Week 28

Day 189: Feb 15, 2015

Well, I found out today that the internet on the computer in the kitchen office is much faster than the regular wifi. I think it is because it is considered a business computer. I know all of this because after the kitchen had closed a few of the leads gathered in the office to watch youtube videos. It was an impromptu gathering that turned into a “hey have you seen …?”. I haven't seen that many internet videos since October.

Day 190: Feb 16, 2015

Today was a day for sunning while waiting for the bus. I think we “waited” for the bus for about an hour and even ate lunch outside. The snow is beginning to melt. During vespers, I got an amazing number of compliments on my knitting teapot. I was working on a pair of socks for my dad and at least four people came up to me and said is was so cool or a good idea. It made me feel pretty good. :)

Day 191: Feb 17, 2015

TODAY IS SUN OVER BUCKSKIN DAY!!!!!!!! It is basically the best made up holiday in the world. Today the sun shone in the village for the whole day. It was high enough in the sky that the mountains did not block its rays from us. The whole day was filled with celebrations. We wore hawaiian shirts, had a picnic outside, played snow volleyball, painted the snow, and had an outdoor dance party. We finished off the day with a Marti Gras jambalaya dinner.

Day 192: Feb 18, 2015

Tonight we had poetry slam. I decided to read my stream of consciousness poem. People really seemed to enjoy it and I realized that it is probably the first poem that I have written since I had to write one for school. It was fun to be a part of the slam and I might even go next time to just listen. Who knows? I may even have a new poem to read.

Day 193: Feb 19, 2015

My car will live!!! That pretty much sums up my day. I found out that the insurance company has decided that it isn't totaled and so it will be fixed. I am so excited!

Day 194: Feb 20, 2015

The snow has continued to melt. I only dug out my window a little bit a few weeks ago but now my window is half uncovered! There is so much light coming into my room. It is wonderful. I do kind of wish we would get more snow suitable for construction but there are places around the village, mainly around trees, that we can see the ground now. Spring is coming.

Day 195: Feb 21, 2015

I had the day off today. It was a comp day for working on a holiday so I mainly sat around and knit in the morning. When the afternoon came, though, the sun shown on our porch and I sat outside and read my book. After vespers, we had the final event of the film festival where we watched the final products of 24 hours of film-making. The film-makers had 24 hours between the time when they found out their genres and the time when they had to turn in their final project. The films had to be no longer than ten minutes and they were all pretty amazing.

Week 27

Day 182: Feb 8, 2015

A chill day spent relaxing.

Day 183: Feb 9, 2015

Today was a very crafty day. I spent the morning on a valentines day craft project. I made hearts out of toilet paper tubes, glues them to tissue paper, and then strung them together to make a garland. I turned out really cute and I think I will use it to decorate the kitchen area. I took a nap in the afternoon and in the evening I learned how to spin wool into yarn. It took a little while for me to get it to work and my yarn is definitely artsy (aka uneven) but it is still exciting. After vespers, I helped Pat get ready for breakfast tomorrow and we spent so time just chatting. We talked about everything from teaching children to behave themselves to saying no to people when they come up to the counter asking for special treatment on a meal. It was pretty great.

Day 184: Feb 10, 2015

Nothing to report

Day 185: Feb 11, 2015

Another pretty average day. Although, I did receive my new set of interchangeable knitting needles in the mail and I started on a pair of socks for my dad.

Day 186: Feb 12, 2015 –I have officially been here for 6 months!

Most of the day was fairly uninteresting but I ended the day with a party with the kitchen staff. It was nice to have all of us together in one place. Stuffi (our kitchen coordinator) hosted and she brought fancy chocolates and pastries for us. It was really nice. She knows how hard we work and it was really nice of her to celebrate that.

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Day 187: Feb 13, 2015

The sun was shining today. The bus was late so while we were waiting for the bus Josh, Honna, and I went down to the loading dock and laid out in the sun while we waited. It was almost like summer. Since everyone had eaten we didn't need to babysit the line. It was so wonderful to just lie there in the sun.

Day 188: Feb 14, 2015

Happy Valentines day! There was nothing super special about today except for the special dessert of a chocolate torte. It was basically an airier bittersweet chocolate fudge served with vanilla ice cream and flambéed cherries. mmmm. Like almost every year, I passed out valentines and received a few in return but that was the only special holiday event that I took part in.

Week 26

Day 175: Feb 1, 2015

Today was pretty chill. We went to Pike's Place, a glass museum, and the wooden boat museum. We were pretty much done with our day by 2 so we went back to the hotel and watched the Superbowl. I am glad I got to watch it. It was such a great game.

Day 176: Feb 2, 2015

Well, it was not a good day. On my way to Fields Point, I fishtailed and ran off the road, down a ditch, and into a small tree. By the time I hit the tree I wasn't going very fast so I was fine. The car- not so much. So, I missed the boat, talked to a nice police officer, got towed, and had to find a hotel for two nights. I was also told that there is a good chance the car might be totaled. Not a good day.

Day 177: Feb 3, 2015

Today was better. I started the morning with a trash tv marathon before being called over to the shop. According to them, the car is almost totaled, meaning it isn't! Now, the insurance still has to send someone over to confirm that before they can start working on it but it is a good start. I am going back into the village tomorrow so that makes things a little harder but once it is finished I can do a quick out to pick up the car and this nonsense will be over (I really hope).

Day 178: Feb 4, 2015

I got back to the village safe and sound. It was a pretty uneventful day.

Day 179: Feb 5, 2015

Today was a normal morning shift. There wasn't much to do so we ended up prepping vegetables for a ginger carrot soup that we are making tomorrow. I finished my baby blanket and have started on my dad's knitting order. Other than that it was a fairly normal day. I got to do laundry and use the dryers (way more exciting than it sounds). We have a crazy amount of power right now and since there aren't many people in the village they decided to let us use the dryers as a special treat.

Day 180: Feb 6, 2015

I realized today that I have cheated death by a few feet twice in my life now. I'm not going to lie, that realization shook me up a little. God must have a plan for me. I just wish he would let me know...

Day 181: Feb 7, 2015

Welp, my car is totaled so that sucks. I didn't let that ruin my night though! We had a going away party for one of the guys that works in the kitchen. He leaves on monday so tonight was the best night to party. We started out with a regular party in lodge 6 where drinks were had and twister was played. The party soon moved to the Lift where it was freezing cold but if you danced enough it was pretty nice. We danced the night and our worries away.

Week 25

Day 168: Jan 25, 2015

Today we went for a nice walk to 10 Mile Falls. Dad took pictures, I just enjoyed the sunlight.

Day 169: Jan 26, 2015

Well, I am out of the village for the second time since arriving there. This trip was not quite as smooth, though. We had to jump my car while we were in the parking lot and we thought the car would be fine after that. It wasn't. We were about 20 miles out and were turning into a gas station when my car died. It seemed as though the car was not charging its battery. So, we waited 2 hours for the tow truck which then took my car to the dealer where it will hopefully get fix tomorrow morning...

Day 170: Jan 27, 2015

My car works!!! It turns out that the battery was totally shot and so were the connections. So, it ended up being less painful than it could have been and we were on the road by noon. We had a long drive but our hotel for the next two nights is right on the ocean so that made the drive totally worth it. Tomorrow we plan on going to Ruby Beach and the Hoh Rainforest. It should be a good day.

Day 171: Jan 28, 2015

I was right, today was a good day. We were pretty much constantly going but I never felt rushed. We started our day by going to Ruby Beach where we saw sea stacks and sea anemones. We had to get a little wet to see what we wanted but it was totally worth it (we had to take off our shoes and socks to ford a creek in order to get to the cool parts of the beach). I even crossed a “sandbar”, that was basically a shallow part that could only be crossed during low tide, to an island. It was a great idea. I saw way more tide pools but it would have been less miserable if I would have had some sort of shoe on. I only brought my hiking boots and had taken them off since I knew that there was a good chance that the waves were going to wash up over my boots. So, even though my feet were very cold and very sensitive to the rocks, I still had a great time exploring. We, then, headed to the Hoh Rainforest. We were hoping to see banana slugs but it was a beautiful sunny day so they weren't out. It was crazy how much moss was on the trees though. I mean, there were maple trees that looked like monsters because there was so much hanging moss on them. It was pretty awesome. We headed back to our hotel around three but ended up walking down to the beach that is right behind our hotel. I think we ended up spending almost as much time down there as we did at the rain forest. There were a bunch of crab shells, cool rocks, cool sand patterns, cool drift wood, and cool shells. I may have ended up with three pockets full of cool things (aka I did end up with three pocket fulls). It was the first time I had ever seen sand dollars on the beach that weren't in a million pieces. I ended up picking up way more than I really needed but I figured that I would give a few to my little cousins and I am sure that some will break in transport. I also decided that I will send about half home with my dad and I will keep the other half in my car until I drive home in August. I feel like they are less likely to break in my car than in my dad's bag. Tomorrow we head to Oregon!

Day 172: Jan 29, 2015

Today was a day filled with eagles, salmon, and beaches. We drove to our next destination and on the way we went on a little driving tour through a national forest. We soon ran out of paved road and continued on the dirt road that ran along a river. Suddenly, the forest opened up and I saw a bald eagle sitting on something in the middle of the river. We quickly got out of the car to get a good picture. As I looked at it I saw another eagle on a nearby sandbar. Seeing two eagles is not too uncommon but I had a feeling that there was something else around. I looked around and saw four more eagles in a nearby tree. Two were juveniles but when you see that many eagles in one place you know that there must be some really nice food source in the area. As I made my way down to the river to check for fish I saw another four bald eagles and at least one golden eagle. At one point, there were six eagles in one tree, four in another, and two in the river. It was amazing. I did, eventually, make my way to the river where I saw a salmon spawning and hundreds of trout. It totally explained the extreme number of eagles.

Our day ended with another wildlife sighting. We stopped at Ecola State Park and went down to the beach to see the sunset. There were some boulders at the end of the beach so, of course, I had to go and climb on them. The tide was coming in but there were quite a few tide pools. There were a ton of mussels, green anemone, pink anemone, and a few hermit crabs. The most exciting parts of the whole afternoon, though, were the starfish sightings. I think they were all the same species but there were red stars, orange stars, and purple starfish. They were so cool!

Day 173: Jan 30, 2015

We headed to Portland today. Once there, we stopped at Powell's books (something like the biggest bookstore in America) where we both got quite a few books. We walked around a little and ran across a yarn store so, of course, I had to go in. Some how I wound up on the hook for making my dad both a pair of socks and a hat. To end the day my dad and I met up with my cousin for dinner at a brewery just down the block from our hotel.

Day 174: Jan 31, 2015

We spent the day hanging out with my cousin. We explored the city and ended the day at the Oregon zoo. They have a really nice zoo that isn't crazy big which I am a fan of.