Charleston!

I've arrived in Charleston and it's beautiful! Oliver and I got in late Sunday night, and he left early Monday morning to head home to visit family. I spent most of Monday with friends from IU who came down to Charleston for the Spoleto Festival. We walked around, ate lots of ice cream (well, I did), swung (swang? swinged?) on a swinging bench on the pier (bliss), and went and saw the opera in the evening (Louise by Charpentier). The opera was kind of strange, if you ask me, with a very simplistic plot and a rather mish-mashy dramatic structure that kind of jumped around to scenes which had nothing to do with one another and in which little or nothing happened. There was some fine singing though, particularly from Stefania Dovhan who sang the title role. Slept my first of 82 nights on a thermarest in a church rec room and it was surprisingly wonderful. I've spent several less than restful nights on a thermarest in a tent while backpacking and the like (still love it though) and I think a pillow and a carpeted floor makes all the difference in the world. About 12 riders have arrived so far and last night there was only one snorer...we shall see what happens when all 33 of us are sleeping in the same room.

Official orientation starts today at 1, and we have training and various activities today and tomorrow, including a shake down ride tomorrow "to make sure that everyone can ride a bike!" I'm nervous about being the worst and/or slowest cyclist of the group, but I'm trying not to overthink it. I have already made some dumb comments involving misnaming bicycle parts (pedals vs cranks for example...why they are separate parts is beyond me) so I'm feeling a little sheepish. We shall see!