Much overdue

Sorry fam! I meant to start this blog awhile ago, but things have been pretty crazy. I've been trying to journal when I remember to, and I've sent a few e-mails to my friends back home, so I might just end up copy and pasting some stuff.
Anywho! Where to begin...
Well, I got into Helena for my Pre-Service Orientation on the 19th of July. Training was...training. Kinda long and boring. I'm not used to spend that much time indoors listening to people talk, but it was a necessary evil I suppose. And I met a lot of cool people, some of whom have turned out to be very quick, good friends.

I was blown away by the beauty of Montana when I got out here though. The first night I was in Helena, I spent awhile alone on the edge of the hotel parking lot getting whipped around by the wind and watching lighting strike in the distance. I had this overwhelming feeling of epic-ness, that I felt would likely pre-shadow my year here. So far I have not been let down.

I got into Butte on Saturday of Evel Kneivel days. Every time I tell someone that it's followed by a loud guffaw. And it was crazy! I was pretty tired too, because the night before we had gone out pretty late in Helena, and then managed to cram 5 people in a 3 person, maaaaaybe 4 person tent. Needless to say I was pretty tired. I was also still homeless. The two girls who are also doing VISTA here (and who are AWESOME, we just happen to get along really really well) both already had places though, so I dropped my stuff at one friend's house, showered, and then decided to give her some space since she lives in a one-room studio apartment. So I grabbed my backpack and plunged out onto the street amongst hordes of leather, beer and cowboy hats. It was a really surreal experience. I was also really hungry, and hot. BUT, it was pretty interesting. And eventually I got back to my buddy's house, changed, ate and met up with our other friends and some new buddies who came down from Helena.
That Saturday was one of the funnest nights I've ever had. We met up with some other Americorp volunteers, walked around downtown with open containers (that's still legal in Butte!), danced a ton at an open-air rock show, rode a mechanical bull (well, my friends did. I kind of just slowly flipped over my own hands after about 2 seconds. There's a video out there, so I'll share when I can!), and watched fireworks from atop some old mining structure we found.

I should stop and give a brief description of Butte. Butte was one of the largest cities in the West for many years, thanks to its copper mine. Someone told me that in the early 1900s, roughly 100,000 people lived here! Now it's about 34,000, and the architecture hasn't changed much. It's split into two sections: Uptown and the Flats. Uptown is the historic area, and it's where most of the coffee shops, bars, and youngsters live. Thus, it is where I live. The flats are more suburban, and where you find Walmart, and Safeway, and most practical things, including my work.
For a number of different reasons, some time back, the pit-mine on the edge of town began to fill up with toxic water. No one really knows what to do about this, so the water just kind of sits, and rises, while people wait and hope that someone soon will figure out some technology to deal with it. You can't see the water when you're driving around town, but you can see the strip mining. If you get a good view of it, you can see where the original mine is, where they started mining after some environmental regulations were in place, and where they mine know. It's disturbing, and incredibly awe-inspiring, if in a sad way. It makes me think of what a body stripped of flesh would look like--all muscle and veins and bone.

Besides that, it's so beautiful out here. I've already been to a number of different lakes and rivers that all seem more beautiful than the last thing I saw. In the past week I've done a handful of things I've never tried before! I rode that mechanical bull, I went to a drive in movie theater, I did some fly fishing, I started an 8-5 job, and I've legally drank beer in public.

There's so much to update y'all on, I'm trying to think about what you'd most like to hear.

Well, I gave a brief write up of the project I'm working on at NCAT (in my about me). It's exciting, but I feel in no way shape or form qualified for this. I guess I'll learn quickly though! It's bizarre having an 8-5 job. I even have a cubicle.
Here's what a normal day for me looks like: get up around 7 am, rush through breakfast and pack a quick lunch, get to work by 8, do a bunch of research and design, take a lunch break around noon, work for a little longer, drive to Albertsons to pick up their compost, sort through it because they throw out so much perfectly good food and I am broke, then work on our giant compost heap for a little! Then I come home, hop in the shower, and usually cook copious amounts of food from whatever I salvage from the compost (seriously though, it's all perfectly fine food, just not pretty enough to go out on the shelf at Albertsons). I'm living with another Americorp volunteer who is almost done in Butte, so I cook for him a lot, and then his friends, and my friends have been over for dinner a few times. I love cooking for people, and the nights cool down enough to make it real pleasant to enjoy dinner sitting on the front stoop.

I still don't really have a home. I found a place, but it won't be open until the end of August. However, the landlord of where I'm sleeping now is letting me stay here in one of the empty rooms for free until then.

I should probably explain what I mean when I say that I am a VISTA member. VISTA members are Americorp members who commit to working exclusively towards poverty alleviation, and also commit to only make poverty level income for a year. Good thing I'm a thrifty person.
The other part of our job is that we are supposed to be developing programs that will eventually have Americorp State/National volunteers working on them. It's exciting being so instrumental in developing a program. Now I just really hope I don't fail.

Ok, well, I'm gonna go make some dinner, and then go on a little hike. I'm really looking forward to have my folks out here this weekend! I think we'll go out to Montana's best preserved ghost town on Saturday, and do a day hike on Sunday. I'm also taking them to get pasties (soft "a" sound, not like the dancer things), which is essentially meat, onion, potatoes, and dough. I don't know, I haven't tried them yet, but they're a Butte specialty.

BYE!

P.S.
the average annual rainfall in Butte is 12 inches, and it is about 5600 feet above sea level. How anyone successfully farms here, I do not know. I have been meeting lots of local farmers though, and everyone's been incredibly helpful in teaching me about how things work here. OH! That reminds me! I went out to a co-worker's friend's garden the other day, just to kind of tour around and learn some tricks about dealing with the climate here. I ended up really liking the three people running the garden, and they got pretty excited that I was so excited and could name all of their plants, and loaded me up with tons of fresh lettuce, cilantro, basil and kale. Then, the next day when I got to work, I had a card waiting for me at the front desk. I was already just excited to have gotten a card from anyone, and then I opened it up, and there was a $100 bill! The people who owned the farm had given me the card and money and written a short note essentially saying, "Welcome to Butte, here's a little something to help you get started."
I still can't believe it. I've really had a positive experience meeting some truly wonderful people here. Everyone I've worked with, and everyone I've met have been so helpful and accommodating. It's funny, before I came out here, people always scoffed when I said I was moving to Butte. I think that none of them had ever really spent any time here, because so far I've been very happy.

Like a very wise, older friend (about 50 years older) told me before I decided to come out here:
when you have a decision to make, if you're a successful person, no matter what choice you make, things will start to fall into place to make that the right decision.

Let's just hope I feel this optimistic when it's -30 degrees.