Fleecer? I don't even know 'er!

Dear Internet,

You may have noticed my absence from this blog over the last three weeks - maybe not, but we don’t have to talk about that. I’ve been having a fantastic time in Montana and I don’t even know where to start telling you about it.

I guess the beginning will be okay.

The view over Butte, MT - our base camp was about 30 minutes away

We took two days to drive to Fleecer Work Station - a former Forest Service Office near Butte, MT - through Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming. When we arrived, the second years (there are several members from last year who signed up to serve again this year) who were already there with chili and a campfire (and a running joke: “the funny thing about chili... is that it’s hot”). We slept in a giant tent called a yurt, or under the stars.

Sunset and a drive into the mountains - aaaahh.

At our base camp, Fleecer Work Station

The next morning, a bunch of us went for a hike to some rocks with a great view of the area, and came back to a pancake breakfast and some talks about what to expect over the next few weeks.

Hiking

Summit!

How do you manage living with 29 other people in one small cabin, a yurt, and assorted other tents - with only one shower and two sinks? The solution is that you don’t bathe much, for starters - once every four days was about normal. You also sleep outside and grovel at the feet of whoever decides to cook for you.

Fixing the yurt

Lucas and the yurt: thumbs up!

One of the housing options at Fleecer: Cowboy Camp

We were also told to expect to “spike out” in smaller groups on projects several times, and a few days later, my group got their assignment. With Quinn, a former member who now manages the rest of us (she’s kind of my immediate boss; Bruce, featured later, is one step above Quinn), three other first years and I were going to the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) at the Idaho border.

The area where we were stationed - I can't resist all these landscapes!

Ready to serve! Quinn, me, Andrew, Cody, Angie, and Jason.

Personally, I think we got the best spike. It was a long drive to our service site, and then  a long walk down a large mountain with heavy packs, but Deadman Lake, where we camped, was just beautiful. Working with the Montana Conservation Corps (MCC; they work with the Forest Service and do all the conservation work that AmeriCorps does, but not the emergency response stuff), was an interesting experience, and it was fun to have some new people mixed in with our group.

Can you even see this hill?! We had to walk down it with giant packs on.

But Deadman Lake was worth it.

The Big Dipper, viewed from our campsite

Our project was to build about 5,000 feet of the CDT up to a saddle, or the space between two mountains. The area is a proposed wildlife conservation area, so those in charge of the project didn’t want to bring in heavy machinery to do the job. There was an ATV track already there, but it went straight up the side of the mountain, so we made a more hiker-friendly trail with switchbacks and a lower grade.

View from the "office" window - the CDT

Hard at work!

Building trail is tough work! Over the two days that it took us to build the trail, we learned to use hand tools to literally scoop a walking path out of the side of a mountain. We were at a pretty significant elevation - I don’t remember exactly but it was somewhere around 8,000 or 9,000 feet - and although the first day of work was beautiful, the second rained all day. We saw some incredible rainbows, but it is tough to grip a tool when you can’t feel your hands! We were achey and sore at the end of each day, but it was really rewarding to reach our goal after only two days of work!

Leaving the area proved to be a bit trickier than arriving - because of the rain, the roads we’d taken to Deadman Lake were muddy and traction-less. Plus, we had to hike back up the hill we’d come down three days before with packs that did not seem any lighter, since we packed way too much food and still had a lot of it with us. That was a blast and a half, let me tell you - I believed for most of the trek up the muddy, almost straight-up-and-down path that I would simply topple over backward and land back in the lake.

But we made it back to our truck, trusty Buck Hunter (all the trucks in AmeriCorps have names - I’m thinking of being another one, Blue Hulk, for Halloween). Then we still had to drive, slowly but surely, back to the paved road. For the most part it was fine - some minor washboarding, what can you do - and then we came to a part of the road that had been completely flooded out for about twenty feet. It was deep, too - probably three feet in some parts. I was starting to think that this was going to be a real issue - we’d have to camp here until it dried out, which could take who knows how long - when Quinn jumped in the front of Buck Hunter and barreled through a narrow path between some aspens to the side of the road, missing the low-hanging branches by inches and finishing with a spectacular dodge of a tree at the end of the path. Thus we named her Quinn Diesel.

We spent that night at Elk Horn, a recreation area where another AmeriCorps group was building a fence. After our few days sleeping in tents in the rain, their cabin with its fireplaces and foam mattresses was heaven. They scoffed when we told them that they were living the high life, but they hadn’t been eating dehydrated food for two days. And to top it off, they had... hot springs. Oh yes. We went as a group to what looked basically like a heated pool, and then a hotter pool, and then a sauna - and then, mercy of mercies, a shower. It was delicious.

A cozy cabin, clothes drying by a crackling fire, and friends nearby.
What could be better?

Back at Fleecer, we spent about a week working as a huge group at a recreation area nearby called Sheepshead. We tore down and rebuilt several fences, hauled felled trees out of the area, and learned how to make good burn piles of discarded wood (like a teepee). It was fun working as a big group and we got a lot done (our crowning glory was an entire jackleg fence that we built to protect a streamhead from cows in a single day).

Look at those burn piles! Magnificent!

An evening at Fleecer

The jackleg fence, keeping cows out like a boss

I also liked being based out of Fleecer again, because it meant that I could meet up with my Uncle Mark, who lives in Missoula! He made the two-hour drive one Saturday night and picked me up from Fleecer so we could go to dinner at this awesome gourmet pizza place called MacKenzie River Pizza Company. It was great catching up with him since I hadn’t seen him in over two years. Thanks for dinner, Uncle Mark!

The next day - an unheard-of day off! - about fourteen of us hiked up Mount Fleecer, near base camp. It was a long and very tough hike - we crossed two rock fields and a lot of snow, and the top was windy and freezing - but it was also awesome and exhilarating. Funny how that works.

Relieved and frozen on top of the mountain

Oh, yeah. We did that. Me, Clare, Andrew, Sam, Jason, Marty,
and Saul shirtless on top of Mt Fleecer

Mount Fleecer

After about two and a half weeks, it was announced that most of the group would be heading back to St Louis so they could get to various other projects, including Joplin, MO, which is still recovering from the tornado in May of this year. Eight of us, including me, were to stay for a few more days to finish up several projects. For the first few days we split up, half of us working based out of an area called Horse Prairie, and the rest of us based out of Fleecer and working to finish a nearby bridge project that had been ongoing since we had arrived in Montana.

The bridge was to be for an ATV trail, and all of the foundations had already been laid by earlier groups. We had help from a very inventive retired guy named Harold, who works with the Forest Service a lot - a great way to spend your retirement, if you ask me!

Warren, Travis, Harold, and Angie at work on the bridge

Harold's inaugural drive over the finished bridge

To finish the bridge, we had to get down in the water under the bridge to drive screws as long as my arm through the spacers on the underside, then nail the decking in place, install rails (which were so warped that we had to rig up a system that involved me and another girl, Angie, sitting on a rockbar chained to the lumber to twist them back into place) on the sides of the bridge, and flatten the trail on either side of the bridge with gravel. It was awesome to finally see the project done - Harold and various other AmeriCorps people had been working on it almost every day for over two weeks.

Me and Angie on the rockbar, working hard as paperweights

Angie "wacky-packing" the gravel so it's compact

Harold, Angie and I at the finished bridge! Hooray!

Once we and the other group had finished our respective projects, we set about cleaning up Fleecer. After three weeks of thirty people tracking in mud and water and spilling beer and forgetting where they had put their leftovers - let’s just say that it was a pretty long and disgusting job.

We finally got everything packed and cleaned and put away, then said goodbye to Fleecer and headed to our last project, this one at Elk Horn Hot Springs again. Last time we had been at Elk Horn after our spike to the CDT, Quinn had felled some trees for use in a snowmobile bridge, and now we were there to build that bridge. We spent our first night there relaxing at Jackson Hot Springs (because of their ginormous TV, so we could watch the Cardinals play in the World Series), Bruce’s (my boss’s boss’s) treat.

Warren, Ivy, Angie, and Ali relaxing at Elk Horn

The next day, we built the whole bridge! Quite a feat for a group of nine (including Bruce). I think it’s pretty cool that we used all logs felled in the area and decking left over from a nearby construction site, nothing treated or imported. It looked pretty great at the end of the day, and I think my right arm is at least three times stronger after pounding in approximately 150 8-inch nails. We named the bridge the Great Travisty, in honor of Travis, a member of our group who celebrated his 29th birthday that day.

(picture of the Great Travisty coming soon)

After spending the night at Elk Horn, we packed up and headed back to Fleecer the next morning, so we could pick up the trailer we’d left there two days earlier, then into Butte to get the tires on Cactus (another truck) replaced and return the Forest Service vehicles we’d borrowed. Bruce treated us to lunch at MacKenzie River Pizza Company,  which was delicious yet again. By the time we left Butte, it was 4pm - needless to say, we weren’t getting very far on the road to St Louis. We overnighted at a YMCA in Sheridan, Wyoming, and were on the road again early the next day.

Somewhere along the road

We left a note at the YMCA in Sheridan, WY

We drove to Devils Tower, in Wyoming, and spent about two hours walking around the base, jumping around on the rocks, taking photos, and eating lunch out of the cooler filled with leftovers from the fridge at Fleecer. It was fun to do something touristy instead of just driving all day - we had hoped to see Mt Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota as well, but ran out of time and had to book it to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to get to the church where we were sleeping (called Falls Church, it was like going home!) in time. The next morning we treated ourselves to breakfast at Cracker Barrel (yum) and drove through Sioux City, Omaha, and Kansas City to make it back to St Louis by dinnertime.

Devil's Tower!

And another one, with the leaves :)

The Eight: Travis, Ivy, me, Warren, Cody, Will, Angie, and Ali

I really, really enjoyed the trip to Montana, especially the last week or so with just the eight of us. It was really cool to get some time with Bruce - he’s not around us members a lot, since he is constantly scouting out new projects or dealing with partners, etc. So spending a few evenings drinking and talking and listening to music with him was really nice. The other seven in our group were all really great as well - the night before we left for St Louis, I was trying to decide who I wanted to ride with and literally couldn’t. I loved the extra bonding time for us and am looking forward to working with all of them this year.

Sunset in the rearview mirror: perfect.

Overall, Montana was a great taster for the year to come, and I’m still kind of processing the ways this trip has changed me and the ways this year will continue to change me. Mostly it made me very, very sick of the chocolate chip granola bars of which we had an overabundance, as well as more appreciative of the simple life than I’ve ever been.

For example, when we came out of the woods after working on the CDT and went to a gas station, I was overwhelmed with the number of choices and colors and smells... it all seemed so unnecessary. Why do you need 35 different kinds of candy bars when having just anything sweet after dinner is such a treat? It seemed bright and garish. The feeling didn’t last long, but sometimes I still get a tinge of it walking into huge superstores.

Likewise, the trip made me really appreciate things like sleeping indoors and running water. It turns out that you really don’t need a shower every day and that sleeping on some chairs pushed together like we did in the sanctuary at Falls Church is really something to be thankful for - at least there is a roof over your head, you are warm, you are safe. Electricity, indoor plumbing, central heating - all these things really are such a privilege. I hope I hold onto that feeling for the rest of my life.

I also learned to deal a little better with the uncertainty, the sense of spontaneity that comes with this job. Not that I don’t think I’m a flexible person, but you really have to be ready for anything when you’re on the ERT. Although we’d been told that we’d have the rest of the week off, except for maybe one day of training late in the week, I’m writing this from the back of Buck Hunter on the way back out of town for two days of training after only one day off. Well, probably two days. Maybe three, who knows?

Peace, y’all; I’ll see ya when I see ya.

xoxo,

Liz

Montana: The Last Frontier

Dear Internet,

After a long two days of driving, we finally made it to Montana! We're at our base camp now, just outside of Butte, getting acclimated to the altitude (around 5900 feet I think) and the fact of living with 30 other people and only 2 sinks. It's absolutely beautiful here, and although last night was a little cold, today was beautiful and sunny. The area is full of aspen trees just turning yellow, and layers of blue mountains on the hazy horizon.

I'm posting this from my phone, so hopefully it formats okay for you all. Here are some photos for now, enjoy!

xoxo Liz

So, night hiking.

Dear Internet,

So I've been home from Quest in Illinois for a couple days now and just too lazy to post anything. But we're all here now, so let's talk about Quest!

We drove up to Illinois in some very packed 15-passenger vans on Wednesday morning/afternoon, arriving at Giant City State Park by midday for lunch and some orienteering lessons. My teammates and I on Team Orange were led by Tom, an experienced outdoorsy guy with a long history in AmeriCorps and Outward Bound.

Orienteering lessons

After learning some orienteering basics, we checked out a cabin built by hand by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers in the 1930s, then headed into the woods.

At the lodge built by CCC workers as part of the New Deal

Our goal was Antioch Graveyard, where we would have dinner. We set off around 5:30 or 6 after deciding which trails to take, setting a general bearing for our destination, and selecting leaders to take us there. For a while, everything went fine - we had light, the trails were relatively well-marked, we bounced along like Little Bunny Frou Frou.

Little Bunny Frou Frou

Then it got dark.

Sharing some trail mix, also known as Gorp (Good Old Raisins and Peanuts) at dusk.

Darkness doesn't make hiking impossible, but it does make it interesting. We hauled out our flashlights, though, and continued in pretty good spirits, tromping through the woods and making pretty good progress. My teammates were all really great - I honestly enjoyed every one of their company - but around 11pm I started to think, "this just isn't fun anymore...."

We pushed on and around 1am finally made it to the Cemetery! Dinnertime was nigh. By around 1:30 we had prepared (and spilled half of) a few boxes of Zatarain's rice and beans, along with some bell peppers and sausage thrown in for color. Dinner was delicious, and not as creepy as it could have been, and once the dishes were cleaned and packed up, we continued on our merry way.

Our next goal was a Hidatsa Lodge, based on a design by Indians native to the area but also built by the CCC. At this point, everyone was eager just to get there and settle in for the night. Long story short, this didn't happen - at least not soon.

In the dark (and, might I add, using trail maps that were last updated in 1976) we soon became unbelievably lost in the woods. Example: while looking for a stream we were meant to cross, we spent 20-odd minutes debating whether the water in front of us was in fact the stream that we wanted, or maybe just the intermittent stream to the south of it? I'm still not sure what the verdict was.

Eventually, we ended up estimating our location (after many cries of "where is the 'you are here?!?!'") and "leapfrogging" our way there. Leapfrogging involves splitting into two groups, one with compasses and one with flashlights. The flashlight crew forges ahead while the compass crew directs them where to go so that the group stays on the correct bearing (the angle needed to reach the destination). Then the compasses catch up with the flashlights, and the game continues.

Finally finally, we reached a gravel trail and almost kissed it. From that point, the path toward the Lodge was pretty easy. We came upon the Brown Group sleeping peacefully along the trail and shone our lights in their faces for revenge. We made it to the Lodge around 4:15am and finally got some sleep. Whew!

The entrance of the Hidatsa Lodge by day

Breakfast at the Lodge!

The next morning, we packed out and hit the trail around 1:30pm, got lost a little more (though by daylight it wasn't as bad), and made it to the canoes we were meant to take back to the group campsite by 5ish. On the lake as we canoed back to the campsite it started to rain, but really we had remarkable weather for the whole trip.

Getting ready to canoe "home" after a long day and a half of hiking

We were glad to reach Little Grassy Camp though, since it meant showering and some hot food that we didn't cook or clean up ourselves. It also meant bunk beds, stories from the other groups (and the next morning, skits about their experiences), and sharing our "positive bombardment" scarves.

The Orange Team, "home" in time for dinner!

Before we left, Tom had given each of us the name of another Team member and a piece of orange-yellow fabric. Throughout the trip, we all wore our fabric as scarves, headbands, etc., but at the end we were meant to write nice things about our secret person and present them with the memento.

Things like that are always cheesy until it's your turn - it's so nice to hear someone notice and appreciate the good things you did. Everyone in the group really was great in different ways - which doesn't always happen in groups like this - so it was really nice to sit and listen to them being praised (and yeah, to hear my own :)

Allie presenting Tom, her secret person, with his "positive bombardment" scarf

We enjoyed each other's company for the rest of the night - Team Orange was divided between ERT and Education Members, so we might not see each other too much in the future - then headed off to bed. In the morning after breakfast and each Team's skits, the ERT Members were (surprise!) shipped back to St Louis to get ready for our trip to Montana.

So I've been hanging out in St Louis since Friday evening, and the plan is now to head to Montana on Wednesday morning. We were supposed to go today, but we didn't have all the materials we needed and decided to get a rental truck to take with us - so, plans change! We will hopefully drive as far as Denver tomorrow, then complete the trip on Thursday for about a three to three-and-a-half week stay. A good lesson in being flexible and not making too many plans ahead of time....

That's about all that's been going on, besides a fun day at Six Flags with James on Sunday and the fact that I got food stamps today (three cheers for being broke and living off of the government!). Oh, and my new roommate Saul moved in this weekend (bringing us up to five roommates... and still one bathroom). Another girl who was just hired and hasn't found an apartment yet, Dee, has been sleeping on our couch as well, so it's been fun having a full house this weekend.

I'll update you as I can in Montana. Cell and Internet reception will be spotty, but I'll do my best.

Peace y'all,
xoxo Liz

P.S. Photo credits to Tom, our fearless Team Orange leader - I did not bring my giant SLR into the woods and am glad of that. So thanks, Tom's Facebook!

P.P.S. I believe that if you want to comment, you can either use a Google (or possibly another) account, or you can select "Anonymous" in the "Comment As" drop-down bar. Just sign it so I know who you are :)

Getting Things Done

Dear Internet,

So I have now finished Day 2 of AmeriCorps Emergency Response Team (ERT) orientation and I would like to tell you about it! Many of you might know that I moved here with relatively few details about what I would be doing on the ERT, and will thusly be pleased that I now have relatively more details.

First, explaining the whole AmeriCorps STL crew is kind of difficult, as we do a number of different things: not only is there the ERT, but there is also the Education Team (two of my roommates are on it), as well as other state and VISTA programs (another roomie works with a nonprofit via AmeriCorps). Basically, what ties all of these together is the principle of "making sure that people don't get left behind" by society. The motto is "getting things done." I like the simplicity and directness of these objectives.

More specifically, I learned some basics about what the ERT does. We respond to natural and man-made disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and terrorist attacks (ERT went to New York after 9/11 and to New Orleans after Katrina, for example) by doing things like clearing trees and rubble, etc. To do that, I'll be chainsaw certified and learn how to work with and repair a bunch of different machinery/equipment. I will also be getting firefighter certified by the federal government to help control wildfires. In off-hours (ha), we do conservation work with national parks and so on. How much we're responding to disasters, doing conservation work, being trained, or on rotations out of town depends on time of year, weather patterns, etc.

So basically I am on call 24/7 (once I'm trained) to be sent anywhere. They say I will spend the majority of my service time outside of STL, which is kind of okay because ERT goes all over the country - there are some maps posted of past service sites, including places in California, New Mexico, and Montana, all the way up to New England and the Southeast, and everywhere in between. Many of these places will be fairly rural and will have (at best) sketchy cell phone reception and Internet. It sounds like we tend to sleep wherever we can find an empty floor - churches, YMCAs, and schools all seem to be possibilities, as well as a jail at one point.

As far as what the near future holds for me: the Education Team and ERT will be leaving tomorrow (Wednesday) morning for a Quest training (whatever that means; they won't tell us) in Illinois. All I know is that we have a very specific packing list for two separate bags (neither of which I have packed yet, of course). We are scheduled to return on Sunday, and then ERT will be heading out to training south of Butte, Montana I believe on Monday. I know even less about that training (not even an end date - all they told us was that we'd return to STL in mid- to late-October), but I guess we will find out the essentials (probably shortly) before we leave. I will probably be mostly out of contact during that period, so don't expect too much of this blog!

In other news, the people on the ERT seem pretty cool. I don't know anyone very well yet, but it's neat to think that everyone was selected for the team (as my boss, Quinn, reminded us today) for a very specific reason. I'm excited to find out what all those reasons are.

This is going to be quite an experience for me - it seems pretty intimidating now, but that usually means that great things are in store. I'm looking forward to learning skills that I wouldn't learn anywhere else (firefighting, anyone? Car repair?) and to having some experiences that will stick with me for the rest of my life. I think that this is the kind of thing that makes you a better person when you leave. Despite a looming shadow of uncertainty, I can't wait.

***

Before I sign off, I hope I do get to spend some time in STL because of these cool facts I learned so far this week:

• When Obama visited STL, he ate at Pi Pizzeria (STL-style pizzas) and said that it was better than Chicago-style. It's true, AmeriCorps gave us all a slice on our first day of orientation and it was most excellent.
• STL was built upon a complex of natural caves, where early German brewers lagered their beer.
• Both Lewis and Clark lived in STL after their famous expedition in 1805.
• The first daily newspaper in the country was the St Louis Herald, founded in 1834.
• Four foods were popularized by the 1904 World's Fair in STL: hot dogs, hamburgers, iced tea, and ice cream cones.
• 7-Up was invented in STL.
• There are more free, world-class attractions in STL than in any other US city except for Washington, DC.
• The Wainwright Building in STL was the world's first skyscraper.
• Tower Grove Park (near my house) has a coyote named Gal living in it. Gal has a Facebook page.
• STL ranked as the second safest city from food borne illnesses out of 101 metropolitan areas by Men's Health magazine in February 2008.

Plus, this is the home of Anheuser-Busch and the largest Mardi Gras celebration outside of New Orleans. Where can you go wrong?

xoxo Liz

Welcome to the Gateway City

Dear Internet,

Chris and I spent my first week in St Louis (or STL) looking around, getting comfortable, and getting moved in. We did some touristy things, like visiting the art museum in Forest Park (a really nice area that has several museums, a zoo, and lots of space for jogging/biking/ice skating in the winter), and of course the famous Arch.

Fun fact: the Arch is the tallest monument in the US
and is exactly as tall as it is wide (630 feet).

The Arch, the famous old Court House, and a
statue of Jefferson.

With our friend James we also visited City Museum, which doesn't sound nearly as cool as it actually is. The building is an old shoe factory converted into essentially a giant jungle gym for adults.

Approaching the building. You see the roof and
are... intrigued.

It's full of recycled materials that you can climb on, slide down, shimmy through or squeeze under.

Chris and James in one part of the museum that seems
to have an Arctic theme

Squeezing through small spaces

Stairs are for chumps.

I can tell you how cool it is but really, you have to see it to believe it, and pictures don't count. It is easily one of the coolest places I've ever been, although the elephant necklace I've been wearing for 2.5 years broke while we were there :(

So excited to be flying this stripped-down plane!

The outside portion of the museum

For those of you wondering about the "Museum" part of the name, there are a few (rather neglected) exhibits about the city's architecture, ecosystem, and history upstairs. Where it's nice and quiet.

Chris and I also did some slightly less touristy things during that first week, like finding a favorite coffee place (called Mokabe's) about a mile from my apartment, a rad vegan bakery only 3 blocks away, a yummy Thai restaurant, and testing out a few farmer's markets. Now that I look at this list, I guess all of our research had to do with food... oh well.

As far as farmer's markets, there is a really huge, really famous one in the Soulard neighborhood not far from where I live, so of course that's great and sells everything from potted bamboo to pomegranates, but there's also another really nice one in Tower Grove park a couple blocks from my apartment on Saturday mornings. They have, of course, plenty of fruits and veggies for sale, but also vendors selling things like gelato, cheese, coffee, and cupcakes. I love walking around and doing my shopping at places like those (especially because they are super cheap), so it's good to know what's up.

Chris and I also went camping for a night in the Ozarks. As far as good camping goes, we were not terribly successful, but it was a fun trip.

Putting up a tent: success. Other things: not so much.

For example, good campers would probably: bring enough food (we brought lunch. Why we didn't think to bring more food is a mystery); bring enough warm things (also failed); know how to start a fire (it's not easy, okay?!?); and remain uninjured (nope. This evil tree-spike-thing went through my sneaker and foot while I collected firewood for the ill-fated fire that never was).

Evil tree-spike-thing that went into my foot

But, none of them were very serious oversights or emergencies. We made it through and still had a pretty good time hiking around and hanging out. And the area was really beautiful:

On our way out, we drove Skyline Drive in (this is for you, Dad) Mark Twain National Park. He was from this part of Missouri so everything is all Twain-ed up in his honor.

Skyline Drive // Mark Twain National Park

A few days later, James, Chris, a few of James' friends, my roommate Kate, and I went to Meramec Caverns, about an hour outside of STL. We spent some time hiking and exploring a few free caves (I felt weird being unattended by a guide, like what do I do if this cave falls on my head? I dunno). Hiking is not so great in the rain, but caving is perfect!

My roommate Kate, James, and James' friends
Jeremiah & Erin in Sheep Cave

Chris left from Meramec, heading on to Tulsa to stay with his aunt and uncle for about a week before he continues westward (hopefully ending up in Seattle in a few weeks; his plans are very loose). It's strange saying goodbye to someone I've spent so much time over the last two weeks with, especially when he's leaving me in a new place - but we both have (as cheesy as it sounds) paths to follow, adventures to plan, lessons to learn in our own ways. Hopefully our paths will cross again before too long!

So that was week one of STL, the Gateway City. Over the course of the week I gradually acquired some furniture and organized my room, so here you go Dad, some pictures of my new place:

My room. The lighting came out kind of yellow and
it looks sort of bleak, but I promise it's pretty cozy.
An HD TV and DVD player wouldn't be out of place,
though, if you wanted to send them.

Our living room, soon to be the home of a potential new
roommate, Saul (in addition to roomies Joe, Jenn, and Kate).

Our huge dining room/common space, and the doorway into
the kitchen. Again, it looks pretty bleak but is really very nice.
It's just because the walls are a weird color and we don't have
any artwork up yet.

So the apartment is really nice, we have a lot of space for what we're paying. STL was actually named the #4 "most affordable place to live well" by Forbes magazine. Also, I just found out today that the building was built in 1908, so it's 103 years old (this is a cool thing, to me at least. Despite all the plumbing/electric/rodent problems we've already had...). My roomies are really nice and clean and I like the neighborhood, so it's a good situation.

Overall, STL has surprised me by being a very cool city with more to offer than I expected. I can't wait to explore some more over the next year!

Guess what you guys? Fall is coming.

xoxo Liz