Post 5: Always Bored

I woke up this morning at 5am to catch a 7am flight. Just like every other airport visit, I was extremely tired and irritable. After two long flights I finally landed in Oakland. I don't know why I feel inclined to share this but for some reason I do. I was standing about three feet from the baggage claim waiting for my bag to come out and a woman came and stood literally about an inch in front of me. This baffled me not only because of her complete disregard for personal space, but also because there were probably 200 other places she could have stood nearby with better access to the bags...but I digress.

After fetching my bike, the crew members for Push America picked two other cyclists and me up at the airport and drove us to the hotel. Upon arrival, we were given a list of what to do. The first item on the list was "Sign the thank you cards." Well, the thank you cards were in number - about 200 to be exact. A lot of signatures and a healthy serving of carpal tunnel later, I proceeded to the next item on the list, "Put your bike together."

"Hah. Yeah let me just put my bike together like it's a set of legos," I thought to myself. Luckily a fellow cyclist who knew what he was doing was there to help me get it together in about 40 minutes or so. After completing that, I picked up my biking gear (which is very cool, by the way) and checked into my room. There are two double beds in the room, and four guys per room. I guess this is their way of letting us get to know each other quickly. We all fit our bikes in the room, and it's quite the maze at the moment.

Once everyone showed up and completed their assigned tasks, our project manager talked to us about leadership, and gave us a small overview of what we'll be doing. After a dinner break, we regathered in the room and everyone had an opportunity to introduce themselves and explain why they were there. When it came to be my turn, I introduced myself as "the guy that always looks bored," which got a good laugh out of everyone. Hopefully I can change that pretty quickly here - I don't want that to actually be what everyone thinks about me.

Overall, everyone seems very cool. I know I'm going to get along with these guys and have a great summer. Tomorrow we have our first friendship visit and a very early morning, so I'm headed off to bed.