Week 3

Day 14: Aug 24, 2014

Another wonderful day off. This morning I slept in (well, until 7am)! Then I watched a movie that I got from a friend here and went for a walk down Monkey Bear Falls trail (I think it was a 3 or 4 mile walk. I also went up some switchbacks that head toward Stehieken which is about an 18 mile hike over a mountain from here). While on that walk I saw some black-tailed deer, squirrels, ground squirrels, and chipmunks. This trail is a loop where the back side of the loop runs along a creek that empties into the river. So, being me, I walked in and along the creek (even though it was a little off trail) and found some wonderful spots to go back to and read. Maybe I will do that tomorrow. Tonight, after church a bunch of us met up in the jacuzzi. The day ended with laughs, chatter, and a wonderful view of the milky way and stars.

Day 15: Aug 25, 2014

So there is a blast this morning at the quarry which means that I can't go out to my reading spot that I found yesterday. So, I guess I will read from the warmth of my bed. I ended up surprisingly busy considering it was my day off. I did read some in the morning but also worked on some decorations for my room. In the afternoon I taught some people how to make pine needle baskets so I made a nice little one which is perfect for right next to my bed. Then I went for a short walk along the creek before I headed to a speaker who was talking about wilderness and how it has been defined through the years. Some of the connections that she made to the bible were very interesting. She pointed out that the bible looks at “wilderness” in both a good/close to God way and also a bad/banishment way. If we look at the US as an example we see that, at first, we looked at wilderness in a bad way. The puritans did their best to get rid of it. However, things began to change and our views changed toward the “wilderness is close to God” view. It was a very interesting point. At dinner, I met a nice guy named Mark who is about my age, maybe a little younger, and just came into the village for 3 months. He seems pretty cool and I have a feeling there will be stories about him later so keep that in mind. Also, tonight is Monday which means it was SOCCER NIGHT! Soccer is always fun because some of the younger remediation guys come and play and some of the little kids play (we try to do teams so that the kids will be able to actually have a part in the game otherwise they could end up just running around and getting frustrated). Another early morning tomorrow so it is time to go to bed!

Grateful Challenge

1. family
2. new friends
3. mountains

Day 16: Aug 26, 2014

So this morning when I left my house I could see more stars than I can see on the darkest of nights back home in Chicago..... so there is that. Otherwise it was a pretty normal day until the evening. After dinner, I went on a tour of the mine remediation. It was very interesting and I was slightly surprised at how much I actually knew ahead of time. I'm not talking about the specifics but rather the kind of general geology and hydrology. The biggest take away was basically that they are doing what they can to slow down the movement of incoming water so that they can either treat it (if it has nasties from the tailings in it) of make sure that it doesn't cut through the tailings piles. After vespers we went and got some ice cream and I had a wonderful conversation with Mark (the one I told you to remember).

Grateful list

1. Ice cream
2. Coffee and the conversations that come with it
3. learning opportunities

Day 17: Aug 27, 2014

Today was pretty awesome. In the morning I did more of the same- coffee cart and bookstore- but there was the added bonus of a meeting that included ice cream which was pretty great. This afternoon was probably one of the best afternoons that I have had in a while. Since I start work at 5am, I am done at noon, aka lunch, and so I get the afternoon to frolic. Today I was going to take a nap because I was falling asleep but Mark, the previously mentioned and newly injured, was told to rest but he did not want to be alone in his room. So, being the person that I am, I invited him over to watch a movie and told him that we could watch a movie but then I was going to take a nap. I let him pick out the movie, he was the injured one, and he decided on Frozen. I was surprised but was not going to argue so we watched that. As the movie was ending, Elise, the daughter of the shopkeeper, and Benji, another one of my house-mates, came in a sat down. The movie ended and since I wanted to take a nap we decided to watch another movie. In other words, instead of taking my much needed nap I watched both Frozen and The Hunger Games and had a ball. Between the stealing of candy, the mimicking of Oaken (the sauna owner in Frozen), the pain reliever induced craziness (on Mark's part), and the stealing of phones it was a great afternoon that may happen again tomorrow.

Hope all is well and now onto gratefulness challenge-

1. Short meetings (The staff meeting tonight was crazy long)
2. Sleepiness induced laughter
3. and finally a chance to go to sleep!

Day 18: Aug 28, 2014

Such a great day! Most of the day was normal- coffee cart, bookstore, vespers- but after vespers I got to tie-dye! Every Thursday is a tie-dye night but usually I am working so this was a special Thursday- plus I had to tie-dye my new pillowcases that came earlier this week. After a wonderful chat and dye session I ran off to the snack bar where there was a dance party! It was so much fun. The ice cream was free and there were some crazy dance moves being dropped. I think I can honestly say that I have not been to a dance party where there was no alcohol that started and ended so early but that was so much fun. It started at 7:30 and ended at 9:30. Some of us hung out afterward to help clean up and just to talk. All in all, the dance was great fun (and very multigenerational) and included everything from songs of the 80s to polka to Macklemore. Everyone seemed to have fun, even those who have seemed down or cranky lately.

Gratefulness challenge-

1. nice mine remediation guys
2. naps
3. Dance parties

Day 19: Aug 29, 2014

This evening was pretty extraordinary. I know I said basically that yesterday but tonight deserves the high praise as well. So everything until after vespers was pretty normal, work and afternoon movies, but then the fun started. There was a variety show that I did not think I would be able to go to. Turns out, if there is something like that going on the store can close early! So I worked a half hour shift and then went to the variety show which opened with four different drumming acts and ended with a wonderful folky music singer (I will try to post the video). After that a few of us headed out to the yurts which are maybe 3/4 mile out from the village. There we had a going away party for the summer staff. There were glow sticks, music, everything. We even played juice pong (alcohol is prohibited in village during remediation season) and a game called Harvard pong which is a combination of pong and flip cup. Turns out I am really good at beer/juice pong. We had so much fun that we lost track of time and I am not getting to bed until midnight. I have work in the morning.... darn. Oh well. It was totally worth it.

Gratefulness challenge (done the next morning)-

1. ample amounts of sleep
2. great friends
3. headlamps

Day 20: Aug 30, 2014

I was so tired this morning. Some of the miners even noticed and asked if I was ok.... “yeah, I'm ok. Just working on 4 hours of sleep”. It was still worth it but I think I am going to take a nap this afternoon. Plus, I have tomorrow off which means I can sleep all day if I want!! I ended up taking a glorious nap in the afternoon and followed that up with a jam session where I learned that I can apparently play both the bugle and the trumpet. After about an hour of random music playing/listening, Mark and I (he was the other person in the jam session) ran around the village center. The village center is basically a big gymnasium that is used as a multipurpose room. Right now, one of the corners is a gym equipped with weights and a few different aerobic machines. I had started using the rowing machine because why not, when mark asked me how much a can bench press. Of course, I didn't know so we found out (about 75lbs). The most exciting part about the gym, though, is the fact that there are rollerskates that fit me. Since I was all excited about that I had to put them on and ended up spending about a half hour just going around in a circle and in figure eights. It was so much fun but I could definitely tell that I hadn't skated in a while because my thighs were hurting after I took the skates off. Apparently, different muscles are used to rollerskate than hike. I think I have found a new daily work out routine to add to the rotation.

Gratefulness challenge

1. Rollerskates!
2. Giant swings hung from ceilings (there is one in the village center that is pretty awesome)
3. I am grateful for the friends that I have made and friends that I had who have shown me things about myself that I had never known or thought about.