Chewonki! (My new job)

I love Maine. I have seen where my new job will be, teaching in the Maine woods. It is beautiful. It is right on a boat-flecked bay, surrounded by fields, horse farms and spruce trees. I felt at home at once. When I came it was around six at night and the sun was reflecting off the water; boats lazed in the current.

It was a long drive, but well worth the trip. I am struck by how cool Maine is in summer (literally and metaphorically.) It was about 75 f yesterday. There are fields literally blue with blueberries, and roadside stands of pies and produce. Nearly every car is a Subaru or truck with a kayak, canoe and three bicycles tethered to the back with odd rope configurations and fishing poles sticking out the windows. My kind of place. If you drive through Maine on a Saturday, every other house boasts a yard sale or barn spilling with antiques to trade. Sometimes you see tractors driving on the road in more remote places. Maine people are down-to-earth, independent, resourceful and nice. They remind me a bit of West Virginians in a way. I like the way Mainers dress—very practically. No frills. The land is gorgeous, yellow where there are fields, and purple and pink with spiky flowers called lupines. What I find to be most beautiful however, is the ocean.

I recently got my lifeguard certification and will soon get my Wilderness First Responder (WFR) training on a small island in Maine called Hurricane Island before my work begins. To be a WFR I have eighty hours of training to learn how to respond to emergency medical situations in remote settings.

These are pictures my sister Caroline took of the lovely place I shall soon call home. At the moment there is nowhere on earth I think more beautiful.