Thrilling! My interview with Chris Christensen about volunteering in Ghana has just been published on Chris’s world-famous site, Amateur Traveler Podcast!
For the full interview homepage on Amateur Traveler, click here, my dear.
Or, if your finger is a tad lazy, the entire interview can be played right here, by clicking this button:
Amateur Traveler Episode 234 – Travel to Ghana
If this chat whets your appetite, there are over 90 articles on this very [...Read More!]
Let’s sing a little (slightly amended) Joni Mitchell:
“Don’t it always seem to go… that you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone [for nine months]?”
As already discussed, I am newly in love with my natal country after returning home from so many months away!
So to sing its praises, here are three MORE reasons why the United States, for all its admitted problems, is fabulous.
1.) Bountiful American BRUNCH!
My hands [...Read More!]
The Spanish gentleman pictured to the left is stroking his calloused finger against 6,000-year old paintings at Cueva Remigia, Spain. Such cave art stretches across swaths of Spain, and is considered, collectively, a UNESCO world heritage site.
In my last week in Spain before flying home, a group of us climbed a bright green, sun-drenched mountain to emerge an hour later at the ancient paintings pictured here! …and at first we couldn’t see [...Read More!]
We don’t condone narcotics, but strangely strong feelings of euphoria are okay if they’re natural and healthy, right?
So here is a secret formula to get your brain feeling amazing: Go away from home for a really long time, and then come back.
YUM!
Nine months is the longest I’ve ever been away from home, and in this whole week since coming back to Boston after circumnavigating the globe, I have felt cerebrally heavenly. [...Read More!]
You do not realize how much you will forget.
I returned from nine months around the world with a giant grin and a million hugs for loved ones… and then proceeded to not be able to find a thing.
When you are getting ready to leave the country, you assume you will be able to find your favorite shoes multiple months and a head full of Asia, Africa, and Europe later. Trust [...Read More!]
I was just about to bang out a post on ways to make it through nine months of travel without being robbed, when I decided to take a quick unpacking break.
Ten minutes in, it became clear: my secret stash of Travelers Cheques was gone. After thirty minutes of searching, I called the American Express hotline.
“Hmm,” said the helpful agent, “our computers are showing that all those checks were cashed in early [...Read More!]
What you are about to read is geeky, but don’t run away! It has direct applications to your non-techie life… just wait.
A WordPress “Plug-in” is defined as an outside program you can search for, upload, and install into your WordPress blog for added functionality. One Plug-in example is the cute “Share and Enjoy!” bar you see directly below this article. My WordPress theme didn’t come with this: I had to find [...Read More!]
I am drooping like spinach in a frying pan right now due to jet lag… but I haven’t missed a single day of blogging since that night I was ill on Ko Phi Phi in Thailand, seven months ago (and before that, even longer) so the show will go on! Commitment feels good.
I am OVERJOYED to be back home in Boston with loved ones, after nine great months abroad. Now, as [...Read More!]
HOORAY! Home! Home! After nine months around the world, can I tell you how delicious Boston feels? City of my heart! Country of my birth! And my dearest loved ones! Oh, I love you!
But I made a big mistake this morning that nearly caused me to miss my flight. Read on, so you don’t commit this same error!
Twenty-four hours ago, my alarm jolted me awake at five am. Trying not to [...Read More!]
One of many festivals in Valencia, Spain!
Tomorrow, volcano permitting, I fly home to Boston! And thus we can begin zillions of reflective posts. Let’s start with the following realization:
A months-long Around the World voyage is not a vacation. Want to know why? Because it it were, you would die. On vacation, by definition, you indulge in anything and everything and you laze around like a jellyfish. So let’s be real here: [...Read More!]