I get excited about wine, Spain, kayaking, and the mountains. In university I double majored in Spanish literature and religion while becoming an expert whitewater kayaker. After graduation I moved to northwestern Spain to teach English in a public elementary school and became fluent in Spanish. During the my first year I took wine classes and became familiar with the wines of Galicia. That summer I walked the Camino de Santiago de Compostela for 27 days across Spain and then traveled extensively in western Europe before moving to San Sebastián to teach middle school and high school English and teach at private language academy. That winter I learned to surf and continued exploring food and wine. On extremely short notice, I bolted to Bolivia to work for Etta Projects as a volunteer creating and presenting workshops to train the communities in better health and sanitation practices. I worked as part of a team in implementing a dry composting latrine project in two rural Bolivian communities. Back in Seattle I took classes at Northwest Wine Academy, completed a 5-month internship at San Juan Vineyards where I was involved in all aspects of the vineyard, winemaking, tasting room, local distribution and restaurant sales. In 2017 I passed both the Introductory and Certified exams through the Court of Master Sommeliers, earning the Walter Clore Scholarship for the highest score in the Certified exam. I now work as the Wine Director at John Howie Steak while studying for the Advanced exam.