Exciting plans

I received two exciting emails in the past couple days, both of which have led to some very exciting plans for the next few months. The most recent email confirmed that there are rooms for 14 people available at Manuel's Guesthouse in Cinque Terre for my birthday weekend. I've been looking at pictures online with Ania ever since I received the email, and I can't wait to go. I think this is going to be the best birthday ever! You can see some pictures at the website www.manuelsguesthouse.com. The guesthouse overlooks the sea, and there is a bar that serves beer and wine on the terrace! Who could possibly ask for a better place to celebrate a 21st birthday? I'm literally counting down the days even though I have a while to wait and there are lots of other exciting things happening in between. I really hope the weather is nice and that everyone has a good time, or at least pretends to, for my birthday's sake.

The other piece of exciting news really has nothing to do with Italy, but it's exciting nonetheless. Two days ago I received an email from the head naturalist at Whitewater State Park, where my office was based for my internship last summer. He offered me an internship at the park for this coming summer which would combine the job I did last summer (teaching fishing clinics in SE MN) with doing naturalist work at Whitewater State Park. They combined the positions due to budget constraints in the DNR, but it sounds like the ideal position for me. I am already familiar with the fishing clinic part of the job, and the naturalist part of the job will allow me more flexibility to pursue my own interests in the field. I was very flattered that I was offered this job, and I am looking forward to getting to know everyone at Whitewater better this summer. The bad part of this good news is that I might have to cut my travels around Europe after my school program a little short because of intern training. I'm still waiting to find out if that is the case, but if it is, I will have to switch my flight. So that will be sort of a hassle, but I'm willing to do what I need to do to get this job.