Written by MJ Ladera on 10/31/2020
My daily routine for September varied throughout the month. From September 1st to the 12th, I drove to Kansas City, Kansas, where I was going to stay with my aunt and her family. During the weekdays, I volunteered at the Habitat for Humanity Restore. It is a Goodwill type store for home items, such as gardening tools, window panes, light fixtures, doors, toilets, etc. Habitat re-sells these items to help fund their builds. My job there was to help people bring in their donations and select sale-able items. It was tedious but fun, nevertheless. Even though I was volunteering at the same location, every day was different. I remember a day when I was helping a lady bring in her donations and all of a sudden the power went out. We had to close the store and leave for the day. I found out the following day that the construction next door had caused the power outage at this and neighboring stores. During the weekends, I spent time with my aunt and her family. We visited the farmers market in downtown Kansas City, on the Missouri side; rode the tram through the city; drove to Lawrence and visited the University of Kansas, where we ate some amazing ice cream. On the way back from Kansas, I was able to visit Mizzou’s campus and spend a night in St.Louis, near the river and the arch.
Coming home and getting settled in was a bit hard, and after only two days of being back my family and I had already planned a trip to Arizona. We spent a few days driving through Phoenix, Sedona, the Grand Canyon, and Page. It was an enjoyable trip, especially since it was my first time ever being on the west side of the U.S. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we all had things to get back to. My brother had to go back to school; my parents back to work and I had to get back to working on my Portuguese and volunteering. But who knows, I may be able to spend more time in Arizona next semester.
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