I moved to Arkansas! After 25 years of mostly living in the same house, minus going away to college and studying abroad, I now have my own grown-up apartment to go along with my 4th year of my grown-up job, teaching Spanish. I will be teaching at Arkansas State University. I am so excited because out of all of my teaching experiences, teaching college is so far my favorite! Adult students are much easier to deal with than non-adult students... and I'll just leave it at that.
My bestfriend of 10 years/ boyfriend of 7, Kevin, has decided to embark on this journey with me. He is looking for more exciting work but will be substitute teaching (making sure students don't kill each other while doing seat work) in local public schools.
Our apartment is starting to feel like home...
Here is what we have been up to for the past week-or-so of adjusting...
Our apartment complex has a pool. I start working tomorrow. 3 days of our past week consisted of mandatory school-starts-soon-panic-mode-time at the pool. This is to make sure Kevin and I store adequate amounts of vitamin D in our systems as well as to keep us from looking like Casper and his girlfriend, lady Casper.
There are quite a few families that live in the townhome section of our complex, but they're hardly at the pool. I think this is a tragedy for those children, but I also appreciate having the pool generally to ourselves. We spend our time reading while we're there and my book and my hair don't appreciate splashing. I am reading a book I've wanted to read for a while, 1984 by George Orwell, and Kevin is reading The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.
I think the longest I have spent at the pool is about 2 hours, which is a very short time for me, but it is very hot here. The pool water is even warm even though the pool is not heated. That's how hot it is. It's 88 right now, feels like 94, with humidity at 59% and a UV index at 9.
I love the pool because it's free fun in the sun.
Besides spending time at the pool, I really enjoy our local Craighead County Library because they also have free fun, just in air conditioning. They have so many nice events that are not just for kids and retired people, like I am used to at my old library. So far, I have gone to their Piyo workout class, Yoga class, and a painting class.
Piyo is an awesome cardio workout that combines a choreography from Pilates and Yoga. It's hard to get the hang of at first, but it's a great workout. The yoga instructor integrates strength training into her class and does not speak in a calming voice at all. With her loud southern accent, it's more like a drill sergeant, but still a good work out. I love group fitness classes, but usually not the price, so the library is perfect for getting a free group workout. Most of the people are nice and normal people like me, but since these are free public classes, they also include, free-of-charge, that one weirdo that finds an organization and attends everything they have to offer even if they don't quite fit the bill. I met this person on accident when taking a spot next to her because, well, I didn't know better as the new person. Her first words to me were "I can do this but I can't do the splits" as she performed a stretch. I replied that I couldn't do the splits either and then just kept to myself. I was glad that instead of exchanging names, we exchanged information on our physical abilities so that if I ever need to get away from her quickly, I can just do really big lunges and she could never catch me because my legs are very long and she can't do the splits with her shorter legs. Anyhow, this particular subject seems to love the idea of group workout, but not the idea of following instructions. She's the one that everyone knows the instructor is talking to when making "a general suggestion to the group" but the one weirdo doesn't realize she's being spoken to while everyone else just listens politely and tries not to give the "she's talking to you" glance to the person. She also dare not silence her ringer on her flip phone in case someone calls about an emergency with her dog (what??) and then, as the instructor is giving choreography directions, tries to tell the class, who cares so much, why she is packing up to leave early. This is live entertainment, folks.
The painting class was great! It was set up just like one of those Painting with a Twist classes, except no groupon, or any payment, is required. Kevin and I both painted hibiscus flowers. Kevin was doing much better than I was on his flower with the shading of different colors while mine was pretty monochromatic. He had a mostly red flower but had mixed in different shades to give it more detail. Then I went to the bathroom. While adding just a wee bit of black that should have just been in the center of the flower, he proceeded to blend it with the petals and all of the sudden half of his flower was black. As other classmates circled the room to look at everyone's finished design, I got a few "that turned out nice" comments while Kevin got no comments. We kept laughing as people passed his flower without saying anything. So now in our dining room we have a picture of a mostly yellow flower that kind of looks like a cloud from far away and a red and black splatter mess with some hints of white to try to cover the black. I can't wait until the next class in October, we need all of the practice we can get.
Our town also has a cute downtown/ Main Street area with cute buildings, shops and restaurants. It also has a state park, complete with a merry-go-round, and a nature center with free events. We've already learned about how our town came to be and made humming bird feeders.
At home, we spend a lot of our time cooking. We have not eaten out since August 5th! That's an accomplishment if you know my family at all. It will be a while until both of us receive our first paychecks, so we are saving where we can. We even packed our lunch for our day trip to Memphis.
We came upon some canned chicken that someone had given us from their pantry, and I made the mistake of telling Kevin that this is what is normally used in buffalo chicken dip. I say mistake because Kevin and I are both big fans of buffalo chicken, buffalo chicken pizza, buffalo chicken dip, and all things buffalo chicken. We have made 2 party-sized servings so far and we've only lived here for 12 days.
This dip, and buying the ingredients it requires, has helped us meet our new favorite grocery store, though. My preferred shopping is done at farmer's markets and health food stores. We only have one farmer's market and one health-food store, though, so some things have to be bought at a large chain. The Kroger Marketplace is our new preferred non-local choice. If you are familiar with Giant Eagle Market District, this is the same thing, but Kroger brand. They have a whole organic section that takes up a pretty good chunk of the store and they offer a lot of Kroger branded options that are cheaper. For example, I prefer Blue Diamond almond milk which goes for about 3.49. The Kroger brand of almond milk sells for 2.79. Also, my peanutbutterlover, Kevin, gets to grind and fill his own peanut butter container at their grinding station. He was so excited about it.
The most exciting day of our week was our day trip to Memphis. We went there for my car's last check-up before the service warranty expires and decided to explore a bit there. It is only an hour away from our new home and it's the nearest big city. My sister, Jessica, who is great at finding free things to do, sent me a whole list of things to check out in Memphis. We visited the Crystal Shrine Grotto, Graceland, Mud River Island Park, A. Schwab's on Beale Street, and the Peabody ducks.
The Crystal Shrine Grotto is at a cemetery and is a grave site. I really didn't expect much from it, but it was beautiful. The grave site includes a fountain in a pond, a few bridges and benches, a mausoleum, and a mock cave that you can walk in with thousands of crystals as well as scenes from the life of Jesus. It was amazing and I highly recommend visiting it if you go to Memphis.
Next, we went to Graceland, which was so crowded because this past week was Elvis Week both in Arkansas and Tennessee, and who knows where else. I refused to pay for parking or the price of a tour, especially with such long lines, so we parked on a side street and got to see plenty without buying tickets. Just parking at Graceland will cost you $10, but right across the street in front of Elvis' house there are plenty of street parking spots that were empty. I recommend parking there if you ever go because it is right across the street from Graceland as well. We were able to see his house from there, but we will remember next time to bring a permanent marker to sign the wall surrounding his property, which seemed to be the thing to do. I would have written "for Grandma Rose for introducing me to Elvis". We also got a good look at his private jet and got to watch an Elvis impersonator perform near the shops. We took some pictures with the artifacts around the property as well. The only things we did not get to see, for not paying, were the inside of his airplane and the inside of his house, so we didn't do too bad.
When we got to downtown Memphis, we parked at a meter and went to Mud River Island Park which tells the history of the Mississippi. It is also located right on the river so we could get some beautiful pictures. It includes a mini model of the river from start to finish. The model is about a foot wide but is still very long and includes the different landmarks it passes. You are allowed to walk in the mini river and at the end, there is a pool with a fountain to symbolize the Gulf of Mexico and you can pay to rent a peddle boat shaped like a swan to float around the gulf. There is also a museum indoors for a price, but we decided to just eat our packed lunch in the park with the model river.
After lunch, we headed to Beale Street where the Blues was invented. On the way, we walked down main street. It was very cute because no cars are allowed on the street which still has street car tracks and wires on it. It was pretty empty on Main Street until we got to Beale Street which also happened to be blocked from traffic. Many of the restaurants have live bands playing at all times and serve BBQ. We stopped in an old store called A. Schwab's that has been in business since the 1860's. It is America's oldest general store and has a lot of unique items, an old-fashioned soda fountain, and a mini museum of things it used to sell. I want to take my parents there because I'm pretty sure they'd remember a few things that their parents had used. They have old candy brands and soda flavors. I really liked the hats and dresses they had, but settled on buying a box of matches because I have been wanting to light the tea cup candle we have on our dining room table while we eat dinner. Our stove is electric, so we have nothing in this apartment that could light a candle. Yay for responsible souvenirs!
After Beale Street, we went to the Peabody Hotel a little early to get a seat to watch the Peabody ducks. I'm glad we did, because that place fills up fast with people trying to get a seat to see the ducks. The story goes that as a practical joke, 2 men who were drunk captured some ducks and left them overnight in the hotel lobby's fountain. When they came down the next morning, the other guests were fascinated by the ducks. The men apologized to the management for making such a fuss, but the management was pleased with the attention the ducks brought to the hotel. For the last 80-or-so years, ducks have lived in that fountain. Barnum and Bailey learned about these ducks and claimed that they could train the ducks to proceed to and from their fountain as a type of show for the guests, and they did just that. Every morning at 11 A.M., with the assistance of a duck master, the ducks leave their penthouse, take the elevator down to the lobby and walk out onto a red carpet into their fountain where they spend their day. At 5 P.M. the red carpet is rolled back out and the ducks then proceed back to the elevators and back to their penthouse. It was the highlight of our day to watch the event. Next time I go, I want to get there even earlier to get a seat closer to the fountain and order some food or drink from the waitresses that walk around.
Today we went to Verge Church for the 2nd time since we have been here. We really like the pastor and his preaching and there is a huge population of young adults in the congregation that we have met. Small groups are starting up in a few weeks so we will join one of them soon. We just learned this Sunday that the pastor plants churches and will be moving on since the church is 3 years old and has grown. We were pretty surprised and disappointed since we like his preaching, but we are also excited to get to know the new pastor. Tonight we are going to his house for dinner and fellowship. He has already been a big part of the leadership of the church, so I'm sure it will be a smooth transition between pastors.
Tomorrow I will be going to the new faculty orientation at the university. I'm excited to get started and get a routine going and also to get through the first day of classes a week after tomorrow. I always get nervous for the first day, but I'll be fine. I'll try to keep this updated until then.
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