Made it to Florida

This alligator was out at Paines Prarie. He was one of about 30 that I could see. He crawled out on the path, plopped down and sunned himself for a while before crawling over to the other side. 

I'm in Gainesville, Florida right now. At the laundromat to be exact. I'm sweating like a (insert whatever inappropriate joke you want here...they will all work I promise!).  Here's the happenings from the last several weeks.

The Move
We packed 'er up from Lincoln about 1.5 weeks ago. What we couldn't fit we gave away or sold. Everything else went into a 6X12 U-Haul trailer which we pulled behind the Trailblazer (a recent purchase from Irene, Lisa's grandma).  We stayed in St. Louis one night and Chattanooga, TN the following before finding our way to Gainesville on night number 3. We moved in around noon on a Thursday. Our new friend Trey helped. We sweated buckets and buckets. Thank goodness Trey wasn't one to pass judgement on the amount of body fluids that can pass from one human being! But, but by around 2 PM or so we were moved in!

The Apartment
We're living in a 2 bedroom townhouse style apartment. There is a single story apartment below us.  It seems to be a quiet enough neighborhood.  I take the bus to school because it's about a mile from campus.  There are two swimming pools. I havn't worked up the courage to get into either one.  We keep the A/C cranked and the blinds pulled and it stays pretty cool inside.

The Orlando Airport
Lisa flew out the Friday before last. iPhone have a feature that changes the times on your calendars depending on the time zone you're in. It's annoying and not helpful...and put us late to depart Gainesville to get her to the airport. Long story short....we RACED down the road to get there only to find her flight had already departed. No problem though because we got to see each other a bit longer. She'll return on September 3rd...after being gone about 2 weeks. It's been strange going from being around each other almost constantly in Tanzania to being absent from each others' side for weeks (if not months literally) at a time over the summer.

The Job
I work as a research assistant in the department of agriculture education and communications. I work on a USDA grant, something that deals with getting more science into the agriculture classroom, and a different thing that works with university professors to make them better teachers. I have an office and the whole bit. I work with other PhD students. They talk about exciting stuff. I spent a lot of my time the first several days trying not to feel intimidated or say stupid things (failed at both miserably!).

The School
I'm a Ph.D. student in agriculture education at the University of Florida in Gainesville. I'm enrolled in a 6 hour statistics course and a 3 hour theories of learning course. I'm doing everything I can to get my brain warmed up to the idea that it wants to work again.  It's reluctant to say the least.

The Trip to the random prairie in the middle of Florida that has buffalo, wild horses and alligators
Last Sunday I went to church with Trey and his fience' Allison. After church we drove out to a prairie near Gainesville. We walked down this path to a small lake which was, it seemed to me, FILLED with alligators which were GROWLING at each other. They sounded like idling motorcycles (Sturgis all over again!).  It was cool and terrifying. I so wished for people from back home to be there with us to share in that experience. We would be standing near the bank and looking out over the water at all the gators we COULD see and then (on more than one occasion) look down and there would be a gator right at our feet looking up at us (licking his lips I swear).

The Fears
I'm afraid of our house not selling.
I'm afraid of Lisa finding work and I'm afraid of Lisa not finding work.
I'm afraid of looking like an idiot in front of all these people here.
I'm afraid of not making any new real friends.
I'm afraid of being eaten by an alligator in the middle of the prairie.
I'm afraid I'll fail at being a college student again.

All of these fears scream at me...especially in the evenings because it's just me and Kemma (our cat....and she's screaming at me too but usually just to pet her.)  They scream at me that I've made a mistake and that I'm not good enough and that I'm going to fail.  They cause, well, more fear.

God says not to be afraid. He says that lots of times in lots of places to lots of people throughout the Bible.  Usually those people he talked to could listen and do just that...stop being fearful.

I know what the "right answer is..." stop being fearful and place my confidence and trust in God.  This week (month, year, life, whatever...) my challenge is to put that into action.

But...I think I'll still be afraid of alligators :)