Sugarbeet festival

So one of the attractions on the list of things to do in Chinook is the Sugarbeet Festival. This is apparently what a sugarbeet looks like. 

There used to be factory in town that procesed them into sugar, never knew that was a thing. But the town school's mascot is named after them so that's fun and who doesn't like festivals. There was also a Sugarbeet decorating contest, cute!

The kids at the high school also get a day off school so each class makes tangier own float. Their rivals at the home coming game the following day this year was the badger hence the caged badger.

The band also played and marched. Look at how tiny the band is, yet still impressive considering how the size of the school.

The festival had two parades; one with just the high schoolers and a slightly larger one the next day with various groups. So this is what I learned about small town parades: they turn around and come back and you watch the entire parade again. I am not joking. They turn, go around the block so the seniors at their appartments can see, then proceed down the first street again. I was told this ahead of time but did not realize literally everyone stays and watches the second time around. So I stopped and watched the entire parade a second time.

JUMP, which is the youth group I work with, also had a pie fundraiser during the festival. Ooo, look at all the yummy pies! And this was not all the choice either.

Also super fun event was the reenactment of a bank robbery. It was really impressive; the guys were climbing on roofs and shooting off guns, riding into and out of town on horses, and it was even staged at the Wells Fargo Bank. These were some of the guys from the reenactment during the parade. They were giving out fake money to kids.

In summary, it was a really awesome weekend, filled with friends, community and some amazing small town charm.

People say there is nothing fun to do in a small town

And I say Oh nay nay. One should definitely go to the county museum. Behold the wonders. Ginormous elk head sticking out of the wall

And this awesome buffalo coat that I bet would keep you quite toasty even in the winters out here. 

Man am I jealous of whoever was around 75 million years ago to take this picture! 

JK but there are a lot of dinosaur bones in Montana and that is seriously awesome. Like for example the Gorgosaurus which makes me think of the Gorgs from Fraggle rock. 

So clearly I pretended to be one and took my picture with a skull. 

Also speaking of skulls, look at the size of that work horse skull. It's huge!

And last but not least, a picture of camera that while similar to my phone in that if does not have any cell reception, it would be undoubtedly more difficult to post pictures for you all if this was all I had to use. 

Big thanks to the Blaine County Museum for endless entertainment and for being FREE so it makes it even more awesome. 

So to sum it all up, life is good and even the dumpsters are happy. 

Musings and mailings

So tomorrow officially marks 3 weeks in Montana. People are asking just this weekend if I am getting settle in and getting used to town, if I am finding things okay now. 

That question always makes me smile every time. Yes, everything is gorgeous and everyone is friendly but also town is tiny. I'm pretty sure I explored the entire town the first couple days here. The Chinook website calls the town "small town charm, big city ambience." I'm not quite sure there is anything big city about Chinook but I love them all the more for thinking there is. 

People have asked what I'm missing most about NJ other than people and I must say it was the smells. At home, the wind always smells like water, whether its the ocean or the bay or the river/creek/lagoon etc. As I'm sure you can imagine from the picture above, it smells like hay or horses or cattle (I have to keep reminding myself to use the word cattle because every time I see them I think 'Ooo cows!' But that is apparently wrong. Aka cattle not cows). 

While there is no water close by, there is a library! Which as I'm sure you can tell by the excited face with my new library card above is super exciting. They also are part of the digital library so I can now borrow books from Nj and Mt at the same time on my Nook! 10 books potentially at a time instead of 5, my mind is exploding at the thought. 

Also this past week on Monday, I got a ton of books that I will be using throughout the year. I'll be helping out tutor some math this year at the high school and I just admit I was more excited that I should be at getting 3 math books. I know, I'm such a dork, but you love me anyway. And yes, that is in fact the Virgin Mary behind my shoulder. I didn't realize she was there until after I took the picture but I really enjoy the fact that I got photobombed by the Virgin Mary. 

Also, mail is fun, like this postcard I got from Colleen! So if you want to be cool like that, feel free to send me a nifty postcard or other such mail like shenanigans @ the following address

PO Box 231

Chinook, MT 59523

Montana!

Montana is epic. The first two pictures are from the drive into Chinook from Billings. There really isn't much between the two places as you can see by the pictures but it is also a really nifty drive because you really get to see almost every type of geography the state has to offer.

I am loving every minute of life but I've already learned a few things that I'm not sure I ever expected. I guess that's the thing about learning new things, sometimes it just happens and there is no preparation. I think a lot of times in life I've set out to learn something specific or at the very least acknowledging I have very little knowledge about some aspect of life. I think this is the first time I've truly been surprised about what I have been learning. I came into this year knowing I had a lot to learn about the physical area (flora, fauna, geographic stuff etc) but I honestly didn't think that there would be a difference in the way we define city.

When I was flying into Billings on the plane, they made the announcement that we were approaching the city and we would be landing in a few minutes. Looking out the window, I see nothing but beautiful landscape so I'm thinking, "No, we can't be approaching a city, there are no houses, no suburbs surrounding the city." So we land and there's no announcement about what terminal baggage is in, I'm thinking "hmm, that's odd" well as it turns out there is only one, hence no announcement.

I am from the city. This is a statement that of course I disagreed with the first time I heard it. City? Me? No, silly, I'm from the suburbs. New York, that's a city, Philly, also a city, Newark and Camden, sure. Toms River, not a city. Then it hits me. Billings is the largest town in Montana, as in the ENTIRE STATE, and it is roughly the size of Toms River. Relatively speaking I suppose I see why it would be called a city so relatively speaking, I am now from the city.

 This city girl is excited to be spending her year in Chinook. I crossed a "highway" to get to this sign. AKA, I walked across a two lane street with absolutely no cars or trucks on it or in sight at the time.

I'm the Chinook water tower and I'm super cute!

Look, I have horses who live down the street!

The view looking down the street at the end of town