a happy heart: First Impressions

Hi Everyone!

Well, it's official. I've been out of the midwest for exactly one week. My home for the next year is now Juneau, Alaska. Home to 32,000 individuals. And let me just say that I absolutely love it (for reasons other than the nature). I arrived last Friday around 11:30 PM, which was technically 2:30 AM WI time. Because of all the time changes, Friday seemed to never end and I can barely remember it. I remember being crabby with the woman behind me because she would not stop talking and throwing in the ef bomb every other world while the plane was trying to sleep, I remember eating a piece of taco pizza for dinner (courtesy of my supervisors) and making small talk with the necessary individuals to seem polite, when really, I just wanted to sleep.

But come Saturday morning, I was feeling much more rejuvenated. My supervisor, Nathan, took me to breakfast at a place called the Sandpiper Café and gave me a tour of Juneau (I'm pretty sure I said "Oh my gosh!" and "Wow!" more than I should have). It is such a beautiful city with so much history, character, and charm. But maybe not as much charm as me...

Sunday was the official day of Community Advisor training (the equivalent of RA training for folks back home) and it was such an exhausting day. Not only was I getting tons of information thrown at me, I was also meeting tons of new people and still configuring my body to the time change. Talk about sensory overload. Oh yeah, we also ate at this place called the Waffle Co. Basically, they sold any kind of waffle you could imagine! Oh, and ice-cream. The best part is is that it's only about a 15 minute walk from campus...

The rest of this week has all kind of been a blur--training has been so time consuming (8+ hours a day) and so exhausting. Because of all the information about campus and creating programs for hours on end, I think my brain might be shriveled up. At the end of the day, I just want to be a vegetable and do nothing. My adventure thus far has presented many challenges, as I had anticipated, but I think I've done an okay job of not letting them get me down. And in order to ensure my success and growth as an individual, I need to stay positive and accept that I can't master all tasks.

But, despite this long week, I am becoming more and more comfortable in saying that Juneau is my new home. I'm all settled into my temporary room waiting to move to my permanent one upon completion of the new residence hall. I've made friends that I grow closer to each and every day (despite the brutality of Settlers of Catan), and am beginning to feel like myself. And I know this because more and more of my awkwardness is being exposed.

The more I reflect on this week, the more I want to share with everyone. But I obviously can't fit 168 hours of my life in one short blog post. However, I can promise that I have shared with you the things I think you'll want to hear about. And I will keep doing so in future posts. Until next time, hugs and love all the way from Alaska.

(Don't forget that you can click on the image to enlarge it!)

-A