New Ideas for 2010: Move to Portland or A New Internship?

As anyone who has been reading my blog knows, I unfortunately was not selected for an internship with the Bullock Homestead.  I am disappointed of course, but there is always 2011!

In the meantime, I am trying to find something to replace it with that will be a big step forward towards my homesteading dream.  Since I am planning on homesteading in NW Oregon or SW Washington, my main plan is to move to Portland as soon as I can.  From there it will be much easier to look at potential parcels of land and start to build community with other permies in the area.  Portland also has plenty of opportunities for me to learn permaculture in less intensive ways than an internship with the Bullocks.  I subscribe to a Google Calendar that can be found here, and it is full of awesome environmental and permacultural opportunities around Portland that I hope to take advantage of when I move up there.  (In fact, this calendar is probably the best resource for Pacific NW permie events that exists.  Check it out, I guarantee you'll find it useful if you're in the Cascadia region.  And make sure to drop Jocelyn an email to tell her how awesome she is!)

Despite Portland being my most likely location come spring or summer next year, I haven't entirely given up on finding an intensive internship either.  Last night, I decided to browse around for some new permaculture internships, and it reminded me that I also had been thinking about taking a natural building workshop from the Cob Cottage Company in Coquille, OR.  So since I was planning on being in Portland next year anyway, I decided to see what workshops were available.  And while browsing their website, what did I find?  That's right, another intensive internship to apply for!  Paul Dillon, a cob workshop instructor, will be teaching a natural building internship in Tipperary, Ireland. (Which is awesome!  I feel like natural building techniques are less area specific than learning permaculture, so Ireland should be just fine.  The skills will translate even if the materials differ.)  The internship runs from April 1st until October 31st next year, the same time I was planning on staying at the Bullock's.  And other than airfare to Ireland, there is no cost!  So of course, I emailed for information about how to apply.  I'll keep you all posted on how it goes!

MIDNIGHT UPDATE: After writing everything above, I looked into getting a visa to the UK and how much it costs.  It's not looking so great.  I'm definitely still going to apply and get information from the instructors about getting a visa, but we'll see how it goes.  If there isn't some kind of special exception since the internship and living arrangements are free, then I'll have to come up with £3600, which is about $6000!  I won't necessarily have to spend much of it, but the UK would require me to prove that I have it before they'd issue me a visa.  I guess I might have to start a pie chart on the side for my GOTu Ireland fund. Thanks for reading!