here’s a little update from the past two months.
after our awesome once-in-a-lifetime europe trip, we loaded all of our belongings into a big moving truck (a 16-footer, to be exact), secured our car onto the trailer behind it, and began the long drive to our new home: st. louis, missouri.
i was super worried about making that drive with that huge, over-20-feet load, especially since we were both dog-tired from our gallivanting and things. but it was a breeze. i mean, it still took 20ish hours, but we made it there safe and sound. we stopped for the night, and nobody broke into our truck or car (and if they did, we haven’t missed what they took). i stayed awake for pretty much the whole trip, which is a miracle. (i literally always fall asleep and stay that way for the majority of any long road trip. ask tayte.) i talked to tayte, gave him snacks, read him books, and made sure we found good music to play. tayte talked back, ate the snacks, and stayed awake the whole time. needless to say, we were very happy to finally get there and get out of the dang truck.
but then, we were in a new place, with a truckload full of stuff, and a second floor apartment. we started unloading, and i realized that i wasn’t feeling well and would get light-headed from just walking up those dang stairs (this isn’t a going-to-the-bathroom-to-get-out-of-doing-the-dishes moment. it was legit). i felt bad, but i knew that if i passed out, this would be a whole different situation, so tayte made me sit there, sipping water, because he would need me for the big stuff.
thankfully, tayte had a friend that he met when he came for interviews that he was messaging that had offered to come help us move in. he was a short skinny guy, but he and tayte were able to get everything up. we were so grateful to him, because we literally wouldn’t have been able to do it without him.
after all that, all that travel and all that stress and no sleep caught up with us. we both got sick. tayte started classes and rotations. he only has a couple classes each week, but that gives him lots of time to spend in the labs. he has to rotate in at least 3 labs before he can pick the one he wants to do the rest of his program in. he’s in his second lab now, and he really likes this one. but he’s really enjoying the research and he’s really enjoying his classes. he’s very dedicated and works hard and it pays off. he has done really well in them so far, and i’m very very proud of him.
as for me, i unpacked as much as i was going to (we won’t be here for very long, so there was no point in unpacking everything. most of it is still in boxes in our back room), and tried to get us all settled in this new place. then some health issues set in and i’ve pretty much been dealing with them since. so i’ve been keeping house and trying to get back on my feet. i’m doing fine, and i think i’m over it, but we’ll see.
anyway.
about st. louis.
here’s the thing. this city is awesome. we really like it. we live pretty close to campus, and we live really close to a street called the loop. it’s kinda like center street in provo. it has some tasty restaurants and it has the st. louis walk of fame. it’s cool.
here’s the other thing. this city is great for families (shameless plug to get some visitors). we’ve been pretty touristy since we got here, and we’ve got a pretty good list of stuff to do if/when people come to visit. we’ve been to good restaurants, the zoo (free and awesome), the art museum (free and pretty cool), the science center (free and awesome), and the arch (not free but still awesome). there’s so much to see and do here, and we’ve been having a lot of fun.
we attend a branch with about 40 or 50 regulars. it’s the smallest branch we’ve ever lived in (except the one in jena, germany). the people are super nice and very welcoming. there’s a lot of work to do in the branch, and we’re excited to work hard until we move.
i think that about sums it up. i really want to be better at updating this because now, we’re so far away from everything and everyone we know, and i want to have a good record of our experiences.
i won’t do this every time i post anything, but i would like to chat a minute about tayte. we’ve had to rely on each other a lot since coming here, because we’re all we have. we are starting to make friends (we have another couple friend from our branch that we’d consider hanging out with), but we still do and go through everything together. we’ve already had some big trials in the last couple months, and being so far away from family made them worse. but he’s been my rock through them, and we’ve grown together. we’ve learned that no matter what happens, we have each other and that’s what matters. i swear i’m not quoting some country song—it’s the truth. we’re both so far from perfect, but we get a little closer each day. as i think back to even just 5 years ago, it’s obvious that i’m a better person because he’s in my life. tayte is my best friend, and i’m so grateful to have him for eternity.
all the sap. all the feels.
ugh.
No comments:
Post a Comment