Well, I did it. I actually said goodbye to Winona. Some thought it would never be done and I was a lifer, but I proved them wrong I guess! Don't worry, saying goodbye wasn't easy. I cried. Three days in a row. Although I thought I had myself prepared enough with the pre-institute homework and packing...my goal was to spend everyday at the golf course...that really didn't happen. However, I did get to climb the rock again with Sara, Dominic, Ambjor and Cassie. Many thanks go out to the high school potheads for leaving when we got up there. Oh, there is a GREAT video of blowing on grass on the top of the rock, mine always sounded like a kazoo.
Anyway, the Wellington's party was interesting. Saying goodbye sucked. But really, it wasn't the first time I cried in the bar! It was probably the realization that I wouldn't see many of those people for several months and phone/e-mail contact is probably limited. However, I woke up at 5 a.m. on Friday with knots in my stomach but ready to start this adventure. Hard to believe it was my last night in Heffron, I mean I've only been there for something 1000+ days. Thank goodness Cassie helped me move/clean. Trust me, my apartment looked much better than it did when I moved in. After more tearful goodbyes, I left Saint Mary's. Well, I spent 10 minutes in the parking lot trying to get the GPS to take me in the direction that I wanted it to!
I spent all of Friday driving to St. Louis. It was a pretty simple trip, minus the fact my cell phone didn't work during several large chunks of Iowa AND it was 40 mph wind gusts. Joan Bernard passed me on I-90, that was crazy, but great at the same time. And, it stopped me from crying :) Good thing Katie and her aunt met me in St. Louis because their house is WICKED hard to get to. Who labels roads with Z and N? Pat and Meade were so gracious to us and it was so nice to have a place to stay that was on the way.
Saturday, we ventured out on our journey. The jeep, PACKED. The luggage rack looked rockin' on the top...we had the GPS, an atlas and Meade's directions. Our first mistake, stopping in Miner, Missouri for gas. We pulled into some random little place, I had to give them my license to fill up, everyone in the place was smoking cigarettes, and as I was standing in line I looked around and realized I was in a liquor store. We bought gas from a liquor store. They even sold Mr. Pibb. Welcome to 1994.
We went through many more adventures. Including Arkansas, a state neither of us had ever been in. It wasn't that exciting. In Memphis, we decided we should find a restroom and fill up with gas again. Not our best idea of the day. We stopped at 3 places on Hwy 61 on the south side of Memphis...all were SKETCH. We finally braved a convenience store bathroom and filled up with gas and got the heck out of there. Gretchen later informed me that it wasn't the best choice of places to stop.
The Delta awaited us! We found the storage site basically on accident, it is behind some guys house. He came out and helped us with the garage door...then tried to sell us more stuff. I wanted to say, "really mister? This vehicle is packed to the brim, I don't think I need anything else." But didn't. The only time we got lost was leaving the storage site that was located in the middle of no-wheres-ville. The map wasn't clear, we weren't sure where we were, the GPS isn't always trustworthy, so we ended up making about 3 or 4 different turns. One was into a 4 lane road in which there wasn't a single car in sight! Welcome to the Delta! Did I mention that it was 95 degrees and 5 p.m. in the afternoon? So, we drove through a chunk of the Delta, and I found various places that I assured Katie I would be fishing at in the next year. After following an older gentleman in a van (he was speeding so we followed closely) we finally reached Madison, Mississippi. Gretchen and Mike's directions were perfect, until we got to their street and couldn't find house numbers on the actual houses. No worries, we made a u-turn and THEN realized the numbers are on the mailboxes! By this time, Gretchen had seen us drive by (the luggage rack MIGHT have given it away) and came out to greet us. SOOOO wonderful to see them again. They were having a little party and we were greeted very warmly. It was fun chatting with them about the culture in that area. By the time I went to bed that night, I was SOOO excited to be there and to be closer to them. Kind of reminds me of the Lelo and Stitch quote, "Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind or forgotten."
And now we are onto today. We departed Madison at 7:30 a.m. to head south through the remainder of MS onto Louisiana and into Texas. We experienced Baton Rouge, and listened to the song 3 times on the way through :) We hit road construction, saw three cop cars on the side of the road with someone pulled over. I thought the girl had her hands on her head, but she MIGHT have been fixing her hair. That is still unsure. There are some really crazy things that we saw or experienced on our way down. Toward the end of our trip we finally created a list. Partly to laugh about them again and partly to keep ourselves entertained. Luckily Katie is such an easy going person, we had plenty to talk about. Heck, we even listened to rap for about two hours to acclimate her to STL! Go fig that our exit would be closed in Houston, so we did a little downtown tour before ending up at the University of Houston. We pulled into a turn-around by our building. A handful of people were out there and unloaded ALL of our stuff and put it where it under the breezeway where we would collect it later. Check-in was exciting and nerve wracking all at the same time. I went to the first table, started telling her my name, and she shreaked with excitement. I thought I had done something wrong or forgot to turn something in or sign up or something crazy. But, then she told me that she was my literacy advisor (more info about that when I figure out what it means) and that someone had been checking all day to see if I was there yet. Soon enough, I found out that Catherine, a girl I had talked to right before making my decision was there and waiting to meet me. She seems really nice and I almost feel as if she is my orientation leader, I could probably ask her about anything. She's a teacher in the Delta and is at institute to serve as an advisor of some sort.
So, Moody towers is two buildings connected on the lowest level. I find out I am in the south tower, floor....17. WTF. At least they had an elevator, although you had to wait for awhile to catch it. I had a cart FULL of stuff...and then another big trip with random stuff that I had forgotten outside. I get up to my room, open the door...and realize I was in a single room. Are they kidding? I'm on the top floor of this building and I don't even get a roommate? Who is going to wake me up if I oversleep? Then I started freaking out about the Praxis II again...and at that point I was like, "maybe I don't want to be here." But it lasted for about 5 minutes...the girls on my floor are really great. The girl next door to me shares the same birthday, WHAT?! Rock on. AND...another girl is the same age as I am....so I'm not with a bunch of people who JUST graduated college...even better!
Because we are the only region that did not meet prior to institute, we had supper together and then had a meeting. They made all 100 of us stand up and say where we are from and that kind of original introduction. Turns out, there are at least half a dozen people from the Minnesota area and quite a few from the Midwest, represent.
We did the necessity stuff tonight after the meeting....set up our internet, unpack, shower (Bridget failed to mention to me that the shower is like a BULLET of water...it almost hurts!), I think the shower got warmer when people flushed the toilet...which is kind of funny.
Okay...so far I have learned that I have far too many clothes. That I left all of my clothes hangers in MS and for that I'm an idiot because I really didn't need to buy any more. The ants bite and you shouldn't put your feet in the grass. And, that I have no idea how this whole process is going to work, but I'm excited to get back to Mississippi and get moved in, wherever that may be.
This was the longest post I have ever written, go fig since it was only the 2nd one I have ever written! I won't bore you with any more information....if you made it to the end I will be thoroughly impressed. I have to get up at 5:30 a.m....Sara GRACIOUSLY told me "welcome to the real world." Living in a jail cell-like dorm room is not my idea of the real world. Welcome to institute.
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