the plan grew.

and then it kept growing and kept growing and then it grew some more.

drumroll, please.

i've mentioned hiking the mountains-to-sea trail a couple of times.  that's still how my adventure will start - two and a half months or so with bix on the trails.  some introspective time.  some beef my legs up time.  some do something every day that scares you time.

when that's done, i'd like to be a wwoofer.  a wwoofer in greece on an olive tree farm that allows my little woofer (bixby, get it?), preferably one by the sea... to be perfectly honest, 50% of the reason i want to go to greece is lena kaligaris #sorrynotsorry.

when my olive-picking months are over, i'll take a flight over to spain to be an au pair for a sweet little spanish family that will feed me empanadas and trade my language for theirs so in the end, we'll all be a little bit better at communicating.

it'll help me prep for - ready? - a semester of teaching english in ecuador.  bam!  whoa!  this is a global type thing, and i can't ignore south america.  because guatemala was so wonderful when i went, and i want to explore more of what's below the united states.  because spanish is such a beautiful language.  because getting to play around with english and kids at the same time would be so much fun.  because ecuador!

final leg of the journey would be working on a sailboat in maine.  you say sail and i say how fast - but really, there are very few things (if any at all) i love as much as sailing.  my friend worked on this boat, and he said it was one of the hardest things he's done, and i'm sure that would be true for me too, but i'm also sure it would be one of the best.

so that's the plan.  one year of crazy adventure, leaving me probably broke and sunburnt but also hopefully happier and wiser and with a little more direction.  i've talked to this guy who's hiked the MST five times, plus the friend who worked on the boat is also currently wwoofing in ireland so i had two things to pester him with questions about, and i'm messaging with another friend about spain, and i got the ecuador idea from a girl i went on an alternative spring break with and she's assured me that it was great.  i've calculated the flight costs and mapped out the dates and sent in the first application for the au pair program (and they've contacted me back!), which makes all these things less abstract ideas and more actual possibilities.  and i like actual possibilities.