Sunday, December 2, 2007

Airports

It has been a long time since I have posted something. In fact, I am no longer in Jackson, WY if you didn't already know that. I had a wonderful time during my two months but felt it was time to head home. I am now living in Seattle with a new job that is very exciting. Lately, I have really been enjoying the promotional marketing required for my job. I do not believe that I could have been blessed with a better first job. It requires the ability to wear several different hats and will become more difficult as time goes on, however it provides me with some valuable experiences that I am enjoying. I even have the opportunity to travel occasionally which is nice to see other parts of the country, however is probably the least favorite aspect of my job as I visit several different airport. Even now I am sitting in the Denver International Airport. When all is said and done, I will have sat in DIA for nearly four hours! Lucky me. Given the time I have spent in airports, today in particular, I have had some "quality" time to think about them.
I dislike airports. Here is my first point of dislike for airports. If you have ever seen the movie The Terminal with Tom Hanks, you may remember that airports exist on international property (I believe). This means that although I am in the DIA, I'm not actually in Denver. Does this mean that I am in International Denver, CO? Where am I? It's confusing to say the least.
My second point: airports are just a temporary waiting point. Nobody actually wants to be in an airport for an extended period of time. They are simply a means to an end. A holding cell if you will. Everyone within an airport is waiting to be somewhere else.
Thirdly, airports are lonely places. Most people that are traveling on airplanes are en route to be with friends or family. If you have to be here for extended periods of time you are delayed from being with the people you want to be with.
Airports offer an inaccurate depiction of America. If you think about which class of Americans are able to fly on plans you will realize that the answer is middle and upper class. If you take an even broader perspective, you will see that airports could be viewed as a club for the worlds wealthiest. Although it may not always seem this way when you look around you at everyone else flying, much of the world makes less then a dollar a day. How much did your last plane ticket cost? Interesting to think about.
Although I dislike airports for those reasons, I do enjoy having the opportunity to travel with this job. I get to see different parts of the country. Coincidentally enough, I'm always ready to head right home to the most beautiful part of the country (in my opinion)- Seattle, WA.
My plane is about to board which means that I get to leave this confusing, temporary, lonely, and crazy place.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Just another day at the office

Not a lot has happened recently. I got back from camp on Friday night. We had another fun week at camp with good weather and a few thunder and lightning storms surrounding us. Now that we are back, things are going back to normal. We are running the normal day camp for elementary schoolers along with the usual middle and high school youth groups. It is nice to be back in Jackson. I am enjoying my time here.
There has been a tragedy that has occured here in the town. A young man in high school recently died in a fatal car accident and it has affected a lot of families here. Today they held a funneral service for him. He was very well known and like I said, his death has touched a lot of people in this small town. I didn't meet him, but a lof of the highschoolers are having a difficult time dealing with this event.
Transitioning from that, today I had a rough day of work. Today I went on a middle school day trip with another intern, Colby, and we had to do a scenic float trip on the snake river... On top of that, I have to get paid for it... It was a rough day. Tomorrow we are supposed to have another middle school day trip to the fair. Just so you know, the fair around here is a really big deal! Tonight is the start of teh fair and the main event is pig wrestling. People will submit their teams to a lottery and hope to be chosen to participate. There is also a Calcutta betting system in place where you can pick the team that you hope/want to win. Like I said, it's a big deal... apparently this event, and all evening events, will SELL OUT! I may go to the fair tonight to see the pig wrestling since some of our kids who we work with will be in the event... or I may try to go fishing again- our guide showed me some places that should be good to fish.
Needless to say, I am still enjoying my time here. They have a lot of the outdoor activities that I enjoy and I get paid to do things that are actually fun. Not a bad gig for right now. Until next time...

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Adios... just for a week

Well, this afternoon we are going to leave for camp. This means that I will be gone until Friday night and will not be able to put up any posts until then seeing as how we will not have internet. So you know, my address here is...
For mail:
c/o Sherry Poinsett
PO Box 6422
Jackson, WY 83002

For UPS:
600 Lakota Lane
Jackson, WY 83002

I will talk to you all soon. Adios for now!

Friday, July 6, 2007

'Merica!!!

Happy 4th of July! A little belated I know, but still worth stating. I had an incredible 4th of July. We had the day off and were able to do what we wanted. The first thing we did was to go to the parade, which was one of the best parade's I've seen. The parade had me feeling like I was 'Merican!, not American, but more redneck and authentic: 'Merican!!! After the parade we went back to Sheri's house for a pancake breakfast. Next we went to Lake Jackson which was gorgeous! It is a lake in the Teton National Park at the base of the Teton mountains. It was very bizar for me to see a lake on the 4th of July that was as deserted as the lake was. We had a great time hanging out on the lake during the day. After that we finally went and watched the fireworks which were pretty good given the size of the town. It was no 4th of Julivers, but it was still pretty fun. As you can see from the pictures, which I hope are working and viewable, I have bought a cowboy hat and feel like a cowboy! As you can imagine, I'm really enjoying my time here.
Last night we went down to the ranch where the camp is going to be for the middle schoolers and high schooler's. We got back this evening and did a fair amount of work during the day. We had to do some of the final touches before camp starts for the middle schoolers on monday. I am going to be the camp speaker this upcoming week for the camp. It should be fun and I'm looking forward to the challenge. The camp itself is pretty much a small dude ranch. They have horses, a small lake, a wagon which kids can sleep in, and several different log cabins. It will be a small camp, but should be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to having the role of a speaker.
I am blanking on other things to fill you in on, however I have also posted some pictures of the butte that is in our backyard that we hiked and gives a view of the town of Jackson. You can also see the Teton Mountains in the background if you look closely.

Here is the link to the web album: http://picasaweb.google.com/napierb5

Monday, July 2, 2007

First Real Day

Today was my first real day of work. I started out with our elementary child program that lasts all day. It's called Promiss U, as in University, and it lasts all day. Somedays I will have to be there all day, other days I will get to go and plan for the middle school or high school youth group. We migt also plan for the camp that we are planning from scratch that starts next monday.
Today was a pretty long day though since I did Promiss U in the morning, then planned for the HS youth group and camp, went back to Promiss U for the aftercare from 4-5:30. Then we had HS youth group later tonight from 7-9:30. It all went really well and I'm having a great time. One exciting thing is that we named the HS youth group tonight... it's called Impact... kinda cheesy, but better then youth group I think.
For anyone who does read this, please feel free to leave some comments because currently Aunt Maureen is the only one... so please post comments, I like hearing from you :).

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Smokey the Bear...

The past 24 hours have been pretty spectacular! I had my first day of actual work. I went to the church in the morning to do the elementary school program called Promise U (as in University). I was only supposed to be there for about 2 hours until i went back to the house to do planning, but during that time a park ranger/fire fighter was supposed to come by with Smokey the Bear. Unfortunately, the person who normally wears the costume had to fight an actual forest fire here in Wyoming. Thankfully, a fellow intern stood in and took on the task. The best part is when our boss asked Smokey to dance to one of our songs... The link shows the events that unfolded...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GWwLYptARo
After our time with Smokey, I went and bought groceries and mowed the lawn... not nearly as eventful.
Later that night, myself and a couple other guys went for a short overnight hike into the Grand Teton National Park. We started hiking at around 7pm and had to trek in 6.5 miles. We made it to a camp site at around the 6.5 mile mark right around dark. We then hiked out at like 7:15am in order to make it back in time to go on our horse back riding trip (which i will elaborate on shortly). During our hike we saw a total of 4 moose, 3 porcupine, 1 beaver, and multiple rabbits. Not to mention the unbelievable scenery. ( again, i'll try to post pictures soon).
Then this afternoon we went on our horseback trip. We started off having lunch at a church members house; which was incredible! Then, she personally escorted us to the place with the horses. For the ride, my horse was Sheriff. we basically rode the horses up onto the top of a hill that was very Sound of Music picturesque. Needless to say, again we have been spoiled.
I can say that I am enjoying the country side of life and would like to have a horse in the future... just not Sheriff. Until next time...

Thursday, June 28, 2007

I'm finally here!

Yesterday I left Pendleton, OR around 9am to start my trip to Jackson. During the drive I was pretty nervous after the 3 hour mark due to three things: it was around 100 degrees outside, my car is old, and the temperature gauge doesn't work on the car. These three factors caused for a very cautious drive with many stops. Eventually I had the temp. guage fixed at a Honda dealership. Once that was fixed I had an incredible amount of confidence and drove nearly straight from Twin Falls, ID to Jackson Hole. I arrived here around 10:15pm to a warm welcome with all of the other interns and our boss Sherry.

The drive in was incredible once I got onto Yellowstone Hwy. I basically followed the snake river all the way into Jackson and can easily see why the fishing is supposed to be so good hear. Not to mention the millions of bugs i killed on my way in. I'm excited to have a chance to go fishing.

Today I have the day off to rest which is allowing for me to put up this long post. This Sat. we are supposed to be going for a horseback riding trip which I am obviously excited for. According to the other guys, we get pretty spoiled by everyone. One of the pretty cool things for us guys is that there are apparently pretty distinct gender roles, so apparently we don't really cook any of our meals... Although I enjoy cooking a good meal, I think i'll allow this as I have never really been one to turn down a good meal :).

I'm just now beginning to learn what my roles are going to be here, but I will fill you in on that later once I know more. From what I do know, I am the oldest intern here (which is fine), and we will be putting on a couple overnight camps for middle and high school aged students which will be a lot of fun! That's all for now, adios amigos!
God is good, all the time, God is good.