Home on La Grange!

Tim and I have both been back home from the Peace Corps for a good chunk of time now and we've done our best to prepare for this next amazing mission of cultural exploration and international community service!

While at home, I have had the chance to see my family and a lot of my good friends, and i even had some adventures. Unfortunately there isn't enough time to see everyone... I also tried to lay out a plan for my next step in life - grad school and beyond.

I tried not to adjust to America too much because I'd just be leaving again so soon, and I wanted to maintain a traveling mentality. Some things about home made me laugh, however, some things, like the Northwest outdoors, and enjoying some nice home cooking were too much to pass up!

Aside from spending time with my family - a couple of highlights of my brief trip home were:

Hunting for Razor clams on the Pacific Ocean coast in Washington State! We spent a few hours on a cold, beautiful evening with big plastic PVC (polyvinyl chloride (I'm a scientist!)) tubes that we would use to suck unsuspecting clams out of their comfortable sandy homes! As we strolled through the surf, waves would roll in and out, covering all the holes people had made in the sand while collecting their dinner. There were clam hunters as far as I could see - north and south - every one of them staring intently at the sand by their feet! There was a limit of 15 clams per person, which was easily met on the first day of the season, but I arrived only for the second day and only made it to eight clams by the time the sun sank behind the waves. Cleaned some clams, hung out around a bonfire, drank and told stories - it was a good weekend at the beach!

Hunting for Christmas Trees in the beautiful Gifford Pinchot forest in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State! Nearly 50 tree hunters headed up the mountain as part of a group of trucks, 17 strong and looking for adventure! We drove up into the snow covered hills until trucks started getting stuck and couldn't climb any more - so we stopped, built a fire, had some lunch, and hunted down some Christmas Trees! It was more of a party in the forest with great views and fun in the snow than it was for the responsible harvest of forest products. And man, it was a g.d. good time!!! Being in nature feels so energizing - like a recharge to my batteries of life, readying me for anything that might come my way! The fresh, clean mountain air was enough to keep me smiling all day! It brought back memories of my adolescence - camping and hiking and developing a passion for protecting nature and the force that allows me to feel so incredible! Ironic that this was brought on by a trip to the woods to cut down some trees. It's also kind of funny that the first thing I noticed that I missed after being in Bulgaria for two years was the fresh mountain air of the great northwest! And who better to share it with than a couple of my favorite Peace Corps Volunteers! Emily and Mary came to visit for a week - flying here from Indiana and Florida (two places completely lacking of the great northwest). This was even Mary's first time on the west coast! I tried to show them everything I loved about my home, while at the same time rediscovering the connection I have to my home and community. I'm grateful and lucky to have the opportunities to travel as I do, but at the end of the day - when it's all over and done - I've got a super mighty fine place to come home to! And it's with this connection, strong in my mind, that I begin the next set of adventures that will carry me to a greater appreciation of the wonders that this world and it's people have to offer.

I've got most things in my near future figured out, roughly, but my focus now is on Supercross08! Tim and I have put in some major effort on this development and culture exchange project and we both want it to be supremely successful! Unfortunately due to a lack of sponsorships that we were hoping for, we had to cut short our trip of one year. We're uncertain exactly how long we're going to be implementing this project. Our end date is currently, "When we run out of money." My biggest hope is that we'll have enough time to get a chance to realize and achieve the potential of what we're capable of doing in order to inspire whoever we contact to want to improve themselves and also have a better understanding of the world's people!

Big dreams, you say? My only response is, "Watch this!"