Step 6: First Official Day = LONG AND mostly BORING

Today was the first official day of the program. But I will rewind to yesterday afternoon:

After I posted yesterday's blog I walked around Flagstaff for 5 hours and saw most of the city. It is nice. Since it is sunny the 40 degree weather feels like 60 and a long sleeve shirt is all that is necessary. However, as soon as the sun goes over the ridge it gets nice and cold! I made it home around 5, ate left over pizza and then went with Alison, Ian (an ACE employee), and Sean (another ACE employee) to watch Avatar in 3-d. Movie started at 7:10, we left the apartment at 6:30 to walk there (we walk everywhere). We arrived at 7:12 and the movie was sold out. So we watched Sherlock Holmes instead. I had already seen it but didn't want to waste a 40 minute walk. And the regular price is only $6 as opposed to $9.75 in Davis. The movie was still good, and I felt as smart as Sherlock by being able to see the clues as well as he does. So i highly recommend seeing it twice if you have the desire to feel like an expert detective. Walked back to the apartment and went to bed as we had an early next morning.

Today:
Was up and out of the house at 7:30 for the 20 min walk to the ACE office. Arrived and met the executive director and ACE founder Chris (former D.1 runner 5k/10k) and John the training director who is a serious mountain man. We spent the first hour digging out the 15 person van (which made a great impromptu team building exercise) so we could drive back to our apartment as the office is too small for all of us to sit comfortably. It would have been nice if we had known this so we could have avoided the walk...but oh well. From 9:30 til 4pm we filled out paper work, went over rules and regulations, did some training stuff and ate free pizza.
Also got a history of ACE and how Chris came to found it and how it works which was fascinating although far too much to summarize now(another time?). We also had a power point focusing on safety while working and the environment. Apparently if the weather is over 120 degrees we will cancel working. That is good to know. And if it is over 90 degrees we will take more breaks. Awesome. So, when I thought I was coming to Flagstaff and it wouldn't be hot I forgot we would be driving to jobs thousands of feet lower where it is sometimes hell. Luckily that's not for a few more months.

Finally we found out that we will be leaving for our first project Wednesday which will be in the Grand Canyon. The details of this project are somewhat vague still, but it sounds like we will be hiking 10 miles to the bottom where it is a nice 60-70 degrees and doing trail work and training. Of course I will be able to tell you more of what this means after I return, but I am nonetheless ready to get out there as are the rest of my fellow companions.
Other good news, we return the next Wednesday afternoon. Which of course means: The Green Room special. Also when we return, there will be 40-50 ACE volunteers arriving and most are internationals and from what I have heard they are always a fun addition to Flagstaff life.