Adventure 1: Housing

I arrived at the entrance to the park around 12:30 yesterday afternoon. I did not enter the park until a little after 1. The lines here for anything are ridiculous. Even the park employee "by-pass" lane is backed-up for a mile. Once in the park, however, the real adventure started.

I pulled into a backlot right off the main road and up to an inconspicuous brown building behind a library (whose internet I am currently stealing). Inside was the safety office staff: two people. I was expecting a room full of cubicles and people running in and out, but no: the safety office is 2.5 people. (I'm the .5) After meeting my supervisors, we went for a ride on over to get my housing set up. We met the housing coordinator who assigned me to a house with two girls already living in it. So on we went to the warehouse and got my key.

The house we pulled up to was a two-story with big yard and hammock hanging in the back. Upon entering, though, one is brought back memories of frat houses back in Happy Valley. There was clothes, shoes, and garbage everywhere. But this was my assigned housing so my supervisors and I went looking for the empty room--and found none. Someone was already living (squatting) in my room. The housing coordinator was not happy to hear about this.

So back to housing and the warehouse we went. New house, new key. By this point it's already about 2:30. We pull up to an even nicer house, complete with horse hitching post out front. I went to go in and couldn't quite seem to get the key to fit. Probably because it was the wrong key.

Back to housing we went!

The third key worked and at 4pm I was officially picking out a room. I picked the one upstairs with the windows because the other room up front towards the street looked like it would get hot. I would have been all set except that I bought twin sheets and the bed is queen-sized.



(but I set it up anyways with borrowed sheets although the cover is mine)



(my view of our backyard--on a side note, the elk and deer here roam free and come right up to your house. You can't see the gate in the fence, but every backyard opens to a trail system so you can bike/walk around without going on the roads).





My housemate came home about an hour later and revealed she had just moved in the day before and is a full-time employee at the gates. Also, she runs marathons. I don't know whether to be encouraged or discouraged by this, as I sat there in all my epic flabbiness. She's about my age, though, which is not what I was expecting when they told me I was living with a full-timer.

So we're two twenty-somethings living in this nice, big house. The next adventure: internet!

Also, tomorrow I'll post pictures of today's private tour of the GC. I didn't get to see the canyon last night because 1) I didn't know where it was (I found out today my nice, big office is about a quarter mile from the south rim) and 2) I didn't have a map and was afraid to wander. Nothing like getting lost on your first day!