Day Five: Going to Town

Hi Everyone!

I'm FINALLY on a computer here at our office. My friends and I walked the two miles to our office from our house this evening to access the computers up here. We brought our flashlights (even though the sun doesn't set until 9:30, a good two hours from now) and our bear spray, probably the biggest expedition I've ever made just for internet access!

I'm having a fabulous time here! The weather is pretty crummy, with mists and clouds obscuring the mountains and rain making for cold days of training. We still haven't gotten a good looks at the mountain range, and if I hadn't seen them when we flew over on our way here, I would almost not believe that they existed. But every so often the wind brushes the clouds aside and we get glimpses of craggy snow-covered peaks towering above us.

Here's a photo from the Glacier National Park facebook site (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/GlacierNationalPark) from a week or so ago. I haven't even seen this much of the mountians, but you can get a feel for the sense of awe and wonder around the lake where I'm stationed.

We have weekends off right now, during training, so today I went with friends into "town" which is about an hour drive each way, to pick up necessessities, such as a pillow, sheets, extra socks and warm clothes (it's MUCH colder here than expected) plus food!

One thing that I can say is that we're certainly eating well here! My house-mates and I share a vegetable CSA (weekly delivery of veggies from a local farm) and so far we've been making hearty bean chilis with homemade tortillas, spagetti and spring greens salad, sandwiches filled with local hard-boiled eggs and sprouts from our kitchen. Not to mention dozens of home-baked cookies. I love my roommates and friends here, they're all really fabulous and friendly! And my housing is great: My bed is right next to a window, so when I first open my eyes in the morning I'm greeted with a gorgeous view of the forest and misty sky.

Tomorrow my roommates and I will be going out on a hike (rain or shine! probably rain....) and I'm super thrilled about that! I'll take lots of photos and hopefully share them with you soon!

I'll try and post as often as possible, and hopefully soon I will be able to get photos from my camera onto the computer (another long process!), but in the mean time I hope Joachim is keeping you all well updated with my activities! Thank you Joachim for helping me keep up my blog!

Lots of Love!

Emilie