Hello everyone! Just like last year when I was doing AmeriCorps on Cape Cod, I decided to write a blog about my AmeriCorps experience in Nevada as well. This intro post will probably be kind of short since I'm sitting at a Starbucks a few blocks from my apartment to use the wifi, but I will get into more details at some point soon hopefully (hopefully we will have wifi at our apartment soon if it's not too expensive).
So far it's been a pretty busy week. I flew in to Las Vegas on Tuesday, started to settle into my apartment, and waited for my roommates to arrive. I was alone in the apartment for about 2 days before the first of my 2 roommates arrived, so during that time I tried to keep busy by doing errands and things, but it got pretty boring and a little lonely at times. Many times during those first few days, starting even when I was on the plane flying here, I began to question exactly why I had decided to do this. Even though going to Spain when I was in college seems like it would be a more drastic change, this feels like the biggest move I have ever done because not only is it a long distance from home, but I was doing it by myself and didn't know anyone when I got here, unlike Spain where I went with a group from Goucher. I have never felt such an intense mixture of excitement and anxiety as I did when I got to the Las Vegas airport. Luckily I was able to get my bags and take a taxi to my apartment without any mishaps, and then start to settle in. The excitement and anxiety continued for the next few days, but the anxiety didn't bother me that much because I knew going into this that it would be a challenge, and I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to step outside my comfort zone and experience new things, so every time I felt like I was outside my comfort zone, I knew it was a good thing. Getting used to living in a city is going to be interesting, but at least with my program we'll be outside the city for several days at a time so we'll have 2 very distinct experiences during the year.
Once my roommates arrived, I began to feel more settled and the anxiety has mostly been replaced with excitement now. We've already done some exciting things in the past few days, including going to the Las Vegas Strip (I went once by myself and once with my roommates). It's such a cool place, especially seeing it all lit up at night, and I felt like a kid in Disney looking around at all the amazing buildings and all the cool things there are to see. Then yesterday we went on an amazing (and really difficult) hike up a mountain right outside the city, and from the top we could see the whole city on one side, and on the other side we could see lots of mountains, cool rocks, and Lake Mead. I will update this post to include pictures as soon as I have more reliable wifi to upload them.
I guess that's about it for now, I've been sitting in Starbucks for a few hours already so they probably want me to leave haha. I will try to post updates as often as I can but since we will be outside the city for several days at a time it might be pretty inconsistent. I start my new AmeriCorps position with the Nevada Conservation Corps tomorrow (yay!!!), and we will be out camping until Friday so I won't be online again until next weekend, but I will have lots of updates and hopefully pictures!
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