I wrote this last week, but then never got online to post it. (I don't have Internet at my house - yet.)

Life as I know it now

Just in case you were wondering . . . my living situation (I’m renting a room from an older woman) has been pleasant so far. I have a well-furnished bedroom (complete with a microwave and dorm fridge) in the lower part of her split-level home. Another girl (a college student) lives in the room next to me and we share the downstairs bathroom. My landlady is an easy-going, talkative cat-lover (she has 2) who teaches piano lessons and has been renting rooms to college students for the past 15 years. (I also learned tonight that she likes to eat green beans straight from the can.) My downstairs mate is from Minnesota and is studying environmental science. She has a pet ground squirrel in a cage in her room that she found as a baby and raised. Another random interesting fact: she was struck by lightning on a camping trip. Last night she had a couple friends over and I watched the last half of a movie with them. Afterward, they educated me a bit on 7th Day Adventism. For example, have you ever heard of a meal called haystacks? Neither had I, but according to these guys all 7th Day Adventists are familiar with them. Also, I gave away the fact that I’m not 7th Day right off the bat by pronouncing it “AdvenTIST” instead of “ADventist.” Enlightening. (They were nice about it, though.) Oooh - and get this - they go to an Adventist college and the entire cafeteria is vegetarian. You can't buy meat anywhere on campus.

As for the town, I really like it here, aside from the fact that I don’t know anyone (yet). The weather hasn’t gotten too hot yet and the trees and fields are still green, so it’s actually a very pretty setting. The town is fun to walk around with lots of old buildings with interesting architecture. The newsroom staff is a lot of fun – they like to joke around and it’s a pretty relaxed setting (but we do get work done). They’re also very friendly and welcoming to “the intern.” In fact, people in general seem pretty friendly. You can’t go into Starbucks without ending up in a conversation with somebody, whether it’s the barista wanting to know the score of the Mavericks/Heat game (I kept him posted from my laptop) or some random person who is shopping for a computer and asks you questions about yours. In fact, I even got a free frappachino out of the barista.