Panama City

Haven’t written in awhile… I just got back from working in Panama City Beach, FL for spring break for a company called StudentCity… one of the largest spring break travel companies.

It was one of the craziest experiences I’ve ever had. I was there for 6 weeks and started as a regular on-site staff but was asked to do customer service after I got there. We helped travelers check in to their hotels, dealt with problems that arose with hotel reservations and medical emergencies. Some of the more fun job duties were working at StudentCity events, talking to travelers, selling party cards etc. It was a blast.

I’m home now and working as an event coordinator, which is great but I’m so antsy to travel again. I’ve been home for 2 weeks and I’m ready to go somewhere new again. I thought I wanted a boring office type “real” job but I don’t think that’s really me. I love traveling, planning events, meeting new people… can I please just do that full time?

Life is too short to feel this restless. Need to figure out my next move.

It’s been awhile

I haven’t written in awhile, I’ve been spending so much time at the mountain, which is amazing. I love love love teaching and really want to be PSIA certified.
I’ve gotten way more into skiing this year and have been testing out my skills at the park, I need twin tips stat!! I think I might naturally be a better skier than a snowboarder which is so weird to admit!

Here’s a photo of me and my friend Ryan!

caribbean vacation

I just got home from a vacation on Grand Cayman. It was cold and windy the first few days so I just read a lot but the last few days were perfect.
I forgot how much I love to travel and meet new people. Lately I’ve been so caught up in graduation and starting a career and being a super professional person that I think I forgot my love of adventure.
It’s great to start the new year and celebrate my birthday with a fresh outlook, feeling relaxed and making the most of every day.

End of an era

My top songs of 2009:

The Presets – Girl and the Sea
Collie Buddz – Blind To You
The Engine Room – A Perfect Lie (Theme Song)(Gabriel & Dresden Remix)
Tokyo Police Club – Nature Of The Experiment
Outkast – Millenium
Hot Chip – Colours (Remixed By Fred Falke)
Thievery Corporation – The Forgotten People
Gorillaz – Hong Kong
Rick Ross – Ridin’ Thru The Ghetto
Seabear – Hands Remember
Grizzly Bear – Slow Life
Kings of Convenience – Know How
Sébastien Tellier – Look
Iron & Wine – Carousel
Smooth – Smooth
Raised By Swans – Relentless
The Republic Tigers – Contortionists
Bon Iver – For Emma

Goodbye 2009!

I’m so excited for 2010!!! I know it’s going to be a great year. I’m so excited to be finished with college and move on to the next chapter of my life.

It’s been nice to be home (and eat my mom’s food) for Christmas, see some high school friends and spend time with my family.

My first day of Adaptive TEACHING is on Wednesday!!! I will mostly be blocking (making sure nobody runs into my students) but I’m still very excited. I got whiplash the other day while learning to ski on one ski so hopefully my back feels better by then. Here’s a photo of what we were learning to do… those poles have little skis on the bottom to help steer since usually you do that with 2 skis. After a few runs my thigh was BURNING and my shoulders were killing me. It is SO difficult but it must be the most rewarding experience to actually be able to successfully ski on 3 track (it’s called 3 track because you have 3 skis…. got it?) By the end I was getting a little cocky and decided to take some sharp turns in my weak direction. Unsuccessfully..

Other than that I’ve just been relaxing at home and looking forward to the new year

I JUST FINISHED COLLEGE

I JUST FINISHED COLLEGE

Flying Blind

I had two more days of training for Adaptive this weekend and there was tons of snow, it was sunny and we were out on the slopes! Before the Santa Sunday event, the last time I skiied was about 10 years ago but it really does come back quickly, especially if you go every day! When I started the training I wasn’t sure if I’d be comfortable teaching skiing, just snowboarding but I’m so excited to do both!!

On Sunday I was in a blind clinic, meaning that we were learning to teach blind people how to ski. We took turns closing our eyes and having a partner teach us. At first it was really scary and I wasn’t sure why anyone would want to ski if they couldn’t see but by the end of the training I was skiing by myself with only a “go right” and “go left” type of instruction.

My sight is definitely something I take for granted and I do appreciate having it but it was really interesting to have to rely much more heavily on my other senses.

Other than that, I’m so excited to get out there and start teaching!!!!!

Here’s a photo of the lodge from the other day… lots of new snow, come up to Gunstock!

Adaptive Ski Team Fund Raising!

Hi everyone!

I’m not sure if anyone even reads this blog but I thought I should just throw this out there anyway. As I mentioned before, I’m on a team that’s raising money for Ability Plus, a great program that teaches people with various disabilities to ski and snowboard.

My team needs to raise $500 by March 13th and I need your help!!

It’s an awesome program and 100% of the money we raise goes directly back into the program so it’s something you can feel good about!

Please click on the photo below to go to our team page and come to Gunstock on March 13th for Party on the Snow and watch us ski dressed up like treasure trolls (there’s a costume contest and we REALLY want to win!!)

Thanks so much!!

- Amelia Ehrens, ski captain

Click on the photo to visit our team page and donate!

First Runs!

This weekend I had training for volunteering at the Adaptive Ski Program at Gunstock in Gilford, NH on Saturday and on Sunday I went to Sunday River for Santa Sunday!

The Adaptive Program teaches people with various disabilities to ski or snowboard, which is an awesome program run by Ability Plus. I need to finish my training and then I’ll be out teaching! I just think it’s such a cool program because the winter is hard for everyone and if I didn’t have snowboarding to look forward to I’m pretty sure I’d go crazy so this way everyone is able to go.

The Santa Sunday was a blast. I went up with two of my roommates and skied for the day. I started snowboarding in high school and haven’t skied since then so it was a little slow going but I made it! The only trails open were blue and blacks so I’m pretty proud of myself for only taking some minor falls and no really horrendous ones!

I really can’t wait for the rest of the ski season!!!

The photos on the left are from the Sunday River website and if you look closely you can see me and my roommate Brad in the front row of the picture of all the santas and in the photo below it, I’m the skier waving to the camera!

Hoarders

I just saw the TV show Hoarders, which is probably one of the the most horrifying things I’ve ever seen. As a psychology major I’m well aware of a variety of bizarre mental illnesses and weird brain workings but I’ve never actually seen anything so grotesque. Hoarding is the act of keeping things and stuff even if it is useless, broken or hazardous.

One woman on the show was living in filth and had so much rotting stuff in her house that her house was in danger of being condemned. Cleaners removed over 8,000 pounds of garbage and found 2 cat corpses under the piles of junk. AHGHH!

I’ve been thinking about stuff a lot lately. This semester I’m taking Consumer Behavior and am working on a project for my Entrepreneurship class on a composting company. I’m not a tree hugger or anything but it is pretty scary how much stuff we buy and then just throw away. Hoarders attach memories to objects but I wonder about rampant consumerism causing people to not value what they already have.

I’m sure this could be a thesis paper if someone wanted to write about these diseases and society…. I don’t. Just thought they were interesting to think about.