Dinner guests, "loading" the bike, and yoga!

It seems hard to believe that I have been in Chico for a week already. My learning curve has been pretty steep during this time and I am feeling fairly accomplished. Last night we hosted our first dinner guests and it was familiar and new at the same time. Mark served his nummy Indian meal, which helped make me feel like we had hosted this event before, except for that fact that we had three new people here! Two of the three people are colleagues of Mark's and one spouse.

We quickly settled into a relaxed evening of getting-acquainted stories, with one of the best being the account told by Prisca, who immigrated to the US from Zimbabwe when she was 19. She grew up in Harare,  a large metropolitan area of a million and half people. She flew to New York and Minneapolis and then took a Greyhound to her destination--Vermillion, South Dakota, population about 10,000, where she attended school. Her descriptions of her transition and subsequent adjustment to the US were fascinating. There was lots of other good conversation from the night, but that image stays with me.

The other person Mark works with is Debra Johnson and I can tell we have many shared interests. She gave me lots of information about resources around Chico including ideas for yoga classes. One of the classes is at the perfect time and place, so I am now registered and begin my Gentle Yoga class tomorrow morning. I can bike through the park to class, which will only be complicated because I will be somehow carrying my yoga mat.

I also made my second visit to the bike store and got more gear on my cruiser. It is now equipped with an odometer, a bike lock that can be attached to the frame, and an upright water bottle holder.  A rack on the back may still need to be added, but for now I will try to carry things in a backpack.

This is the swimming hole at the One Mile Recreation Area about two miles southwest from us.

This is closer to the upper park, about two miles east of us.

I love these cedars! Lots more to learn about trees.

No blog post is complete without pictures, so let's see how I do posting some tonight. I am struggling with an old version of iPhoto, as well as limited photography skills, so these may be a little rough.

If you made it all the way through this post, congrats!! Still missing all my Minnesota peeps!