Things I didn't know about Grand Forks #20

Another thing I mentioned to my coworkers that I thought was strange about Grand Forks is the prevalence of these tiny stop signs:

a terrible picture taken by me of me and one of these weirdly tiny stop signs during a run for size reference. They are about 6 ft tall and the sign is slightly larger than my head

The conversation went something like this:
ME: I don't understand why there are all of these pedestrian stop signs.
COWORKERS: Pedestrian stop signs! (huge laughter) Don't tell her, don't tell her! See if she can guess what they are!
OTHER COWORKER: What else would people drive in Grand Forks? Think of during the winter.
ME: For snowmobiles?
COWORKERS: YES! SNOWMOBILES! (more laughter)
ME: That makes more sense. I kept stopping at these stop signs during my walks, thinking, "This must be a particularly busy intersection. I would stop, look both ways, and then keep walking."

wouldn't you think you should stop for this?

They think my ignorance is hilarious.

Things I didn't know about Grand Forks #19

During lunch today, all the counseling coworkers gathered in the break room for a potluck. Someone asked me about some of the things I found strange (he used the word "provincial") about GF, and I answered:

Blue laws are weird. It's nice that stores are closed so that the employees can go to church, but if you believe Sunday is the Sabbath, then you probably wouldn't be shopping anyway. Also, what if you don't view Sunday as the Sabbath? One of the interns discovered that you can't just drive over to East Grand Forks-- that WalMart is also closed on Sunday.

Something I have learned? GF just got their first mosque two weeks ago and it is actually in an abandoned Christian chapel. I tried to find an accompanying newspaper article about it, but apparently, though I find this to be supremely outrageous, the GF Herald doesn't think of this as news.

I actually learned all sorts of things from my coworkers today, so you can expect more "fascinating" facts about GF in the next few days.

My First Day

It happened. I started my internship. I am officially a pre-doctoral intern at the UND counseling center (it says so on my nametag).

I started out my day like this:

But ended the day like this:

under those band-aids is a world of horror not fit for human eyes. I am lucky I have a mom who taught me to always have a first-aid kit handy.

In between, I had a two hour tour of campus, which I knew was coming but apparently didn't prepare for adequately, a chocolate doughnut, a serious conversation about how it's strange that heroin isn't more of a problem in GF, and I got to flex my newly-acquired moving muscles by moving all the furniture around in my office. It was awesome (aside from the blisters), and I'm looking forward to more tomorrow!

Doppelganger: The Return

Last Summer, around this time, Josh and I spent the weekend in Vegas and happened upon a man who looked startlingly like my brother-in-law Kaly. This year, we happened upon someone who looks startlingly like my little sister (not the one married to Kaly) working at Devils Tower, Wyoming.

Judge for yourself:

My sister

My sister?

I wish I could have found a picture where my sister was making the same face as her doppelganger because she does make that face too. I wasn't even stealth with my picture-taking this time. I full on, shamelessly camera-phoned her. 

Things I didn't know about Grand Forks #18

They have running trails! But so far we have only seen two people running, but about half a dozen people biking them and two people in-like skating (is that still a thing?!)

We have gone both north and south on these trails, but we have yet to venture to the Minnesota side. The whole loop is apparently 8.5 miles and the goal is to jog/walk the entire thing before the weather goes below zero.

Remember when I found out about the flood of 1997? On the trail is a memorial to the water levels of past floods. I am apparently almost as high as 1996:

Here are some pictures of the river Josh snapped during his run (while I was doing more of the walking thing):

Red River north

the Red River "dam"

Maybe things in Grand Forks aren't so terrible after all.

ShepAlder Trek Phase 4: The Aftermath

We finally made it to Grand Forks on Thursday, the 5th, but first we had to meet our relo-cube in Fargo, unload it into a Uhaul, and drive all of that to Grand Forks because ABF does not deliver to Grand Forks. So, when I say that GF is in the middle of nowhere, I mean it's the kind of nowhere where delivery companies don't deliver. That's nowhere.

this is what I have to look forward to for the next year

And, as a continuing theme of our trip, it was really hot outside, so while we loaded and unloaded, I had to leave my car on with the air conditioning going just so Mercury didn't suffocate on the final day of our trip.

A few things shifted, some things were damaged, but our belongings made the trip mostly intact.

I don't have any pictures of us actually moving things into the apartment because it was an annoying experience that included neighbors literally watching us from their windows as we struggled in the North Dakota afternoon heat. 

We took a break to eat at the nationally-renowned Grand Forks Olive Garden, but I had a hard time keeping my enthusiasm up:

We finished moving the big things into the apartment after the sun had gone down and the temperature dropped a little. We're on the second floor, so thankfully it wasn't a terrible, awful, no-good-day experience, except that as we were resting outside our apartment from lugging our couch down the hall, our across-the-hall neighbor opened his door. Josh said, "Hi! We're just moving in!" The neighbor gave us a look, then slammed his door without comment. About fifteen minutes later, some random person walked into our apartment, looked at us, then left. I think he was aiming for across the hall. It was awkward.

 But we did find a nifty note and some sodas in the fridge, courtesy of our property management company:

Welcome to our apartment:

the kitchen

the living room

and THE CUTEST BATHROOM EVER!

Such has been our domestic lives in Grand Forks so far.

Things I didn't know about Grand Forks #17

We had a bit of an odd experience today. We were in Target, searching intently for picture hooks, when a woman announced over the loudspeaker that a severe tornado warning had been issued and we were ordered to stay away from the windows and move to the back of the store or leave our items and run for our cars. Josh and I chose to stay and hide out in the seasonal items section.

We were only on lockdown for half an hour or so, but apparently in Grand Forks, tornados can appear at any moment and strand the ShepAlders anywhere they happen to be. I didn't know!