Got up moderately late – 11 local time, but 7 Pacific. Not bad for having not gone to be until 3am local. I was glad I’d packed for the night, but was sorry I didn’t have fresh clothes to change into. It’s such a small thing for me usually, but with the heat the way it was, I felt sticky and gross changing into my traveling clothes even after taking a shower.
I was due to meet my cohort at 1pm and I felt the need for new clothes and the few things I couldn’t pack in my carry-on. I made the classic stress mistakes over and over that morning – bought clothes at the first boutique I could find (some on sale, though) and they were really /bright/ tourist colors. Colors I love to wear, but then I felt /really/ conspicuous walking around with the ‘natives’ in their muted colors. The flip flops I bought hurt my feet and kept slipping off, but at $15, I know I can’t just toss them (that and they’re darned cute with the pink and the beads).
I wandered in search of distilled water for the CPAP and suncreen (maybe a hat too and hairpins and oh, while I’m at it, some body soap – only Dial soap at the guesthouse). I passed a few indy bookstores (three in a one block radius which I think totally rocks) plus cute boutiques and kids shops. The town reminds me a bit of a cross between Moscow, ID and Crawford, NE. Small, yet cultural, yet rural, yet quirky.
I found the Ben and Jerry’s (still haven’t visited) and it looks like in lieu of Starbucks, the New England Culinary Institute is in full gear with a restaurant, a bakery and I think a deli. There’s also a really cool bead shop on the corner (drool) and a nifty little metaphysical shop around and down the corner. I felt really good walking into that shop. Reminded me of our old shop, back in the day, except a little smaller and a little better selection of books.
Lunch with the cohort was fab – being able to finally put faces to names on the ‘net. It was mostly ‘net forum folks (which makes sense, since we really didn’t have a way to get to the others) but that was 12 of the 27 souls in our class. We made the first of a series of introductions over the last few days (goodness, I wasn’t warned I needed an elevator speech!) and overall, a really nice group of people. We talked mostly about travel adventures and the heat and how nervous and anxious we all were.
After lunch, I opted out of window shopping and went home for a nap. A couple of hours later I walked up the hill, which isn’t bad – a 20 min walk is all. It’s a bit like walking from our old ‘A’ street house in Moscow to the top of the hill where the classrooms start in earnest at UI. Dinner was an adventure into the past – dorm food! Although the food was quite a bit better than when I was at WSU…but still definitely food service type food.
After dinner some of us hung out in the lounge (the only AC room on the first floor) and played a game called Snatch. It was fun just hanging out trying to find cool words among the letters thrown and gathered on the table. I’m finding myself painfully shy and I’m learning to accept that’s who I am. But I did play, which was fun, even if I wasn’t very gregarious.
Then came a meeting with the grad assistants and more introductions. What struck me the most about the meeting was how often they talked about going past comfort zones and crashing at some point in the middle. I’m definitely not looking forward to that and will be doing all I can to avoid or ease through it without a big crying jag. I’m too far away from home to manage that by myself even with the supportive staff. Perhaps I’m being too cautious, but I know how bad it can get for me and that’s just not a space I want to visit over this residency.
So, who did I meet? Dawn, Sarah, Matt, Lee, Simon, Linda, Mikki, Blessy (who I’d met in Bellevue last Spring at conference), Kari, Robin, Katie, Maha, and Lindsay. Lindsay was the one I introduced to the others at the icebreaker that night and my deep dark secret I told her is that I’d been married 19 years and had distrusted my future husband on first sight. This amused her greatly.
The upside to the evening was definitely the arrival of my luggage and the helpful Katie and Robin who drove me back to my guesthouse with it. We missed B&J’s which closed moment before we arrived. I did manage to get Skype to work and it was really sweet to see my family before completely crashing.
