Getting to Homer, New Hire Orientation

I got into Homer on Monday, and I got a chance to go to the high school. I got my keys, met the principal and the vice principal (who is actually the guy who hired me) and then I got a chance to explore around the band room. The music collection looks pretty standard which is good. Talked to the choir director tonight (he invited me over for dinner with some other people) and he said that the fall concert is pretty relaxed as to what I can do, which is good. Means that I can pick pieces that I'm familiar with, and focus on those. That way I don't have to learn the music AND the new class. I already know the music relatively well. That's a goal for Tuesday - pick out the music that I want to pass out and make sure that I have all the copies that I need. After that, I went down to meet Laura on the Homer Spit, found out where the house was, and came up here.

I moved in, and am definitely going to be staying here. It's an environment that catches me by surprise on a fairly regular basis (as Homer does, all by itself) but that's okay. I'm going to set it up with Laura so that I can stay here at least until May, and we'll see about anything after that. I have a bedroom that faces east (I think), and then another bedroom that I'll be able to use for storage, as well as a living space, but I don't think I'll really be needing that once I get my room setup.

Tuesday I didn't do much. I was tired so I slept in (took me a while to fall asleep in the first place) and then I just kind of relaxed. Ran into the middle school to get my keys for there, and met Zach, the new art teacher. He's from Minnesota, which is exciting and fun. Definitely more outdoorsy than me, but most people here are. We'll see if I can fix that. I had dinner with Laura and two of her friends which was nice, meeting people slowly is good and it makes it easier to remember names when it's just a few people.

Overall, the training was useful. Getting questions answered by HR and Benefits, going into the music store in Soldotna where we'll be getting instruments from, all that sort of stuff. It was also nice to get to meet all of the new hires (which is what Wednesday-Friday was), especially those from the area so that I know who's here and who's new and who I can rely on, if I need someone to talk to. :)

Ended up getting back into Homer about 4pm today, and went over to the choir director's house for dinner. It was definitely an interesting experience, especially since the people there have all known each other for a long time. There were some conversations where I had no idea what was going on, but overall they were pretty good about explaining to me what's going on. There's one guy who's 37 and very environmentally friendly - he's building a house out of tires and cob and other such things up on one of the mountains, that eventually he'll live in to decrease his impact on the earth. That's how a lot of people feel up here, and though I haven't been up here for too long, I can understand it. It is beautiful up here (although it's not home), and I can understand wanting to preserve it. With all the questions about what to do up here with the oil and all that, people are concerned about what's going to happen, which makes sense. I just don't have enough knowledge and haven't done the research to know exactly how I feel. That's a project.

So this weekend, I actually get to relax. I'm in Homer for quite a while now (at least for sleeping purposes) which is absolutely amazing. The goal is to get all situated. Get everything put away and organized so that I know what I need, and then... get what I need from around town. There are a few things, but I think that overall, I'm going to be okay. One of the main things is to find things to put up on the walls. I'm not quite sure what to do yet, so if people have suggestions, I'm more than willing to hear them.

I also will bring all the boxes in from my car this weekend (been doing it slowly because it's been raining since I got home), which means that I will get my camera cord. Hopefully I'll be able to download the pictures and get those posted up here, as well as take pictures from around Homer and of the house and everything else.