Just getting started

So the bus ride down here was well, greyhoundish, not pleasant, but could have been worse. I sat next to a heavy smoker during the brunt of the trip and wow would that have been a good experience for all us social smokers. She hacked up her lungs between cackling with a raspy laugh and wrinkly yellow face. On to better things: Tom and Justin my roommates here in St. Louis picked me up at the bus depot and we were off to visit first the ERT office and then our house. Tom's from Sweden and has done a lot for just turning 21. He speaks 5 languages, studied the culinary arts in Mexico and is well traveled. He's not in the ERT program, but is living here and taking EMT classes with aspirations of becoming a paramedic. Justin is from NY, graduated from Richmond with a degree in Chemistry. He's a stout, boisterous Italian with a hearty laugh. Amy's another roommate. She's a college dropout from Ohio, she wants to finish her degree in Philosophy...sometime. We have similar musical tastes (wolf parade, Andrew Bird, Devendra, etc...). Brian Dolan also lives here. He's 20, from upstate NY - a very interesting cat. More on that later. AJ's the last roommate. A good guy from Iowa - he's a big drinker. I've met a ton of other people, there are around 80 in the program, half are ERT's the other half are in Education. Yesterday we went on a tour of the Budweiser factory in St. Louis - the headquarters. It was boring, but we got some free beer at the end and it was pleasant talking with everyone and enjoying the warm, sunny day. Tonight, we're all going to a potluck at some other Americorps members' house, and afterwards to a box wine party. Next week, we're all going on a week long "quest" trip into the wild....The activities are a guarded secret, but I'll try to inform you of them as soon as humanly possible. Everyone's really cool, educated, sincere and excited just like I am to see new places and help out. I'm feeing great. Hope you're doing well.

Kevin