ok, so i spent a lot of the time when i was visiting my family the other week writing this phenomenal 'summing up' email about the amazing times i had in NZ and austrailia and by the time i left to move on to my summer 'job', i, welll, was satisfied and now, i have about 5 minutes of emial time every week so i can't really spend the quality time on it... plus i reckon you are all sick of my stories and my last email was way to long to be folllowed up... i really can't say mre than it changed what i think about americans, travel, and myself... it was an amazing experience and there is little that i can compare it too... i would go back tomorrow if i had the money and probably my family close by...

anyway...

i arrived back in the states to scary LAX on the 24th of may... after about 3 hours of sleep, 3 awful meals, and 3 long movies blocked by the big guy in front of me... but i made it to chicago later that afternnoon relatively intact and really enjoyed sethe fam and sleeping in my own bed again... i hung out and re-adjusted to america but hitting the mall (but not buying anything due to super lack of funds.) and eating CPK...

after that i headed off to my 5 year high school reunion which was quite interesting... people were mighty confused by the fact i was kind of "in tranist" between NZ/OZ and the summer job, but i had a blast and will even RSVP for teh ten year one...

threw off the plans when i got some super-bad food poisening from my cousins and was puking for about 4 hours straight... i'm trying not to hold it against them though... i might go visit again sometime.

i then drove out to the summer job at philmont scout ranch (yes, the boy scout ranch/camp) wiht katie owen via st. louis where i had a blast seeing washu friends (liz c, april, lauren brown, kelly root) and eating ted drewes... after that we drove straight to denver on the most boring road ever built... i mean, the most excitment i think we had all day was when we started getting radio reception of a pretty cool classic rock station... it was awful... awful i tell you...

when we got to denver we hung out with some more washu grads (rachel krakoff and dave smalle) then we went camping in lost creek wilderness outside denver... i finally arrived at "work" on the 13th of june and have been hiking pretty much since then... i had a training trip where i learned how to not get eaten by bears and tehn took out my first troop of hormone-filled teenage boys and taught them how not to get eaten by bears... it was pretty tough... i was ready to roll them around in squeeze-cheese and let them just enjoy so i diddn't have to deal with them anymore... but we survived and now i have the afternoon off before the next troop headsout into the back country tomorrow...

it should be a pretty chill job,... the poeple i have met so far are really cool, and from all over the states... the ratio of guys to girls is about 7:1 or something like that, so i have some good odds... and most of them are eagle scouts so that means that are pretty respectable fellas too... (and i'm talking about the STAFF. ie. MY AGE. not campers. tahts disturbing.)

so anyway, thats me in a nutshell for right now... i probably won't be able to send so many emails this summer, but i will try... i do have a mailing address and promise to be prompt with that... (i'm in the woods there isn't much to do but write and read... ) and the food is kind of crap, so i would appreicate anything you can do do save me... but i like mail... (hint hint)

here it is:

kristin piccirillo, ranger
philmont scout ranch
rr1, box 35
cimarron NM 87714


cool... well, love to read your updates and i hope to be able to send a non-mass email soon...

talk to you soon, kristin