The Beast

I decided I needed to get a car; but I didn't want to spend a lot of money. On the way back from hiking up to Logan Peak on Sunday (sorry, no pics) I saw this pimpmobile being sold for a mere $750. Two days later it was mine. It's an '85 Lincoln Town Car. Now I cruise the LDS drag in style. I can also fit about 10 dead bodies in the trunk. This weekend I'm going to paint the tires.

First beer in Utah

My fellow interns and I got together last night at Brandon's apartment for dinner. Brandon made us some Korean barbeque--extremely delicious! The best part, though, was finally having a beer, something I hadn't had at all since moving to Utah. Then we continued a great discussion about truth and the existence of God. They were pretty open and didn't adhere rigidly to any particular belief, even though they recognized they had some beliefs that they'd like to maintain, despite being unable to defend them. It was good.

I got a new roommate yesterday. He's a non-LDS undergrad thinking about studying psychology. Hard to say what he's going to be like.

Today I'm doing an outreach activity with one of the staff. I'm having lunch with some athlete mentors and giving a brief talk about recognizing depression in athletes. Tomorrow I'm going on a hike up Logan Mountain with Diane.

Intern Bonding Day

As part of our orientation, the interns were sent out for an afternoon of doing some activity together to promote bonding. Since Diane (one of the interns) is big into rock climbing, we decided to go to a climbing gym. Before that, though, we had lunch at Rub Tuesday and had some great discussions about various interesting topics, from the meaning of love to sexual fantasies to the flaws of certain staff members. I also had my first client today, which went very well.

Sunset from Walmart parking lot

Campus

Here are a couple of pictures of the campus. It's pretty nice, but not quite as nice as OU. As beautiful as the mountains and things are around here, I do miss the green of Athens.

My office at the Counseling Center

I'm not done setting it up, as you can see, but this is my office, what you can see of it. It's not bad. It came with all the furniture and a computer, everything I need, really.

Morning commute

This is the view from where I walk to go to campus every morning. I tried taking a morning picture, which has better light, but I didn't have my regular camera with me. As you might expect, this doesn't capture the beauty of the view. My next hiking goal is to hike all the way across that ridge, which is called the Wellsville Ridge. The other picture is of my kitchen and living room. As you can see, it's much smaller than my old place. That's OK, I have way fewer friends to invite over now anyway (boooo hoooooo!).

Expanding my social network

Today I joined a "dinner group". A group of about 10 LDS young people cook dinner for eachother on a rotating basis about 5 nights per week. My roommate, Dan, pictured below, is friends with these people and invited me to join them for dinner this evening. They invited me to join, so, wishing to get back to cooking and hosting, I accepted. I doubt I'll actually join them for dinner more than sporatically, but I'm looking forward to having them over. I still need to find a way to meet some non-LDS people ("gentiles"). These pictures are of my roommate, Dan, driving me around for a tour of Logan; and the LDS temple in Logan. Dan informs me that there are only about 120 LDS temples in the world, so we're pretty lucky.

Caffe Ibis

This is the only cool coffee shop in Logan. I expect I'll be spending some time here.

Interesting little note.

The counseling center staff member pictured below in the Gilligan-type hat is a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! A very nice guy.

My apartment

This is a picture of my apartment from the outside. I didn't take this; it's from their website, but this is what it really looks like. Mine's the bottom apartment. It's smaller than my apartment in Athens, but it's pretty nice. Roommates are good so far. By the way, try clicking on pictures throughout this blog that are too small to look at in detail. Many will expand. Once expanded with the initial click, you can often expand further with another click.

Internship Orientation Hike up Mt. Naomi

These are a bunch of pictures from a hike up Mt. Naomi, close to where I live. It's surprisingly difficult to get the pictures in the order I want them, but here's a little guide that refers to them in no particular order: One is of the whole group of us (interns and staff); one is of just the interns; one is of just the staff; and one is of just me at the top of the mountain, sitting on the edge of a cliff with beautiful other mountains in the background. This place is really quite stunning! Wish you were here.

First arriving in Utah

My brother and I arrived in the state of Utah on August 13th. I took some pictures of some cool rock formations we saw as we first crossed into Utah from Wyoming. Other pictures are of the town of Logan on the next day, showing the beautiful mountains surrounding the town. The picture of me alone is taken later that day at a beautiful lake not far from where I live. I was really stunned by the beauty of this place. I really had no idea it would be so nice.

My room in Utah

As you can see, it's taking me a while to unpack. By the way, this was taken with my phone and instantly posted to my blog. It's a cool feature available for free through blogger.com. I can take pictures from anywhere, send them to go.blogger.com with my phone and they'll be posted to my blog automatically! Amazing! You guys should try it yourselves.

Going Away Party in Ohio

Here are some pictures from the going-away party that Greg and Liz were so nice to throw for me. Thanks, Liz and Greg and everyone who came! It was a great send-off. I really miss you guys.

Introduction

I created this blog to share information and pictures with friends and colleagues in Ohio and Utah. I hope it won't be used as an excuse not to keep in touch more directly, though.