Finally in Gresham

After a week of deep introspection and hashing out what it means to live in community with my six new friends, I'm finally moved into my house in Gresham. Our house is interesting to say the least. It was built in the early 1900's as a convent for St. Henry's parish, but has served as the office building for El Programa Hispano - a non-profit resource for the Latino community in Gresham - for the past 25 years. For the last year and a half it has been vacant, but occasionally inhabited by homeless squatters. It shares a parking lot with the Parish's community center and a very small back yard with the youth director and his wife - our "support couple." The Parish is right across the street and my housemates and I spent time greeting the parishioners after the three masses yesterday and thanking them for their incredible generosity in donating the furnishings of our home and helping to fix it up. The house is still a work in progress, but livable. My favorite parts of the house are the lavender doors and molding, and sea-foam green cupboards and breakfast nook in the kitchen.

My roommates are amazing. Everyone is pretty down to earth, with the exception of one super A-type go getter from Nashville (Gretchen, who took the MCAT the same day I did). We have some conflicting ideas of what it means to live in an intentional community and to live simply, but we have yet to hash out the details of our weekly community and spirituality nights. Making any decision, such as what kind of milk to buy, and what kinds of foods are essentials take long winded discussions. We have to reach a consensus so that no one looses out and compromises what they want. But we've had some fun late night chats and are definitely bonding as a unit. This year will be full of adventure for sure.