Heat and humidity, but at least it's sunny

Reading, reading, reading is my life right now. It seems like an insurmountable moutain, but as I tried to teach my clients this last year, "I am an overcomer!" It's funny how the things you tell other people can come back to haunt you. Haunt in a good way. My favorite quote right now is 2 Cor. 12:8: "But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Let's just say that God has the open door to be very powerful in my life right now. For the most part I'm enjoying my classes and what I'm learning. Not so much my research class, but by the grace of God I will get through.

Monday evening I had a little excitement. I turned my oven on to cook chicken and rice and a second later it made a loud popping sound. I jerked around and sparks and smoke were flying out of the closed oven. I was on the phone with mom, so I hung up really fast, looked inside and when I saw that there was a fire at the back (I hadn't put the chicken and rice in yet) without hesitating I called 911. Maybe a little hasty, but when the firemen got here, they said it was better safe than sorry. I ran down and got one of my neighbors. When he came and looked at it, the fire was out. The maintenence man came and the firefighters came and said that it looked like the element broke. It was a very old oven that's never been replaced, I think. Needless to say, after the big fire a couple of weeks ago and that little one, I'm a little jumpy when I hear any loud noises, smell smoke, hear sirens, etc.

I really like the chuch I've been going to. It's big, but people have been very friendly and welcoming. In the program, I like my classmates for the most part. :) I need to like all of them anyway. We have several strong personalities that like to dominate, but I guess that's how it usually goes. "These are the times that try men's souls..." Just kidding. There are some super, super nice people in class also.

In state news, Hurricane Gustav is on it's way. I've filled up my car with gas, bought jugs of water, and gotten a little cash, have some candles, and have my little radio ready. They're saying we could get some severe weather from it, so I'm getting prepared. :) Thanks Mom, for the good tips. I think that mandatory evacuation of New Orleans began today. The state seems to be very prepared this time around and they aren't taking any risks. Monroe hotels are full and a lot of people will be evacuated here, it sounds like. Well, Frank old boy, that about wraps it up. For the nightly news, I'm Charles Bluewater. Good night. :)

On the bayou

One nice thing about living here are the buzzing locust(s?) outside. I love that sound. They are buzzing loudly right now. A lot of people hate it, but it reminds me of when I was little when we lived in Columbia. The dog days of summer.
I don't have much new to write on. Classes started officially today. I will have one, three hour class Mon through Thurs. For the class today, Therapeutic Alliance (fancy name for how to build good rapport with people and interviewing), the professor was out of town, so a GA filled in. We got out after an hour. Easy, easy so far. There are a couple of assignments in that class, but nothing huge yet. The class I'm worried about is Research which will be on Thurs.
After class I went to the Math Resource Center where I will be a GA for freshman math classes. I didn't actually start yet and don't know exactly what I'll be doing, but I think I'll be taking roll and checking on freshman who miss class. It's part of the student success center which is what it's name says it is and the part I'm working in is making sure freshmen don't fall through the cracks.
Did I mention in the last post that I have great neighbors? They are so kind and quick to offer to help. They helped me move in a desk I got the other day, have been very reassuring about this apartment complex, gave me a phonebook, and one has invited me to church if I'm looking for a church home. Which, I've visited a place I like pretty well. Trish went with me last week and then I went again this week and really like it so far. Lindsey and her husband, the one I stayed with for the interview, go there. It is big, so it will take some initiative on my part to get involved, but I like it a lot.
I got my bed on Saturday. It is really nice to not be on the floor. Now for a couch or futon. Now for money. Oh wait, there is no money! It's back to the Asian way of doing things. I did find a cheap vacuum cleaner that took me 2 hours to assemble. If I don't have a couch to sit on, I like to have a clean floor. When I opened the box, there was a big stop sign on a piece of paper saying that if I had problems assembling it, then to not take it to the store but send it back to the manufacturers. That was a bad sign. The holes for some of the screws were too small. Maybe with a power drill it would work, but it took all of my strength (no jokes please) to get those stupid screws in. Anyway, the vacuum cleaner is together now and works!! There is no doubt in my mind now that I do not like to assemble things. I am way, way, way un-mechanically minded.
Good night from the Bayou! By the by, the closest one to me is Bayou Desiard. Still don't know how to pronounce it.

Wow, it's been awhile. I just got internet set up in my apartment this afternoon. Yay!!!! There's nothing like having to wait for something to make you really appreciate it. Things I am really going to appreciate once I have them: a couch, chairs, a dresser (or as most people here say "chester drawers"). a tv, and the list could go on. It's good to live as a pauper though, for that very reason that you appreciate things more. And you learn what is essential and what's not.
So, let me back up. A little over 2 weeks ago, Tricia came with me to Monroe to apartment hunt. We ended up finding one that was even more reasonable than the one that didn't work out. It's $430 a month + electricity. There are cheaper around, but none were available at the time, and this is a 6 month lease. I was kind of leary about taking it because I was not able to see it first, but after taking the advice of Trish and some of the people in the program, I put the deposit down same day. Then last Wednesday I moved over. Once again, my lovely sister assisted me. And now if you don't care for detail, skip on down probably through the whole blog because this is for those who like myself like all the little details. The apartment is very spacious. My living room is the size of my entire apartment in Korea. Then there's a small dining room, galley kitchen directly across from the dining room, walk-in hall closet, decently sized bathroom, and a huge bedroom that's the size of the living room with two huge closets. Really this apartment would be ideal for two people, but I'll enjoy all this space. It is older. The wallpaper in the kitchen is some kind of floral/fruit pattern (not pretty) and in the bathroom it's a strange green and brown stripe wallpaper. This place has a very odd smell also. Faint cigarette smoke combined with the smell of ramen noodles or something like that. Whatever it is, it's not good, so I've been burning lots of candles. There are (or were--now there are two, but I'll get to that in a minute) three washaterias aka laundry rooms in the apartment complex. The complex total has 12 or 13 buildings, I think, with 8 or more apts in each building.
My two biggest concerns moving in were safety and varmints. So far, the area seems to be quite safe. The people seem nice. As far as pests go, well tonight I had to kill one. I had a gecko right inside the door. I was very sad to see that there are those here. Very sad. I got my fill of them in Abilene. Transparent bodies with beady little eyes. The thing wouldn't die. I think one of my neighbors was about to come see what was going on because I was making a lot of noise beating it with the broom. I've been assured that it's a matter of time until I have a roaches or a water bugs, but so far, so good on that note. I'll be glad when my bed gets here. That may not keep the things away from me, but somehow it just seems better.
And now for the story of the week. Saturday morning I got up to hit garage sales and hunt for furniture and spent the morning out around Monroe and West Monroe. Around 12:30 as I was arriving back to my apartment when I saw huge smoke coming from the area where I live. Just as I was getting there, the first fire truck was arriving. As I drove up I was sure that it was my building that was on fire and that somehow I was responsible. Why I thought that, I don't know, but I was sure that I had left some appliance on like the coffee maker or straightener and that I was responsible for the building burning down. As I got closer I saw that it wasn't my building, but that it was the building immediately next to the one that I live in. The fire was pretty big. A lot of fire trucks came. One of them used the really huge ladder (imagine the toy fire truck you played with as a kid) to get above the the fire and spray water down on the fire. I've never seen anything like it. The smoke was terrible. No one was hurt. I did hear that a few animals didn't make it. Apparently there were a lot of animals in that building. As they were getting the fire put out I was talking with a guy who was friends with a couple in that building. He said that they got all of their pets out except for their corn snake and a couple of fish. He said he wasn't too sad about the snake because the snake bit him once. For some reason, I had a bad feeling that the snake would escape its cage and end up on my front porch one day, but he described the tank and said there was no way it could escape. Once the fire was put out and they started seeing what they could recover from inside, I looked up, and here came the guy who lived there carrying his precious snake. Amazing! I don't know how that thing survived, but I had a feeling it would. The fish also survived! I feel really bad for these people. Only two of them out of the 8 residences that were destroyed had renter's insurance. Guess I need to check into that myself. They said the fire started from the pool pump right outside the building. It was incredible how fast it spread. On the bright side, crises like that tend to bond people together, so I met some of my neighbors that I would not have met otherwise. My next door neighbors are super nice and have told me that I'm now "part of the family". They look out for each other, so I'm now included. The mother of one of the guys who lived on the end of my building that burned a little decided to take advantage of the moment and have me meet her son. He was still looking stressed from the events, but she in front of several people made it known that he needed to meet this new prospect. Very awkward and hilarious. That plus the stress of the last little while made it hard not to laugh. They were still putting the fire out and she was trying to make sure her son didn't miss this golden opportunity. Everyone reacts differently under stress, that's for sure. This lady was also sure that when my parents heard about this fire that they would want to make me move right back to Idaho. Well, not exactly. That's not how our family works. :) So now, everytime I step outside my door, I smell what at first reminds me of a campfire, but then the smell of melted vinyl siding and wet rotting wood (we've had a lot of rain the last couple of days) hits me. Yeah, so now I've got a nice smell outside my apartment as well as inside. I found some pictures online if you want to see pictures of the fire/what my apt. looks like -- kind of -- minus all the smoke and fire. http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=DI&Date=20080809&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=808090806&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=1
And this has been my experience so far in Monroe. The people here are the friendliest, most warm people I have ever met in my life. I don't know how to respond to it very well.
As usual, I've written more than planned. Too verbose for my own good. And of course it doesn't help that I have no social interaction. School starts next week, so hopefully that will change soon. So long for now.