3 airports, 2 timezones, and 1 national park later

Today was a good day. I was actually really frustrated yesterday. I got to the park after dealing with two plane rides and three airports (actually, the only airport that was bad was Denver, and that was just because the people working there are extremely rude. They were actually so rude that I was embarrassed on their behalves). Anyway, I got to the park and it felt like nothing was ready for our arrival. Check in took at least an hour and half, the staff at the uniform office left early so we couldn't get our work clothes, we got to Jenny Lake to get our housing assignments and were almost lectured because the staff there were supposed to be able to leave early, they ran out of dinner before everyone could eat, the wireless wasn't working, I was given a broken dresser so all my stuff is still in suitcases, the staff looked at us like we were wrong for finding fault with the above situations...I was actually pretty homesick, which I was not expecting. I've never been someone who misses home. I mean, I've missed my family of course, but I've never been one who yearns to be at my home address. But last night at least half of me wanted to pack up and go home. I actually don't know what I would have chosen if I would have been given the choice to stay or to pack up and return home. However. I knew that the reason I was feeling so bad was only because I was tired. Wyoming runs on Mountain Time, which is 2 hours behind Ohio, so what was only 9 PM here really felt like 11PM for me, and I had gotten up yesterday morning at quarter til 4 AM. So, I recognized that everything I was frustrated with wasn't really that bad and/or could be easily fixed the next day.

So that's why I didn't post anything yesterday, when I actually arrived. I knew that anything I said wouldn't be how I felt the next day and would be colored by how exhausted I felt. Look at me, being mature. So, after a great night's sleep, here's my update:

Everything is covered in snow. And I mean feet of snow, not just a dusting and it's melting. There are feet of snow left and it's melting from the mountains and the rivers are very high. I woke up this morning and it was snowing. And it snowed all day. Not just flurries either, I mean visibility was greatly reduced because it was snowing so hard. And I think it's great, hahaha. For some reason, the fact that it is snowing hard enough to obscure views of the mountains in late May amuses me. It's not really that cold here, the wind is sharp and biting, but I think the cold is only a shock to me because I haven't been used to 30 degree weather for a while now. I think it's funny that I'll be leaving this pseudo-winter in October, just in time for real winter to start in Ohio. I had orientation today, bring and early, where I was told more about my employer, Grand Teton Lodge Company. I also had a 4 hour long bus tour of the park, which was pretty awesome--and I was paid to do it, so my first apdi act of work was to sit around for 4 hours and listen to a guy talk. I haven't gotten used to thinking that I have time to do everything--I'm in that vacation mindset, where you only have a week or two to get everything accomplished, so you have to hurry up and do what you want to do--so I have to keep telling myself to settle down, I have until October to do everything. We saw elk and bison on the tour, by the way. I haven't started taking pictures yet. Yesterday I was too cranky and today the snow was too heavy, and the mountains were covered by clouds. Seriously. Clouds. We are high up. I got winded walking to dinner. Well, technically, that could be from the elevation or from the fact that I am not in shape...

Tomorrow I start actual work training. By the way, there are only 52 employees at Jenny Lake Lodge, so we're all going to get to know each other really well. My co-workers are pretty great. I've already started making friends and making plans with people. We all live together and work together, so we kind of just mesh together easily. It's pretty cool. So I'm excited about my co-workers. And I've met a couple of people on my ministry team, too. Two of the team's support staff work at Jackson Lodge so I met them yesterday when I got in, and one of the guys from the team actually ran into me when I was waiting for the shuttle to take me from Jackson to Jenny. This Sunday will be the first Sunday that I see the ministry team in action. One of the other guys is supposed to pick me up on Sunday morning and we are working services at Signal Mountain. It's difficult for me, though. Sometimes I feel really rushed, thinking about the ministry and the employment, because my team and my co-workers will rarely, if ever, interact, so I'm working 2 completely different full time jobs. Hopefully, once I get in the swing of work and of ministry, I'll have more confidence in handling both jobs. But right now I feel kind of overwhelmed.

My roommate is super awesome. I'll take a picture of our room later so you can picture what I'm talking about, but I'm in a cabin basically. It's one room, a bedroom, and I have one roommate, an older lady named Liz. When I got here yesterday, she already had the room situated--apparently housekeeping had just stacked a mattress against the wall and put a dresser on top of the other mattress. So she straightened the room up. And she took the twin bed instead of the queen because she said the twin gave her more support. So my bed's pretty big. But the best thing she did was last night. Housekeeping also only gave each of us one blanket and a sheet for bedding. We live in the mountains, with snow piled outside, and housekeeping gave each person only one blanket. Liz ended up giving me hers because she brought her own bedding. I ended up passing out before 10PM and when I woke up in the middle of the night, I was really warm. Like amazingly comfortable. And on my bed, Liz had covered me in a down comforter and a quilt that she had gotten from housekeeping when she stopped by there. So. My roommate is awesome.

One of my problems that I can already kind of see developing is isolation. I do really well by myself; I'm actually really comfortable just hanging out with myself. So in my head I automatically picture myself exploring the park on my own. But I want to build relationships, so I'm going to try to spend more time with people instead of just entertaining myself.

Well. That's my first Teton post, so hopefully you're all caught up sufficiently. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to call or text me, or write me on here or Facebook. Whatever works for you. Cell coverage is spotty so though I do have it, sometimes it's really slow, so if it takes me a while to get back to you, be cool.

I'm going to keep a list of everything I want to see or do, so here it is so far:
-rock climbing
-horseback riding
-breakfast boat ride
-nachos at Signal Mountain
-river floating tours
-white water rafting
-Indian Arts museum
-explore various hiking trails
I'll keep updating this as I learn more about the park, too.

I'm going to make a goal to take at least one picture everyday. There will probably be a lot more than just one, but having a goal of at least one a day will make me focus on finding new things to photograph and share with you all.

Also. I'm going to share a fact about the Tetons everytime I post so that way everyone learns something. Edumation...it's the future.
Fun fact: the usual annual snow fall for the Tetons is 191 inches. This year they got 170% of that, so it's somewhere around 600 inches. So that's why we still have snow so late in the season.