Causation for my Goggle Tan!

It’s been a little while since I posted mainly cause my butt has been handed to me by my job.  I started working at an on snow ski patroller a week ago today and it hasn’t been rainbows and fairy tales let me tell you!  Some aspects I am learning kinda quickly and it’s great then there are the parts that are kicking my ass!  Mainly it is about the handling or well stopping of the toboggan with some one in it. 

I passed my map test today so I officially know all the trails at Okemo.  I have to take my snowplow test again on Monday, which totally sucks but I understand.  Just trying to keep keeping on and hope that this is what I’m supposed to be doing and if it’s not that what I am supposed to be doing hits me in the face.  But until I will just keep pushing myself everyday and pray it works out.  

Do one thing every day that scares you. Eleanor Roosevelt

Decided to change it up a little this time.  Here are some of my favorite quotes with pictures from my adventure to the beach today!

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.  H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people. Eleanor Roosevelt

“If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything.” 
― Malcolm X

I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on. I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision. Eleanor Roosevelt

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” 
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life. Eleanor Roosevelt

“Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.” 
― John Lennon

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience. Eleanor Roosevelt

“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.” ― Dr. Seuss

 

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” ― Douglas Adams,

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Eleanor Roosevelt

I know not what weapons world war III will be fought with, but world war IV will be fought with sticks and stones~ Albert Einstein

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.~ Joseph Campbell

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...” ― Dr. Seuss, 

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” ― Albert Einstein

“I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.” ― Audrey Hepburn

So you just graduated, you must be good at rejection..

I’ve been back in the states for about two weeks.  The main goal has been getting unjetlagged and then looking for a job.  When the whole job thing doesn’t work it usually means I help with sawing logs into lumber or moving said logs something along those lines.  One day last week I went and visited my college it was a very strange thing to be back there.  It’s strange in general to be not in college actually.

I was one of those confusing students for everyone in the science department. I ended up an environmental science major by default mainly because it was science and I figured I could find something I would like to do.  Boy was I wrong or at least until this summer.  Every aspect of my major that I was exposed to (with the exception of GIS) I could not see myself doing as a career.  To say confusion and a feeling of lost dominated my college experience when it came to finding a job would be an understatement.  Being back at Castleton knowing what I wanted to do was amazing!

It’s a very new place for me to be in.  Now almost four months behind the rest of my friends I am joining the job search, and it sucks!!  I have gotten so used to rejection that I don’t even want to apply for jobs anymore for the fact I know I will get rejected.  Luckily it’s winter hiring for summer rangers, temp employees and the like isn’t very high so I get to enjoy what will hopefully be my last winter not being a full time permanent employee doing something I love.  I know that my ambition will likely go down before it climbs again but I will eventually get a job as a ranger some how.  It may be years from now but I will do it! 

My Failure as a Blogger

I have failed miserably at bloging this trip like I had planned.  Every time I went to sit down and actually create a post I would have nothing I really wanted to say.  But now I guess I finally have something to say.

Me and the view from Margret Bridge in Budapest

While nothing this summer has gone according to the plan I made over the winter I am 100% okay with that!  Maybe plans are over rated.  I didn’t plan this trip beyond a couple of cities I may want to go to, Budapest, Salzburg, Prague and Vienna where on that list.  I made it to half of them and I’m not upset about that at all.  Actually if I had stuck to that plan I wouldn’t have met some of the people I got to meet. 

While the places I saw were amazing this trip has had more to do with the people I’ve been able to meet and what I have been able to accomplish on my own.  With the exception of Berlin and Amsterdam I was on my own each time I entered a new city yet by the time I left I wasn’t anymore. 

I started in Munich, completely lost and convinced that this trip was a gigantic mistake until the second day I was there these two guys (Marcus and Johnny) started talking to me then around the fire someone else started talking to me.  Before I knew it I had met the English Leprechauns and we were laughing hysterically!  By the time I left Munich I was convinced I had made the right choice and everything would be okay.

One of our Sound of Music shots, we got photobombed by a nun.

So off to Salzburg I went, no clue what I actually wanted to see there I’d figure that out when I got there.  And after I slept, the night I left Munich I didn’t sleep I did however fall off a very strange playground thing. Once I woke up I met my roomies!  Alice, Joe and Jenny (and while she wasn’t a roomie) Lily.  Without you guys I don’t think I would have had as much fun.  The Sound of Music Tour, recreating as many pictures as we could through out Maribell Gardens and Salzburg.  The political talks with Alice, I had a great time in Salzburg!!!

Johnny showing me how gracefully I fell the night before. 

Budapest was the city I was most excited to see from the time I started reading the book I bought about it, yet it was also the place I was most nervous about.  Germany I had under control I could read enough signs, knew how things worked I was calm cool and collected there but Hungary… yeah not so much.  And boy was I lost that first hour.  I had no idea where to get my bus ticket, exactly where I was going, no idea what the signs said.  I made it to the hostel and was talked into going on a pub crawl.  I am happy that I did that I have blast!  It was a great group of people and we all laughed a ton.  I definitely want to go back to Budapest since I was sick for part of my stay there.  I can’t complain though, I spent 2 months in Kentucky and then a month in Europe and it was the first time I was sick.

Now I am heading to Munich to close out my trip.  Hopefully this time I won’t be such a mess I will actually see some of the city.  I can’t believe that my trip is days from being over.  In some ways I don’t even recognize who I was when I graduated in May.  I know that I’m still that girl but I’m different more adventurous maybe.  More willing to try things I know that much.  But I’m calmer in a lot of ways, I don’t need to plan every day of my life if I have an idea what my next week will look like I’m good with that.  Hopefully this continues I like the freedom, the peace. 

I have loved being in Europe but I am soooo ready to be back in Vermont.  It is where I belong and where I really want to be.  Hopefully whatever job I finally do get allows me to stay there. 

Amsterdam

Canal in Amsterdam

After a nerve wrecking last hour driving to JFK and missing my flight I got on a plane to Berlin, Germany!  Once I got to Berlin it took a little to figure out how to get to the metro station I was meeting Tonya and Dave at and then actually find them! 

I spent three days in Amsterdam and it is a great city!  The first night that we were there we walked around had dinner at Hard Rock Café on the canal then I went back to the hotel and crashed!  I was so tired and I slept most of the way here from Berlin.

The second day we woke up and went to Anne Frank House.  I read the book when I was in sixth grade because I wanted to not because I was told to by a teacher.  I loved the book so much!  It was definitely a hard read for me since I hadn’t been reading that long at grade level and also because it was a hard subject as well.  While reading the book I even had nightmares that I was living in the annex and mom wouldn’t let me read the book at night.

The tour was amazing, it cost 9 euro and you went through the whole place.  The tour started in the new museum/ visitors center then brings you into the warehouse that Otto Frank had his spice and pectin company in.  In every room there were quotes from Anne’s Diary on the walls and some pictures or posters from the company.  Then you headed up the stairs into the office that Kruger had who ran the company while Otto was hiding.  Behind that was Meip’s office that she shared with another women that helped hide the families. 

The train station in Amsterdam

The entire house is empty exactly like it was left following the discovery of the families exactly how Otto wanted it.  To give you an idea of what the annex looked like however a model was built to the exact specifications of Otto Frank.  To get into the annex you had to climb up the front set of stairs and wow they are steep! I hit my knee on the step just walking normally.  Once at the top of the stairs you walk through a room not really sure what it was for and find yourself In front of the movable bookcase.  Seeing that bookcase being in that space was crazy.  I had imagined what it looked like for the last 10 years of my life and to actually be inside of the annex was mind boggling.  Anne’s room was so much smaller than I imagined it to be.  It was also surprising to see how well the window shades really did blackout the rooms. 

To be in a place that I had spent so much time imagining was crazy to see what I thought it looked like compared to the real thing was amazing.  It is something I wish more people could do.  

The End of the Begining

Tomorrow is my last day working at Nolin.  I can’t believe how quickly everything went by.  I feel like I was just getting to Kentucky and so nervous about starting my internship and now I have met some amazing people gained great friends and I am heading back north home for a couple of days. 

Today I not only worked my last full day as an SCA Water Safety Intern I also applied for the first time to be a park ranger for the Corps.  It was completely random and I don’t except much of my first application but I applied.  That is something I have learned from this experience.  Just go for it, if I decide later if the I get the position that I don’t want it I can always say no.  But I at least have to try.

With the help of everyone at Nolin especially Danielle and Chris once I told them I was interested in getting a ranger position I accomplished everything on the checklist for hiring.  Thanks to Dan I managed to get some water safety contacts out on the boat (well more than some).  Thanks to Carl I now know what a Gypsy Moth trap looks like and how to check them.  And Jason you are the reason I am going back to Vermont with some very random sayings and having had tons of laughs and also a minor issue with taking picture of docks.  And Deryck thank you for saying “ so if I offered this position to you right now would you accept it?”  It was the first time I did something totally unexpected of me and I learned so much about my self and what I want to do.  Everyone that I worked with was amazing and considering how many I worked with I can’t even try to thank them all.

Who knows if the opportunity presents it self I just may be back to annoying you all again soon! :) <3

Week 5

Week 5 was little bit different than my other weeks in Kentucky since half of it was in Tennessee as my previous post kinda says.  I loved being in the mountains again!  It definitely made me miss home something fierce tho!  I finished the draft of the Junior Ranger Program for Nolin this week finally!!!  I never thought I was going to finish it.  Really all that is left is for me to show it to some people and figure out how to get the kids to do the booklets. 

While I am having a blast here I can’t wait to go home and head to Europe.  Since I am heading home in two weeks from today I know that I am going to be missing everyone that I have met here!  I really hope that I can come back down for a visit next year depending on what I have for a job.

Gatlinburg!!!!!!

The River at the picnic area for Chimney

Yesterday we got into Gatlinburg and went tubing down the river.  It was a blast! I got just a bit ( maybe a lot) sun burnt and also bashed my knee on a rock but had a great time we spent the entire afternoon there.

View of the river from the first bridge on the trail

View from Chimney Tops

Today we woke up actually fairly early considering the fact that we didn’t actually leave the house until 11am.  Danielle, Natalie, Noah, Joey and I went on a hike up to the Chimney Tops in the National Park.  It’s a four mile round trip hike.  At the bottom it didn’t seem like it would be that bad…. Yeah about that.  The second mile was deathly!  Then once you actually made it to the top of the trail you had to scale your way up a rock face to get to the chimneys.  It was an adventure that for sure.  However, we didn’t even see the chimneys (opps) we were too busy taking pictures of the view.  The way down pretty steep and I managed to only roll my ankle once!!!

Me at the top of the Chimney Tops

Once we got off the trail we went of the road to New Found gap I think it is right at the state line between North Carolina and Tennessee.  Great views but we were all so tired we just sat in the care for like five minutes before we moved :)

Tomorrow we are going to ZORB and WonderWorks. Should be a good day again! 

Week 4

Week 4

Well not much to talk about I guess.  Starting to miss home a bit but also getting really excited for head to Europe!!! Today I am leaving for Gatlinburg, Tennessee for a couple of days with Danielle.  I can’t believe that I have been here for four weeks already and only have another three before I head home and onto my next adventure!!! 

Week 3

      One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.~ Andre Gide

      I graduated college seven weeks ago, not much time in the grand scheme of things but yet my life is completely different than I imagined it less than two months ago.  If anything had gone according to plan right now I would be sight seeing my way back to Vermont from California.  While in some ways I am sad that my trip did happen but in other ways it was the best thing that could have happened to me.  That’s what a lot of people didn’t get when I told them the trip was canceled they thought I should be mad or at the very least sad.  Trust me I was crushed that a trip I had planned for more than six months went up in smoke in a matter of six minutes but when I look back I’m so happy how it worked out.

      Now after having lived in a camper in Bee Spring, Kentucky for the last three weeks.  My first foray into living alone it’s amazing how much I’ve changed.  I only realized this today when I posted a status about how much Rian has changed in my time here.  When I posted this Kathy who among many roles in my life is my best friend Jacki’s Mom and my mom’s best friend as well.  Kathy was always the one telling me to go away, be a kid, get dirty, get lost in the woods.  After a camping trip with what felt like a million pre teen and teenage boys I understood why she told me that. But back to what I’m talking about :)

      Kathy posted that she was thinking the same about how much I’ve grown up too. Until that moment I really hadn’t realized how much I had grown up.   So I thought about it, I’m living alone, having to do my own food shopping and feed myself in a place where I knew no one until I started working here and really still don’t’ know anyone and I’m not running scared.  In fact I’m loving it and seriously considering finding a position with the COE anywhere I can get one.

      Which is in total contradiction anything and everything I have said over the last four years in school.  I bet if any of my professors read this especially Coupe and Grover they are shaking their head right now but I guess this is part of growing up.  I guess I’m finally growing enough to reach the potential so many people thought I had when I wasn’t sure.  I can only imagine how different I will be after the four weeks I have left here and then the five I will be in Europe.

For once in my life I’m not going to fight this change, I have no doubt Laurie, Rachel and Staci will get phone calls from me spazzing that I’m convinced I’m making a huge mistake but I know they will make sure I keep doing what is making me happy. 

July 5th

Like June 16th, March 19th and March 30th July 5th is a date I won't soon forget. The halfway point in the worst year of my life, the day I lost my second grandparent in three months. It sucked still kinda does but at least I know that Grandpa did everything he wanted to his way. <3

Week 2!

Week 2

So It’s been so crazy I haven’t had time to post anything since 

The lake from one of the campgrounds

I’ve been down internet.  I am loving the job, still working on getting to learn some more information about water safety.  I finally went into Bowling Green this week and did some laundry and shopping. It’s a cool town hopefully I will spend some more time there.  Friday I went for a drive with Pat to Green River Lake and got to meet everyone up there.  I had a great time they had a fish fry and I actually ate it.  It wasn’t bad still not totally used to eating fish that isn’t Fluke but I know I have to try it seven times before it actually starts to taste good.  Saturday I made the trip on my own to Green to help with some water safety in the Campgrounds there.  We took Seamoor around the campgrounds talking to kids and giving them Frisbees.  Seamoor is the water safety dragon who rides a jet ski.  I think Staci would like him lol.  Got back late from green so I slept in a bit on Saturday then came into work.  I am working on creating a Jr Ranger program here at Nolin so I did some work on that before Danielle and I went out on the boat for a couple of hours doing patrol. 

      It was lightning out last night I so hoped it would rain but no such luck. I guess it rained at Dog Creek last night… or I think that is where they were talking about still don’t have all of the park attendants tied to their campgrounds.  This week is going to be a little nuts I think.  So far I have worked on the Jr. Ranger program and setting up a schedule for water safety programs in the campgrounds and at Iberia. Still have some holes to fill in but I’m getting the hang of it or at least I hope so. 

Happy 4^th of July to everyone!

~Anna

Week 1 a little late :)

Week 1

It’s been a long week! I’ve learned so much it’s crazy!  After spending the two days driving down here and getting settled in I spent the rest of the week trying not to get lost.  The first day I got to know Jason who is the summer ranger at Nolin. We went around to all of the day use areas as well as the campgrounds.  The rest of the week pretty much consisted of getting ready for summer splash at the state park.  It was a great event a ton of people came out to the event to listen to music and watch the fireworks.

Fireworks from the Summer Splash

I’m still getting used to the heat, I think I am getting there since at like 7 at night I will go out and read when the temp is about down to 85 or 86 degrees. 

I’ve been learning a bunch about the corps and how a dam is constructed.  I am really enjoying the work and trying to figure out if the corps has ranger positions in Vermont or New England for that matter.  I got to go into the tower for the dam today and see what that was like. In the next couple of weeks I will be going inside the dam when they are doing an inspection.

The Boats on the water before the fireworks at summer splash

Where I am living is really close to a National Park named Mammoth Cave.  It is the largest network of caves in the country.  One day while I am here I am going to be going on a tour and maybe even a ride along with one of the national park rangers. I’m really excited for that.  I feel like this internship is helping me more than a lot of my classes did because I am able to get the feel for what I can do with my degree more.

I’m learning how many different jobs can be held with a degree like mine and I’m loving it.  Now if only any of these jobs where near Vermont then my life would be easy. :) That’s something to worry about when I get home in September though.

Until the next time I can get internet.

~ Anna 

Opps

So I wrote a post the other day on my computer but I forgot to post it while I had internet today. I'll try an get it posted this weekend at somepoint. I finally went swimming in the lake! It was so nice it's about 85 degrees by the air was 104 when I was swimming.. Back to work tomorrow through Monday then I get three days off for the fourth. Trying to decide what I'm doing in my next weekend may go on an adventure to mammoth cave np it may go to Nashville who knows. :)

Day 3

Yesterday I did some shopping and finished setting up my camper. Nice easy day just relaxing went for a dip in the lake, read a book and was cooler than everyone back home.
Today I was back at work, nothing really special. Met Deryck who is lead ranger at Nolin. Watched him work on a map for the new mountain biking trail they are opening up Saturday at the state park. Learned how to do playground inspections and believe it or not got to dog creek campground and the state park with out getting lost!
I'm really enjoying work so far. I think I am going to learn a ton!!
Social life right now is pretty much big bang theory an that's it :) tomorrow I'll go up and help Harold at the toll house since he's running the campground alone right now his wife broke her ankle the day before I got here.
Busy weekend ahead but for now here's a picture of my view from my picnic table.

Day 1

Hope this works! Need to do some work I guess

“The future doesn't belong to the faint-hearted; it belongs to the brave”

All day today I just felt like I was doing the right thing.  Every time I saw something new I felt like I was going where I was supposed to be going.  And then it hit me right about the time I crossed the border in Kentucky, I took a job in which I don’t really know what I’m doing. In a place I know nothing about where I know no one.  But I still feel like I made the right decision. 

From Sunday night two weeks ago to the following Wednesday when I accepted this position to now I can’t believe this is me on this adventure.  It may be an epic fail due to not planning, not knowing and so many other things but it could be great and I went for it! 

Things I Learned Today

The things I learned while driving for 8 hours!

~ New York is a GIGANTIC state!!!

~ I90 is a really really really long road!

~ Ohio likes to create bump strips in the roads in construction zones.

~ Ohio likes really sharp curves on main highways.

~ Rain near a great lake sucks to drive in!

~ Eight hours of driving alone in a car will make you loose some marbles.

~ I heard Call Me Maybe 10 times ( not including my phone ringing)

~ When driving entering new states makes you feel better about yourself.

~ When you finally see the town you are going to on a sign you jump up and down.

~ When you see the first other vt plate in about 7 hours you get really excited.

I get to do it all over again tomorrow!  

Belonging

“I had friends at school, but I was never part of a gang and I dreamed of that sense of belonging to a group.”~Emily Mortimer

This sense of belonging is a new one and today I finally understood. Seeing people who my world revolved around for years I realized that with them I was myself but I was always trying to be what I thought they wanted me to be not myself.  It’s been a process, like a two year process but I have finally got it. I hope anyways.

I have a great group of friends that accept me for my crazy, sometimes quiet mainly loud talkative, hyper, giggly self. Yes they pick on me ALL the time but I love them for it!  I leave tomorrow on an adventure, while it may not be the one I had originally planned I hope I learn about myself and why I want to stay right where I am.  Kentucky and Europe will be a blast, I will learn so much, see so many things but I get the feeling by the middle of September I will be just as excited to the amazing Green Mountains that I love so much.  They are my home, I may leave for a little bit but I will always be back! 

If life gives you lemons look on the positive side!

Well today was an interesting day!  The trip that I had been planning for months all of a sudden came to halt 3 days before I was leaving.  As much as I want to go on a cross country trip I didn’t want to go alone, it’s too much driving.  I am still going to Europe for 4-6 weeks in August I’m just not sure what I am going to do between now and then.  After having talked to my friend Rachel I am most likely going to spend some time in Boston and go to the cape with her for a bit too.  I want to go to Acadia National Park, Laurie and I may take the kids up for a week of camping or at least a couple of days something.   

I really thought that I could do the trip alone but the more I think about it the more I’m like nope nope nope.  I’m trying to figure out what I am going to do for the month of July right now.  I want it to be an adventure of some kind not sure what yet tho.  I have time, a lot has happened today.  There will always be bumps in the road to figuring out who the heck I am I guess and this was just a bit bigger than I thought I would hit anytime soon. :/ 

Graduation!

Justin and I before Graduation!

Graduation, usually a big scary event. For me is was a lot of unknowns, did I actually pass? What am I going to do? Will the trip go well? But when it comes down to it Saturday was a celebration!  I had a great time at my party, Staci climbed a tree in a dress ( she had shorts on underneath) I ended up getting picked up and getting her a branch by Cam. :)  I think everyone just about had a good time.

Some drama happened but is there a party where drama doesn’t happen? I don’t think so! And the way I look at it the drama caused a conversation that needed to happen. I am okay, in the moment I was upset but I have been able to step back and be OKAY! It happened and I want to move on I love both of my friends to pieces and I don’t want to loose them over something stupid.

Staci, Will and I after graduation!

The fact that I can make the decision process work is a testament to the amount I have grown this year thanks in large party to the people that I have become friends with.  Growing up, fitting in and finding friends is hard and I’m finally getting there! I know I have  ton more growing up to do but I hope the people I have come to know this last year are here to stay!