Hello, Indianola!

This weekend I moved into my house! It's crazy to think that I have the potential to be living in the same place for the next two years. That's the longest I will go without moving since I was in high school. I'm so excited to be settled and comfortable in my new city.

I'm living in Indianola- which is a prime location in the Delta. First of all, it's big enough that it has a Walmart (population about 12,000). I'm in the exact middle between Memphis and Jackson (the nearest big cities) at about 1.5-2 hours from either. I'm also 4 hours away from New Orleans. At a more local level, I'm within a half hour from Greenville, Greenwood, and Cleveland (the other Walmart-sized towns) and I'm only a 15 minute commute from Moorhead, where I will be teaching in the fall.

Indianola is a pretty sweet place historically too. It's B.B. King's hometown, and it has a museum for him and the history of the blues in general. It's also 20 minutes from Leland: Jim Henson's hometown where Kermit the Frog was first created. It's right off of Hwy 61 and the Mississippi Blues trail which is littered with a bunch of historical sites. There's plenty of old-fashioned Southern BBQ spots, catfish, and other great food.

So that's Indianola. But what I'm really excited about is my house. It is amazing. Just look at the pictures! The outside looks a little run down, but it's in pretty good shape for being built a loong time ago. It has alot of character to it, and the location is AMAZING. There is a stream/bayou that runs through the middle of Indianola, and it is in my backyard. When you look out any window in our house, you see GREEN! Our backyard literally looks like a rainforest. Case in point:

If you look really closely behind the trees- you can see the brown water of the bayou. Because the brush isn't cleared yet, I couldn't get any closer for pictures, but I'm hoping to get some yard work done this week and forge a path to the water.

In order to enjoy this wonderful backyard, we have a huge wooden back porch. I'm picturing sweet tea, tiki torches, and barbeque. All the time.

My room is gigantic- but it's a living room that we're converting into a bedroom. This means that while I have tons of space, huge windows, and my own fireplace with built-in shelves, I also have an open space leading to the dining room and giant french doors connecting to the other living room. After some curtains and a make-shift wall goes up, I should be good to go. What I love about finally having a house is that I can make my room my own. I've already decided on paint colors (beige as the main color with dark plum accents). And I can put nails in the walls without having to worry about patching them up 8 months later. With all this space, I am planning on really making my room a spot where I can be comfortable and where I can host plenty of guests (because y'all are going to visit, right?). Down the street, there's a great outlet furniture store where I found an awesome deal on a really comfortable futon. I'm also planning on getting a cozy chair to put next to my fake fireplace. Here's some pictures!

My room is in a wonderful location because it faces the South, but is on the West side of the house. Therefore, I get plenty of sun during the day, but it is never in the direct sunlight so it stays pretty cool.

It's pretty crazy to think that tomorrow, I will be at this house full time! While I am super excited to have my own room and kitchen, the move is bittersweet. Most of my friends that I've made while at institute here in Cleveland are placed in towns all across the Delta. The people that I've been seeing every day will now be anywhere from a 1/2 hour- 5 hours away. I'm planning on many weekend roadtrips- hope Sylvia can take it!

Before this post ends, I want to leave you with a taste of the beautiful Delta sunsets. They are amazing- and because the land is so flat, you can see the colors for miles. It's moments like this where I remind myself what a blessing I have to be able to live in this place.