Vic Plus....

Because we don't have enough to do Tim and I have decided to go for the Victoria Plus Award. The main purpose behind the award is to get students involved and volunteering at Vic Uni as well as in the wider Wellington community. As a teenager I started volunteering at a children's museum and was instantly hooked. After that I volunteered over the years with church youth group, a sign language club, teaching English as a second language and eventually assisting and observing a speech language pathologist and physical therapist as I completed my undergrad at the U of M.

Then I moved to Bozeman and pursued my master's degree and worked extra on the side. Unfortunately, that left little time for pursuing hobbies and/or volunteering. Sure, I probably could've figured it out but for whatever reason I did not.

I started volunteering at Vic Uni to fulfill the obligation of 150 hours/year volunteer work that is attached to my scholarship. As I've explained in previous posts I joined the Postgraduate's Student Association Executive Board and was then elected to Vice President. I've thoroughly enjoyed the work and  for the first time actually understand something about the tertiary institution I'm attending. :)

In addition to PGSA I'm also pursuing volunteer hours via three other avenues: Language Buddies, Kaibosh and the Wellington SPCA. First, Language Buddies is a program where the Language Learning Center at Vic pairs up students who want to practice their language skills. That is, English is my first language and Spanish is my second and I've been paired up with a student whose first language in Spanish and their second language is English. I met my "buddy", Luis, for the first time today. He is from Columbia and is studying English at Vic Uni. Ok, remember that it's been years, ten to be exact, since I've actively practiced speaking Spanish. Thinking about the time that's flown by I am shocked - could it really be that a whole decade has passed since I was that girl living in Mexico and improving my Spanish on a daily basis? That realization has made me pause for a moment because it just doesn't seem possible! Alas, I know that's the reality of the situation and more than anything I am thrilled to have the chance to practice Spanish again. I've always said that it was my first love (I met Timmy several years later) and after changing my major from Spanish to Speech/Language/Hearing Science and then going on to pursue laboratory science I've missed Spanish terribly.

Our meeting today went very well and before we knew it we had chatted, switching back and forth between the languages, for almost two hours. Thankfully, Luis is very nice and patient when I'd be trying to dredge a word or verb tense from the recesses of my brain. Sometimes I was never able to lite on the word I needed and he would be able to supply it. Other times I had questions about correct verb tenses and he did a great job of explaining it in Spanish in such a way that I could understand it. He told me that he's never taught Spanish and so he didn't know if he would be any help to me but so far we're doing well. I have to say that, considering my extended hiatus from the language, I feel pretty darn amazing about what I could remember! Joy! :)

Along with Language Buddies, I'm also going to start volunteering with an organization here in Wellington called Kaibosh. Through volunteers they collect food that is still good but won't be used at restaurants around Wellington, sort it and distribute it to various soup kitchens and places where people may need a meal but might not be able to pay for one. I like the idea behind the organization and that is they want to reduce/eliminate hunger in Wellington and reduce food waste at the same time. So right now I've filled out all the paperwork and will start volunteering after we get back from Europe in September. Very exciting and like nothing else I've ever done before.

Lastly, Tim and I are both going to start volunteering at the Wellington SPCA this next week!! We attended an orientation meeting this past week and are very keen to work with the animals there. Tim is going to be starting in the adult dog area - if you've never witnessed it he's amazing with dogs - they just adhere themselves to his side and never want to leave. I'm going to start my work in the vet care where they focus on rehabilitation from injury or after surgery. Then we would both like to eventually start dog and puppy walking. And never fear! I've sorted out my allergy meds and will have special clothes that I only wear for work with animals so I should be good. Needless to say we are very excited to get started!

All in all these activities will keep up plenty busy but we prefer it that way. As I was walking home from campus today I thought, "If people should seek out and do what they love then perhaps I'm meant to volunteer because I enjoy it so much". While Wellington has provided opportunities for all kinds of experiences and learning I'm particularly excited about these volunteer opportunities. :)