07 Jun The First Week!

Hello everyone! So my first week in Grand Canyon has been more than I could imagine. First off, I know I said I hated driving, but it turned out to be beautiful. My back hurt by the end of it, but I definitely got to see the beauty in Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. I loved seeing all of the similarities and differences between the areas. I know on my way home I will be stopping a lot more for scenic sites. Anyway, my first day arriving took a little longer than I anticipated since I got a little lost and had no phone service, but I found my way and figured out I overlooked a small sentence in the text from my supervisor, Amala. I was greeted by Amala at the cabins that I am staying in and got to meet the rest of my cabin-mates. Everyone was so nice, and helped guide me around the park a bit. After meeting everyone, we ventured over to one of the overlook points to watch the sunset…and I fell in love. Pictures won’t do the Grand Canyon justice. And I can really tell I will be making some long-lasting friendships here. Afterwards we went back and crawled into bed so we could have plenty of sleep for the long work day ahead of us.

My roommate and I woke up around 6:30am and had to be at work at 7:3oam. I was expecting to take the bus, but I was running a little late for the bus so I had to quickly assemble my bicycle and bike over. It worked out okay, but I didn’t realize how hot it was and jeans were a bad choice for that reason. I learned my lesson, though (jeans + biking + hot weather = Big no no), and I made it on time. For the past week we have been mostly training for summer. I have been in and out of the interpreter training since some of it applies to me, and other parts don’t. Plus we will be doing more training with the high schoolers once they arrive, so I will catch up on more training next week. Tarryn (who is the other gal in charge of the SOAR YCC Program) has been very helpful this week. She showed me the important places in the area, and gave me a little history behind some the buildings here, so I got my own little tour! We have also been preparing for the high schoolers to join us by cleaning out the office space for them and packaging their cool “swag”. So my work week has been pretty easy so far, but I know by next week I will be a little more flustered. But! I am bracing and mentally preparing myself so I think I will be okay. Next week I will upload some cool pictures of my first hike in the Grand Canyon that I am doing this weekend! That’s all folks!