Hilarously deformed yet still delicious PB&J

Happy tree.

Hikin' along, singin' my song!

We made it!

Realization! Yes!

So after a lot of soul searching and a fair amount of research I think I've decided I'm not ready to move to Korea to teach English next year. I actually didn't discover this fact until I was chatting with Jill last night after babysitting her kids. I was explaining the pros and cons and I ended up explaining that I think I would really like to go home and pursue formal teaching training before I commit to a full year of teaching/lesson planning/managing a classroom. The experience I've gained here in Spain has been tremendous but I still feel like if I want to be a valuable teacher then I could really use training in classroom management and lesson planning. In Korea, I would have a lot more responsibility than here. And I still need to figure out if teaching is in my future. I feel very comfortable admitting that I love working with kids and being in a classroom so I think teaching might be coming into my future. But I still want to explore journalism further despite the fact that print journalism is having a really rough time in the economy right now.

This past weekend, we went on a spectacular hike from Soller to Deia that lasted pretty much all day on Saturday with a group of 16 couch surfers. It was a bunch of fun and we got to meet a lot of cool people who live on Mallorca. The views were soul lifting and I felt pretty awesome about getting outside and doing some more island exploring. Every time we are able to leave Palma and get outside, I fall a bit more in love with life here.

My Life Plan, In Progress

Today I have the day off so I've decided to engage in a bit of life planning. Serious stuff. One of Andy's friends from his last trip to Spain sent an enlightening email about the status of job hunting back home and it sounds pretty much awful. I have faith that if we really wanted to go home and find jobs, we would. These things always take time and I'm sure that it would just take some extra time to find something. But with the pressure of student loans looming and the urge to find a job with health insurance plans, I'm starting to think a bit outside the box. And thus, I sent an email today to a recruiter for an English teaching program in South Korea. The company recruits for Korea, Taiwan and China. I am most interested in Korea because I have friends that have taught there and had amazing experiences. I emailed the recruiter inquiring about teaching in public schools because I really don't want to teach at a language school. I would prefer the challenges and age ranges of a public school. So we'll see what he says. I also asked him about the health insurance coverage for Mr. Holmes. Hopefully he'll be able to enlighten me. But honestly, the program pays fairly well with rent and plane tickets and health insurance included so I feel that I owe it to myself to at least look into it. I think it could be a really amazing adventure and I am always up for adventures. So perhaps the economy failing will end up being just the push I need to change things up even more and continue on my travels. We'll have to wait and see. But I honestly think it could be really great. I'll keep you updated.

Here's the website that I was looking at for placement: http://reachtoteachrecruiting.com/index.html

Giant Creepy Mc. Creeperson Ant for Carnaval.

Carnaval!

Ouch. The facial expression for getting hit on the head by candy. Ouch.

Hiking at a beach near Deiá

Journalism Fail!

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/02/0226_miserable_cities/2.htm.

Oh man. Serious reporting fail. Is this a joke business week? Just thought I would share.

A Little List

Things that have happened since I last posted:

1. Japan fell through because the director of the program said there would be no way for me to find a job there and I would be super lonely. That´s about the time I said, "I´m out!"

2. Booked tickets to Rome for Easter Week and then I couldn´t sleep because I of my excitement to go to Italy.

3. Cooked some super yummy foods such as: White Bean and Cabbage Soup, Vegetarian Chili and Blue Cheese and Mushroom Fettuccini.

4. Came to the full realization that I adore traveling and want to spend the rest of my life doing so.

5. Dressed up as a hippie and painted Andy as a skeleton to attend a rockin´Carnival party a week later than Carnival which meant we recieved a number of very confused looks on the bus ride.

6. Started a new painting in my favorite color of all time: purple!

7. Decided to stay in Palma until August but have yet to bite the bullet and pay the fee to change the plane ticket.

8. Went and layed out on the beach on a mildly warm day and day-dreamed of Mallorcan summer.

9. Hosted some super awesome couchsurfers.

10. Took up jogging/walking on the boardwalk and fell in love with living on the med. all over again!