Life of Michi

Life in Jackman

I finally made it to write some text about my amazing summer! I promised so many people to do it, so hopefully all these people look back here and read it. Maybe you even want to leave some feedback in my guestbook or as a comment?

And for all my german friends: Yes, i am gonna write all this in English language. I guess it’s not a big deal for the most of you and if it really is, just ask me about the things you couldn’t understand.

My last posts on this website were just quick notes from my trip, i’ll show you some more pictures and exciting stories about that :-)
As i had internet in Jackman (thanks to the MRVC ;-) ) my updates in that time were more frequent. But for everybody who didn’t look on the website in that time i wanna a littl bit about that:

Where is Jackman?

Maine is in the North-East of the USA, some of you might now it because of Stephen King, who still lives in Bangor.

How did you get there?

During my community service i decided that i really wanna go abroad and i looked up different oppurtunities to do that. I found out that internships (what i originally planned to do) are really expensive and usually without any pocket money. Resort America seemed to be a good way and as I already did my community service in Maintenance, i knew that i could apply for a Resort in Maintenance sector. The whole application was interesting, but not alway easy. I had to get all the certificates and sheets together, i had an interview in Stuttgart with somebody from AIFS, one in Frankfurt at the American Consulate and so on… But as you all might already know: IT WAS REALLY WORTH IT! :-D
After i send in my application, i got the news that Sky Lodge chose me and soon the flight date was scheduled. The journey begins..

Traveling to Jackman

My flight was scheduled: Frankfurt – London – Boston – Bangor It didn’t really work out from the start, as we got into some traffic jam around Stuttgart. But with the help of my laptop and my newly bought GPS system I was able to navigate us to Frankfurt in time. I expected to have some problems with my lugguage, because I had my big packpack, my sleeping bag and my sleeping pad. But no problems at all and i got my ticket.

The journey went on fine until Boston, where I missed my connection flight to Bangor. After great confusion (do i have to stay overnight in Boston??) i got another connection flight and Greg was still waiting for me in Bangor. I can still remember my first impression: “IS THAT YOUR CAR?” (it was Johns red Ford) Greg said something like: “We still have a long way ahead of us.” At that point i didn’t really know what that means. After driving for about 2 hours i couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore… :-) I just got really excited as we drove into Jackman and stopped in front of the cottage, which became my home for the following 13 weeks.

Work at Sky Lodge and the Moose River Valley Center

After two days off work started. I was quite nervous in the beginning but Greg really helped me a lot and showed me how to do it right. First weeks consisted mainly of raking gravel, which actually didn’t need much explanation :-) After that we had the big project of “edging” the lawn which became the running gag over the whole summer: “Don’t step on the edge!!” :-)
Many other projects followed: painting, mowing, scraping, cleaning the pool, garden work, polishing the furniture and so on..
For all the German-speakers and readers: You can still look back in my archives, i wrote a lot about work and on this website in that time.

Life in Jackman

I have to admit, in the beginning I was a little bit shocked how small Jackman was. But Becky showed me all the nice little spots and introduced me to so many nice people. Funny thing about that was that I seemed to look like her son Justin. (“Doesn’t he look like Justin?”) And so i really learned that Jackman might be small, but nevertheless a really nice place to live!
One of the highlights of the first week was a trip to Greenville with Becky, all the moose on the road and the beautiful landscape. Maine is a really scenic state, that’s for sure!

German workers at Sky Lodge

I already had (online) contact with Andreas, who arrived at Sky Lodge in the end of june. We got along good right from the start and the cottage really was big enough for us two guys. In his first weeks we got more contact to all the “locals” and had the big big pleasure to join their parties :-) Highlight definetly was the party at Attean Lake, it just had the special Jackman feeling and the scenery was amazing.
A lot more happened it that time, just look back to my posts from that time. And for non-german speakers: You can also look on my gallery, i have all the pictures in there!