Monday, May 20, 2013

Animal House we ain't!

Have I  mentioned that TWO WEEKS from today (June 3rd) we will be stepping on an airplane bound for L.A. (as in California)?

We'll be in L.A for three weeks.  Living in a fraternity house.  On the USC campus.  All 5 of us.  In ONE bedroom.  With 50 other people.  Did I already mention 5 of us in one bedroom at a frat house?  Yep, I thought so. 

We will be staffing an urban outreach for college athletes.  The staff and students will all live together in the fraternity house (one room per family, thankyouverymuch) as we experience life, community and outreach in the context of life in the city.  We will focus on several principals of urban renewal-- reconciliation, relocation and redistribution.  It is going to be an eye-opener for us as a family as well as the college students coming from across the country.

While we are there we will have an opportunity to discuss and experience topics like homelessness, racism, urban youth outreach and others I am probably unaware of right now.

I am particularly excited to gain experience, knowledge and understanding of these things in context of where we live here in Dayton and our public school experience in a *not so desirable* school system.  Although I have LOVED our school experience thus far and have been an involved parent at my kids' school,  I know the system is flawed and at some level will trickle down to my kids' experiences.  And yet, I am sure I have NO CLUE about what we will soon observe in a city like L.A.

Our family is about to receive the education of a lifetime.  In areas we can't even fathom.  There will be some super fun things and some super hard things (like 5 Koproskis in one room!)  That alone will be a great education for us on how much of the world lives.  We don't even know how spoiled we are! 

I hope to be able to post pictures and stories from our adventure. 

In the meantime there are still 9 days of school left for Olivia, 3 for the boys, Memorial Day, cleaning of the house, packing of the bags and other things that you just know are going to come my way.  So for now,  you can rest assured I'm going to enjoy every last hour of my kid-free bedroom. 

A frat house with my husband and 3 kids... now THAT'S something my 19 year old self never imagined.  God is funny like that, isn't He?! 

1 comment:

victoria said...

When I was a kid our big family vacations (no seriously) other then going to visit grands was going to Philosophy Conferences for my dad and very often all 7 of us would be in 2 dorm rooms.....I can remember my sisters making a "bed" for me on top of a desk once and using blow up pool rafts another time. Fun times!