Jacked & Tan

So, while getting “jacked and tan” may not sound like ambitions aligned with JVC’s core values, we in Casa DK have certainly been enjoying trying anyway! (And don’t worry, we’re not neglecting our covenant!) Since orientation, it has been our house joke (well, maybe it’s not a joke!) that by the time Re-Orientation, our January JVC regional retreat, rolls around we will be so jacked and so tan that no one will recognize us. Our first casa picture was of all of us doing pushups, so we already have our “before” shot!

This weekend, we made great first strides in accomplishing our goals.

On Friday, John, Zach, and another John from Casa Jean Donavan took the key to Loyola High School’s gym that was left for us in our house. With the help of some very nice security guards and a golf cart, we found the gym. Let me say this: for the girl who always avoided the “man” section of BC’s Plex (ruby girls, you might have known this as the sausage-fest), I felt like I was encroaching on sacred male bonding territory as I entered this all-boys school gym, in the company of all boys. The gym is enormous as far as high school gyms go, with dozens of machines and weight benches. While the boys worked on getting jacked together, I biked and lifted on my own. We went back as a casa this afternoon, which was even more fun. Loyola High School is a sharp contrast to Verbum Dei. Both are Jesuit schools but nothing much else about them seems to be the same. The Verb has a suffering football team while Loyola’s is one of the best in the region. The Loyola campus rivals that of any small college or university, and is equipped with an outdoor pool, turf field, and football stadium. The discrepancy in resources is also pretty stark and definitely noticeable from the moment you walk on campus.

Later Friday night, my Casa-mates threw me a little birthday party, since I got to celebrate by flying across the country and then meeting almost 90 strangers on the first day of Orientation. They made me a delicious cake (picture below!) and we invited the other LA houses over. It was great! We took a big JVC- LA group shot and even played some reggeton (you can imagine, I was in heaven!)

On Saturday, we started working towards goal #2: Get Tan. We ventured to Venice Beach in the early afternoon. Venice is a very eclectic beach town. Besides a beautiful beach with brightly colored lifeguard shacks, there is a skate park, outdoor market, and the famous muscle beach.

We spent the day enjoying the sunshine, and even saw a few people be baptized in the ocean. There was a huge evangelical-type soul festival going on in the park with live music, food, and dancing…it was so fun! There was a path from the festival with signs for “Baptism…Disciples on the Move” from the festival to the shoreline. One very hippie-looking woman was going around to different people on the beach asking people if they’d like her to pray with them. Right next to this soul-fest were a bunch of little shops that sold medical marijuana cards. You can imagine the diversity in the crowds!

Today the cultural explorations continued as we tried to find a local mass to go to. In our neighborhood, it’s going to be a challenge to find masses in English that aren’t super early in the morning, or super long. The local mid morning masses are either in Spanish or Korean, or are 2-hour long hip-hop masses. I’d love to try all these out, especially the Spanish ones, but not all my mass-going roomies will be able to understand.

The rest of our Sunday is pretty lazy – we planned our menu for the week and took care of food shopping at our local Food4Less, which is awesome and right down the street. Tonight though, an FJV in the area is bringing us dinner…can’t pass up a free meal! Until next time, peace!

More pictures of my casa, roommates, and adventures coming soon :)