Arrival

So today is the day that everything starts. My brother wanted to go see the mountains so we traveled to Rocky Mountain National Park, this was really worth it even if we didn't go into the park itself the scenery was just surreal. We saw some big horn sheep on the road as we left the area of the park which made Billy's day and was rather exciting for someone like me too. After that we traveled back to Denver and promptly got lost trying to find our way to the arrival area, my mother still insists that she has an infallable sense of direction. When we arrived I walked in and was greeted by many "hello and welcome to UWP." This really was just the thing I needed when I got there because as we were pulling into the parking lot for the building I really got nervous and kind of didn't want to do it anymore, but this way of welcoming and since I already saw several familar faces in the greeting crew helped to calm my nerves. After that my mom and brother said goodbye to me, with my mom trying to be strong and not cry and Billy just acting like the tough guy that he is wished me luck. I really hope that they can travel back in February to watch the host family show. Later in the day as more and more cast members arrived I met my roomate, Zelalem(Zola) Gedamu from Ethiopia. I know we will become really good friends over this next month with each other. We met our host family Katherine and Phil Rowe, who live in Westminster, CO with two children Sutton and Aily. They are very nice people and welcomed us gracefully into their home for the next month. Tomorrow we are just gonna play things by ear and see what Zola wants to do since he has never been to the United States, at four though we are going to Sutton's band concert since he recently made it into the County Honor Band for playing Trombone. Missing everyone in Sioux Falls, hope you are all well and I will talk to you soon.

Stuart