"In learning you will teach and in teaching you will learn."

Well summer is over and fall is here and I guess that made me nostalgic for school... but I do not want to go BACK to school just yet so my life has taken an unexpected (or maybe expected/predicted by some) turn toward teaching!

But more on that later, first of all, where in the USA AM I these days?!? ...If you find yourself asking that question a lot (even my siblings are guilty of it at times) it is TOTALLY understandable as I seem to change addresses, states, and locations more frequently than Russia gets hit with sanctions.

Well let me clear up the confusion! Right now I am in Myrtle Beach, SC and (WAIT FOR IT) I will be here for at least a year because I just accepted a job as a Preschool Teacher in the 3 year old class room at Belin Creative Learning Center which is associated with the United Methodist Church. 

Additionally, If you are confused about where I was the last 5 years here is a recap:

1. 2010 Graduated from APU (Azusa, CA)
2. 2010-2013 I lived and worked as a nanny for the Song family in/around Boston, MA
3. September 2013 I moved with boyfriend Ben to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (for his work)
4. In February 2014- August 2014 I lived and worked with the same Song family in Ann Arbor, MI
5. And a few weeks ago September 2014 I returned to Myrtle Beach, SC

What's next? 

Right now I am currently in the process of applying for Teach for America! If selected I would be placed in one of 10 cities I list and in either an elementary, middle school or high school class room.  Teach for America offers compensation, student loan benefits, and scholarships for Master's degrees in education in exchange for working/living in an inner city area and working with lower income families and school districts. If selected I would start teaching Fall of 2015 and commit to the program for 2 years!

Lastly, this summer in Ann Arbor Michigan was amazing! 

Definitely one of the best of my life. I made so many lasting friendships and salsa danced a TON! Saying goodbye to the Song children was hard, but I know it will only be temporary because they will be apart of me for ever! Some of the highlights from this summer were:

1. I ran my first 5K! (Color run woot woot)
2. I went inter-tubing on a river at NIGHT!
3. I salsa danced 3-5 nights a week
4. I got to hold my new niece in California: Caroline <3
5. I threw my friend De a glow party
6. I got to be in my little sister's wedding! (and gained a brother)
7. I drove 14 hours to and from Michigan by myself!
8. I saw the Song girls in "The King and I"
9. I saw "The Book of Mormon" in Detroit
10. I did a Rueda Flashmob in downtown Detroit
11. I taught Emi Song (4 years old) how to swim

It was a great summer and I know this next chapter will be great as well!!

"Home" is where the heart is?

Many of you have been asking about the details of my future and I would be happy to share the ones that I myself already know!  The day after tomorrow (May 2nd) I will be on a plane back to Ann Arbor Michigan to work with the Song family as their FULL TIME nanny.  Both parents will now be working and so I will have a full 40 hours a week with my favorite little ones and I am so excited!!!

As I near my departure from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina I am surprisingly nostalgic and a bit sad to be leaving a place that I can finally say has become one of my many "homes."  I have worked more than enough hours at both Starbucks and the pool and made many new friends in the process. I am more in love than ever with my best friend of almost 4 years (Ben) and will miss him terribly...

With all of that said, this move to Michigan will be semi-permanent. The word I am using is "indefinite." For now, I will be in Michigan working and reevaluating things with the Song family at the end of July. We intend to keep "reevaluating" every few months until I decide the next step in my life.  So for now I am saying goodbye to Myrtle Beach and hello to Ann Arbor (A2) and I am having the most extreme of mixed emotions!

Tonight I will head out with some close friends in Myrtle Beach to say our final goodbyes, and Saturday I will have a welcome back BBQ with my group of salsa friends in Ann Arbor! On top of all of that at the end of May I will be in California and again in July to celebrate my sisters wedding and the birth of my niece!  

At the end of the day, I realize I am so blessed and so happy to have so many different families, homes, and friends! And I am so excited to see what the future brings!

"Sometimes in the * W A V E S * of change we find our true direction."

MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA

So this is the lovely view of the Atlantic Ocean and white sand beach that is just outside my window! It makes me wish I had never left and although it is rainy today, the weather is soon to be in the 60s-80s and I will for sure be in that ocean again!

On April 1st I flew from Detroit, Michigan back to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina! I landed at 8:30am and that VERY SAME day I jumped into THIS pool to teach my first swim lesson of the April session:

April 2nd was Benjamin's 30th birthday and so on the 4th we drove 6 hours to be with his family in Williamsburg Virginia! That put me in 4 states in 4 days! (Michigan, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia too!) We had a fantastic time with friends and family and ate waaaaay too much food! Monday the 7th we drove back so that I could have time to jump in the pool for more lessons and today (the 8th) I started up again at Starbucks in the mornings with the pool in the afternoons!

As for the future plans there will be A LOT more traveling!! I will be finishing the swim lessons to their completion on May 1st and then MAY 2nd I will be back on a plain to Michigan! 

MAY 29th-JUNE 1st I will be traveling from Michigan to California to be the maid of honnor in my little sister's wedding.

JULY 15th-JULY 23 I will be visiting California again for a friend's wedding and to meet my niece who is due at the end of June!

I will also be taking weekend trips back to South Carolina to visit Ben and he will be taking trips up to Michigan to visit last he did last month!

The Song's and I have talked about reevaluating both of our needs at the end of July and there is always a possibility that I will head back more permanently to the beach with Ben. For now that part is up in the air and I am going to enjoy all of the travel I get to do until then! 

"When in doubt take the next step..."

For those of you following my random life journey around the United States, here is what I have been up to!

 Since arriving almost 2 months ago in Ann Arbor Michigan, I have been having a blast! I was reunited with the Song family and celebrated Valentine's Day, my 26th birthday, and St. Patrick's Day!

I have also been going out salsa dancing about 4 times a week and have already made a new group of salsa friends!

Although I have been so happy and fulfilled, I realized I wanted to share all of this with my best friend and I miss him terribly! Luckily in just 48 hours I will be in his arms again because he is coming to Michigan for the weekend! (and just in time for our 3 and a half year anniversary on the 23rd of March)

Ben and I plan to salsa dance and celebrate his 30th birthday with the Song family and a few awesome surprises I have planned! After he returns to South Carolina I will be returning for a while as well! I have booked a ONE WAY ticket to Myrtle Beach South Carolina for April 1st (no April fools joke). I will be leaving my car and some things here in Michigan and although everything is very up in the air, I plan to return to Michigan to work FULL time as the Song's nanny starting in May.

How long I will stay in Michigan after that depends a lot on finances, relationships, and things that I can not possibly predict at this point but I am happy and healthy and enjoying my mid twenties to the fullest!

A new adventure!

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” 

― Terry Pratchett

For those of you have have known me long, you know I love adventure. I love new places, new languages, new cultures, new foods, and new experiences. I sometimes forget all of the amazing experiences I have already had in my 25 years of life and so here is a place to document my past, present, and future adventures.

After moving from Southern California to Boston Massachusetts, and now to good old South Carolina (and driving my Ford to each of those places) I have done a good deal of exploring the United States. However, I have had my share of foreign experiences as well. I have bargained in the market places of Antigua Guatemala, I have dipped my feet in the Vltava River in Prague, and picked lice out of orphan girls hair in Mexico. I have stood in awe of Niagara Falls (on the Canada side), ridden a camel to the Great pyramids and sailed on a fluca on the Nile river at Sunset. I have spent the night under the stars in a Bedouin camp in Wadi Rum Jordan, hiked to the top of Mount Sinai, and traded the earrings out of my ear to a 5 year old girl in Petra. I have explored on my own the old city of Jerusalem, witness multiple open heart surgeries in Tel Aviv, and driven Muslim children to and from the Gaza border for medical treatment. 

Travel is one part, but I also have been able to experience so much in my 25 years of life.  Living with no electricity and running water I experienced life as a colonist in the 1628 for the reality show Colonial House (PBS).  I was able to sing 6 times in front of 11,000 people for Pawsox Idol and through votes I won allowing me to sing again on TV and the National Anthem as well. I have performed salsa dancing at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Boston Aquarium, for goodness sake I taught Oprah Winfrey how to milk a goat!

The past 3 years living as a full time nanny in a family that I love has really opened up my mind and heart. Even though I will always have my sense of adventure I find myself longing to settle down. I want to be a wife and a mom live near family and friends. Raise my kids to be good people. Cook and laugh and entertain. Buy a house, live simply. Growing up I would have thought that you could only have one or the other. A single crazy life of adventure or a boring life of monotony and routine. But I realize now that you can have both! Having kids and raising them WILL be my next crazy adventure. I will take them with me, camping, and traveling, teach them about other cultures and show them new experiences. Watch in wonder as they experience things for the first time. This is what I want.

Ok now to the point, right now I am not a wife, I am not a mother, but I am ready for my next adventure. For a while I was feeling sorry for myself stuck in a place in life where one phase of adventure had ended and another had not yet begun. Bored, depressed, lonely, impatient, aaaaaand in the south. So my answer? Create my own adventure! A week from tomorrow I will be in my trusty Ford driving 12 hours to Ann Arbor Michigan. I will be reunited with the Song family that I love, and I will be once again working with them for the months of February and March. Ella is now 6, Emi is 4, and Vincent is 1. Along with negative temperatures and exploring Ann Arbor, they will once again be my latest adventure.  My tentative plan is to come back to South Carolina at the end of March, but I am not 100% sure what the future holds for me. Right now I am hoping to figure that out the only way I know how by living my life with God, family, and adventure.