Saturday, July 31, 2010

I made it!

For anyone who does not know I just moved to South Dakota! (YAY) and will be spending the year volunteering and teaching second grade on Pine Ridge Reservation. I am so excited to get started!

Yesterday after a collective "sitting on suitcases" party I left camp and packed into the car with Jake, Mattie, Xavier, and all my stuff. We had a wonderful drive to the Akron Canton air port and informed all slow drivers that they were "not so cute"! When we finally got to the airport one of my bags was 10 pounds to heavy which resulted in my pulling things out and trowing them at people to put in a box and mail...but it all worked out. 



My first flight went to Denver. It was made amazing by the fact that I could watch TV the whole way (not something I often get to do) I fell asleep to a top chef marathon...yummy. I landed in Colorado only to learn that my flight was delayed an hour so I grabbed some dinner and went back to the gait only to find out my flight was back on time (CHAOS!) but I made it on the flight so that was spectacular.

By the time I finally landed in Rapid City it was about 10:45 local time...so 12:45 on my internal clock. I was pretty pooped. I was thrilled to find both my bags and guitar had made the journey safe and sound! The drive to red cloud was rather dark, it was amazing to drive for so long and see nothing but silhouetted hills and more stars than I could ever count, the land is truly as beautiful as everyone promised. By the time we arrived at Red Cloud it was about 1:30 in the morning so I just through some sheets on my bed and had a good long sleep. 

When I woke up this morning no one was around so I started to unpack but was quickly located by other volunteers and we all went to have breakfast together in the gray house. I felt very relieved to have started meeting people, they are all very friendly and seem like amazing individuals, I am excited to get to know everyone over the next year. 

After breakfast I went on a walk guided by Amanda and Jackie. I have to admit, I am pretty much in love with the scenery. There is nothing but grassy hills and scattered trees for miles and it is all so peaceful and calm. I was a little taken back at first by the number of grasshoppers I saw. Every time you moved your foot hundreds of them would starts jumping in all directions. I awarded my self 10 points when one jumped straight into the side of my water bottle...you could here it clink. As we continued on we saw two wild horses which is somethings I never would have imagined seeing in my lifetime, but it appears they are quite common here. We also saw some zombie horses, I did not venture close enough to see how they smelled, but I imagine it was not good. 

The walk took a little longer than expected and we were all quite warm by the end, but we made it back safe and sounds and went to take naps. I hope to have many more adventures to report soon (and pictures to supply you all with) but that is all for now. Thank you to everyone for the love and support the past few days, it has meant the world to me. 

"We are going, heaven know where we are going, but we know we are."