North American Corrymeela Volunteers Reunion 2009

Last weekend Niki and I drove for 4 and a half hours to visit our Corrymeela friend Marian in Fairfield Ohio. Last year Marian made it all the way to Winnipeg to visit us; this year it was our turn to make the journey. Marian's boyfriend Jimmy was in town as well so we met and got to know him as well. Unfortunately Marian fell sick with food poisoning and was sick Friday evening and most of Saturday, but we made the best of it. Some of the things we did included Settlers of Catan, going to an international grocery store and tourist attraction called Jungle Jim's, fish and chips at an Irish Pub, Cincinnati's Art Museum, a conference call with Katharina (our German volunteer) and watching "Earth." It has been two years since we left Corrymeela, there has been continent reunions so far, maybe we can start to plan for a five year world reunion in 2012.

Notre Dame 33, Michigan State 30

Niki and I attended our first Notre Dame Football game yesterday along with our friend, and one of Niki's colleagues, Nuwan. There are seven home games this year and this was the second. It was quite the cultural experience as we found out, full of interesting traditions. We sat in the student section which was probably the most lively section. There was no choice but to stand the entire game because everyone else was standing.

Depending on what was going on in the game we would perform a different combination of noise, body movements and claps led by the Notre Dame marching band and cheerleaders. For instance, when Michigan State had the ball and they were on the third down everyone would jingle their keys in hopes that the sound would intimidate them. When Notre Dame scored a touch down, groups of 6 or so people would lift a lightweight spectator and push them up into the air the number of times according to how many points Notre Dame has. So when Notre Dame reached 33 points the person would be pushed up 33 times. Unfortunately Notre Dame's main quarterback, a Clausen, was injured early in the game, but they managed to win in a very intense last minute where Notre Dame intercepted the ball from what could have been a Michigan State touch down. We will probably never watch a college football game the same way again.

Upcoming Events

Here are a few upcoming things happening in our lives that are a bit out of the ordinary.
Sept. 19 Niki and Jason watch Notre Dame vs. Michigan State at Notre Dame's football stadium.

Sept. 22- Oct 2 Jason volunteers with Habitat for Humanity during their blitz weeks.

Sept. 25-27 Niki, Jason and Marian have a North American Corrymeela Volunteer Reunion in Ohio.

Sept. 29 Jason learns the ropes at Ten Thousand Villages volunteer training session.

Oct. 17-25 Niki enjoys Fall Break

Nov. 13, Dec. 4, 5, 9 Jason performs with the Notre Dame Chorale

Class of 2011

Just a quick note that Niki's class and a brief description of everyone can be found at http://kroc.nd.edu/people/students/masters/2011