Mrs. Wahlin is a fun and energetic Spanish teacher at Mineral Point high school. Get to know her with the Q&A.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
On a beach in Mexico.

Why?
Because I’ll have free time, and I’ll be retired hopefully.

What college did you go to?
In my first year, I went to UW La Crosse. That’s when I decided I wanted to be a Spanish teacher. The better school for Spanish was UW Madison. So I went to UW Madison and that’s where I graduated.

What is your favorite thing to do outside of school?
I have so many things. I love to travel. I love to read. I love to be with my family. I like to cook and bake.

Which one do you do more often?
Sleep? Being with my family, I guess.

What do you like about it, though?
I guess now that my kids are all out of the house, and when they do come home, I really enjoy it. It was kind of chaos when they were growing up. I just couldn’t even imagine, you know, having free time. Now that I have free time, I can get all my other things done. Then when they do come back to visit, I can truly enjoy them being there.

What did you decide to do before becoming a Spanish teacher?
I didn’t. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Well, actually, I take that back. I kind of wanted to do international business, and that’s when I continued in Spanish. Then I like Spanish so much. I decided I wanted to teach it instead of travel. But I also stayed home for a while when my kids were growing up, and I ended up getting certified as a medical interpreter. So I’ve done that too. I really, really enjoy that. That’s something I’ll probably do after I’m done teaching. Go back and do a little bit more of that.

How many states have you been to?
How many states have I been to? Let’s see. Can I count the ones I’ve just spent at the airport? California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming. Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Texas. Oh, my gosh, I need a map. A lot. I’ve been to a lot. I’ve been to more states within the Midwest and West, but not that many on the East Coast. Yeah, I’ve been to Florida and Georgia. We’ve been up to Maine and New York. I haven’t been to Montana, Idaho, Washington State, or Oregon.

What states do you want to go to?
I really want to go to Louisiana. I’ve never been there. I want to go to New Orleans, not during Mardi Gras, but just at a different time. I want to go there because part of my family, I didn’t know any of these relatives, but they settled there. They came over from Czechoslovakia and settled there. I want to try some of the different foods in New Orleans. Always wanted to do that.

Which one is your favorite state?
Actually, I think it is California because California has such a wide variety, you can be by the ocean, you can be in the desert, you can be in the mountains. There are so many different environments you can be in.

Did you do anything fun when you were there?
We went to San Francisco, which from what I heard on the news is not quite the same San Francisco that I saw, but San Francisco was really cool. We went to of course Disneyland which is in the southern area. I’ve never been to San Diego. I’d like to go to San Diego sometime. Then we went to see the Redwoods in Northern California. I went to the desert and it was kind of like you see in the movies, really stark, all I kept thinking was where’s the next gas station because I’m gonna fill up just in case. I don’t want to be one of those people that dies out in the desert. And it was so incredibly hot. But you know, driving around on the Pacific Highway where you can like, look out and see the Pacific Ocean was really beautiful.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.