A while ago, I met a fellow traveller. We’ll call him Jay. Jay seemed very cool. A few years older than me, a traveler like myself. American. After a couple of days of chatting, I headed to the beach and set up camp next to him with my towel. I’d say we hit it off,…
Category: life
five things that traveling has taught me about life
Travel teaches people different things. It means different things to different people. For some, travel is about finding yourself, and they go to extreme lengths to do that. For others, it’s more about the journey than the destination.Whatever your reason(s) for traveling, at some point you have thought about the why – the existential behind…
the bay of islands
wow – an update! You guys, I can’t say enough good things about living up here in the Bay of Islands! I got here a few weeks ago and I recently got a job…. so you know, things are looking up. I’ve met some really awesome people, and since this is a small town, everyone…
(practical) advice for a young traveler
The other day, I logged on to a New Zealand backpacker Facebook group site only to read the following: “Who’s in Queenstown? I’m bored.” BORED?!?!!?!?!?!?!? Let me get this straight. You are in Queenstown, NEW ZEALAND – a country that few people will ever make it to in their lifetime, not to mention a town…
my new year resolutions
Well, it’s that time again… time for me to write a blog post about how I have all these resolutions… and then blatantly ignore it. This year, I’m trying something a little bit different. none of that “I’m going to lose ten pounds” crap… although now that I think about it, I should probably get…
why you should never fall for a girl who travels
all through university, i focused on my studies. i didn’t date anyone. the same with grad school. and then i met someone soon after moving home from scotland. we were together for four years – but for the last year, i was working on the boat. when we split, it was because i was too…
the real deal on moving to another country: making friends
welcome back to this three part series on moving to a foreign country. last week, i wrote about the basics: setting up a bank account, a new cell phone, applying for a tax number and grocery shopping. next week, we’ll talk about looking for jobs. but today it’s all about making friends. {cousins. crazy…
on spending the holidays away from home
2015 marks the 6th year that i’ve spent holidays away from my family. the first time i did it, i was studying abroad in glasgow. our hosts held a thanksgiving party in edinburgh for us, and the pumpkin pie was made with real pumpkin (it was gross.) in 2008, i went home for christmas but…
the real deal on moving to another country: the basics
new zealand marks the second country i have packed up and moved to, and i’m here to tell you that it’s not as black and white as it looks. i had this discussion at dinner one night with another expat/transient and we agreed that unless you’ve actually done it, you really have no clue what…
my bucket list *updated*
november 2015: i came across this post while in the process of modifying others, and i decided that it would be a fun project to continually add to it as the years go on, to see what’s changed and what i accomplished in each year. i’m adding a lot of “already-dones” this year, mainly because…