Snowshoeing is cool!

After a busy first week at work learning the difference between SEWC, IRWMPs, the DWR, and many more fun acronyms I took the hills with fellow AmeriCorps volunteer Michelle to go snowshoeing in the Hope Valley. It was a glorious day...a light breeze, clear skies and brilliant, twinkling snow. You can check out the pics below. Also the one on the bottom is a view from my flat out onto Lake Tahoe. I am still pinching myself I have such a sweet living situation and an awesome flatmate who also fly-fishes! What are the chances?

I spoke to my friend Julie today who is working for an NGO in Chad with Darfurian refugees. If you want to read what she has been up to, check out the link by scrolling down the right side of this page. It sounds like a horrible situation there made only worse by UN troops and ineffective NGOs. So if you have time, maybe post some funny stories or inspiring quotes on her blog to keep her spirits up! We miss you Julie and hope you are safe and well!

More on Tahoe and my new job to come soon.

It's cold outside!

So I have finally relocated to Lake Tahoe to start my new position as the AmeriCorps member at the Sierra Nevada Alliance working on their Sierra Water and Climate Change Program. Yesterday was my first day and it was a bit overwhelming as there is so much to learn! Before that, I was in the mountains just outside of Yosemite for the AmeriCorps training. It was a very busy week, learning about all the paperwork we have to fill out (don't you just love the government?), learning how to organize events and playing lots of Nerds (a fun, addictive and competitive game I learned in Chile from another volunteer). We also got the opportunity to go snowshoeing in Yosemite, which was spectacular. Yosemite is breathtaking in the winter...hardly any crowds and everything covered in a fresh blanket of snow. I was lucky enough to visit Yellowstone National Park only a week earlier with my family, which was also amazing! We saw herds of bison from only feet away (in a snowcat), big coyotes feeding on a bison carcass, trumpeter swans, and elk.

I hope to have some fun pics up soon but at the moment I don't have a camera lens so I can't take photos of all the beautiful sunsets over the lake I can see from my apartment deck. I guess you all will just have to come and visit if you want to see it!

Hope you all had a wonderful New Year!