Holden Village: The Beginning

Allison and I arrived in the village Monday afternoon after a long long trek from home. We were welcomed by Virginia and Esme Dutcher, complete with a sign! We had lunch and hung out for a while. They helped me bring my stuff to my room. When we got there they had decorated my room in a very Dutcheresque fashion (pictures to come).

After they left, the day pretty much consisted of getting to know a bunch of people, except for a short stint in the snack bar learning the very basics of what is supposed to happen. Yesterday (Tuesday) was a little more action packed. After breakfast, Allison and I went for a short hike to 10 mile falls. We made it back just in time for coffee break. We then attempted to play frisbee golf up on the second level but were not successful because of my insane lack of direction. We looked at the map in the hike haus after we came down and now we're pretty sure we can figure it out. After our frisbee failure, we read on the porch for a while and then hung out by the river seeing who could skip rocks the highest. We meet more and more people...some of whom I can remember names for :). I checked out t he candy at the bookstore and made friends with some people in there who soon after confused me with someone else. I found Paul, my direct supervisor here, we spoke for a while about expectations for the snack bar and where I am right now in my life. After dinner, the road exploded into a massive game of kickball. After that we all sort of went into the fireside room (where vespers are still being held) for an evening worship service. A little after the service, a bunch of us went in the sauna. By a bunch of us I mean A BUNCH OF US. We were in there for a long time; my hands got prunny. After the sauna, we hung out some more on the porch swing (sensing a pattern) then eventually went to bed. This morning we all woke up to a foam version of stone henge in the grass next to the arc. It's called foam henge.

Now, I'm just waiting for 9am to come, I'm going on up to the third level. After that I have my first go at dish team. Then, maybe Allison and I will hike to Hart lake? Who knows. I still have to get into contact with a lot of people about training me for snack bar, and ordering ice cream, and setting up my stipend. The Snack bar opens on Saturday under my care for the first time. I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed about all the things that need to happen before then (and being overwhelmed at Holden is a completely new thing for me), but what better place to deal with stress than the least stressful place I have yet to come across. Right now, there is a lot of "talk to this person, then talk to this person". I have no idea who these people are. I'm finding the staff wall (my picture is up, it's official!) to be very helpful!

That's all for now, I have to run. I miss you all very much and look forward to hearing from you! Hopefully it won't be so long between now and my next post!!

XOXOXOXO