I have not updated this blog in a very long time. The 2nd half of 2011 flew by so quickly, it's unbelievable. Let me recap:

• Graduated with a master's degree in May
• Sold all my major furniture, my car and my apartment
• Bought a one way ticket to San Francisco to train for my summer job
  
• Met awesome people at job training
• Led 15 teenagers to go surfing, river rafting, scuba diving and sailing in Costa Rica and Belize
• Returned to California for a 3 week road trip from San Francisco down to San Diego
• Spent a few days in Las Vegas and Washington DC before returning to my home base in North Carolina
• Spent a week and a half unpacking, then repacking to go work on a cruise ship
• Joined the cruise ship in Vancouver for 3 weeks in Alaska in September
  
• Re-positioning cruise to the Caribbean through the west coast of the US and Central America, through the Panama Canal up to Florida
• Worked 10 and 11 day cruises to the Panama Canal from Florida until the end of December

All in all, I've seen 8 new countries this year and parts of the United States that I had never seen before. I've made really good friends and had a lot of fun! It has been an awesome year and I am even more excited for 2012!

I have officially been assigned as a trip leader for a group of teenagers to Costa Rica and Belize! The trip involves surfing, scuba diving, rafting, zip lining and sailing! I love all of those activities, but am the worst at surfing, so it looks like I'll be getting some lessons and practice in!  I have known that I would be working as a trip leader since December, so I've had to be patient to find out my actual trip assignment. I am thrilled with it, and I will be heading out to San Francisco at the end of May for Wilderness First Responder training and staff training. The hardest thing is going to be packing for camping and cooler weather in San Francisco as well as equipment for Costa Rica and Belize. I am a last minute packer so I doubt I'll be too worried about that until the end of May. For now I need to focus on my schoolwork so I can graduate in May!