I don't want to start every post with telling you how exhausted I am. And the true job hasn't even really started yet! But all of that aside, I am having an amazing time. There's a lot I wanted and still want to accomplish this summer but I truly feel as if I'm in the exact place God wants me to be this summer.

Yesterday I cleaned my first room... all by myself! It was a little on the scary side, but it's also been a lot of fun to learn how to properly make a bed as they do in the hotels, clean a bathroom from top to bottom (removing every speck, including whatever mold you may find... such as in the first cleaning job we did together.... a trailer in the woods.), properly handle different chemicals, finding 'monsters under the beds,' take bed bunks off and properly make them and slide them back on, fold towels, and kill NY size spiders (apparently they 'grow' them bigger here).

I also found who is going to be on my team today and what section of the camp we will be cleaning. We are cleaning what is called 'lakeside' and I'm really excited about it. I think we'll start the earlier part of the morning up in the woods and then work our way down toward the water a little before lunch so we are on the water when it's sunny and beautiful out. There's one room on lakeside that's bigger than all the others, and the most magnificent part has to be the huge window that looks out to the lake... the best part is that the room actually hangs a bit over the water so it actually feels like you're on top of the water... mostly because you actually are. And I get to clean it and look out that window everyday!! =-)

I haven't gotten my official schedule yet, but I'm going to be working 5 hours in the morning doing 'maid service' on lakeside with my team and then we will break for lunch. After that we will have a number of other duties (either working in the buildings doing odd jobs, folding linens in 'WashingTONS' hehe and then bringing them over to 'BeddingTONS'... they got really creative with the building names... washing dishes, and other duties) My boss who has been training us the last few days has really helped me to start to grasp why we are about to do all the housekeepers do. One thing he's said over and over again, is that when people walk into their room they have a first impression helping to determine how of the rest of their stay turns out to be. When they see someone has taken the time to make it spotless and pay attention to detail, in some cases they think to themselves something such as, 'someone cares.' Also, he's given me a knew perspective on cleaning toilets. I know, really shocking. I used to think it was a gross job to clean someone else toilet. I believe, 'ewwwwwww' was the thought that came to mind. Gosh, I hardly enjoy cleaning my own toilet/bathroom... why on earth would I want to clean someone else's?!

But then he made an extremely good point. It's the most humbling experience to look at a dirty bathroom (tub, toilet and all) and then get down on your hands an knees and start scrubbing completely disregarding the 'grossness' of the whole situation. After all, all you have to do is go home and take a shower and all the dirtiness is pretty much forgotten. I'm not going to compare it Jesus washing his disciple's feet. But it's a similar concept.

I'm really looking forward to guests coming, and starting to practice what Jesus has called us to do. I know this is going to be a tough summer, and I'm tempted to say it will be draining.. but so far, behind all the work and tiredness I've actually been left more full of joy and peace than being drained.

I miss a lot of people, but all the work keeps my mind off things, and it helps that all the people are really awesome here. It felt like home pretty quickly which always helps with the transition. And as a side note, from all this scrubbing, I've heard from numerous people it's like an 8 or 9 hour workout and my muscles will change within 3 weeks. Basically, who needs the gym when you have a housekeeping job for the summer and a beautiful lake to run around. =-)