It's hard to believe that my last entry was over 4 months ago when I was in the Philippines. Those days of diving the wrecks of Coron, hanging out at Bruno's, and sitting and reading on my hammock in the Krystal Lodge seem like ages ago after another packed winter in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I've been meaning to write an update for months, but a combination of business and laziness have prevented me from writing until now.

The two adjectives that best describe the last 4 months would probably be busy and fun. In March the ski area broke the all time snow-record for a season of 447 inches, and I've skied more powder than I could have possibly ever imagined before coming here. For over two months through December and January into early February it snowed, ON AVERAGE, about 4 inches per day, but many days saw a foot or more, and at least 2 days I remember 20+ inches falling in a single day. I'll always remember the mornings I've spent by myself exploring the seemingly endless passages through the trees, discovering new places and trying to find the best snow after a storm.

When not skiing I've been back at my always changing, rarely boring life as a preschool teacher and kids ski instructor. I've had the honor and challenge of being promoted to a full teacher, heading up the kindergarten enrichment class, making lesson plans, talking with parents, and doing the many other things teachers do--a process I'm still learning about every day, seeing as how I have no formal education in being a teacher! It's been wonderful, though. When I travel, I miss the routine of daily life, its stability as well as the familiarity of seeing the same group of people every day. Working at a preschool satisfies that need perfectly. I've now worked at the same school, on and off, for over two and a half years now, and many of the kindergarteners I work now were tiny preschoolers when I first arrived. I've had the joy of seeing them grow and develop, learn to write and read, and become more independent every day, an experience which will always stay with me.

Ski school has been great as well, and I'm no longer the nervous rookie I was 3 years ago. They even had instructors-in-training “shadowing” me during Christmas week! I've taught mainly upper level classes this season, which is a lot of fun. This year I've had far more moments than previous years, skiing down the slopes with my class thinking to myself, “wow, they're paying me to go skiing!” Of course it wasn't all easy: I also had to pick up plenty of kids stuck in the snow, deal with kids that were crying, cold, hungry, thirsty, had to go to the bathroom, and missed their mommies. I had many hours down on the “magic carpets” (the beginner hill) working through the awkwardness and frustration of teaching someone who has never skied before, which in fairness can also be fun and rewarding in its own way when you see someone progress from square one.

Over the last 3 years I've developed a yearly economic cycle where I live in Steamboat about half the year, during which time I try to live as cheaply as possible while earning and saving as much as I can. To supplement my income I take on numerous short-term, good paying jobs, this year more than ever. Beginning on Christmas day I spent 10 days “house-sitting”, which entailed shoveling and blowing snow, feeding the dogs, and a few other little things. I've only babysat a few times—it's been a lot harder to babysit since my car broke down :( I've made up for it, however, by taking a job shoveling my friend Aaron's boss's house every morning when it snows, which this year has been quite a lot. It's not terribly hard work and pays $25 for less than an hour, and I've actually found it quite peaceful to turn on my MP3 player and listen to NPR or an audio book while I shovel. The only downside is that the mornings I need to shovel are the same mornings I want to go skiing. Therefore, a typical day this past January for me would be as follows: wake up at 6:30, leave the house at 7, shovel snow frantically for an hour, trying to find a place for the new snow as it continues to pile up every where, run to the mountain, throw my boots on and be in front of the gondola by the time it opens at 8:30, ski for about 2 and a half hours, go to work at 11:15, leave at 5:30, arrive home a little after 6, eat dinner and collapse. I became progressively more exhausted through February and am really looking forward to a break after ski season, but wouldn't have traded it for anything!

Despite working a pretty hectic schedule, I averaged almost 1 day off per week over the season, during which time I had some pretty remarkable days of skiing. Aaron and I would meet up and play like little boys on a playground. Despite my better judgment, Aaron convinced me to progressively forget my fear and jump off some pretty insane drops when there was a lot of snow. 5-10 foot drops came to be nothing, and a few times I even worked up the nerve to jump off some 20+ foot cliffs.

The most memorable day of the season was an epic powder day in early February when 3 feet had fallen in the past 2 days. Through a stroke of luck, I had the day off right at the tail end of the storm, and by mid-morning the skies were clearing up, with snow clouds making way for bluebird skies and sun. Aaron and I spent the morning flying through waist and in parts even chest deep powder, in complete euphoria the entire time. We jumped off enormous cliffs into the pillows of soft snow with impunity, with less concern than if we were jumping from a waterfall into a lake below. We met a girl on the chairlift and ended up skiing with her in the afternoon, each of us trying to impress her with our fearless skiing. Around 2pm, coming down East Face, we ran into a group of instructors I knew, who were planning to do some back-country skiing on first, second, and third pitches, then hiking out to the canyon. I had never done that particular combination before, and we decided to join them. We spent the next 2 hours skiing some of the most extraordinary snow on some of the most extraordinary terrain I could ever imagine. It was a day I'll never forget.

I've had the pleasure to spend time with old friends as well as make lots of new ones. For the first 3 months of the season I lived with Lucas, one of my best friends in the world. I met Lucas over 4 years ago when I first studied in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and we've stayed close, in spirit if not in person, since then (The first picture from the archives of my blog from September 2006 is of Lucas and I when I went to visit him at the beginning of my around the world tour) This was Lucas's first time out of South America, and I was so glad to have the opportunity to show him my country after seeing so much of his. He worked as a lift-operator on the mountain and a dish washer at a Mexican restaurant, and got a pretty unique but also quite diverse view of America, Americans, and our way of life here in the U.S. The low point of the whole season was when, after having only skied about 6 times in his life, Lucas slipped on a sheet of ice and tore his ACL in a random accident, throwing him into simultaneous economic, emotional, and physical crises. We had a rough time there for a while, but in the end Lucas was able to get back on his feet –literally— going back to work, recovering rapidly, and even returning to ski several times after buying a super high-tech, almost cybernetic looking athletic knee brace. I'm so glad that in the end, Lucas had a really positive experience here and is even considering coming back next winter.

I've made lots of other new friends here as well. There's Marco and Sarah, the Swiss couple who, like me are ski instructors, professional divers, and world-wanderers. Brett, a rookie instructor from back east, has become both a ski buddy and a friend, and we've had some great times together. Brian, another rookie kids ski instructor, has his PhD in some branch of science I know nothing about, but abandoned the academic life in favor of becoming a ski bum. Last but not least are my house mates Garret and Woo-Ha, who I've passed many crazy and memorable evenings with in Walton Pond, unit #I-7.

I took a 4 day ski/road trip in the end of February with Marco, Sarah and Brett. We skied at Crested Butte a day, then 2 days in Telluride with glorious, warm sunny weather before meeting up with Brian and Lucas for an awesome powder day at Aspen Snowmass. It was a really memorable trip, perhaps as much for the accommodations we ended up with as for the skiing. Trying to save as much cash as possible, we crashed on the floors of people we connected with online through a website called couchsurfing.com The only kink in the plan was in Telluride, when our hosts told us they only had room for us for one night. Up for an adventure, we decided to try our luck with our fellow ski instructors, who we hoped would compassion for us. The next morning Brett and I walked out to “line-up”, where all the instructors were gathered waiting to be assigned lessons for the day. We asked to speak with the supervisor and explained our situation, and he made a special announcement to everyone that there were some homeless instructors from Steamboat looking for a place to crash. One or two guys said they may have space, and to go look for them in one of the bars after work if we didn't find something else during the day. Next, Brett had the idea to put up a sign on the door to the ski school locker room. After skiing for the day, we ended up meeting an awesome instructor named David Valentine who had seen our sign and recognized us from my Steamboat Ski School fleece. We happily crashed with him and had an awesome time hanging out with him that night. It just goes to show that many times the best and most memorable adventures come when you're on the tightest budget and all the plans you made go completely to hell!

I've had lots of other awesome random adventures throughout the season, from watching fire dancers at the Strawberry park hot springs to drinking a keg smuggled up the gondola in middle of the woods, to lots of fun dinner parties at different friends' houses. My friends David, Cathy, Dora, Donnie, and Rajeev have all come out to visit, and we had some great times!

As far as adventures go, I am very excited about my prospects for the rest of the year, and for that matter the next few years to come. I just bought a ticket to go down to Honduras at the end of April, where I plan to spend a month on a working vacation as a freelance divemaster on an island called Utila. My Dad will be flying down to meet up with me for the last week, and it will be wonderful to spend some time traveling with him. I'm extremely excited about going back to work for Broadreach this summer, and am tentatively penciled in to lead lead trips in Costa Rica studying sea turtles. For the fall I'm thinking about going back to Africa for 3 or 4 months, but haven't got past the “thinking” stage. I'd love to start in South Africa and head north through Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, and several other countries in the region.

My most exciting news, however, is that I've recently been re-nominated to the Peace Corps. I first applied during my senior year of college, and was deferred after it was discovered during my physical exam, exactly 3 years ago this month, that I had skin cancer. Everything I've done and experienced these last 3 years has been a result of that chain of events. Now, 3 years older, with immensely more experience and perspectives than I had then, I've once again gone through the daunting process of applying to the Peace Corps. Having had a successful interview, I'm exactly back where I was last time: waiting to pass the medical clearance before I'm officially “invited”. Despite a bit of residual apprehension—at times it feels like deja vu from that awful period—I'm very optimistic, and am very confident of my skills and abilities. Surprisingly, I was told that my experience and skill set was fairly unique and sought after, and they'd like me to work as an education volunteer, specifically as a “primary teacher trainer”. My understanding of the job from the vague description I've received is that I will mainly work closely with primary school teachers, and will also help promote public health. I'm tentatively slated to leave in February of 2009 for a project in Central or South America, but in a non-Spanish speaking assignment. Unfortunately I won't get any more details until I get the formal invitation a few months before I leave. I'm trying not to think about it too much, especially since there's a very good change that assignment will very likely end up changing in the next 11 months before I'm scheduled to leave.

The mountain closed yesterday, sunday April 6^th. In the end the total snowfall for the season was 489 inches—over 40 feet (12 m)!!! I spent the day skiing with friends, and the snow was incredibly good for the last day of the season. As I've done the last 2 years at the end of the season I went to the party at the top of the mountain after the lifts close. It's always a great time, but was a lot colder than previous years and was snowing the entire time! As I'm sitting writing now the morning after closing, it's still snowing and looks more like January than April! The mountain could easily stay open for another month, but the corporate owners unfortunately decided to close it because it's not profitable to stay open any longer :( It's ok, I've had enough skiing for one season. Well, almost enough. I'm planning to go down to Aspen next weekend for closing weekend there, and to ski at least one day in A-basin the following weekend before my red-eye flight back to Hartford that Sunday. Then it's back to the tropics for the summer for more diving and fun in the sun. Life is good.