What's Next?

You may be just dying to know what is next for Katy. You are sitting, anxiously awaiting where I will be off to and the answer is finally here. I checked my voicemail this morning after missing a call from my mom in the middle of the night. I was nervous because my dog has been very sick and I thought she might have been calling to tell me that he died or something traumatic like that. I finally listened to the message which revealed that I had been accepted to the University of Washington, my top choice for college. I jumped out of bed and called my mom back to make sure it was real and that I wasn't still dreaming (by the way it was 5 in the morning her time). You can image my giddy laugh when she confirmed that, yes, I am going to the University of Washington. Soooo excited right now! I really feel like this school is so much better for me than any school I previously thought about attending. So in just the next few weeks, I will be off to California then off again to find housing in Seattle!

I tried to get all artistic with my new photos, but I'm not quite sure I pulled it off.

New Pictures

I went with my aunt and uncle to help them take some pictures of their family and decided to take a few of myself, but I'm not sure if I'm loving them. Let me know what you think. Keep 'em or retake? Obviously this is just one, but I wasn't going to take the time to edit them if I'm not going to keep them plus I'm being extra lazy today. I got to bed so late last night that I just slipped my shirt off without taking off my sweatshirt (I know...pretty impressive) and it's been that way ever since. We even went to run errands today and yep I'm still just wearing my sweatshirt. I need some motivation. Give me some good news!

A Little Explanation

So you may ask, what am I doing out here in the middle of nowhere anyway? Well my aunt emailed me while I was still in Thailand and asked if I would be willing to fly out and watch her kids while she and her husband went to Hawaii. My first thought was, "how about we all go to Hawaii," but after a thirty-seconds I thought, "sure, why not? I'm always up for a new adventure." Without even looking up the place where I would be living for awhile, I set off on a plane and found myself here. My aunt has gone and come back from Hawaii yet I can't bring myself to leave just yet. Now I spend my days helping my aunt with her business and launching her new website. What does she do you ask? She designs and sells vinyl graphics for walls and other such things. You should visit her website at http://www.simply2inspire.com/, it's pretty cool. She also has a blog with craft ideas at http://www.simplytoinspire.com/. I'm in charge of helping create new ideas and I have found ti to be a lot of fun so far. I designed and created this Merry Christmas sign all by myself. I was very proud of my accomplishment. Vinyl really can be used to do anything. If you have an idea just let us know and we can create it.

New Adventure

I have been back from Thailand for several months now and I'm already off on a new adventure. Sure it's not anywhere glamorous like Fiji or Thailand, but it's very different from what I'm used to. I'm currently living in Mascoutah Illinois. Yes it is a real place. I've never seen so many corn fields, but I'm actually quite liking it. The people here are really nice and welcoming. I've even made some friends. I went to a Halloween party last night and it turned into a dance party. Guy's were actually dancing. I know, crazy right? I am only familiar with girls dancing like you know what and guys leaning against walls and watching. I think I'm going to enjoy being here even though my time is almost over. Where to next?

Thanks again for everyone who has supported me thus far, I know I tend to be unpredictable, but isn't kind of fun trying to keep up? What did she do? Where is she going? Didn't she just move somewhere else? Well at least it's fun for me. I guess I'm just a wanderer.

Last Day

Well I'm very sad to say that today is that last official day that I will be in Thailand. I am deeply going to miss all the kids that I have worked with in Thailand and I hope to be able to come back soon. I closed out all my projects and I'm going to write them all off as a success.

Yesterday was the last day teaching the leadership course at DEPDC and I was pleasantly surprised with the kids. We completed the last lesson and then gave them time to write their own biographies. We were worried that it would be hard for the students to open up, but they all decided to share their stories which pretty much brought me to tears. These kids are so remarkable and have been through so much. I'm proud of the young men and women that they have become. We gave each of them a certificate of completion in the course and then they gave each of the four teachers, Matt, Ryleigh, Dave, and myself a letter signed by each of them. The point of the course was to get them thinking about the future in ways that they hadn't before and to examine themselves. I really feel like we accomplished that. I would like to go back to the states and raise money to provide scholarships for these kids to continue their education after DEPDC. Thank you to all my team members who helped make this project happen.

What a way to leave Thailand, my last weekend was spent on top of an elephant's head, holding on to dear life to an ostrich's wings, at a Thai BBQ(which was really hard to actually get food), oh and I got bit by a dog. I love this place. Goodbye sweet sweet Thailand.

I survived

I can officially say that I have seen most of the far reaches of Thailand. I have been all the way from Burma to the southern tip of Phuket. It took nine days and I used all of my vacation days, but I did it. It only took 7 buses, 7 mini-buses, 8 moto's, 7 taxi's, 5 sky trains, 4 boats, 6 tuk tuk's, and 1 airplane. It was an exhausting trip, but I met some really great Thai people along the way and they reinforced my love for Thailand. But I'm back now and getting down to work for my last week here.

The week before I left, we had a great anti-drug presentation in a distant Hmong village. We taught kids that were around the ages 13-16. I'm really not sure how much they got out of it because much of it was probably lost in translation, but I'm writing it off as success.