City Life: A Big Transition

Transition. That is what my life has consisted of for the past month. Packing and unpacking. Living out of the car and changing where I sleep every couple of days.

After the hubbub of graduation was over I said my final goodbyes to Houghton, MI and made it back to Minnesota. I spent two weeks at home, unpacking and repacking. I also found time for a trip to North Dakota to pick up Rachel from her first year of college. All this time I was searching and scouring the internet for an affordable place to live in DC. I can say without a doubt that finding housing from afar was one of the most stressful things I have done in a long time. Not being able to be there in person to see apartments and show people that you are interested was frustrating.

Nonetheless, I remained hopeful, and on Tuesday May 19th I left Minnesota, with the car packed to the top, headed to DC (with no housing arranged!).

I spent the next two days traveling across the country. I spent the night camping in Indiana at a nice campsite. The following morning I visited the highest point in the state of Ohio, Campbell Hill, at a whopping 1,550 feet above sea level. That is high point number 14 for me!

When I arrived in DC I spent the next few days with my second cousin Sarah and her husband Nick and their daughter Nia. I had a great time hanging out with them and I appreciate their hospitality as I continued to search for housing and explore the city. We went to the Smithsonian of Natural History, saw the butterfly exhibit, spent a day at a local park, watched the planes fly overhead, and spent a day rafting on the Shenandoah River! All these, among a lot of other things!

On Memorial Day I met up with my good friend and my former Dean of Students, Bonnie, for coffee. It was great to see a familiar face in a still unfamiliar place. That afternoon I headed north to Valley Forge National Historical Park (outside of Philadelphia, PA) for a week long training for my new job.

I spent the next week at the conference center at Valley Forge, learning about the position and how to go about the year ahead. And I can't forget to mention the fact that I met some FANTASTIC people! I was so energized by those around me and I am excited to see what we will all do at our respective National Parks over the course of the next year and the impact we will have. While at training we did a service project where we removed invasive crayfish from the river and we removed invasive plants. We also found time for some fun and went out to see Pitch Perfect 2 and explored the bustling town of Phoenixville, PA.

While at the training conference I finally secured housing! A friend of a friend of a fellow coworker had a basement apartment that she was willing to rent out. After the conference was over I returned to DC and moved into my new place (see photos!).

I then had the weekend to myself to get settled and I started work on Tuesday (June 2nd). This past week was all orientation and training (and so is this coming week). We have been touring the various parks we will be working in and have been getting acquainted with how things work. We even got to participate hands on in a service project on Friday!

Among all these other things I have been trying to acclimate myself to DC living. I take public transit to work every day, with a 45 minute commute (a 3 minute walk to the bus stop, a 10 minute bus ride, a 25 minute train ride, and a 7 minute walk). This is certainly different then any other daily 'commute' I have ever had. Getting up simply to travel 45 minutes in the morning is certainly a new lifestyle. I have also been getting use to most road corners being 'no turn on red', traffic cameras and photo enforced speed limits, and the weather being forecast 'from the mountains to the bay', among other things.

Overall, my transition to DC has turned out pretty good. I have had time to explore the city and visit some of the museums and parks, I am now completely settled in my apartment and it feels more like home, and I have completed my first week at work. I will learn more about where my office will be and which park I will devote most of my time to later this week!

PS - the 4 others in the two above photos are some of my new coworkers!

In other news, yesterday was my Grandma Yarusso's 80th birthday -- Happy Birthday Grandma! I hope this post finds you all in good spirits and enjoying the start of summer!