The last few weeks have been a blur. I returned from Nepal at 5:00 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon and headed straight into the office the next day. Two days later, I was on a late night flight to Washington, D.C. for two work events as a horrible cold took over my entire body. My …
Hindsight is always 20/20, right? The passage of time always seems to give you a new perspective and now that it has been more than two years since I first left to travel around the former Soviet Union, and a year since I returned, I feel like I can look back at my …
Back when I was getting ready to embark on my 13-month career break trip through the former Soviet Union, I launched another blog, called Globally Gluten Free. My plan was to chronicle my experiences trying to eat gluten free while I traveled long-term. I found that most gluten free travel tips I encountered oversimplified the …
The Realities of Traveling Long Term and Gluten Free Read More »
This time last year. It’s been a recurring thought in my head the last few months. This time last year I was arriving in Armenia. This time last year I was living in a small village in Tajikistan. This time last year I was watching the sunset over the Yangykala Canyon in Turkmenistan. …
Thoughts on Life 2 Years After Quitting My Job to Travel Read More »
The longer I’ve been home after my 13 month journey through the former Soviet Union, the more I’ve been thinking about the places I want to go back to. As I ponder my future travel destinations, I am torn between discovering new places or returning to some of those that I am dying to explore …
I started off slowly, shyly uttering just a few words at a time. I was unsure of my pronunciation and lacked confidence that I remembered the right word or the right case or tense. My attempts at speaking Russian in those first couple months of my travels through the former Soviet Union were often met …
Dasha knocked on my door around 8:20, asking if I was ready to go. She had shyly asked me the night before if I could come to her school that day. Her English teacher was excited that a real live American was living with her and wanted me to visit the school to meet the …
Before leaving on my career break trip, I researched good banks for international travelers – banks that would refund out of network ATM fees and that wouldn’t charge foreign currency transaction fees. Several travelers recommended Capital One, so I dove right in, opening checking, savings and credit card accounts more than a year before I …
Marshrutka. In Russian, it means “fixed route.” In short, it is basically a mini-bus, the age, size and comfort of which may vary greatly. It is also the preferred method of public transportation in much of the former Soviet Union. Whether you are going across town, across the country, or across a border, chances are …
As I traveled through the former Soviet Union on my career break, I didn’t just write blog posts; I kept a journal as well. I wasn’t always great about keeping up with it, but it was a good outlet to write about things that didn’t really merit their own blog post (or things that I …
