it comes to this

[This is a few days old. I need this even more now than I did when I started. It's mostly for myself and is a very limited picture of what is actually a complex new experience.]

Hi. Humor me please. I need to take a few minutes before finishing some work to "remember how merciful..." lest I forget and grow bitter with difficulty. My first day of TFA training--known to us as institute--is nearing an end. It was a hard day with getting up at 5, breakfast in the dining hall at 5:30, being on a yellow school bus at 6:20, and falling asleep for microseconds throughout the sessions today. (I wanted to write a beautifully reflective piece on my induction week--when I met Miami--but I haven't had the wherewithal. I REALLY admire and like TFA as an organization: its integrity, transparency, mission, organization, but that is a serious other entry.)

->I moved into my own austere bedroom in an apartment-style dorm at Georgia Tech last night. I last did that as a freshman in 2002. It's a strange and lonely experience. While I was moving stuff, one of my Bostonian friends called and left a voicemail to say he was just telling someone how wonderful I am. And that he thought I needed to know that. Do you know how perfect that was for that very moment?

->I got an expected letter from Australia today. The beginning says "Every time I read your letters, I just think, 'man, Savanna is so smart and sophisticated.'" The end says I'm a great mate (yes, mate) and that I'm awesome. Thank you, yes.

->We received our summer school assignments today. I'm teaching 8th grade math. The students have to pass a high-stakes exam at the end of these five weeks or they can't progress to high school. This is actually the placement I was hoping for. Some people have half-day reading, half-day math assignments and have to attend extra literacy meetings. I graded some assessments today. Yeah we have a lot of work to do.

->This is a great one. If you had access to my silent prayers yesterday, they may have sounded something like this: "Listen, help? Please? Bank of America is paying for my life. I don't want to be that girl." I found my car in the parking garage of Janna's dad's condo where I left it last week and anticipated paying an $8/day parking charge for 9 days, but the pay machine was broken and the gate was up. Providential? I think yes.

->I've gotten pretty lucky with random roommates lately. My roommate from the hotel in Miami is Allie, who just graduated from Notre Dame. I'd have to say our senses of humor are QUITE compatible. We already have a treasure trove of inside jokes. I actually adore her. We eat most meals together along with the other LDS girl, married Sarah. I'm unaccustomed to having a set group of friends who assume we'll be spending time together, so I'm adjusting to this nice surprise.

->I woke up on Wednesday morning during induction last week with pink eye. It spread to both eyes by the next morning. Much of my experience in Miami was avoiding the people in my corps outside of programming and coating myself with hand sanitizer. They avoided me as well. (I do appreciate that they've acknowledged this--and me--now that I'm no longer a liability.) In the last post I said I don't deal well with transitions. Very true. I also don't deal well with looking ugly. My eyes were red, my face was swollen, I had to wear glasses the whole time and no mascara, and my skin and hair weren't happy either. Actually I've realized my hair will never look nice as long as I'm on the East coast. My point is I am feeling far better with my green-not-pink eyes.

-> The dining hall features unlimited chocolate milk.

->I filled out a personal survey today that asked for something about me not many people would know. I highlighted that in the past few years I have volunteered at the Olympics in Athens, explored war sites in Sarajevo, and introduced myself to shepherds and their flocks of goats on the banks of the Yellow River. I'm so amazed that a person with limited resources could make those things happen, and so thankful for those experiences that are so meaningful to me.

-> Institute is reminiscent sometimes of various uncomfortable yet enjoyable experiences like high school, the dorms, the MTC, but I am about 57,000 times more confident now. I like that about growing up.

OH. People who are in a place that is a lot like the MTC, except more confronting, more uncomfortable, further from home, more foreign, longer, and where you get a lot less sleep, appreciate surprises in the mailbox even more than people in the MTC. Now accepting postcards, love letters, owls, media mail, singing telegrams, affidavits, etc. at this address: