I'm on Martha's Vineyard right now, and it's official: I will be here for the rest of the summer!

I have had SIX full-time job offers (partially due to problems with people getting visas - a good portion of the workers on MV during the summers are from Europe). Today I accepted the position of hostess at the Harbor View Hotel in their restaurant. I'm starting tomorrow morning! It's a full-time position that offers discounted housing (phew! that was the deal breaker!). I'm also planning to work a second job part-time. It would either be at the Colonial Inn as a front desk agent, or at The Seafood Shanty, also as a hostess. I'm planning on working 60 hours a week. If worse comes to worse and it's too much, I'll drop the part-time job. That's the plan as of now...so, we'll see how it goes?

It feels really great to be self-sufficient and nearly 100% independent - even if that means paying my own rent and buying my own groceries. I am doing all this job hunting and house-hunting myself . This is definitely great preparation for when I study abroad in Europe next Spring. Better to do it now in the U.S. than in Greece or Italy - where more or less everything will be pretty foreign to me.

My Nikon lens is currently in New Jersey for repair, so I've had to use my older non-DSLR camera out here. When I get my Nikon back in working order, I will hopefully be able to muster some time to go take pictures and put them up on here (one of the other major reasons I chose to come to the Vineyard for the summer: new photo opportunities).

Hope everyone else's summer is off to a great start!

~ Katie

Dance like no one's watching