After having only a bagel and a little box of animal crackers all day yesterday before having a “dinner” of honey nut cheerios once I finally reached the ranch, I woke up hungrier than I may have ever been today. Luckily the kitchen has everything I could ask for- cereal, oatmeal, fruit, gold fish, trail mix (yes Lauren, I got extremely excited about the trail mix.) The other new intern and I got a full tour of the grounds from Cornelia, and I quickly realized how gorgeous this area is.
Later, after reading more in Water for Elephants and getting more of the low-down on some of the staff, us interns and a couple staff members went into town to explore. They took me to the candy store which is legitimately amazing. Slash dangerous. It has 1200 kinds of candy, which obviously includes my favorites, like swedish fish or anything dark chocolate. I think my time will be more safely spent at “The WhiteFront”, which is the popular local bar across the street. We hung out there for a while, where I learned that Shuffleboard is NOT just for geriatrics. It got real heated real fast and apparently both of us new interns have a knack for it. Some day I will be kicking ass at it in my retirement home.
We headed back to the ranch for dinner, which was delicious. Our cook is a very boisterous black woman who is hard to understand due to her accent, and smokes like a chimney. She loves to talk and already I can tell she has some pretty crazy stories to tell.
The 7 of us (5 interns plus the 2 staff members that will be leading my department) just finished watching Inception, then went our separate ways off to bed. I can safely say I am dreading a 7am wake-up, but I am getting really excited to start work in the morning. Apparently Key Votes is the department to be working in, just because the staff leading it are awesome and pretty laid back. I’ve already heard horror stories about the leaders in the research division, so I am counting my blessings.
Here are a few of the pictures I took today…
- My morning view
- My nook in the room
- Biggest. Candy Shop. Ever.
Well that’s all for now. Gotta be up super early for day #1, wish me luck! I’m gonna need it 🙂
xoxo
justoutsidethehuddle.com 
I was thinking how funny the trail mix comment was and then saw your comment about it 🙂 made my day! Love and miss you!