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Where is traveling pants Nicole now?

Sooo I'm still missing a few pieces of the puzzle on my blog to get you all up to date! I need to blog about Cambodia and Laos. I'm still waiting on a few friends to put up their pictures so I can put together an awesome video like i've done in the past for each country. Time just always seems to slip away so fast and my calendar fills up like crazy!

I returned home Dec 17th and again managed to kick jet lag in the but by sleeping lots and lots on the long plane trips, and by staying up the entire night before taking off early at 5am Vietnam time! The first food I ate was a huge Chipotle Burrito followed by a nice little dinner that my mom set up for me with some family friends at Oreganos.. I felt like i've never stuffed my face like that before, and topped everything off with a pizookie (or pizza cookie, a somewhat unbaked cookie fresh out of the oven with ice cream on top). That week I enjoyed spending time with my brothers after they returned from Tucson, a family Christmas party, spending time with the dogs and taking them to the dog park, and so much more! After Christmas we headed to Durango to catch some slope side fun!

I spent a few days of the trip working on my resume and submitting tons of job applications. I'm so grateful that everything is so easily available online and people email back so quickly. I also had two interviews on the phone. Just before this trip though made the job hunt a bit more difficult. I accepted a position as a site director for Sierra Service Project which meant I had employment starting in June.. Which means I basically had from the second week in Jan until June.. Most big companies definitely don't want that.. I also am such an honest person and would feel terrible accepting a job where they had to train me and then I quit after such a short amount of time. I ended up setting up an interview for a nannying position just a few miles away from my house. I wrote on my application that I was only available until June but this family was so desperate to find someone they said they rather have until June than another job take me.. So I now nanny for the cutest little 18 month old girl named Molly. Both mom and dad work. They live in a great and safe neighborhood with two boyfriends the same age as her just around the block also with nannies. Andrew's nanny is from Japan and Hunter's nanny is from Peru.. So we are quite the multicultural group speaking all sorts of languages to the little ones while they play in the park together every morning.  That's work :)

After work i've been concentrating a lot on working out and returning to a level of fitness that I was before i left for Korea. I did a month long boot camp, and continue to mix up my fitness routines. This past weekend I completed a triathalon and totally knocked my own socks off. I had been preparing a little bit but had done the bootcamp until just one week before soo was physically training just not specifically for the tri. I placed 6/18 in my age group and completed the entire thing including transitions in 1:00:24. It was a 2 mile run, 400m swim, and an 8 mile bike ride!

My other hobby and time consumer is definitely my Ultimate Frisbeee Addiction! It's definitely taken time to get involved in frisbee but after doing a mini league in January and starting the big 20 team spring league things are up and rolling. I was playing at least twice a week between pick up and games. Now there are more drills, and competitive pick ups going on for the players to prepare for club try outs in May. I was recruited to join one of the Phoenix teams however I will miss the season. Frisbee has definitely been a way for me to meet lots of great people, and have a social network! Many of my old friends are well, very different than I last found them to be! Hardly anyone lives in central areas like Tempe or Scottsdale, or just barely go out anymore. I can't believe how short i've been back and already made so many awesome friends. I created an all womens team in January for a tournament here, and then helped with a co ed team for a tournament in Las Vegas which was a roaring success and great weekend! Next weekend I'll travel to San Diego for another tournament on the beach!

I also headed to Sacramento for a hiring weekend for Sierra Service project where we split up into groups and interviewed applicants to hire for our staffs. After the interviews, we reviewed what we thought about each candidate and tried to best place them onto teams! We still have a a few missing links but hope everything goes well and are super excited for summer!

Other then that, been trying to help my mother clean out all the stuff that is stacked in boxes in my room, and enjoy the perfect Arizona weather we have been having since I've been back! Couldn't ask for any different weather. I am starting to think about and prepare for what's next! After SSP I'm thinking to try and visit the Pacific Northwest, possibly even Vancouver. I also need to snag a trip in to Florida to see Nichole and then onwards to South America and possibly Central America for a year or more of travel, volunteering, and exploring. That's about all the plans for now!

Much love!
Nicole


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