Oh ho to Idaho

What a week! I think I meant to update before now, but here we go! We had our first INN of the year on Tuesday, and it was a blast. I had such a great time! I was kind of nervous coming into it because I was doing the witness that evening for students to get to know me, and helping with the powerpoint slides and things for when the INN is happening. It is a very different experience when you are helping to run the show! I was doing the slides during worship, and almost forgot to change them with each verse because I was singing along not thinking about the fact that I'M the one who changes them. It's tough! Anyway, we showed a sweet video of me getting used to Pullman, which a lot of the students thought was good, and to be honest it was fun to make.

I was able to meet quite a few students too, mostly just the student leadership team, but a few others as well. I counted almost 90 students to be there during Claire's talk. Rumor has it there were a lot of new faces, and we were missing many of our regulars - the hectic nature of the first week back can easily cause some to forget. I'm excited to meet with some freshman/newcomers this week, and also start putting together core groups (Bible studies) for the year. Anyway it feels good to have that first INN done with, and to be more familiar with what my weeks might look like. I really feel at home here, and that this is where I'm supposed to be, which is a great comfort!

This weekend we had our student leadership retreat, which was SO much fun. We headed out to

Coeur D'Alene, Idaho to stay at a cabin that is owned by one of our student's families. It was so nice! Right on the lake! We had some free time Saturday to do some swimming and boating which was perfect. And the rest of the time we spent talking about the book The Master Plan of Evangelism (great stuff, really recommend it) and discussing their mission statement for the year. These students are so great, and I'm really excited to see what we get up to this year! The pictures I've attached are of some of the scenery in Idaho and Pullman. We stopped by a house that had some guns for sale out of their garage, and the other pic is just to give an idea of some of the scenery I am now used to. It's actually pretty nice, and the sunsets are amazing! Come out and take a look for yourself!

1 week down, ??? to go ...

Congratulations - I've made it a week! The 'P' in Pullman doesn't stand for 'poisonous' as some of you may have thought. Or for Pool, that starts with P and rhymes with T which stands for trouble ... but let's keep The Music Man out of this one.

The first week has been so great! As I said previously, my host family is absolutely amazing. And SUCH good cooks. Well, basically Mae loves making delicious things, and I am all about trying each and every one of them. Plus they have their own garden which makes for fresh delicious things. Yum.

The transit experience has been good so far - sort of a rocky start since I tried to catch it on the 14th, and it didn't actually start running until the 16th ... Bill had to pick me up from the bus stop when I finally realized this. It's not written in the take-away brochure, just nicely posted at the stop. Course I didn't look at that until after I'd been sitting there for about 10 minutes ...

As for office work, it's been a mixture of getting my wireless to work, putting together the INN's bulletin, and odd jobs around the church. But we also took some time to put together a INNtro (hahahehehe) video for me at the first INN. This required a trip to Ferdinands, which I was not opposed to at all. SO delicious.

And as for Pullman itself, today and yesterday was the National Lentil Festival! Yes, that does mean a giant vat of lentil chili, a parade, with bagpipes, and free cotton candy. It in no way compares to the St. Patrick's Day Parade that I experienced in March, but I don't think one ever will. If you're curious, ask me about it. Anyway, free food is always a good ploy to get me to go somewhere, so the free Chili and Cotton Candy were great. PLUS yesterday evening I watched High School Musical 2 at Bill's apartment, which was fantastic, and a GREAT way to end the week. Not to mention, look! Spongebob has braces! About time he fixed that gap in his teeth.

This is Toby.

I arrived in Pullman Saturday evening, and what a great welcome! Bill, Claire and I left Seattle around 11am and after a quick stop in Spokane to pick up a bed, we headed out to Pullman and arrived at about 5:30/6. My host family greeted us at the door, with a wonderful meal already prepared!

The host family I have been blessed with is amazing. They are Alex, Mae, and Toby, the 5 month old pictured here. So far I've really just gotten used to my new room, unpacked a few things, and seen the church. I've gotten around town just a little, and went to go get ... sit down now ... my cougar card. Yeah, I have to put it in my wallet, it's a little painful, but it makes riding the bus free, and you know how much I appreciate free things.

So I'm attempting the transit-tion (get it? transit transition? ahhh, yeah the puns did not stay in Seattle) tomorrow, and we'll see if I get lost or not. I'm betting on not, but there are a lot of hills around here, and I don't exactly know which is which. On Sunday one of our students asked me where my host family lives, and I replied with an uncomfortable 'I ... don't ... know ...'

So that's it for now, I'm getting more of an idea of what my days and weeks will look like, but I probably won't really know what they'll be like until they happen, so I'll probably post another update next week after our first INN. Thanks for your prayers, and once again, I'm really REALLY excited. Plus I had Ferdinand's ice cream today, and let's face it, so far Pullman is delicious.