SITKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got the ferry at the crack of night this morning.  It was not even the crack of dawn.  Still all the way night.  Once on the ferry I headed straight for the Recliner Lounge and put down the sleeping bag and went to sleep.  I slept until the Purser came on the speaker and said that they were going to show a movie in the Recliner Lounge.  That is not conducive to resting.  So, now I'm up.  Lame, I know.  I was really hoping to sleep a lot more, especially considering how freaking tired I was, but alas, it was not meant to be.  There were still a few hours before the ferry was supposed to get to Sitka, so I did different things around the boat- I went to an extremely boring talk about Sitka given by a Park Ranger and tried to journal in my new notebook purchased from the Wal-Mart embassy in Juneau. 

The ferry and my beautiful blue baby are in Sitka!

We got into Sitka a little early so when I got off the boat the AmeriCorps people who were supposed to meet me weren't there yet.  Moms though must have some sort of sixth sense about things because I had no sooner driven off the boat and parked when mom called my cell phone to see if I was in Sitka yet.  I was!!! So we tried to talk, but reception was horrible- hopefully not a sign of what is to come.  At 2pm the AmeriCorps welcome wagon arrived and I followed them in my car back to my new house and dropped my car off and went to take a tour of Sitka in a giant van (I know- it's like I never even left home with that giant van).  It felt like the tour was at ninety miles per hour.  It wasn't, but they would point something out and say it was important as we drove past and I was like what? Where?  What was the name again?  There are about twelve miles of road in Sitka and I'm pretty sure I don't know how to get to anything because that tour was crazy.  There were four of us on the tour one AmeriCorps who lived in Sitka and this is her second year in Sitka, another who had been in Sitka for a month, one who had just arrived today also, but by plane, and me. 

Pioneer house

They took us by Mt. Edgecumbe High School so that we could see it because the other new AmeriCorps and I were both going to be working there.  We met the academic principal and found out we were starting tomorrow.  (WHAT?)  Well, then I'll be there tomorrow.  Good to know and excellent warning. 

View from MEHS.  Very foggy.  Rainforest

After the ridiculous tour, seriously we might as well not have gone on the tour for all I gained from it, Megan, the AmeriCorps who had been here for a month, took us new people to the grocery store.  Sweet Lord.  The prices here are ridiculous.  Seriously crazy.  I was buying milk and ramon noodles.  Makes me think of college.  That was a sweet lunch in college, a glass of milk and some ramon- protein and noodles.  Does life get bettter?  There was some serious sticker shock.  They have to ship everything in because it is an island and things are priced by weight was the explanation I got.  It makes sense I guess, but also think there is a lack of competition, for example- there are three grocery stores- two are the same company.  I don't know.  I hated business classes; it was like they were all taking in some weird language that I couldn't understand all the time. 

My new house!!!!

Finally, I got back to my house and went in for the first time.  No one was there and I wasn't sure which room to take, so I put away groceries and read a little bit.  A guy who used to live in the house came by to get some of his stuff.  Turns out he used to be an AmeriCorps ad worked at MEHS, so we talked about that a little bit and he told me that all the rooms except one were taken, so I picked the one with the best light and a bookshelf in it.  BOOKSHELF!  Yay.  Having one makes me happy.  When books are neatly on a bookshelf and organized by author it is one of the most beautiful sights in the world.  I also found out that my house has no Internet.  Lame.  So, if I want to get online, I need to go to McDonald's or go downtown because they have free Internet. 

Megan invited me and Jonathan (other new AmeriCorps) to the movies that night (there are apparently two theaters in town one movie a week and it changes on Thursdays).  I decided to go because I don't know anyone and there would be a lot of other AmeriCorps members there.  The movie was pretty good, we saw The Other Guys.  Not bad.  Afterwards, I just wanted to collapse because I was so tired.  Not a bad first day!  Exciting to be in a new place and tomorrow I'm starting at MEHS!  I can't wait.  I can look out my window and see mountains and the ocean.  My life is so cool.