the last bus going back to Augsburg was leaving Dinkytown in about 25 minutes... meaning we had only 20 minutes to spend down there... which sucked... because we wasted so much time... and i was exhausted.. and i was sad.... and i learned my lesson, which is good.
BUT, things got better...
Today was definitely the best day so far:
We had an opening ceremony where all the teachers and faculty welcomed us to Augsburg. First of all, the woman singing was amazing. And the speeches were pretty good too.
And then we got together with our Augsem, a group of students (my group is made up of all honors students) and all Augsem groups went to a different location in the city to do community service projects.
My group went to a church in South Minneapolis, The Holy Rosary (Santa Rosario). The church is attended by MANY minority groups, immigrants, and refugees. One of the main goals of the church is to act as a bridge for these people to the community and to help them live a better life here in the cities. Specifically, one of the things that the church does is serve meals to many of the locals in the church basement. Because the state and federal government have very strict regulations regarding sanitation at these kind of events, it was the job of my Augsem to thoroughly clean the chairs and tables.
I never knew chairs could get so dirty, but i don't think any of us minded at all. Between all the introductions and talking, it went by pretty fast. Afterwards we were taken upstairs where one of the Sisters talked to us about the mission of the church. We watched a couple videos and it was very interesting..... Then something very cool happened.
Our group got into a discussion involving immigration....Just as we were about to wrap things up, a girl in my Augsem, who happens to be of Mexican decent, raised her hand and began to talk about all the things that she has had to overcome in her lifetime. She spoke directly from her heart.... Her testemonial was one of the MOST honest, sincere things I have ever heard anyone say.
It was the best experience I've had so far at Augsburg.
It wasn't just some documentary, or some news clip on TV. It was such a personal experience, not something I could have learned in a textbook....
And the weird thing is, I didn't even start my actual classes yet....
My group went to a church in South Minneapolis, The Holy Rosary (Santa Rosario). The church is attended by MANY minority groups, immigrants, and refugees. One of the main goals of the church is to act as a bridge for these people to the community and to help them live a better life here in the cities. Specifically, one of the things that the church does is serve meals to many of the locals in the church basement. Because the state and federal government have very strict regulations regarding sanitation at these kind of events, it was the job of my Augsem to thoroughly clean the chairs and tables.
I never knew chairs could get so dirty, but i don't think any of us minded at all. Between all the introductions and talking, it went by pretty fast. Afterwards we were taken upstairs where one of the Sisters talked to us about the mission of the church. We watched a couple videos and it was very interesting..... Then something very cool happened.
Our group got into a discussion involving immigration....Just as we were about to wrap things up, a girl in my Augsem, who happens to be of Mexican decent, raised her hand and began to talk about all the things that she has had to overcome in her lifetime. She spoke directly from her heart.... Her testemonial was one of the MOST honest, sincere things I have ever heard anyone say.
It was the best experience I've had so far at Augsburg.
It wasn't just some documentary, or some news clip on TV. It was such a personal experience, not something I could have learned in a textbook....
And the weird thing is, I didn't even start my actual classes yet....
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment