What a day…

It’s been a really long day; a great, awesome, really long day. As I write this, I am sitting at my desk in my yurt. We just finished dinner and learned about our ‘Community Task Groups.’ I am on Student Housing this week, which basically means we clean the bathrooms and laundry rooms three times during the next few days.

This morning, my mom and I met a few families and some Alzar staff at Ponderosa State Park in McCall, Idaho. We all went snowshoeing together on these really well kept trails. After that, my mom and I got chicken burgers at a restaurant in McCall, and headed down Route 55 to Alzar.

.

We drove into the campus, passing ‘The Barn,’ where all our gear is stored, the main office/admin building, and a block of ten yurts. At the end of the road was the Confluence building, where I will have classes, eat meals, and spend free time. After checking in, we brought my massive amount of ‘stuff’ into my yurt.

The yurt itself is a large circle, wrapped in thick canvas and held up by a complex system of panels and beams. It’s much bigger on the inside than it looks. In addition to the heater, we have a wood stove in the corner, with bean bag seating around it. I will have four other “yurt-mates.” Two of them are already here, Nate, from North Carolina, and Ethan, from Vermont. Rowan’s flight, as we later found out, was delayed six hours so he’ll be here tomorrow, and Oscar is from Chile, so we’ll pick him up when we go down there in three weeks.

I gave up my phone…a sad moment, but I’ll be ok. After setting up my area, desk and clothing space, I said a sad goodbye to my mom, and waved her off. Everyone then gathered in the Confluence building to play some games, and have dinner.

The night came to a close with an info meeting and some more name games. Ethan, Nate and I played some card games, I beat them in spit! And now we’re off to bed…first day of classes in the morning.