Rapid City, South Dakotee

well folks. i made it. here to beautiful south dakota. who knew. that i'd be living in south dakota. may i just say that it is REALLY under-rated. this place is awesome. there is so much to do. so much to see, so much to experience here. 

for those of you that don't know, i moved here for six months to fulfill my internship/practicum for graduate school. I am getting my masters in Conflict Transformation. and I've had a strong desire to serve the Native American population of the US. as Americans, we forget that there is SO much work and service that needs to be done on our own soil. we think we need to go abroad, somewhere exotic...we don't. not that its bad to do that, but come on people. there is SO much work that needs to happen here in the US. so much change needs to happen!

I am working for SANI-T (the Society for the Advancement of Native Interests - Today) and the Restorative Justice org. here in Rapid. I am really really stoked about this opportunity. I will be facilitating dialogues between the Native pop. and the Rapid City comm., doing reconciliation and mediation work as well as all around using my Masters degree to best help serve this community. 

this work is going to be fruitful, but also extremely challenging; the racism here is extremely overt. and very painful to see...

Rapid City is amazing. well, south dakota is. i have slowly been taking pics. but until then, allow me to highlight some of the best highlights of my trip so far (without images, i know, i'm sorry, for those of you that love photos, as i do too):

1. a man in the mall with long thinning hair wearing a suede leather fringe jacket.  the fringe went ALL the way around his jacket. and he walked with his shoulders REALLY swinging. so you can only image how amazing the fringe looked; bouncing all over the place, swinging almost parallel to the ground he was strutting on. CLASSIC. Credence clearwater revival was blasting in the mall hallways. but the BEST part is that he was talking on a razor phone that had a BEDAZZLED phone jacket. so it was all pretty and sparkly. the BEST EVER.

2.  a van  with mickey mouse spraypainted on the side of it. (it was really bad)

3. a billboard that says, "Manage your wildlife: wear fur!" (wow. seriously?)

4.  my "landlord" talking on his phone (a truly amazing, wonderful, elderly Baha'i man) saying, "i like to think tears are like angels, expressing what words cannot."

5.  how lame mount rushmore is.

that's it for now, i will most def. take more pics so that i can do a whole blog post on the area that i'll be living in...

i cant help but think i can really see myself living here for a while...i hope baktash likes it. ;) 

SONGS I'VE LISTENING TO OVER + OVER :

1. "CAPE CANAVERAL" - CONOR OBERST

2. "BRAINY" - THE NATIONAL

3. "HOW DEEP IS THAT RIVER" - MASON JENNINGS

XOXO.