Trips to Tahoe and Various Movements

Quite a bit has gone on in the last four or so days. This weekend was the first whole weekend Acorps (apparently abbreviating to Acorps is a big media nono, but this is mah blog so pff) that the entire corps has had off. Last Friday was also our first stipend-day (it’s not a payday cause we don’t get paid, *winkwink*), so about 75% of Americorps went off campus to spend some time touristing, partying, and generally spending money. I went to Lake Tahoe with four other friends, and we spent the night in one of the hotels along the lakeside. On top of that, yesterday was moving day, so from about 5pm to 8pm last night the dorms were in chaos. People were carrying stuff into rooms, out of rooms, up the stairs, down the stairs, across the parking lot, and generally creating mayhem as they tried to get settled into a room whose previous residents had not finished moving out of. I’m pretty sure that everything is accounted for in my room.
I also made the mistake of doing laundry on moving day (virtually the only thing between me and nakedness was a pair of windpants and a polo shirt) so that added to my fun. It was a good, crazy, weekend.
Lake Tahoe was pretty amazing. The lake itself is cupped inside a ring of mountains, so on the way there you suddenly gain a couple thousand feet of elevation, come around the side of a peak, and can see the entire Tahoe basin spread out below you. The entire environment has a general aura of crisp coolness and rugged timber. Along the more touristy stretches of the city, even the Taco Bells had a log cabinesque look to them. We spent Saturday afternoon and evening wandering around the city and visiting the more touristy consumer shops, and then packed all of us into a room for the night. Don’t tell the hotel, but there were not actually just two of us in that room.
Sunday we headed up to the mountains to do some light (keyword here) hiking and vista-viewing. Even the road is pretty amazing. There is a point on the way up into the mountains that the road is on the exact top of a ridge, and immediately over each shoulder the slope drops off a good 1000 or more feet. The hike was fun, we had lunch on a gorgeous rock overlooking a stream, and then we headed back to Sacramento.
On a side note, Lake Tahoe is really cold this time of year, especially in the morning, and it takes a very long time to wade out to a depth where you can actually go under.
It’s funny, because currently I’m sitting in my new room (which is almost exactly like my old one on the inside, plus one piece of furniture and rearranging the stains on the mirror), and it is already my room. I have disowned my old room in less than 12 hours. My location is slightly different (less favorable: I’m now on the third floor at the end of the hallway, i.e. as far away as possible from the building exit and laundry, whereas my other room was the closest room to the laundry/exit on the first floor), and the wireless internet must be attracted via the bloody sacrifice of a router, of which I have none to spare.
On a positive if uninteresting note, I figured out that if my computer ever gets pouty and says that it can’t get the wifi network to respond, I just have to reboot. Turns out my Vista OS doesn’t talk well with the slightly older modems here.
So, all is good. Recent additions to my room:
-A potted plant, via the grace of the former residents
-Two giant Tahoe pinecones. I had three, but someone else wanted one very dearly
-A stack of little mini-bios from my teammates, so I can write them into our team pamphlet.
-A bedside lamp (which was lacking in my last room, and in this one I’m leaving it unplugged because outlets are at a premium)