Good Morning Red Cloud as John Trokan awakens us every morning with a lovely cow bell not sure if an alarm clock is better or worse. 
 
Let me start by telling a little about myself.  My name is Stephanie Gfroerer- Honebrink an MSJ Alumni class of 2003.  I started by going on the South Dakota Pine Ridge immersion trip back in June of 2003 as a graduating Senior.  This is now my 4th time of being back on the reservation. 
 
Our first day was a 12 hour drive, we left Cincinnati at 5:00 Monday morning from the College of Mount St. Jospeh.  we ended our day in Lacrosse Wisconsin at 5:00 their time(1 hour difference). There are nine of us on the trip 2 professors, 4 recent grads, 2 current students and me(staff/alumni).  Everyone did very well on the first day John, a student and I took turns driving 2 hour shifts and it sounds really bad but the day actually went fairly quick.  We all as a group immediately bonded and were all able to joke around and feel comfortable since we are all going to be together for 2 weeks. 

There was a lot of singing, jokes, coloring, music being played and also good stories being told, oh and I can't forget there were many times where it was just John and I awake as well which made it go quicker for all of them.