Pathways

Wow! I can´t believe I'm leaving tomorrow for Spain! It´s hard to believe that six months ago I was walking down O´Connell Street in Dublin! But, these past six months have been filled with many adventures that have helped me grow and prepare myself for my next journey!

2/3 of the team and I

In addition to coaching I have been working at my parents' business, Visual Learning Systems, and helping out a little bit at Swan & Stone Millinery. At Visual Learning Systems I have mostly been looking up elementary school contacts in Virginia (Fairfax, Arlington, and Loudon counties.) At Swan&Stone I learned a little bit about making hats, and parts of the trade, like fiber mills and the different techniques in creating a hat.
Since finishing my Wilderness First Responder course I´ve been dabbling at a few things. After Christmas I started helping coach the Otter Valley Middle School ski team (under the direction of head Middle School coach, Bob Clark), which has been great! At first I was like, ¨What am I going to do with them!¨ but after going to many ski clinics, I knew what to do: drills, one-on-one tips, and trying to be as friendly as possible. Coaching kind of put a little pressure on me, though, because I actually needed to be a good role model. No yelling at my brothers as they skied by, or losing the girls concentration by talking about One Direction (not like I would!) But coaching has been very rewarding! Although there were only three girls on the team, I felt like I have really made an impact on their technique and their speed! Last weekend we had a race down at Wild Wings, in Peru, Vermont, and just seeing them try their hardest really made my day! Another bonus is that I got to ski every day!

Now, looking forward! Tomorrow my parents and I are driving down to Boston, where I am to meet all of the others students that are going to Spain through CIEE. Thursday evening we fly from Boston to Barcelona, where we are to have our orientation with the receiving organization, InterHispania, which is in charge of all the international exchange students coming to Spain. We'll tour Barcelona and then Sunday morning I will take the train from Barcelona to Seville. I will be living and attending high school (I'm going to a private Catholic school, which I thought would never happen!) until the end of June, and then my family will come over from the United States for a month. I will still be keeping a blog while in Spain, but in the meantime I'd just like to thank those of you for making my experiences this past fall happen! Pues, adios America!!!