The First Few Days in Missouri

Well, I'm still in Missouri. I decided to come back here and blog about the past few days, as promised yesterday. Here we go...


Friday: Since I had Erik's car to pack the night before, I didn't put a lot of time into studying for the math final. However, I'm okay with that because I only really came to a roadblock halfway through one question. There were some questions that probably could have been solved faster, but I came to answers to all of them (except the halfway one about solving a cubic equation). I have yet to hear back yet, but I'm not worried, especially since I came into the final with an A.

After the final, Chris and Erik came over to pack up the last of the car. I knew to leave some extra space in the backseat for my computer and our day packs, but I had almost forgotten about the sheet sets my aunt and grandmother gave me, which were nice and bulky. Fortunately we were able to pack up the car, say my goodbyes to Dad, and hit the road between 1pm and 2pm like I originally planned! (Hoorah for accurate time estimations!) Since the first day was just to Fargo, the trip was pretty quick and uneventful (although I did have a pizza box sitting right at my eye level given the mound of stuff in the back seat). After we checked a store for couches (for Erik's place, not for me), we went to Erik's to wait for people to come back to the apartment. After waiting around and various phone calls and delays, Trista and Melanie (Erik and Megann's flatmates), Signe (a MusiCamp friend of mine who was in Valley City and wanted to hang out since I was so close), Chris, Erik, and I went to Perkins for a late dinner, and then we played some games and watched "Men in Tights".


Saturday: Despite staying up a little too late the night before, we were able to get our things together and get on the road before 8am which was greatly appreciated. We said our goodbyes, piled back into the car (this time I was able to ride shotgun since I was navigating), and went on our way. North Dakota was uneventful. We stopped at a visitor's center right across the South Dakota border and had a nice chat with the women working there. Erik picked up maps for SD, Nebraska, and Missouri (even though I-29 goes through Iowa and not Nebraska).

A little longer down the road in SD, we were in a hilly area when the engine started to smoke. Fortunately, there wasn't much traffic around so were able to pull over to the side of the road and try to figure out what was wrong. The temperature gauge was quite high and when we opened the hood, the coolant was bubbling. Fortuantely, we were a few miles away from Summit, SD, which is a really small town... but their mechanic was open on Saturdays so we were in business. After a very long two-hour period of 'I Spy' and general waiting, the mechanic came to the conclusion that (1) he wasn't 100% sure what exactly happened, but he was able to rule a number of things out (2) the smoke could have been caused by an air bubble in the coolant tubes from simply running with low coolant (3) the wiring on the spark plugs is not the best which would explain the shaking when starting the car up (4) the car model has a history of bad head gaskets and if that goes, you might as well trade in the car then and there. We were very grateful that the mechanic ran a lot of tests and took the time for us, for sure. We were cautious the rest of the trip, relying on vent more than A/C while checking in on the temperature gauge, but nothing else happened.

We were originally thinking of eating lunch in South Sioux City, Nebraska so that Erik could visit Nebraska (one of the few states he hasn't been to yet), but the 2-hour delay meant that we stopped in some random town in SD. South Dakota along with Iowa were both littered with road construction - it was ridiculous! Even with the limited traffic on the road, we were on the road for upwards of an hour longer than what we should have been. Otherwise, Iowa was boring. It was good to get into Missouri: partly because we had a Missouri map (I was reading our progress in Iowa on the Nebraska map) and partly for all the hills as soon as you leave the interstate. It was a nice change of pace and once we hooked up with 71, it was all familar again (same road I took with Mom back in June).

When we got to North Complex, I met up with Sam to pick up my key and fob and then the four of us (my boss helped the three of us out) moved all my boxes up to my room. It only ended up being two carts, which was kind of impressive, but at the same time, it was just a trunk and not quite a half of a backseat. I organized the boxes a tiny bit while Chris and Erik decided that they love my living room furniture and then we went to Sonic's. None of us had been to a Sonic's before and we ended up getting out and ordering at the window at the patio chairs since we didn't want to order and eat in the car. We all had different things so we could try things out, although I didn't go too nuts because I had to get into the "this isn't completely novelty, this will become regular fast food" mindset.

We had originally planned on going to the Hangar to see Funny People at the Observation Deck (the same movie dinner theater as the last MO trip), but the two-hour delay kept us from doing that. Instead, we hooked up the computer and the PS2 and Chris and Erik watched Bangkok Dangerous while I unpacked some necessities (sheets, toiletries, clothes) and didn't just sit and watch the movie because I know I would have fallen asleep then. I did get visited by Sean, Amea, and Lisa (three of my co-workers) who welcomed me and gave me a welcoming present. Amea also took a look through my movie selection and she approves.


Sunday: Chris and Erik didn't need to be back in Fargo at any specific time, so they slept in and ended up heading out around 10:45-11:00am. After that, I was on my own. The entire experience was still surreal to me since it didn't even feel like I had finished the math class, let alone move two states down and actually move into an apartment. Needless to say, Sunday was a lot of packing. It was pretty easy to discern the kitchen/bathroom/bedroom stuff and the books, electronics and games. There's still a box and a half that's paperwork, office stuff and random items (like the hockey puck I got at the UMN game or the tennis ball from a former CA, etc) that's just sitting in my bedroom and while everything isn't all perfect, it's presentable.

Another one of my adventures was to get food. I was able to remember the town's layout after being down Main Street three different trips' worth, so I knew where the HyVee was. Since it was a Sunday, the student union was closed so I had to go into town anyway to get food. I ended up going to Mr Goodcents which is like a Subway, but with pasta too (apparently there's one in Mankato, but I had never heard of it before). It was quite good. I am skipping a lot of my inner monologue in terms of walking from campus to Main Street, about how the town seemed dead except for a few cards on main roads, and how the houses were all white or pastel colors with a brick building or two, and how the sidewalk hadn't seemed used in a while both in terms of quality and the fact that there were random branches across the sidewalk at several points.

So, after lunch, I walked to the HyVee... let's just say that I won't be doing that again. It's quite a ways away from campus and I of course didn't have any vehicle (or any way of getting a hold of another RC) and I needed to carry my stuff back to campus, which was a notably uphill trek. (Oh, before I forget, I also wanted to say that since I'll have to call this home, I'm trying to dive right in in terms of daily life. I'll have UMN stuff that I previously owned, but I'm going to places like Sonic's and HyVees and things like that.) After buying a bundle of things (including a trash can since the apt didn't automatically come with one), I started to make the trek.

Mom, you might not be too happy with me for this next part. After walking a few blocks, I was next to a Chinese restaurant. I had just crossed the street and a suburban pulled up next to me and asked if I needed a ride. Since it was quite hot out, I had a long ways to go, and they asked (I didn't stick my thumb out), I took the offer. It was very generous of this random couple, and they took me back to the school and didn't even want any money ("just a thank you and have a great day is all I want"). That's the kindness of strangers right there.

After some more unpacking, I wandered downstairs to the first floor and randomly met up with Kristina, another first-year RC from Wisconsin. We hung out for a while, and Sean and Amea joined us. I popped out to go to the Newman Center (which is literally across the street from campus and only like 4 blocks from my building), but no one was there so I'll have to call their contact person to figure something out for next weekend. I roamed the campus some more and then went back to do some more unpacking. No more exciting parts of the day to say the least.


Monday: First day of training! Whoo! All of the RCs went to Sam (our boss)'s house for a half-day retreat. It was nice and informal and it was good to have all of us in the same space for the first time (especially since one woman was hired in the past few weeks). As a group, we all did the four-color test and our boss was the only green while the RCs/GAs were mainly blue with some gold and orange (I was definitely gold). We went over some formal parts of the student handbook, went to Carson's for lunch (which was amazing!!), and then Kristina, Margaret and I (the three first-years) had a long meeting with HR. It was the customary bundle of tax forms, I9, Missouri specific tax forms, as well as forms for life/health/dental/vision insurance and getting all the proper legal information from each one of us. It was amazing to see so much of it squared away at once. Then, the three of us wisked back to North Complex, and went over the handbook with everyone as well as a sample duty schedule and teambuilder assignments. That night, I went and played Rock Band with some of the other RCs which was quite fun.


Tuesday: Yesterday's training was RC-specific, but today was the first day of a 2-1/2 day all-MASMC staff retreat which is far more professional, with the huge giant binder for everyone with status reports and everything. Many of us were in groups of 2 or 3 and had brief presentations on some articles which kept things interesting, but it was a lot of building block information rather than diving into procedures and specific practices. (As I've talked about in earlier posts, I'm definitely appreciating being able to fit the entire school's staff in one conference room, not just my peers.) Kristina, Margaret and I were able to get our Bearcat IDs, but we didn't get out early enough to get our NWMSU laptops, but there's tomorrow for that.


We have about 13 first-year international students here already from South Korea and Panama, so to answer the question "When do your residents move in?", the answer is "Before I did"... well, in a way. They have their own schedule with classes, but we (the RCs) eat dinner with the students and it's been fun watching them interact. Overall, everyone is really excited for the school year, partly because everyone is so outgoing and friendly and the RCs are all quite different but we're already seeing how our strengths are able to balance out each other's weaknesses.

So, now it's quite late and I have to get to bed since it's another early morning tomorrow. There was a huge storm that woke me up around 3am yesterday with thunder/lightning and hail, so I was even more fun this morning!... Anyway, I'll talk later. Enjoy the summer days.