Monday, June 29, 2009

Arrival

Got to the airport and waited through a long line to check in. After said good bye to my wonderful parents and made my way through security. Once through got to the gate and met up with Greg, Nate, John G, and a surprize Jeff from the Canadian team.
It was a very long flight over. I got to sit next to Nate which was nice since i finally got to know him a bit better (he is a bit shy). We watched a movie and attempted to sleep. Greg sat a few rows ahead of us and was chatting away with an Italian guy in half spanish half english.
Once we arrived at the airport we got through customs and got our bags very quickly. We were hoping it would take a bit longer since we had a long time to wait. Once out we found one of the Canadian girls and sat around in the airport for a LONG time. Slowly people started joining us. We played cards and talked so it wasnt so bad. We also got everyone to sign a birthday card for Kelsey since it was her birthday. I made her an orienteering card with happy birthday written in conturs. WE gave it to her at dinner and sang. She had a candle that we stuck into a piece of bread!
Finally everyone was here and we got on the bus. It was a long and exciting ride to the place where we are staying. Big buses on small roads in amazing!
Once there we settled in. WE had a flag war to see who could put up the most flags. The girls totally won and the guys were jealous so started stealing them. The girls also did circuit, which was a blast! We did it listening to last years JWOC mix and laughing a ton!
We are now in the main town. We just did food shoping and had some time to look around. There are a ton of JWOC banners all over the place which is awesome!!! we are in the library writing this. This afternoon we get to go out on our first training!!!! I cant wait!!!!

(The keyboards here are different! Had a hard time finding the @ button haha)

Saturday, June 27, 2009

I'm On My Way...

Well everything is finally packed and ready to go! ...After about 3 tries. My pack seems like it is bigger than me haha. Hopefully I have not forgotten anything.
I'm getting very excited and there are little butterflies floating in my stomach. I still can't really believe that I have made the USA JWOC team and i'm off to JWOC!!! I guess it will start to set in when I'm at the airport. Can't wait to meet up with the rest of my team! I get to fly over with 3 of our guys; Greg Alhswede, Nate Lyons, and John Goodwin. So off to the airport now to meet up with them.

GO TEAM USA!!!
Ciao

How To Comment

So after having a few people seem to have a hard time figuring out how to comment I've decided to post an entry on how it all works. A step-by-step guide if you will.
  1. Click on the image of the stickies that says "Comments" under it.
  2. A screen with the post and whatever comments that have already been posted should come up
  3. Type your comment into the text box
  4. When done select your pick from the drop down menu titled "Comment as:"
    1. If you do not have any of the first options or only want to put your name select "Name/URL"
    2. Then type your name into the box that pops up (you don't have to put a URL)
  5. Hit "Post Comment" and Magic our comment is posted!
If there are still problems please let me know some how! Can't wait to read everyones thoughts!

Ciao

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Pre European Adventure

I'm getting ready right now for a big European adventure. I leave this Saturday for Italy to start it off!
In Italy I will be racing for the United States on our Junior Orienteering team in the Junior World Orienteering Championship (JWOC). This year JWOC is in Fiera di Primiro.

View Larger Map
There is a link to the official JWOC website to the right for more information, and results. We have a week of training though before the competition. It is going to be very hilly terrain, but I have heard very runnable. I'm greatly looking forward to JWOC! It has been my goal for a while to make the USA JWOC team.
After JWOC I'm off sightseeing with my friends Emily and Eric from the Canadian team, before flying to see my cousin in England. There I will be job shadowing him. He works with alternative energy which is the field I want to go into. From there I go up to visit my Grandmother in Scotland.
Once in Scotland I have time to see family and then I'm competing in the Scottish 6-days (link is also to the right). I will be racing for the first 4 days of competition. I'm looking forward to it since it was such a blast two years ago! I get to see all of my British orienteering friends as well. I have to miss the last two days though to go to a conference in Denmark.
The Franklin Institute has nominated me for the Bright Green Youth conference in Sønderborg, Denmark.

View Larger Map
There are 500 students partaking in this conference from all over the world. I'm greatly looking forward to meeting so many people with the same passion as I have. The link to the conference website is to the right.

Sounds like a busy summer to me! And let me tell you it is hard to pack for all of this. Packing take 2 must happen today!
Ciao!

Welcome!

Welcome to The AC Race! I've decided to set this blog up so that my family and friends can stay in touch and up to date on what I'm up to. At first it was going to just be for this summer between Junior and Senior year of high school, but if it is going well I might just keep it up.
Through this blog you will be able to hear about how my orienteering competitions are going, about my passion- the environment, see photos when I get the chance to upload some, funny stories about my adventures, and links to other important pages.

I hope you enjoy it! and please leave comments :)