Hans Schroeder

So I only have five days left of work here at Mt. Rushmore, and then on June 30, I head to France for my second summer internship.  I must admit that I wish I were staying here longer; my coworkers and experiences here in South Dakota are too unbelievable (in every sense of the word) to leave!

Last night, I went back to my favorite hang-out--the VFW in Rapid City, obviously--to recreate an evening of darts and karaoke with the park ranger crew.  A bunch of the rangers bought me a cake, decorated with the French flag on it, and stuck a French flag and a little sculpture of Rodin's "The Thinker" in it.  It was really sweet--both the cake and the purchasing of the cake.  They asked me to sing the French national anthem while I cut the cake, so naturally I did, but stopped when I realized that all of the 90-year-old war vets at the bar were giving me dirty looks...

The rangers are so nice to me, and I'm genuinely going to miss them... there's a good chance I'll be back next summer, though!  I got the nicest complement from one ranger-- "Jacob, you are such an incredible asset to the parks service.  You give great tours with that loud, obnoxious voice of yours.  And what's even better is that you can be loud and obnoxious in three languages!"

Ellen, my North Dakota friend, is down here for the weekend to visit me!  After we got back from the VFW last night, we continued to drink at Mt. Rushmore, where we made prank calls to 800 numbers.  (This is how a park ranger entertains himself).  The highlight of the evening was calling some company and asking about their penis enlargement pills, using my alias, Hans Schroeder, and a thick German accent.

I still have a ton of pictures and even an audio recording of my ranger walk to upload, so be on the lookout for those in future posts.  One more week... how many more shenanigans can happen at Mt. Rushmore before I leave?  I'm guessing a lot.

Jake