usa rail pass. third segment: chicago to grand rapids.

life has certainly thrown me for a loop this week...let's play a little catch up.

last friday (christmas eve), after spending 2 days hanging out in pjs with my niece, my brother took me to a metra station to get into downtown. after about 2 minutes of browsing through the raunchy romance novels that they had at the station (random, i know, but i love those romance novels!), they announced that the train was going to be about 20-30 minutes late which was going to put me getting into the station a little too late...

kyle came to the rescue and drove me into downtown to union station. i was able to grab a burrito and be on time for my train. i had a small world moment when i ran into my friend mark from the corps of engineers as i was walking to my gate. life is good like that sometimes.

i ended up sitting next to a really interesting guy from memphis who, after a few years of pursuing the music life, is now doing archaeology work. pretty sweet! i made it home just fine to hugs from my family before quickly going to bed.

on christmas day, i awoke with the news that my grandmother in denver (who had been very sick) had passed away. merry christmas. we opened presents, ate a bit of lunch and then my mom and i took my dad to the airport. the next few days were just kind of a blur. i stayed in my pjs most of the time and went on a few jogs around the neighborhood. i did manage to meet up with my friend matt from college. we went ice skating in downtown and got dinner and drinks at some of my favorite places in grand rapids. that was delightful.

airport picture my aunts went gaga over.

but, early early early that next morning, my mom and i flew back to denver for the funeral. the service was nice, and it was good to see family i hadn't seen in quite a while, but the circumstances were less than desirable.

on the bright side, i might be inheriting a banjo which i spent quite a bit of time tinkering around on. it may or may not make its way to california!!

on our way out of denver, a big snowstorm blew through the area...but we didn't have any delays, thankfully.

i've spent new years relaxing around town. i met up with kate for a delicious lunch at san chez cafe, saw tron in 3D with my parents and plan on an early night.

happy new year!

here are some highlights from the family photo session...

dad, me, mom and aunt leslie.

mom and aunt leslie!

my camera has a smile detection mode.

sassy cat. that's the cat's name.

usa rail pass. second segment: colorado to chicago.

eventually we all got on the train just past 2am on wednesday morning. boy was that a long wait in the train station. i kept myself entertained by rotating my activities: knitting a scarf, reading a few chapters of a book, playing a few rounds of free cell or pinball on my laptop, and checking to see if anything more enticing magically appeared in the vending machines. lather, rinse, repeat.

trash heap in nebraska.

i fell asleep pretty soon after i got onto the train. i stirred a bit at sunrise but realized that it was too much effort to try to get some pictures on an overcast day in nebraska. also, my head felt like it was in a fishbowl since my ears didn't want to pop from all of my congestion.

i spent the majority of the day in the lounge car, knitting most of the time. sometime in the afternoon, i struck up a delighful conversation with my new friend rob from utah. it was fun to talk with someone my age and definitely helped the afternoon fly by at a quicker pace. rob had a book of sudokus, and surprisingly, i got through a few of them.

my pack on the metra.

olivia playing around with tigger.

i ended up getting into union station just past 11:30pm...a mere 8 and a half hours past my scheduled arrival at 3pm. i rushed over to the oglivie transportation center and hopped onto the last metra out to the suburbs. my brother picked me up at 1:30am, and i slept a few hours on the couch before being woken up by my adorable niece, olivia. we spent the morning playing around until i decided to go to the walk-in clinic to get my sickness checked out.

i walked away with two types of ear drops and a sinus rinse. goody! the rest of the day was spent playing with olivia, eating some pizza and hanging out with some of kyle and ivonne's friends.

i spent the rest of my time in chicago hanging out in my pjs playing with my niece. i did manage to play some rock band (keyboard, yea!) with my bro and his family which was fun. here are some photos of olivia:

olivia and kyle on skype with my family in colorado.

olivia was fascinated by candies from my aunt brenda.

yea! playing with yarn at an early age.

using daddy as a chair. haha.

usa rail pass. first segment: california to colorado.

union station in la. saturday, december 18.

last saturday, i started my train trip across the country. weeks ago i bought a USA Rail Pass and set up my itinerary. i packed up my life for three weeks in my mid-size backpack and a messenger bag. then, after a rousing going away shindig for kate and stephen, i headed out with a few others down the mountain. it was a rainy, icky day in southern california, but i ended up being dropped off right at los angeles union station. i really liked the station. it had a comfortable waiting area, the ticket guy was helpful with my rail pass and all of my tickets, and there was even a movie being filmed right in the station. i didn't get any pictures of it, but as i walked by to board my train, there were people dressed up in really terrifying bear costumes (okay, maybe just terrifying to me, i'm sure it's some sort of children's movie).

sunrise in new mexico. sunday, december 19.

i learned from my last long distance train trip to bring a blanket and a pillow, so at around 9pm, my tummy full of a veggie burger from the snack bar, i curled up in my seat and fell asleep. i woke up at about 2am, knitted and read for a while and went back to sleep. i woke up again at 6:30 to see a beautiful sunrise.

i decided to splurge a little bit and enjoyed lunch in the dining car. i sat next to an old man headed towards boston and a navy guy heading from san diego back home to detroit. the old man left after a while, and i enjoyed some pleasant conversation with the navy guy. as we munched on the last bits of our sandwiches, we both ordered chocolate chip cheesecake with blueberries on top. it was delightful.

car wreck outside of lamy, nm on december 19, 2010.

all through southern california, arizona and into new mexico, the train was relatively on schedule. then, at around 2pm on sunday, our train hit a car at a small mountain road crossing. you can read the news story here. that put us at a standstill for about 5 hours. the driver, a 28-year-old man, was pulled out of his car within about half an hour experiencing shock and a possible broken leg. thankfully the outcome wasn't worse. i was surprised to see that everyone on the train stayed calm. amtrak had to call in special investigators and a new crew before we could go anywhere...which took a long time. i got restless at the 4th hour of waiting and bought myself a personal pizza and half a bottle of wine to enjoy on the rest of the trip

view of pikes peak from my aunt and uncle's backyard.

my uncle rick was originally going to pick me up at a stop closer to colorado springs where he and my aunt leslie live, however, he ended up picking me up in las vegas, nm. he drove 4 hours to get me, which meant a 4 hour drive back. i slept most of the way and was greeted with hugs and kisses by my aunt leslie and my grandma gini who is visiting from kansas for the holidays.

during my time on the train, i learned that my grandma sara in denver had taken ill and needed emergency surgery. so much drama in the family!

the flamingo tree!

my days in colorado springs were refreshing. i slept a lot, ate some delicious food and enjoyed seeing my aunt, uncle and grandma. we even decorated my aunt and uncle's aluminum tree in all flamingo ornaments.

on tuesday, uncle rick drove me up to denver to see my grandma sara in the hospital and to catch the train. grandma is doing alright...all things considered, but hopefully she'll get stronger day by day. uncle rick and i enjoyed some thai food at a restaurant near the hospital. curious about the train, i called amtrak and learned that the train into denver was running 7 hours late because of harsh weather and a derailed freight train.

so here i am, with another 4 hours to go. it's a good thing i still need to finish my christmas presents.

here are some more photos!!

grandma gini and i.

construction fence in albuquerque.

somewhere in new mexico.

welcome to the double club.

yes. i pulled what is called a "double" this week at high trails. meaning, i worked a cabin shift AND a field shift. i was originally scheduled to work only a cabin shift and splititng a field group with another instructor. but the other instructor got sick, so i ended up just working the whole week.

my cabin group was alright. i had a super cabin...with 18 girls. i get paid more for that since our normal student:instructor ratio is below 16:1, but i felt a bit like i was herding cattle all week instead of being a cabin instructor. i didn't really connect with the girls, except for the girls who stayed near my bunk. those two were really awesome! i had some high maintenance girls as well as some who just took a long time to do everything...which wasn't ideal.

my field group was also alright. there were some really great students and some students who didn't want to be there. we definitely had our low moments and our high moments, so overall it evened out.

wednesday i had a bad day at work. to start off with, i slept through my alarm in the morning. my cabin group needed to be at breakfast early to help set up. sooo...i had 15 minutes to get them up, dressed, and through the bathrooms before they needed to be at the dining hall. i conquered that AND started the meal early. the rest of the morning was fine...cleaning our cabin (we won the cleanest cabin!) and getting the girls ready for the day. 

when i met my field group, however, it got off to an interesting start. one student had to poo right away, but didn't want to go outside. then that same student started to get really, really homesick and was faking being sick in order to try to go home. along the hike, one of the students dropped one of the water jugs and cracked it, so we had to get rid of the water earlier than i wanted. then the homesick student started to get REALLY homesick...crying every 10 minutes, not wanting to eat lunch or drink water. luckily one of his teachers tagged along for the rest of the day so i could continue teaching. right after lunch, the other water jug was dropped and shattered leaving us very limited water supply for the rest of the hike. the day got better though as the students got more and more engaged in the classes. we went down to the creek to wander around, but after i got all of my students across the creek, i slipped and fell in getting my shoes soaked (the one day i didn't wear waterproof shoes...). so i had to spend the rest of the day with no more water and wet shoes. needless to say, i had to have a little cry to let out my emotions from the day...

despite the sweat and tears, the week ended well. we got snow on thursday evening which was fun...but the students weren't quite prepared for the cold weather. a lot of their shoes got wet making the hike a bit miserable and whiny. nothing some fun and energetic camp songs can't fix though! 

i'm now heading out on my epic train trip back home. more to post on that later!

oh, i'm a gummy bear.

yes, i'm a gummy bear.
gummy bear!

that was the cheer for my field group last week. they were a little silly and ridiculous, but i had fun with them. they were very curious and fascinated by all of the knowledge i had to share with them. at times they were a bit on the rowdy side, but nothing that got out of control.

on wednesday i drove down to san diego to visit my friend amy. we had a wonderful time exploring the city. we visited la jolla cove, ate at a delighful cafe just off the shore, wandered around balboa park, enjoyed ice cream and a wonderful shop in the south park neighborhood, and finished off the day with sushi in downtown. pretty great!!

the staff ugly sweater party was on friday. that was a blast! a band even came and played in our living room. pretty great.

i've been spending the day cleaning my room, getting ready for the week and also making sure all of my ducks are in a row for my epic train trip! should be a great week : )

sad face button man.

i went thrift store shopping yesterday for the staff ugly sweater party and one of the stores had a bag sale: fill up a trash bag with whatever you want and pay $5. we went to town! that's where i found a basic green sweater with a button-stick-person sewn on the back. the button man has a sad face...it's pretty great.

but my week was good. the only time the sad face man could have described my week was yesterday. and yesterday wasn't even too bad. i woke up to find that someone had eaten my brussel sprouts and i didn't get to go contra dancing because the weather wasn't very great.

i only worked for 3 days this week as a cabin instructor. my cabin was pretty good, but it was hard for them to appreciate the camp experience for 3 days (which is really only 2 days).

in other life news, i've started jogging! i've never really been much of a runner, but running on trails is a lot of fun.

here are some things i've realized about myself since i've been out here:

1. i own a lot of boots. 6 pairs: snow boots, hiking boots, moon boots, cowboy boots, rain boots and my trail shoes (which are boots).
2. i wear a lot of spandex. i now have about 6 pairs of leggings. i wear them all the time.
3. i eat a lot of brussel sprouts. my friend kyle now has his "robin" meal which includes brussel sprouts.
4. greek yogurt is really good.
5. i also really enjoy cleaning stoves.

that's it for now! until next week...

it's going to be a good life.

i returned from my epic road trip safe and sound. to recap the rest of our adventures....

- drank lots of wine and watched lots of movies at uncle doug's guest house
- petted horses and hiked around uncle doug's plethora of land (beautiful!)
- got stuck in traffic around san fran and sacramento (day before thanksgiving)
- had pizza and beer at caroline's aunt and uncle's (another uncle doug!)
- played the most entertaining game of life. ever.
- ate a vegan thanksgiving with lauren and her friends
- sang christmas carols for lauren's friends...delightful...
- explored caves at the pinnacles national monument
- got a calzone (delicious!) in this really bizarre town somewhere in the middle of nowhere
- lucked out on getting an executive suite at the best western...for $120!
- got to know my traveling companions really well and had the trip of a lifetime!

i've also had the past two days off from work! so i've pretty much been on break for a week and a half. i then work for 2 and a half weeks and then have another 3 weeks off. gotta love the holidays!

between buying my rail pass, getting new tires, getting my brakes repaired, going to the dentist and splurging a bit on some patagonia dresses (i couldn't resist!), i'm not excited to look at my bank account. but hey! that's what life is for.

i've been knitting and crocheting a lot lately. i've made a few things for folks here and am now thinking about gifty things for family. should be fun!

another week flies by.

last week flew by! i worked at our other site leading a great field group and teaching line dancing. it was interesting to work at another site and get a different perspective. my field group was a lot of fun at first, but at the end of the week, i think we had a little too much of each other.

it has started to get rather cold once the sun goes down (which is at 5pm!). crazy. i need to remember to bring more and more layers with me every day.

i think the highlight was teaching a solid orienteering class. i'd only taught it once before, so i wasn't sure how it would go. my goal this time was to teach a short class and let them loose with compasses. it worked and they had a blast!!

right now i am staying at the guest house of one of my coworker's rich uncles. apparently he invented online credit card transactions...so he has a guest house that he hosts people in! it has 4 bedrooms, a view of the ocean and the forest, a wood stove, full kitchen and projection tv. basically the opposite of where i live and where we've been staying (well, minus the views).

the past two nights we've been traveling up the coast. the first day we stopped for a delightful meal in ventura before meeting my friend kristy in santa barbara for a stroll along the pier. we camped out along the beach just north of santa barbara. it was spectacular. the next day, we ate brunch at the rock and roll diner. it was spectacular. we spent the day stopped at random spots along the way: the hearst castle (which we didn't tour because it was way too expensive), the elephant seal viewing area, and then finally we found our camping spot at limekiln creek. we set up our tents near the creek. the creek fed directly into the ocean...which was a 3 minute hike from our campsite. watching the sunset over the ocean horizon with the waves crashing against the cliffs was breathtaking.

today we drove up the coast some more...stopping to visit mcway falls, the only waterfall to pour directly into the ocean! pretty great. then we kept driving up along the coast to get to santa cruz!

off to enjoy the guest house.

i said a boom chica boom.

the ladies in my cabin LOVED that song last week. it doesn't help that i really like that song, so i have a tendency to sing it a lot.

this week was pretty great. i had a wonderful group of girls. no drama. they respected and listened to me and each other. they learned a lot from the night hikes. they seemed to gain a lot from the community in the cabin. i had fun and actually slept really, really well. all in all, a stellar week.

i filled in for one of the field instructors one day. that day wasn't so great...but i wasn't prepared, wasn't up in my discipline game and taught a few classes i'd never taught before. not to make excuses, but that explains why i wasn't so satisfied with the day.

one thing i didn't enjoy last week was plunging about 18 bazillion toilets (okay, maybe 10). since we live in the middle of the forest, our plumbing here is less than ideal (we have running water though...something to be thankful for). which means that our toilets clog a lot. ew.

i'm starting to get into the swing of things here at camp. a few of the support coordinator positions are opening up for the spring (one position higher than mine), but i think i want to just stick with being an instructor for now.

i feel like my life is finally reaching a healthy balance of work and fun. when i'm not working, i've been exercising more, feeding myself healthy (and delicious) food, and making progress on my various crafty projects. i've been able to go contra dancing a few times and even signed up for a weekend contra festival at the end of february! i'm pretty excited.

for thanksgiving, i'm going on a road trip with a few of my coworkers. our tentative stops are in santa maria for wine tasting, a few days in san fran, thanksgiving in sacramento, visiting my friend lauren, camping at yosemite seeing kings canyon and the sequoias and then returning home. can't wait!

i'm also planning out my winter break excursion. i'm almost completely set on getting an amtrak USA rail pass. it's not that much more expensive than a plane ticket, and i get 8-12 stops across the country. so far i'm planning to stop in colorado springs and denver to visit family, chicago to see my brother and his family, be home for a week (with a possible trip down to ohio to visit college friends), then spending new years in chicago, stopping in utah to see heidi, idaho to see amy and then making my way on the trains down through california to make it back home. all that in 3 weeks.

: )

that is so epic.

for some reason, all of the sixth graders kept saying that about everything. i don't blame them because i find myself saying that a lot about this place, but it got a little annoying.

"that view is so epic!"
"the rock wall is epic!"
"that tree is sooooo epic!"
"this sandwich is epic!"

you get the picture. my field group this week was rough. i had one students with ADHD who had been taken off his medication for camp. why? to make my week difficult probably. needless to say, he stirred up a lot of crazy energy in all of the students and halfway through the week was one step from being sent home. not ideal. we had some good times though and i'm pretty sure the students had a good time. i did have a few students ask if they could switch into different field groups though. oops.

fall is really beautiful now. the leaves have turned from a golden yellow to a burnt orange. i've been taking a lot of short hikes around to enjoy the fall splendor. on saturday i did some trail work up on the seven oaks trail. it was a lot of fun! then on sunday afternoon i went contra dancing : ) i've missed that part of my life quite a bit. there's a big weekend festival in february that i'm hoping to go to! that would be a lot of fun.

in other life news, i'm leaning towards staying here another year and finding something cool to do over the summer. any suggestions?

turkey, tuna, ham.

mountains in the sunset.

those are the lunch options (with peanut butter and jelly everyday) on tuesday, wednesday and thursday of camp, respectively. one of the days this week, there was quite the banter going on in radio land about these options. probably one of those "you had to be there" times, but it was quite funny and my students found it pretty funny, too.

this week was great! i had a very relaxed field group of 12 students. we did climbing and archery on the first day instead of the typical team discovery hike. the kids loved getting do to those classes on the first day!

i'm working on being more firm with the students about my expectations. the students are typically very curious about what time it is, what we're doing right at that minute (and the next few minutes), and when they get to eat lunch, so i've started to tell them at the beginning of the day what is going to happen. if they ask me later, i tell them to ask someone else who was paying attention. if they ask me what time it is, i tell them it's either lesson time or lunch time. it seemed to work well!

i've also been giving out three simple rules.

1) when i'm talking, you're not.
2) no interacting with logs, sticks or rocks unless i tell you (safety first!)
3) have fun!

that is also working well. students this week were actually asking if they could pick up sticks and rocks. my typical response: nope! i'm all for hands-on, but usually when a student picks up a stick or a rock, it ends up being thrown back on the ground. sometimes hitting someone else. not okay.

in the not-so-great news, 1 students broke his glasses and three of my students had multiple nosebleeds during the week. yikes!

my friend elysa from SCA massachusetts stopped by for a brief visit. it was incredibly refreshing to have her here! i worked a lot of the time and was exhausted the other part, but we managed to spend some good quality time catching up on gossip and taking a sunset drive around the mountains.

speaking of...here are some pictures that elysa took:

big bear lake at sunset.

my cabin in the woods.

elysa and i (on the left) with the sunset.

i feel so popular.

especially when working with 6th graders. they always want to know more about you (are you married? why is your nose pierced? where are you from? how long have you worked here? where do you live?). students outside of my field or trail groups know my name. they pretty much think that the staff are the coolest people in the world (who would argue with that?).

i enjoyed a delightful week with my cabin group. they were a group of very energetic girls who were curious and enthusiastic about being at camp. we kept our cabin clean, no one got overly homesick and they even taught me a few dance moves while we were waiting for people to finish up at shower time (the shuffle and the spongebob).

a few of the administrative staff watched one of my night classes for an evaluation, and the feedback was really helpful. they basically said i'm doing really well and definitely have potential to be a great instructor. i also found out i passed my climbing certification, so i can teach climbing classes all by myself now. hooray!

the most exciting part of the week, though, might have been auditioning to be a line dancing instructor. i led one dance during a line dancing session, and on friday i found out that i was chosen to be one of the instructors! yay! this means i have the opportunity to make some extra money and wear crazy outfits for teaching.

it's been a relaxing weekend up in the mountains. there was a rather lively social gathering at the square house (our main gathering place) on friday night. on saturday, i went into town with a bunch of the gals to run errands. while thrifting, i found a flag patterned blouse, flag patterned visor and red-white-blue moon boots. i think i'm going to go as an american gladiator for halloween. should be epic!

in other news, i'm considering buying a rail pass for my winter break and taking the train around to visit friends and family. right now i'm thinking of training it from LA to chicago to see my brother and his family. then up to grand rapids (maybe a trip to ypsi if i can snag a ride...). then back across the country, possibly stopping in montana, idaho, seattle and then down to san fran and eventually back to the mountains. we'll see...

grad school (and other future life adventure) musings.

i've only been at high trails for a month, but i'm trying to sort out my next life adventures. i know that i want to go to grad school eventually, and it's been on my mind more lately. here's what i'm thinking right now...

i like new england. i like michigan. i'm learning to like the west coast. i like mountains. i like the ocean. when i continue my education, i want to study something having to do with water management and/or sustainability. it'd be great to travel abroad.

i could stay at high trails for a while. i could apply to graduate school. i could apply to the peace corps. i could get another job somewhere doing something awesome.

schools i'm looking at:
university of vermont: m.s. in natural resources with a focus on aquatic ecology and watershed science
university of michigan: m.s. in natural resources in tandem with a peace corps assignment
university of oregon: m.s. in environment studies (very interdisciplinary program in a cool place)

ah! it's a good thing i don't have to make a decision anytime soon.

ps. i found a place that PAYS you for cardboard and metal. exciting!

18 students, 5 inhalers, 2 EpiPens and a lunchtime medication.

that's what i had to radio in every morning when i received my field group this week. i felt like a walking medicine cabinet with lots and lots of children tailing behind me. also, i decided to fill in for someone and took on a cabin group the first night of camp.

needless to say, i'm a bit exhausted right now. all in all, the week went really well. my field group, although they were a bit on the rowdy side, definitely came together and showed me that they were learning and paying attention. it was great to have another taste cabin life in my night at the cabins.

i can tell i'm getting more confident in my responsibilities with this job and am feeling much better about all of the lesson plans. it's nice to start developing a routine to my life again.

in other life news (because my life doesn't always revolve around work), my camera is fixed and waiting to be picked up from best buy so i'll soon be able to post pictures from my beautiful new home! i did some trail work last weekend and LOVED it. i also really enjoy the folks i live with : ) they pretty much rock.

i am missing home...feel free to call me or write letters!

my address:
po box 1147
angelus oaks, ca 92305

: )

my week as a cabin instructor.

i spent this week working as a cabin instructor. my duties were similar to being a summer camp counselor. i met my group of 9 girls on monday evening, helped them move their luggage to our cozy cabin on the far side of the camp, got through dinner and then spent the evening getting settled in.

throughout the week, i taught evening classes in nocturnal animals, astronomy and a multi-part community building class called tribes. the classes went pretty well. there were some issues at first with tribes because some of the girls were friends from school and some weren't. i had to stress quite a bit that it didn't matter whether the girls are friends, we were all in a cabin together this week and we would make the most of it.

all in all, the week was great. there's a plague (nasty cold) going around the staff, so i wasn't feeling the greatest...however, i made it through! the shift schedule was a little funny. i worked evenings leading classes and spending the night in the cabin with the girls (no major issues!). i then got them through breakfast and showers and preparing to be out in the field all day. i had the afternoons off, but most of those i spent observing other staff members' classes for improving both my teaching and theirs (we constantly do evaluations of each other here. it's kind of great).

i enjoyed the change of pace, but it'll be fun to be in the field again this week. so, some may know of my clumsiness, but i'm keeping tabs of my small injuries so far...

• slicing my finger when constructing my bow drill (i'm just not going to have feeling in that little sliced area now)
• losing a chunk of my big toenail while walking to the bathroom at 5am (it's fine)
• getting my hand stuck between a vacuum cleaner handle and bunk bed (just a bruise)
• scraping off the top of my other big toe on the refrigerator (flesh wound, no big deal)

oh sixth graders.

i am relaxing on the weekend after a slightly stressful first week with a rowdy group of 6th graders at high trails. we had monday off, so i spent that day finishing up my materials, working on my bow drill and hanging out with people.

tuesday morning found me preparing to take on a group of 14 students for the week. after morning chores to get our site ready, i waited at the bus turn around (also called the "helipad" since a helicopter could land on it) with the rest of the field instructors. there were lots of rules explained and even more names called for on attendance lists. at that point, i'm pretty sure i was more nervous than any of the campers about being at camp.

but, i welcomed my dancing dodos (that was their team name. later in the week i accidently started calling them dingos. remnant of a game from my last job) to a fun trail group. we went to lunch and then had an enjoyable team discovery hike to introduce them to some of the concepts we would be discussing throughout their time at camp. it was good! i managed to get through everything in the lesson plan, so i was happy. i fumbled my way through sitting at a "happy table" (i get to make polite conversation and make sure that only one student is up from the table at a time, yay!) at dinner and then cozied up in my cute cabin for the evening.

on wednesday, my group was doing a long hike around camp while learning about decomposers, plants, and outdoor survival. the morning was pretty chaotic with having to make around 200 sandwiches for our picnic lunches AND make sure we had everything set for all of our classes. the day did not go perfect. one student twisted his ankle during a tag game in the first lesson forcing us to remain in the same location for about an hour (not fun for active kids). there were a good share of behavioral issues...and then a bunch of bumps and scrapes during our shelter building activity. but, i'm learning a lot about how to handle a difficult group of kids, so i'm thankful for the challenging experiences and the chance to use my first aid training.

thursday gave me the opportunity to delve into what happens when southern california gets rain. the kids are definitely not used to that sort of weather and the minute it started raining they were all complaining of being cold and begging to go inside. i had a flashback to when i pulled a 13 hour day in a torrential downpour doing trail work and just wanted to tell the kids to toughen up, but we did end up going inside. we made it through our adventure course alright and managed to get through archery without anyone getting hurt, so that was great. by then, the sun came out and it was beautiful again! we had a long lunch including a game of camouflage (hide and seek). our next stop was the climbing wall, something i wasn't excited about, but my kids were. all of the new instructors are being observed during our first archery and climbing classes to become certified. i passed my archery certification, but i didn't make my climbing certification. i felt good on the content, but my delivery of the lesson and management of the kids was definitely sub par. they all had a lot of fun and no one got hurt, so it was great, but i was definitely anxious the whole time. it'll be good to try for my certification again.

we finished the day with a short environmental awareness class. i was looking forward to this class the whole week, but because the climbing wall was delayed, i had to scrunch an hour and a half lesson into less than an hour. not ideal. but...we made it! i was very happy to hand my kids off at the end of the day...

on thursday nights, the kids have a cookout instead of dinner inside so they cook their own hot dogs and make s'mores. it was pretty great to end the day with marshmallow gunk all over my gloves. kind of nice.

friday was our last day with the kids. i helped out with breakfast, did some work in the teacher housing (my "project area" that i am in charge of with 3 other staff), acted out the part of the hummingfish in our rendition of the lorax, had my final 10 minute lesson with the dancing dingos and then waved their buses off as they left to go home. we spent the afternoon in a downpour. i ended up being stuck in the laundry room much of the time because the rain was so bad. there were intermittent bouts of hail, lots of lightning and thunder, and stormwater runoff like i've never seen before. within about 5 minutes of the first downpour there were rivers of water streaming through the parking lot. it was incredible!

what wasn't incredible was having some of the buildings start to flood and to come home and find that my own cabin had flooded. luckily nothing of mine was damaged and within 24 hours the weather has returned to its warm and sunny self.

welcome to sunshine.

i have been in california now for about 2 weeks. i finished up the whirlwind training last friday with a staff overnight out at a place called horse meadows. i was really happy to see a big field of grass. the hike out was pretty intense, but once we got there, we all hunkered down, climbed into our sleeping bags, shared brief versions of our life stories and fell asleep under the stars.

the weekend was spent getting all of my teaching materials ready. we teach courses in outdoor survival and native cultures and both involve using a bow drill for demonstration and experiential learning (aka the kids try it out). so...i spent a little bit of time on the small things we need for class and A LOT of time trying to become awesome at the bow drill. aside from my set making an awful screeching noise, it's not too bad.

my roommate dominates the bow drill. she made a fire yesterday even. it was very impressive.

there is so much more to say about this place, but i will save that for another entry. off to get myself ready for our first day with kids!

pictures from the rest of the drive.

here are some snapshot from my drive through texas to colorado springs...(mainly the capulin volcano national monument).

national monument i stopped at!

oh hey! it's me.

view from the top of the volcano.

i feel like i'm doing the sorority girl pose.

clouds of impending doom.

mountains! crossing the colorado border.

more mountains.

life in southern california is still great. i haven't quite gotten over the weather. it's pretty much sunny and in the 80s every day. since i'm up in the mountains it cools off quite a bit.

yesterday i moved into my cute little cabin in the woods. i'm sharing a room with a girl named kate from ohio. she's really great! we have 2 cabin-mates who live on the other side of the cabin. i'll be sharing a bathroom with 7 other girls and a kitchen with 20 people. joy!

last night we had an enjoyable evening of pizza and beer around the campfire. folks brought out their guitars and drums and voices. pretty much amazing!

i'm in town with kate picking up some things that we'll need for teaching. we stopped at a thrift store where i bought a picnic basket, umbrella, stuffed elephant and many other things...all for $7 because it was half off day! : )

i miss everyone so much, but i'm having a wonderful time out here. i just found out my mailing address, so send me an email if you want it: miller.is.robin@gmail.com.

new home at high trails.

i arrived at my new home at high trails outdoors science school up in the san bernardino mountains on sunday afternoon. i spent a few fun days romping around with some of my new co-workers before we started training on tuesday morning. some highlights include a campfire with 3 guitars, lots of beatles music and a clarinet; hiking over to the local lake (hallockville pond is much bigger); and camping for the first time in over a month.

monday evening found me sitting in a dining hall with 30+ new staff members at a family dinner. it was fun to enjoy the company of new friends and get to know the folks who will become my home away from home for the next 9 months. after dinner we moved into cabins for temporary housing before we decide where we are going to live for the year.

the past two days (tuesday and wednesday) have been full of learning, discovery and fun (and lots of talking, paperwork, and hiking). i'm pretty tired and worn out, but i'm getting excited to soon be inspiring young minds from the local area in all aspects related to nature. so far i've learned classes in geology, plants, outdoor survival, mammals (furry friends), decomposers (little world), and environmental awareness. pretty sweet.

we've also been training on how to be excellent cabin instructors (think camp counselor), and i'm getting excited and a bit nervous about that responsibility.

i'm very excited to move into our housing this weekend! we get to spend tomorrow night hashing out who will live where (it's a bit complicated, but i'll save the trouble of explaining), but it'll be great to move in!

until next time...

the mountains.

moments:
- driving around rural texas
- hiking up on the capulin volcano national monument
- crossing the border into colorado and being surrounded by hills and mountains
- seeing the rockies
- camera dying
- aunt leslie and rick in colorado springs
- first home cooked meal in 2 weeks
- denver: grandma sara and steve, kristin
- great conversation
- being the fill-in daughter
- my meticulously folded laundry...
- aunt leslie making coffee for me the morning i left for flagstaff
- beautiful landscapes in new mexico and arizona
- total eclipse of the heart in orchestra+elevator mode
- npr
- finally making it to flagstaff (after 11 hours of driving)
- grand canyon hostel : )
- lumberyard brewery
- the piano room
- crazy austrailians watching youtube videos in the hostel lounge
- sleep...
- macy's for breakfast: meatless biscuits and gravy
- seeing joshua for lunch at an indian restaurant
- walking around downtown flagstaff during an old car cruise day
- driving along route 66 to kingman, az
- meeting gloria, my newly found grandmother, and enjoying a wonderful night of rest
- driving through miles and miles of deserts and mountains to finally arrive in CALIFORNIA

now off to explore my new home....

everything is bigger in texas.

crazy highways in dallas.

eventually, i made it to texas. everything really is bigger in texas. the land, the sky, the traffic, the weather. on friday, i made it through dallas and drove into houston around midnight. marc and i headed out to sherlock's to get a few beers and play some darts. i won at darts.

SATURDAY

saint arnold brewery.

we got lunch at this great trinidadian restaurant with a few of marc's friends from grad school. holy moly it was tasty! afterward, we toured the saint arnold brewery and enjoyed a few beer samples. the heat in houston, my lack of sleep, and those few sips of beer necessitated a nap. once i woke up we went to see the other guys (the new will farrel film) which was HILARIOUS. it was also the first film i'd seen in a theater since december.

later on we went to cedar creek, a great bar with lots of outdoor seating. fun times!

SUNDAY

where we went tubing!

marc and the giant ladle.

sunday was the day of tubing on the guadalupe river! we left late morning and ended up stopping at buc-ees, this crazy rest/truck stop that has lots of ridiculous things. like a giant ladle.

armed with a cooler full of beer and tubes, we set out for 4 hours of floating down a lazy river. it was fabulous. i didn't even get sunburnt. wahoo!

needless to say, i was pooped by the end of that adventure and fell asleep before 10pm. whoops...

MONDAY

mural in austin.

i ended my houston adventure with carry out breakfast of kolaches and lunch at sweet tomatoes. yum yum yum. i hit the road just as the remnants of a tropical storm hit houston. yay? this meant driving through torrential rain on an 8 lane highway. not ideal driving conditions, but i guess it could have been worse. i made it into austin in the evening to hang out with danielle for the rest of the day. miraculously, it wasn't raining at all when i got there.

me at ut-austin.

austin is SUCH a cool city. very walkable, bikeable, public transportation-able. we walked arount UT-austin and then took the bus into downtown to check out the 6th street district. we ate at the iron cactus, an upscale mexican place in town. i ordered spinach, artichoke and portabello enchiladas. DELICIOUS.

after stuffing ourselves more than we should've, we walked around town checking out a few of the local bars. literally every bar on 6th street had a live band...it was amazing! we stopped into friends and the chuggin' monkey to see some great local blues bands before catching a cab back to danielle's place. oh man, our cab driver was hilarious, too...best cab experience i've had.

TUESDAY

rain. rain. rain.

some cool terrain in texas.

i woke up early to a downpour outside. overnight the tropical storm i drove through leaving houston made its way out to austin...and was there for quite a while. my drive up to amarillo (where i had a room reserved at a cheap motel), was peppered with random outbursts of crazy thunderstorms. i made a few stops for gas and food, but made it to amarillo in the early evening. after checking into my hotel, i picked up a few groceries at this great local market and spent the evening relaxing and writing postcards in my room. not too shabby.

WEDNESDAY
i'm about ready to head off to colorado springs! just need to make a pb&j for lunch, pack up my things and set the GPS to the mountains.

ROAD TRIP STATS (including trip from MA)
cities visited: 12 - rochester, buffalo, niagara falls, ypsilanti, grand rapids, chicago (+suburbs), st. louis, lawrence (KS), tulsa, houston, austin, amarillo
miles traveled: 3,474
tanks of gas: 9

into the heartland.

my final days in st. louis were really great. i've lucked out in getting some pretty amazing food out and about (mostly thanks to my wonderful friends and their great food recommendations). for tuesday's dinner, i ended up at the atomic cowboy for what my friend dan attested was the most delicious veggie burger in town. it was quite tasty indeed! we also ordered some fried plantains served with a honey dipping sauce. yum.

fresh, local produce.

WEDNESDAY
i spent my wednesday exploring a few neighborhoods with my good friend kelly. we went to the soulard farmer's market so i could pick up some fresh produce. i ended up with a few plums and a box of raspberries.

i got a hawaiian sundae.

afterward, we stopped into park avenue coffee to enjoy gooey butter cake, one of st. louis' finest dessert options. kelly settled for peach and i got the red velvet. once we stuffed ourselves silly, we declared it nap time before going out to dinner at local harvest cafe. i ordered the vegan chili with a house salad and a glass of crisp riesling. talk about delicious and fresh! we topped the evening off with mr. wizard frozen custard. great way to end a summer night.

THURSDAY

i love rest areas.

i was up early to head off to lawrence, ks to visit my grandmother. the drive wasn't too bad. i got there just in time for lunch, so after a little bit of chit chat, we headed over to the salty iguana for some delicious spinach and cheese enchiladas. then we headed back to my grandma's house to catch up on everything that's been going on in our lives lately.

look closely at the bull on the right.

my grandma recently had some surgery and is doing really well with the recovery. we looked at some of my photos from massachsuetts, watched jeopardy and the news and then decided it was time for dinner at mariscos. i enjoyed a delicious salad, tomato basil soup and corn on the cob. i even snuck a few rings of calamari (oops!). it was just great.

FRIDAY

erica and i at cosmo.

an early morning yet again...this time driving down to tulsa, ok. i actually made it into town relatively early and met my cousin erica at cosmo cafe. i hadn't seen her in about 5 years, so we had a lot to catch up on!

traffic in oklahoma. life is good...?

eventually, though, i needed to get on the road again and she needed to head off to work, so i hopped in my car, set the gps to houston and headed on my way. the traffic gods had been good to me for the entire trip until i got just outside of tulsa where i hit some really nasty construction traffic near a toll booth. it took me 45 minutes to go less than 2 miles. and then i had to pay 2 dollars at the end because it was a toll road. not entirely ideal. however i continued on my journey and eventually made it into TEXAS!


(more to come on texas in my next entry)

midwestern adventures.

i'm currently in st. louis! the past few days have been very busy. here's a brief breakdown of the adventures so far...

SATURDAY

i left grand rapids around 11am and had uneventful drive to my brother's condo in the chicago suburbia. i spent the afternoon with my brother, sister-in-law, niece and my brother's friend matt at a street festival in palatine.

ivonne and olivia.

olivia, my niece, is such a great baby! she's about 6 months old, can roll over, army crawl across the floor, not quite sit up on her own and is just getting her first tooth. she likes to have staring contests. she usually wins. she gets the hiccups a lot which is rather adorable. 

we got dinner at a mexican grocery store and then eventually headed out to see a band that only does talking heads covers at a pub in naperville (without olivia, of course). it was a lot of fun to go out with my brother. i don't know that we've ever done that before.

SUNDAY

olivia and her staring contests.

olivia woke up early, so i hung out with her and kyle in the morning.

i eventually headed over to meet my friend caitlin and her boyfriend. we went to their church (willow creek...the largest church i've ever been to. it felt like a mall). afterward, we had a lazy afternoon before heading out to pick up my friend jenn from the train station near the chicago botanic gardens. caitlin works there as a horticulturist, so we got in for free and spent the rest of the day walking around the gardens.

chicago botanic gardens.

the gardens are beautiful, but it was also the heat of the day, so we were all quite tired by the end of our wanderings. i fell in love with the amazing bonsai collection they have and want to learn more. 

eventually, our stomachs started calling, so we headed to arlington heights to get dinner at this cool little pub. i ate a delicious veggie sandwich (portabello mushroom, tomato, alfalfa sprouts, onion, zucchini, greens, mozzarella, and a pesto mayo) served with a side of mac 'n cheese. yum!

eventually it was time to drop jenn off at the train station, so we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

carillon bells at chicago botanic garden.

MONDAY

after hanging out with olivia one last time, i hopped in my car and headed into the city to meet julia, one of the other corps members from MA, for breakfast. she lives in this cute neighborhood in the north part of the city. we ate at a swedish restaurant...which made me very happy. i had swedish pancakes with lingon berries for the first time in perhaps 3-4 years. it was really nice to see julia and talk about our lives after the program.

cornfields in illinois.

after a while, i hopped back into my car and started the trek to st. louis. my parents lent me their gps unit for the trip. i was apprehensive about taking it because i'm notoriously horrible with electronics. however, it's really easy to use, so i'm having a good time with it. i changed the voice to french, which is awesome. i made a few stops along the way, but made it to st. louis a little after 6pm.

st. louis.

dan, evelyn, kelly and i went to dewey's pizza for a delicious dinner. dan, evelyn and i split a pizza that was half wild mushroom (so many different kids of mushrooms!) and the edgar allen poe (red pepper, mushroom, tomato, garlic, goat cheese and probably more things i don't remember), and i ordered a delicious candied walnut and grape salad. the dressing was a citrus basil vinaigrette. mmmmm...

TODAY

dan, evelyn and kelly (the friends i'm visiting here) have class or work all day, so i'm spending the day relaxing, catching up on letters, and making some phone calls. kelly has the day off tomorrow. i'm very excited to see her and catch up on all the directions life has taken us this year.

next stop...lawrence, ks to visit my grandma!

ROAD TRIP STATS (including trip from MA)
cities visited: 7 - rochester, buffalo, niagara falls, ypsilanti, grand rapids, chicago (+suburbs), st. louis
miles traveled: 1,793
tanks of gas: 4