Well, I think it goes without saying that things are very different here. It only took me six days to have a cry, but that's longer than I was expecting. Things have been good for the most part, just really overwhelming. I've been having a lot of issues with the house they gave me a room in. I was all moved in when I noticed mushrooms growing from the ceiling. Apparently that's pretty gnarly, even for reservation standards, as I can tell by the looks on the locals' faces when I mention it. I had to move out of my room and they tore out the ceiling. God knows when it'll be finished and I can move back in. Right now I'm sleeping in a girl's room upstairs who is only here on the weekends because she works at the resident camp. All my stuff is in the dining room, so I'm living out of there. The toilet was broken, there's a leak, and there was air in the pipes for three days that sent blasts of water so strong one blew a mug that I was filling up right out of my hand. The people on the Cheyenne River Reservation are much less traditional than the people on Pine Ridge and Rosebud. Most of the kids don't even realize that they're Indian/Lakota. The kids make it worth it though. I've been deemed "program director" of the day camp in town. I'm also planning a vegetable garden and composting system that we're going to try to build before the summer's out. The younger kids, though a handful, are really sweet. The tweens have attitude (as any tweens would). I work with a couple of local 19 years olds who have a part time job at the Y and a 30 something year old local man. They have been really nice to me from the get go, which I wasn't expecting. Any adult affiliated with the Y has been really nice. When I first got here I felt like an outsider--it took me all day to get up the courage to go to the grocery store, but now I have rez dogs walking me to and from work and I say "good morning" to this one guy who sits on his porch every morning, and anyone who drives by waves to me. I love that Lakota culture is a joking one, because I have been laughing a lot. I haven't regretted my decision yet. It's hard to adjust and exhausting, but I am happy. We (the resident camp counselors and I) are leaving today for a one night stay at a KOA in the Black Hills (or "the hills" as they call them here). There's a pool there, so we're excited haha.