My Grown Up Adventure

THIS POST IS LONG!

So many of you know I am on a big big giant adventure...from the northity north, to the southity south...and I know there are many of you who are wondering what the heck is going on in my life...well here we go...

Ok so at the beginning of June I hopped on a plane and moved to the south...I spent a week on a gorgeous college campus exploring my new home. I attended many events, business and social...AND I GOT HIRED! I have a big girl job now.

I am a resource room teacher for K-5 at a public elementary school...school starts mid August and I'm excited...yet nervous as most first year teachers are. I've seen my classroom and oh man the windows! I've got a room with a view!

After that week I spent five weeks in the boondocks of Mississippi teaching little children how to school.

I would walk around campus on a very hot day and smell pine needles...couldn't figure out where they were coming from though...until one day I looked down. The campus used pine needles as mulch! which both smelled great and made me think of my old bosses on the grounds crew!

I witnessed the Mosquito Truck...yes a truck that drives around campus at least twice a day spewing pesticides...gross...very gross...but it kept the annoying bugs to an average amount...except when it pushed them inside...I got more bites inside the cafeteria than I did anywhere else! It was insane!

Oh and the cafeteria...if you like fried chicken Mississippi is the place to go...fried chicken and pork was the basic food...yes, I did pretend to be a vegetarian a few times because the food was just different and it was nice to change it up a little.

By the end of my time there, I had gotten to the point where I thought that 88 degrees at sunset was a perfectly reasonable temperature for a run. I can run in high temperatures with pretty dang high humidity levels and not die...I've made it  up to a half hour of running! I haven't had time to run lately but I'm pretty excited about my progress thus far.

I traveled almost every weekend I was there. I went ...well I went to my old home...I went to Memphis, I went to other places in Mississippi, I went back to my new home to try and find a home, I went to Jackson Mississippi. In one week I saw the Mississippi River from three different states! It was such a cool experience.

It was a jam packed five weeks in Mississippi...but now I'm back to my new home...I am doing a bunch of paperwork, looking for an apartment and trying to buy a car...look at me guys! I'm a real adult...ok well I'm trying to be a real adult...I'm thankful for all the people helping me to do it!

I'm learning a lot about living in the South. I'm starting to remember to say yes ma'am and yes sir...and to expect to be called ma'am. What I consider the boondocks is actually the town...the country is further out...30 minutes is not a far drive anywhere...20 minutes is the perfect distance...I speak too fast, and should expect to have the longest small talk conversations I've ever had in my life...making eye contact on the sidewalk does not mean you want to fight...talking about God with perfect strangers is a normal thing...and many many more...

It certainly is an adventure, and I'm taking it one step at a time...wish me luck and pray for my journey!