Woooweee! AUGUSTA!

Hi Friends!
Well we made it to Augusta. I'd like to say we arrived "Safe and Sound," but that wasn't exactly true for Whoopie. ha! None-the-less we made it. Augusta was a very small town. In fact I think its safe to say that it was one of the smallest we had been too. The population in Augusta was barely 200. We were in the middle of nowhere in Montana and when you are stranded in the middle of nowhere without internet or cell service what do you do?

Hunt.

Well that's what the locals do anyway. Something happend with our living situation but it all worked out fine. I got to stay with this very nice family who did nothing but hunt. Our Contact's family also did nothing but hunt. I guess its what all the cool kids do there. When we first arrived in Augusta, our Contact invited us over for dinner. All she told us was that it was stew. It wasn't until afterwards I found out that the "beef" was actually Elk. I don't know why they thought they had to hide that from us. I mean c'mon, I ate buffalo testies! They also had all kinds of pets not for eating of course but they had a pet ferret and a Sugar Glider which were fun to play with. Scott (the husband) showed us some of his artwork. He designs these intricate pictures for ceilings. He showed us the one in the den and told us about other places he's left his mark like in Canada and Alaska. Augusta is apparently crawling with Big Horn Sheep and he showed us some of his carvings that he did on some of the horns he had. Very cool.

One thing I've decided that I like about small towns is you get free food. Well probably not everyone but WE DID! All of our meals were provided for us in the school cafeteria which was nice since they were all good meals and not mystery meat type stuff. I guess the reason is because they're aren't any stores near Augusta. Hey I'm not complaining! What was even more nice was when I would come home, still full from dinner, my homestay would have something waiting for me on the stove. "Why, yes I would LOVE a sloppy Joe! Sloppy Joes are good anytime, it doesn't matter if its 9pm." -I didn't REALLY say that . . . . but I thought it.

My homestay bought groceries in bulk and told me to feel free to cook or bake anything I wanted. "OK!" I took advantage of this and baked Loretta and my homestay cupcakes one day. Good decision. :) Another good decision I made was to feed the chickens. Yep. I had never done it before and I thought it might be fun so I did! It's the little things. :) This was the day Steven Thomas came and we switched out the trucks. Steven hung around for a few minutes and we all went in this gift shop. In this gift shop I bought quite possibly the coolest souvenir since I've been on the road, a racoon hat.

Man that hat is so redneck it's cool! I feel like a little Davy Crockett. Haha! That whole day of rehearsal I wore my hat and spoke in a TERRIBLE southern accent. The kids thought I was weird but I had fun....and that's all that matters. :)

The next day Loretta and I really wanted to fit in so we went a huntin'. We was on the look out for some BIG HORN SHEEP! We kept seeing signs about how we should be careful and watch out for them but we didn't see any. Welp. Guess that means we gotta go find 'em. We drove down this dirt road and had a whole photo session day. We took so many pictures and videos that day of the beautiful scenery and playing in the wind. That's right the wind. It was soooo windy that day! My racoon hat kept getting blown off my head. Teyyible. All day we kept making cheesy jokes about "Agusta wind!" (Get it?) Maybe the wind blew away all the sheep because we drove all around looking for them but we didn't find them. I guess we're not very good huntsmen.

That night we meet up with our TAD besties Nicole and Kelly for a night out. They were only about an hour away from us so we met in the middle. We had so much fun catching up we even made some new friends and one of them looked like our TAD friend Jordan. It was uncanny how much they looked alike. It was a fun night indeed but we couldn't stay long because we had a show the next day! I always get excited for show day but this show was a little more exciting for me.

The day before the show we had to unfortunately tell the girl playing Merlin that she could no longer be in the show. That has never happend to us before. We would have loved for her to do the show but SHE made the bad decisions. Anyways, after talking with the home office and our Contact it was then decided that I would be playing Merlin! I wish the circumstances weren't what they were but at the same time I was excited to perform with Loretta and the rest of the kids as a different character. It was magical. After the show the kids gave us flowers which was a very nice gesture and helped us pack up the truck. We said our "Goodbyes" and then the next day we were headed home for a week off. Woot Woot! Lynchburg here I come!
-Jen