Welcome to Montana!

I arrived in Great Falls, MT last Monday night. After unpacking all day Tuesday, I headed off to Helena for the Americorp Pre Service Orientation that lasted from Wednesday to Friday. It had all of the other Americorp VISTA members that had volunteered to serve in Montana for the year. I'm not sure what I expected, but I was really impressed with the people. Everyone was really accomplished. One girl had just gotten back from Ghana where she'd been on Fulbright scholarship to study the impact of culture on teaching methods. Another had been teaching in the Republic of Georgia. One guy had served in the Peace Corp. Just really cool people. The highlight of the event was one morning where we all sat in a circle and discussed our views on the causes of poverty. There were such a variety of backgrounds and experiences that it was fascinating to listen to.

On Friday, when we'd finished all the instruction stuff, they put us on a bus and

took us to the capital building to take our VISTA oath. The governor of Montana, Brian Schweitzer, actually did our swearing in, met us, and did a little Q & A session. It was pretty neat. The guy is quite a character. He takes his dog, Jag, with him everywhere. I got to pet Jag! Two ladies from my work who used to be VISTAs were insanely sweet and had driven up for my swearing in. After everything was done with Orientation, I met them at a restaurant and they gave me tips on adjusting to Montana. Interestingly, they're involved in policy initiatives and go to Helena a lot and we're friendly with several members of congress. I'm impressed with how accessible their state government is. Of course with so few people in the state, I guess sense.

When I got back to Great Falls, I got to be impressed with how much I lucked out in getting a nice and helpful roommate. We went and saw a movie on Saturday and afterwards he invited me to go dancing. He took me to a country themed bar that had a dance floor and live music. He'd gone there the week before and made friends with people, so we sat with them. I was shocked at how much the guys liked to dance. And I'd never seen dancing like this. I was really bad at first because I kept trying to anticipate what was going to happen. Then I got some pointers on how to follow and I think I improved. I took a video of the incredible dancing, but sadly it's too dark to show up on the compressed Blogger video tool. I think this link might work though: http://picasaweb.google.com/lauraah/MontanaAsOf01272011?authkey=Gv1sRgCMbGlYaI_bnOYg#5567095690430026658 Those two people were in our group and the guy was a genuine cowboy!

The next day, some people from work were having a football party to thank a bunch of volunteers who were going to be helping people with their taxes. The host, my current boss, lives just a bit out of town and here is the view from her back porch.

It was a really good week! This week I started work and it's been a bit slower, but good so far. The guy I share an office with and work with is really nice. He teaches at the local college and is in charge of their speech and debate team so he seems insanely busy. He's smart and a bit on the awkward side, so I think we'll get along just fine.