Updates

Well, I’ve finally arrived in Virginia, and I start work tomorrow. It’s oddly kind of cold here, but then it sometimes feels pretty warm. I’ve moved in to my room and everything is squared away, I just need my schedule. The dorm style rooms are not too bad. They have floors that are always ice cold, but good heaters. The bathroom and shower room are also somewhat ok, and extremely cramped. All of this makes me miss being in Alaska. At least the rooms there had carpets, the flight was prepaid, and so were the meals. Anyway, I think I’ll just get used to it and not come back after the end of the season. I do find solace in the fact that starting next month I’ll be getting free cable and wifi in my room, and the last person left me a coffee maker and a fridge. Since I pay per meal, I think I can cut costs this way and stock up on frozen foodstuffs and grab a microwave on the next walmart trip, along with maybe a toaster so I can have poptarts. Those things aren’t gonna set me back that much (it’s usually 5 bucks for the toaster and 10 for the microwave), and when I leave at the end of November, I’ll just leave them here. I’ll also get myself a small t.v., an extension cord, a wii, and a larger suitcase to carry them all in, along with mayyyyybe a portable hard drive, and a new DS lite (mine is literally falling apart). Other than that, I’m going to be saving 200 a week, along with paying off my student loans. Hopefully I’ll have enough money by the end of the season to go back home for a bit, then go on to the next place. I miss having someone to talk to, so I really want to find myself a travel buddy, or for me to get a cell phone (that gets good reception) and use it to make sure that I have the ability to contact my friends online at all times. Hopefully I’ll be able to make a friend while I’m here, so it’ll ease any loneliness that I have. I could also get some more games and such to distract myself. XD

Anyway, enough about the bad, since I’ll most likely get used to it soon, I’ll go ahead and say what I like about the place so far. It’s kind of small, so it’s got a charm to it. It’s got millions of great views, since we are on top of a mountain and all. The gift shop actually has some awesome things in it, many of which I will be buying and sending to people. I think that once the leaves start coming in (it looks like winter around here), it will look a lot better than it does now. There should also be fireflies this summer, so that is something to kind of look forward to. I get to go ride horses for free, so I’m going to take advantage of that and learn how.

I’m not really sure what I’m going to do next. I really want to get an apartment of my own, but I’m not sure what city/state/country would suit me best. I might visit my friend in Australia to see if I can find a nice place there, or I may go back to Portland and find an apartment downtown. It just really depends on how everything goes. It would be awesome if I could find a lodge to work at down in California or Florida (Heck, I’d love to work for Disneyland), so I think I’ll try them out. I’m also going to try for a lodge in Germany that runs all year round, and since they also have a pastry chef there, I could work upwards from wherever I start. Either way, I want to start making more money. I’ve planned out how much I’ll save per month, and it looks like I’ll have quite enough for another plane ticket somewhere, plus quite a bit of spending money.

Anyway, here are some pictures.

My room, in all it's cold and carpetless glory


The view from my dorm. I should have taken one yesterday when there was fog everywhere.


Dunno what kind of bird this is, but it seemed very curious and came to look at me when I first went outside in the morning after I arrived.


The dorm that I am in, the first window on the left is my room.


It's actually pretty nice around here, even though it looks like it's winter.


One of the many views from the lodge.


A random picture of a tree and some rocks. They actually look really nice.