It’s the week after orientation and the start of classes.  Orientation was great.  VLS does such a nice job.  At times the days seem long and there is lots of information to digest but its all stuff we need to know.  They do a great job of feeding us.  We received lunch every day and the diversity dinner was amazing.

One thing that will take some time getting used to is the weather here.  I wore a jacket the first two days of orientation.  It was 46 degrees in the morning when we left here and would get up to 70 at the most. It was 104 back home in Illinois.  At the end of the week we finally got some heat.  It was 95 on Saturday.  I guess I should take it all in as everyone keeps saying how cold it gets here.

Another good thing about orientation is getting to meet the MSELs I’ll be having classes with.  We are quite a diverse group coming from all over the country.  I think our group is quite friendly and everyone seems to be gelling nicely.  Four of the eight people living in my little area are MSEL’s so it’s great to be able to get help when I need it.

I assumed my entire entry would be all about orientation and getting settled in and for the most part it is, but last Saturday we had quite the storm.  The area around the school looks to have been hit harder than where I am at.  I’m living about 2 miles from the school up route 110.  It rained pretty hard with strong winds and all kinds of lightning.  There were some trees that got knocked down at the school and we had a power line down on the road close to us.

We lost power about 5pm.  After the storm the seven of us in this area grilled outside and sat around on the porch until about midnight.  Most of us had planned on getting a jump on our readings for class but no one really felt like reading by flashlight.  All in all we were without power for 18 hours.  I am concerned about my food in the fridge and half of the people here had just returned from grocery shopping in West Lebanon.  So I’ve been carefully looking over my food.

Today was the first day of classes.  It went pretty well, even environmental law with Professor Firestone.  I just need to keep being prepared and be paying attention.  Tomorrow I only have one class and still have some reading to finish up so I might as well go do that.  I knew I would have lots of reading to do when I got here.  I’m still trying to figure out how to balance school work with the fun things I’d rather be doing.