DVUSA from Sea to Shining Sea: A Letter to my brother--who is wondering what i have been up to

Dear Ben,

Mom said you were wondering what I have been up to. So please feel free to read the following letter and see the pictures. I hope this helps!

First I wake up at 5:45 am and then I go to morning prayer. (Actually that schedule hasn't actually happened yet, but we as a community will be starting that on Tuesday.) Prayer starts at 6--Ben I think that is before you even wake up!! My room looks alike a normal room: it has a bed and a desk, a closet, and a sink. Don't worry, Ben, your picture is up so that i remember you.

See it looks like any other room I have lived in-- messy, mom's quilt is on my bed, pictures on the wall, and candy on my desk.

After morning prayer i eat breakfast and walk over to the school. It is a high school for all girls, so it is kinda like the camp i worked at over the summer. So I meet the girls at 7:30 along with the other work staff and we check them all in. We check and see if they are there, and if they are in dress code. Ben, that is my least favorite part because sometimes i have to give them a detention if they are wearing the wrong clothes. after that we send them to work. Some mornings, like this week I get to go with them in the morning and drop them off at their work sites. Have you heard of places like Wells Fargo Bank, and American Red Cross? Those are some places that our girls work at. Other weeks, Liz and I switch and instead I pick them up in the afternoon from their work. Do you remember at DisneyWorld when we rode the train to Epcot? that is what the train looks like that I ride every day to take the girls to or from work. It is very fast, and kind of fun! On Tuesday all of the Juniors will be working at their different sites, but all the other students stay at school and learn.

This is a picture of the school from the outside. See, it kinda looks like the school from Sister Act 2

After the morning transport my day hums along. Some projects we are working on are contacting job sites to see if they would like to participate in the program and hire a team of our students. We also make sure our students are doing well at their jobs and there are no problems with their supervisors. Ben! just like you they have a check list every day! They get one score, from 1-5. 5 is good, like a yes and 1 is bad, like a no. So part of my job is making sure all of our students are getting 5's and not 1's. by helping them learn how to work.

I sit at a desk in a very busy office. There are at least 10 other people in the office with me, and it can get very noisy sometimes. They are trying to get some dividers up, so we do not distract everyone else in the office. Sometimes during the day, instead of sitting at my desk, I sit in the library. If some of the girls are not at work we do projects in there. This week we watched the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, which is fun, because it is a movie that was taped in San Francisco.

The day ends and some people go and pick up the students and bring them back to school. I walk home (or around the city) and we have evening prayer at 6pm. Then we have dinner afterwards. Ben, a lot of times we have mexican food that is Dee-licious! it is like going to the mexican restaurants at home. After dinner sometimes I watch TV--Wheel of Fortune, or read, or walk some more. If I am really lucky i see a beautiful sunset, like the one in the picture below.