Latest update and catch up.

Dear friends,

First of all, thank you so much for the birthday wishes. I was in southern Spain with two of my friends, Wes and Nate, on my birthday who spoiled me with kindness and fun. With that and the messages from all of you, I had a really great birthday. Thank you!!

It really means a lot to me to hear from friends and family back home, especially being so far away and not always being able to be in contact with everyone I care about. Please know that I think of you, though I may not write or call as much as I would like.

I also wanted to give you an update of what I've been doing for the past few months. It's been quite a busy time, so there's a lot, but I'll try to keep it somewhat short.

Since last September, when I moved to London, I have been mostly working and traveling. I started out working as a child protection social worker. This was a great opportunity in many ways--for growth, work experience, earning money (of course), and for me to realize that this was not my kind of work. With that, I decided in December that I would do something else and I quit my job as a CP social worker. For me, it just did not fit.

After Christmas and New Years, I started looking for a job. I was referred to World Class Teachers, an agency who places teachers and teachers assistants (TAs) in schools. With the agency's help, I found temporary work as a TA in a couple of different schools-a day or two in each school. Then, in early February, I was fortunate enough to be placed in a school where I ended up staying for the rest of my working time in London. I was working with children who have special needs, mostly autism and learning disabilities. I did one on one work with the children, supporting them in the classroom and also working with them on their IEPs (Individual Education Plans designed to focus on that child's particular educational needs). My co-workers were great and the work felt like it was really making a difference in the children's lives. I really enjoyed the work and was sad to leave. However, in early March, my work visa expired and so I had to go.

With my work visa, I was required to leave the UK on the day the visa expired. So, on March 13th, I started traveling.

My first stop was a road trip in Ireland with three friends I met in London, Nate, Ami, and Steve. Think rental car, driving on the left side of the road, lots of green Irish countryside, sleeping in the car in a parking lot one night, lots of pictures and lots of rain. It was quite the experience, and a lot of fun. We covered a lot of ground starting in Shannon, going north to Galway and the Cliffs of Moher, down to Dingle Bay, over to Blarney Castle near Cork, headed up to Kilkenny. We ended the trip in Dublin just in time for St. Patty's Day where we met up with some other friends for the weekend, which was an experience in itself and tons of fun. All in all, Ireland was beautiful, despite all the rain, and the trip was a lot of fun. I put up all kinds of pictures, if you care to take a peek.

From Ireland, Nate and I flew from Dublin to Marrakech, Morocco, North Africa. This was an amazing experience. Briefly, we stayed in Marrakech one night, went on a two day tour down to Zagora in the Draa Valley. This involved several hours riding in a van surrounded by people from all over Europe, many of whom did not speak English, including our tour guide, but best of all, riding camels and sleeping in tents in the desert under a full moon. It was truly one of the most incredible experiences I have had and so much fun. After our adventures in Draa Valley, we returned to Marrakech and then moved on to Fes.

After our adventures in Morocco, Nate and I headed to Spain. Nate's family has a timeshare condo in Nueva Andalucia, Marbella, Spain and he was kind enough to let me and our friend Wes come and hang out with him for a week and enjoy the condo, including the surrounding beautiful sunshine and beaches (This was where I was when I celebrated my 23rd birthday). After hanging out with these guys for the past six months, it was nice to have one last week together relaxing and having fun. It was sad to have it end and I miss them all ready. I also miss the sunshine and beaches. ; )

After saying goodbye to Wes at the condo and later to Nate in Malaga, I headed on my own from Malaga to Barcelona via night train. I spent one day in Barcelona, bumming around, but I had been there all ready with Kate in January, so just kind of hung out wandering a bit and spending a lot of the afternoon in the park. (Spain is wonderful, by the way, one of my favorite places.)

From Barcelona, I traveled to Switzerland (beautiful!!), then moved on to Germany, stopping in Munich and Berlin (both very cool and each in their own ways), then stopped in Stockholm, Sweden on my way towards Norway. I didn't have much time in Stockholm, but from what I gathered, it is a pretty neat place.

From Stockholm, I took a night train up to Narvik, Norway--the farthest north you can go on a train in that area--and then took a bus from Narvik to Tromso to visit my dear old friend Brian and his lovely wife Linn. I went to school with Brian in Winsted from 3rd grade through high school and hadn't seen him in about two years, so it was really nice to catch up with him and also to see the life that he and Linn have created for themselves in Tromso. Linn grew up in Tromso, so I got to meet her family and a few of their friends, who were all wonderful. Brian and Linn also let me stay at their beautiful and comfortable home free of charge (you can probably imagine how nice this was after having been on the go and sleeping in trains and hostels for the past week, so a million thanks to them!). While I was staying there, they spoiled me with treats and showed me around the beautiful Norwegian city of Tromso. It was definitely too short a visit, but I had such a good time and was really happy to spend time with Brian and Linn.

From Tromso, I flew to Oslo, Norway, took a train from the airport to a smaller international airport near Torp, Norway, and then flew from there to Glasgow, Scotland. Unfortunately, time and schedules did not allow for me to meet up with my friend Kellie who lives in Glasgow (sorry Kellie!) and I headed to Edinburgh. I spent the last two nights in Edinburgh meeting some really fun people and checking out the Castle, Mary King's Close, St. Giles Church, a neat and creepy graveyard, and a few other Scottish treats. Edinburgh is, as everyone had told me, an amazing city with tons of history and a great feel to it.

At the moment, I am headed on a train (my favorite way to travel!) from Edinburgh to London. I will meet up with some friends tonight and then my mom arrives in the morning, which I am very excited about. My mom and I are going to be exploring London and some of England for the next week and then we will be flying back together to the good ol' US of A next Sunday. I am really going to miss Europe and all the fun I have had here. At the same time, I am so excited to see my family and friends!!!

I'm not sure what the next step will be on my life's journey. I will be moving home to Winsted to live with my mom for an undetermined amount of time. My little sister graduates in May/June and my Uncle Tim with whom I am very close, is getting married in mid-June, so I will definitely be in Minnesota for that. And, after that, we shall see. One thing I have learned with my travels is that things work out the way that do and you may have to plan a little bit, but life will throw at you what it wants to. Embrace it and make the most of it.