Korea?

Just hung up the phone with John in South Korea. They said the interview would take 10-30 minutes; it was just 10. I hope this isn't a college application kind of thing, and I just had a skinny interview. I was .500 on my worries--the buzz on the staff phone here did make it very hard for me to hear him, but if he had any accent at all it was merely an Asian overtone to perfect English, so I didn't have any trouble understanding him. He didn't ask the questions I had answers prepared for, but I don't think I said anything too stupid. Not sure what the rejection rate is for these things. It's pretty much out of my hands now, though.

It was a good night to have an interview--very quiet around Basecamp. A group of kids left today, staff are training on "The River" (I don't know what river), my two favorite colleagues are off today & tomorrow and are likely at the Ute casino, and nobody's stirring anywhere. Nobody will be in Basecamp until this weekend, so work is light (we got done at 5 today-- unheard of!), and we've been instructed to enjoy having 2 days off because no one knows when it will happen again.

This scarcity of "weekends" puts a lot of pressure on to make good use of this one. I'm feeling drawn to Arizona & New Mexico, although there isn't anything particular in either state that I've had my eye on. I have had my eye on Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado (not to mention about a million other things here that people recommend), and there are Arches, Capitol Reef, and another section of Canyonlands National Parks in Utah that I'm sure I'd like. I could go to the Grand Canyon, but I've been there twice before, and I can't afford a mule ride to the bottom, which is what would make it worth going. Right now, New Mexico is the top contender. Hit Four Corners, then swing into Farmington and down to Chaco cultural national historical something-or-other. Camp there, then wander back through Durango. It might actually be nice not to consult my guidebooks too heavily and just wander about. What I really need is some down time, but I don't want to stay here, so I'll have to find it out & about.

Apparently, there have been some major storms in this part of the country, but not here. It's been unusually cool, but we haven't even had our afternoon rain the last few days. This seems to be a trend with me--the summer I was in England, all I heard was "It's usually much warmer than this". Hope that doesn't continue. I didn't bring enough winter jammies!

Another day of checking tents and packing for the staff resupply, then New Mexico!