dust has a mind of its own

So the internet is steadily getting slower and slower over the days. Picasa Web Albums has taken more than 20 minutes to load 5 pictures. I tried downloading the Picasa software, but that was ridiculously slow as well. This means that picture updates may be few and far between, but I'll do my best to stay up to date.

Today I cleaned from 9 until 3:30, but with a lunch break and two ten minute breaks at 10 AM and 2 PM. Every morning before work, the room attendants do stretches outside. This seemed a bit over the top to me at first, but I realize now how useful it is. It's a good way to wake up in the morning and the leaders make it fun when they crack jokes relating our stretching to modern dance moves (ie-"pop, lock and drop it"). Cleaning was frustrating today when the location managers came by and told us that the rooms and bathrooms we worked on for an hour plus each were not clean enough. What makes cleaning even worse is the dry air up here and the fact that dust settles in a matter of minutes (AKA long before we're even finished with the room) so its impossible to even have the appearance of a dust-free room. Oh well, its a good exercise in patience and attention to detail.

One of the coolest parts of being out here is meeting a lot of new people. My suite mates are a mother and daughter from Florida. They're Christians and Lisa, the mother, suggested having a sort of Creation Club here with the other (few) Christians at Lake. I'm not sure what exactly that entails, but she said something about studying the land and talking about creation. It sounds interesting and the fellowship is valuable anyways. A bunch of new people arrived the same day that Jillian did and I've been trying to meet them. Everybody is friendly and it's normal to greet people you've never talked to before when you're walking across grounds or through the hotel. Oh, I actually met another girl from JMU today! She's a rising senior who's studying geography (but it might be geology, I don't remember).

Because the pub at Lake is one of the best in the park, there are two types of employees that ended up here--"over 21s" and "under 21s." I didn't realize alcohol would be such a big deal, but since there isn't much else to do (especially for the uncreative mind and due to a lot bears and snow) it becomes a major source of entertainment. Fortunately, Xanterra (my employer) claims to be very strict on alcohol abuse (especially underage drinking), so I'm hoping to not have to deal with it too much.

We've been snow/bear bound to the area close to the hotel since arriving. All of the trails we know about are closed because it's "bear danger area" and to top it off, there's a foot of snow on the ground up in the mountains where the trails go. So, even if you did want to trudge through the snow...good luck getting away from a bear! To replace hiking, we've been walking along the paved roads. It's not the equivalent of a hike in the wilderness, but it's better than nothing and the photographs are still good.