Stress reduction...the start at least

So I have officially passed the two week point at work and have settled into the routine of everything so far. I have also become an approved driver for the college...scariest driving test ever! Driving around a brand new town in a bus with a police officer judging your every move so that you can keep your job pretty much, yea just a tad bit intimidating. After a few pokes at my slow driving I passed which means I get to drive the Western Team to Georgia Southern University next weekend for their first show...yay 3 hours in the bus! I feel like I've really started to connect with some of my students recently and on a particularly windy day this past week I got the opportunity to teach a ground lesson about tack to two of my foreign exchange students and at the end of the discussion they taught me a little about the cultures of their home countries (Singapore and Shanghai). Wesleyan may be an extremely small college but it really does open so many doors to its students to be able to experience many different cultures within the campus.
Mike and I have also begun to adjust to the more southern ways of life, where armadillos are the equivalent to groundhogs and baggers at the grocery store carry your bags to your car. Just the other day at the local Publix (grocery store) the cashier and bagger struck up a conversation with me about being from Maryland and welcomed me to Macon, then the very friendly bagger walked me out to my car while toting my bags along. Poor Mike also had his first run in with a barbed wire fence while working on a cattle ranch. Tomorrow Lou pony also gets to move just a bit further south as he travels from the McCurdy's farm to the Bunn farm in Forsyth so that he will just be 30 minutes away from us. The wonderful Athena just happens to be making a trip to Georgia so she will be picking him up tomorrow afternoon...gotta love when timing works out perfectly!
In other news we are so happy to report that all of our family and friends made it through Hurricane Sandy safely. We continue to keep everyone on the coast in our thoughts and prayers as they begin to rebuild, especially on the Jersey Shore where everything has been completely rearranged. If there is anyway we can be of assistance to anyone please let us know!

On the way to work today this was the scene at the Starbucks...hmmmm.