Whoa!...seriously

I'd almost forgotten about this little blog of mine! You know how things go...you leave the peace corps, you travel, you get home, start a new life and pretty much forget about all the old things you did. Let's see now, what has happened since I last posted... SO MUCH!!! I've been back about 7 months now and it would probably take pages upon pages upon pages to write about what's happened, so I'll just give the highlights of my life so far back in America for anyone who cares. :)

Okay, so I got home on July 18th. At the end of July I got hired on to be a 2nd grade teacher in a low income school about 40 miles from my hometown. I lasted as a teacher for a whole month and a half!!!! Teaching in America, especially as a full-time and first year teacher is no easy task! But even though it was difficult and I was working 14 hour days...I enjoyed it. I had some of the cutest kids ever. I ended up leaving because of difficulties with my principal. Just one of those long sad stories where in the end it was best for me to leave. Two days after ending my teaching career I took off on a three week road trip. Awesome! I was able to meet up with some of my bestest friends that I had made during the Peace Corps. And I saw some of the highlights in North America: Omaha, Nebraska :-), Detroit, Michigan, The CN Tower in Toronto, Pittsburgh, PA, Gettysburg, Washington DC and the highlights there, Nags Head Beach, North Carolina (where I went horseback riding on the beach!), the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, Little Rock, AR, the dust bowl of Oklahoma, and deserts of New Mexico! An amazing trip to be sure!

Ah, and after the road trip....I decided to work for my parents until I figured out what came next. I'm still working for them, at the family grocery store and for the most part I'm enjoying it. I've been given free reign to make changes and improvements and that has given me a sense of responsibility and makes me feel needed for a change. I guess the highlight has been re-vamping our produce department! I know, boring stuff to most of you out there, but for me and our little small-town market it's big stuff! :-) There's been other things to happen in the last few months but I don't need to write the sob story on them. I'll just summarize by saying my dad was injured, out of commission for almost 4 months, and now is almost back to normal! Also in the mix was a couple of brief, but emotionally draining, relationships. Lessons learned. The latest news is that I'm applying for grad school. I'm looking at a few Peace Corps Fellows programs in the states and my applications are on the way out the door. Here's hoping for my first choice...Illinois!!! It's a bit farther than home than I'd like, but hey...it's a lot closer than Bulgaria!

And that my friends is the news as of today! Happy February to you all and here's hoping that Spring is soon on it's way!