Transported

I could not have gotten any further away from New York City when I participated in Alernative Spring Break, a program of community service. I traveled from NYC, where I had become accustomed to riding on a crowded subway, indulging in gourmet food products, and seeing the latest trends in fashion and design, to Pipestem, West Virginia (population 40), where the roads were made of dirt and stone, the only heating for our log cabin was a woodstove, and entertainment consisted of "Ray Orange Nutter's" washboard and spoons. If I had gone to West Virginia from Hamilton, the contrast might not have been as great. Coming from New York, however, I was shocked by the quiet and space of West Virginia. In NYC, people rule the streets, and Manhattan is designed around its inhabitants and their needs. In Pipestem, people seem like misplaced objects and the landscape, consisting of trees, mountains, and waterfalls, dominates. It took a little getting used to. We had to get up a half an hour early to ignite the griddle (thanks Samir!); we had to limit our showers to under two minutes in order to have enough hot water for half of our group; and we had to travel more than 30 minutes to get to the nearest grocery store, a Walmart Supercenter. But somehow we seemed to manage without a television or heat, and we actually had fun while doing so. We played board games and poker and layered our clothing in anticipation of cold mornings. We all very much enjoyed our time in the mountains, despite the fact that we would all make terrible mountaineers or frontiersman. Although country life has its advantages, including smores and stars, I was happy to return to my idea of "real" civilization-- grabbing the latest edition of the paper and a freshly brewed latte on the way.