A Day in the Life of a Time-Traveler

I’ll be completely honest.

 

The purpose of this blog post is to tide you people over until I’m done with my posts about Japan.

 

But keep reading—it’s good.

 

These are actually the thoughts that I had during the 10 days when we were not allowed to leave the ship.  I have to admit that by the end of the last day, I was completely and utterly out of it.  Someone tried to put our time in what I began to see as a ‘floating prison’ in perspective for me by reminding me that men used to spend months at sea to cross the Pacific.

 

I immediately had an image of men dressed in pre-modern sailing clothes leaping from the sides of wooden boats by the hundreds.

 

Sure, I’m being dramatic, but I think that in preparation for this trip, I conveniently skipped over the visualization part, and jumped right into planning.  Now I know that being confined to this ship, especially during the stormy days when we weren’t even allowed outside, was pretty rough.

 

Ok, whew, I got that off my chest.  No more complaining, I promise.  Just wanted to let the internet record show that reborn college students and cabin fever did not mix well.

 

In all seriousness, though, this trip is the embodiment of disorientation.

 

Let me take you on a little journey.  I imagine that many of you are having trouble understanding or visualizing what life must feel like here.  I know that even in my very brief attempts at imagining my live for the next few months, I definitely missed the mark.  So, I’ll try and make it easier for you.

 

Take one second and close your eyes (well, I guess re-open them after every line break so you can actually continue to read the post) and picture yourself in this scenario:

 

You’re standing outside at the stern (back… I think) of a 600 ft. ship, 6 stories in the air, staring out at the expanse of ocean that commands all of your peripheral vision. It’s chilling down a bit, and the water has gotten a little choppier so you have to hold onto the hand rails for balance.

 

 

You slightly mourn the loss of the last few days of bright sun and tanning outside and being able to walk without falling down.  They used to look something like this:

 

 

You realize haven’t seen land in 8 days, and every night for the last 6 nights, you’ve changed time zones.

 

In fact, 4 nights ago, you skipped an entire day when you crossed the International Date Line.  No Martin Luther King Day, a few people missed birthdays, and all of a sudden, at midnight on Sunday, it was magically Tuesday.

 

You soak in the fact that for one whole day you were the first to experience the future.

 

You turn around, still a bit foggy, and cautiously enter the sliding doors into the cafeteria where you (thankfully) can now spot several tables of familiar faces.

 

 

These people were complete strangers just two weeks ago, but now you have movie night with one table and Bible study with another.  You work with the entrepreneurs at the far corner of the room and you learn from the professors at the one closest to you.  You remember doing ‘Insanity’ workouts with one of the 60 year old ‘life-long learners’ the day before.

 

You laugh because your back hurts, but he doesn’t seem to feel a thing.

 

You walk through the dining hall on your way to you second class of the day.  You had one class two hours before and you’ll have one more after this, but yesterday you had just one 8am class and all day to relax (but really to get things done).  Your mind jumps to the paper you stayed up late writing and the assignment you have due the day you get back from Japan.  You laugh again, because you’ve already graduated.

 

You stumble to your cabin quickly to pick up a couple things before class.  You carefully traverse 6 floors of stairs to your room on the lowest deck of the ship.  You open the door and sigh, remembering that they closed your once comforting porthole window yesterday due to higher than normal swells.  But, you look over to your Texas flag and pictures of your friends and smile knowing how supported you are.

 

 

You realize you have a few minutes before class so you sit down and think through the last 2 weeks of your unique life.  You’ve had many moments of confusion sprinkled with more varied emotions than you had expected.

 

On the one hand you’re invigorated and inspired.  Everyone around you is excited, stirring, eager to see and do and experience.  You’ve worked with entrepreneurs on projects like creating clean water using no chemicals or energy or supplying the world’s poor with more sustainable ways to prepare their food.  You’ve learned new methods for design thinking and creation from the man who institutionalized them at the Stanford d.school.  You looked forward to traveling the world.

 

On the other hand, the combination of all these new things at once has left you a bit tired and overwhelmed.  You still haven’t figured out how to conceptualize this trip in your mind—is it a vacation, grad school, an interview, or all of the above?  You have this strange feeling of immediacy about everything even though you know in your mind that you have 3 more months of travel, classes, and work ahead.  You have trouble deciding if you should read for class, work on an entrepreneurial project, write your (long overdue) blog, rest, decompress, or just enjoy not being in an office.

 

Even in these moments of uncertainty you remember your motto:

 

Feel the fear, and do it anyway.

 

You realize that finding the balance of pursuing your future while being content with the present is part of the experience, part of the journey.  You remember something you read for one of your classes that was casually included in a textbook chapter, but struck you as particularly profound:

 

“The ancient Greeks contrasted hubris [or excessive pride] with arête.  Arête implies a humble striving for perfection along with the realization that such perfection cannot be reached.  With this notion in mind, we approach the study of anthropology cheerfully and with a degree of optimism.”

 

You think if someone can approach anthropology that way, then maybe it’s a good way to go about the study of life.

 

So, cheerfully and optimally, you play the song “I’m Walkin’ on Sunshine” as you dance your way out the door.

 

Ok, open your eyes again!

 

That was basically the day before we landed in Japan.  Hope you enjoyed a little insight into my brain and that my weaving thoughts weren’t too, well, disorienting.

 

Or hopefully they were, because then you will have gotten the full effect.

 

I’ll leave you with my favorite quote from the trip thus far, which eerily summarizes how I felt, just in case you closed your eyes for too long and missed the diatribe above:

 

“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.”

-Cesare Pavese

 

More to come on my Japanese adventures soon!

 

Question of the Day: What was the most surprising feeling you’ve had while traveling abroad?

 

Hiking in Hawaii and Other Unexpected Awesomeness

Alooooooooooha!

 

Since I last wrote, we have come and gone from Hawaii.

 

Sooooooooooo much has happened!

 

So much! I’m kicking myself for not writing sooner, because (as is inevitable with my writing) I know that I will come up with some random but necessary detail the minute I post this. Oh well. You get what you get.

 

Tuesday morning we landed in Hilo, Hawaii. The ship was buzzing, mostly because we all had minor cases of cabin fever and NEEDED to get the HELL off the ship. Unfortunately, we arrived about an hour late and about a half an hour behind the Pride of America, a Norwegian Cruise Line ship that was holding 10 times the number of people as our humble MV Explorer. Bummer.

 

So even though we made land (thanks, Jon) at 8am, we did not actually touch land until almost noon.

 

Thankfully, Hawaii was all uphill from there.

 

A group of friends and I made our way to a local restaurant for lunch and enjoyed some local beers and drinks. Volcano Red Ale. Awesome.

 

From there we wandered around Old Downtown Hilo before heading up to one of the two highlights of the trip: Boiling Pots and Rainbow Falls.

 

I’ll admit, on the drive (uphill) to the falls, I was skeptical. The driver asked if we wanted to go straight to the falls or hike down from the pots where the falls began. That question resulted in 6 resounding ‘yesses’ from the other occupants in the car and one loud groan… from me.

 

Hike?! Seriously?! Why couldn’t we just go look at the pretty falls? Wow, this drive is kinda far… Isn’t this kinda far? Are we sure we wanna do this? I don’t think I’m dressed for this. Ugh, and these shoes suck. Are we really sure?!

 

If only I had known the awesomeness that was to come.

 

 

This was the view from the lookout point at Boiling Pots. If you look closely, you can see some people climbing the rocks in the center of the picture. That’s precisely where my group decided we should go.

 

The Interesting part: no paths or trails.

 

Crap.

 

So we traversed.

 

There are plenty of pictures of diggers and near tragedies around these rocks, but I’ll spare my poor mother the worries and skip right to the finale:

 

 

We had the best time EVER! From the spot pictured above, we swam through the water toward the falls in the background, where there was another cove. We climbed over some more rocks and got right up next to the actual waterfall! Gorgeous!

 

As if that wasn’t enough, we dried off and walked a couple miles (downhill, whoohoo) to Rainbow Falls. We ran into a local girl on the trail who led us into the falls. Yep, into. I’m fully convinced this girl was a mixture of human and mountain goat based on her climbing skills that followed… in flip-flops and a dress she led us here, to the top of the falls.

 

 

Yep, the top of an 80 ft waterfall.

 

Booyah!

 

 

Happy girls!

 

 

Such a spectacular view!

 

 

From there, we packed up and made our way back downtown for a quick dinner. A group of us, I’d say about 30 or so, rented a house on the north side of the island where we could relax and enjoy a night off the ship. We stocked up and made our way there and had an amazing night, bonding, drinking, relaxing, and just generally trying to soak up time spent not rocking back and forth on the ship.

 

It wasn’t until the next morning that we realized just how awesome this house looked!

 

 

Super cute!

 

 

Hilo has a fairly large farmer’s market that opens on Wednesdays and Sundays, so the next day after brunch, we made our way downtown to check out the local vendors. This will probably be the most relaxed shopping experience we will have on the voyage (I can’t even IMAGINE China yet), so we leisurely wandered through the food carts and artisan stands looking for souvenirs and gifts.

 

One lady, who I passed 4 times before deciding to make a purchase (make of that what you will), was weaving handmade jewelry and hair accessories out of flowers, bamboo, and palms. One of my friends and I tried on her handiwork below.

 

 

I promise we bought something. ;)

 

 

We finally made our way back to the ship, thinking that all roads would then lead to Japan.

 

Not.

 

We woke up the next morning to find out that we would be stopping in Honolulu to refuel and staying overnight to wait out a storm brewing in the Pacific. Not a bad deal until we were told that, no, we were not allowed to leave the ship while in port.

 

That’s right, friends. I had to stare at Oahu from the 7^th deck, wondering why we didn’t just stop there in the first place!

 

But before you riot and say I shouldn’t be complaining, I’ll say it for you. I got two days on the deck by the pool and now have a killer tan.

 

Silver linings are numerous on a ship docked in Hawaii.

 

 

So this afternoon, we finally departed from Honolulu and have officially left the United States. We are currently floating around international waters and will be adding one hour every evening until we cross the international date line and skip an entire day to make up for several nights of extra sleep.

 

Still weirded out by that.

 

While we were in port at Honolulu, I found myself getting nervous about the voyage to Japan. So much unknown. So long at sea. So many questions.

 

But the minute we got tugged out of port, thankfully, my heart turned to excitement.

 

I think this is because of my extra time in Hawaii. I’m so thankful for that. I know that those conversations and messages that I shared with many of you will carry me through the next 8 days at sea and keep me grounded and secure while I explore a new culture in Japan. Thanks to everyone for being so wonderful and supportive. I continue to be humbled by your love.

 

As you can tell, I’ll have lots of time at sea to reflect, especially as we move toward colder climates and the option to lay out by the pool becomes less enticing. I’ll write a post about classes and roommates and funny ship details as soon as I determine that chilly windburn does not compare well to sunburn.

 

Question of the day:

Has anyone ever crossed the international date line? I’m told it’s an actual line… Confirm, please?

 

LAND!

Whew…

The last few days have been… well… a little overwhelming. But as you know, I’m fairly easily overwhelmed.

I attribute most of this to the fact that I haven’t seen land in 6 days. It’s definitely an adjustment. But tomorrow morning we land in Hilo, Hawaii, and I plan on running, not walking, away from the ship in one straight shot until I either cannot breathe or run into some kind of physical impasse. I’ll say this much… you’ll never appreciate the ability to move further than 100 yards in one direction until you can’t.

That’s not the only adjusting going on. The lifestyle here is clearly different, but not in any way that you’d be able to discern without actually being present.

First of all, it’s not like college. No drinking. No bars. No time outside. No intramurals yet. Same people for every meal and basically every class. Don’t get me wrong, some incredible social dynamics are soon to come, especially when the pool is finally filled, but as for right now, we’re still killing time playing Catch Phrase or Pass the Pigs and getting to know each other’s hometowns.

As an aside, please do yourself a favor and Google “Pass the Pigs.” New favorite game.

It’s also strange to be so detached, even from those close by. Without our beloved cell phone service, people have reverted to leaving each other post it’s (gasp) or actually making plans ahead of time and sticking to them (another gasp). Something completely unheard of in, say, Manhattan.

As another aside, the app Snapchat happens to work on the ship. Thus, using the ship’s wifi, we’ve skirted both the internet and phone systems and are able to connect to the outside world for free. So download it and send me pics. Snapchat FTW!

The classes are also… umm… different. Only those who attended school with me will really understand this one, but I’ll just say that I was certainly luckier than I knew back in New Haven.

The shining star of the ship is most certainly my Global Sustainable Entrepreneurship class, so I’m soaking that one in as much as possible. The professor and the entrepreneurs have such captivating and inspiring passion that it’s hard not to feel as though we can all aspire to their level of influence and success. Maybe we can all do what Unreasonable hopes to do and CTFW.

Bonus points if you figure out CTFW without any hints.

However, not everything is confusing.

I know that for the first time in a long, long time, I did not dread Monday.

I know that that feels awesome.

I know that this time tomorrow I will be in a house in Hawaii celebrating with 30 of my fellow students.

I know that that will feel awesome too.

I know that there is no gold at the ends of rainbows.

I know this does not feel awesome, because I saw it today:

I know a couple of other things, but for now, because I don’t really have any other fun pictures, I’ll just leave you with that. Because, hey, it’s pretty.

As a bit of housekeeping and rumor control and clarification, my email is separate from the 2 hour allotment of internet on the boat, so do feel free to email me anytime. Please do not expect a normal US timed response, as email no longer functions like texting for me. Oh, the joys of being forced to unplug.

Next post to come during the 9 day stretch from Hawaii to Japan during which we will cross the international dateline and thus jump directly one day ahead.

So basically, the next post will be from the future.

Hope I just blew your mind.

Question of the day (mostly because I forgot one last time): How big of a bummer is it that there’s really no rainbow pot of gold?!

High-fiving Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Other Random Occurrences At Sea

Greetings from THE SEA!

This is my first post since boarding the ship, and I almost don’t know where to begin. I guess it might be best to start with the basics, and then move on the fun stuff like high-fiving Nobel Prize winners on my way to lunch. Keep you hangin…

Wednesday morning, after potentially the most insane serving of eggs benedict I’d ever seen (thank you Hash House a Go Go), I boarded a bus from San Diego to Ensenada where our ship awaited.

My bus was, of course, the last one to board the ship so it was straight through registration, a quick hello to my new roommate, a lifeboat drill on the outer deck, dinner, unpacking, staff and faculty introductions, and promptly passing out.

Whirlwind.

Today was just as packed, but not near as exciting. Think back to your first day of school or work. Pretty much all I heard today was every way I might get expelled or injured or otherwise not have the adventure of a lifetime. I’m now fully versed in dodging said consequences. Thanks Captain Jeffrey.

As of this moment, about 9 or 10pm in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, welcoming and orientation are over and I am officially an undergraduate student once again. I honor of this occasion, I thought I might share a few entertaining details I’ve come across in making the reversion to the Golden Years.

This ship is a psychologist’s dream! 623 college students stuck on 7 levels of a ship that won’t see land for at least 4 more days… I think MTV specializes in things like this, right?

Although some of the psychological transitioning has and will be difficult, others have been much easier. For instance, the ability to wear sweats everywhere and the skill to manipulate limited dining hall choices into culinary pieces of art came back like riding a bicycle.

I no longer dread early classes. After showing up on the trading floor desk at 6:45am every day, I laugh when other people tell me they aren’t taking class before 10:30am. Sure, scheduling was an art form at Yale, but the way I see it, if I’m done with class by 10am, there’s way more time to lay out by the pool!

On that note, the pool is empty. Along with the fact that it’s like 50 degrees outside, the pool is empty. So all of you imagining me on a Spring Break cruise need to get your head straight. It’s still January for crying out loud.

Also with this time of year, we’ve run into an interesting wave pattern at sea that has basically half the ship vomiting… constantly… This has definitely been the most surprising thing thus far. Not pleasant, but totally unavoidable. Right now I’m rocking some super sexy SeaBands and hoping the voodoo placebo things keeps working!

Actually, now that I think about it, the most surprising thing is the fact that I literally ran into Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the first day of the voyage, and he gave me a high-five. Real life. Someone else walked right by him and he yelled out, “Hey man, you snubbed me!” Also real life.

Speaking of snubbing… apologies to everyone who has sent me emails or messages who haven’t received responses!! I found out on the drive to the ship that we are only allotted 2 hours of internet… not daily… not weekly… not monthly…

2 HOURS OF INTERNET THE WHOLE TRIP!

Seriously… So I will be using it to post blogs and that’s about it. Email still works, though, so please do send me messages and love! Facebook… not so much.

This is a tough pill to swallow for the constantly connected generation that’s currently inhabiting the ship. Not that I’m a completely different generation than say, a sophomore in college, but when I say I’m 25 and get reactions like ‘wow, you’re like, a real person’ or ‘ (insert long pause)…what?!’, it’s hard not to feel a little removed. In honor of that, and in an attempt to get back into the college spirit, it got maybe a little too much into decorating my room. I hope my roommate doesn’t hate me for this…

So there you have it… sea life and undergraduate life and quarter-life crisis life all wrapped up in one10x10 feet square bedroom, just trying to get through these massive 15 foot swells. The most promising thing today was the activities fair where I was finally able to start getting in touch with the Unreasonable at Sea entrepreneurs, so definitely looking forward to doing more of that as well!

Right now I’m just a sleepy, semi-seasick ball of questions. Looking forward to some normalcy tomorrow with my first class! I only have one, but it’s at 8am, which seems very fitting, all things considered.

Goodnight from the Pacific!

PS- I’m not washing my hand. Too cool!

Calming the Pre-Departure Jitters California Style

 Greetings from San Diego!

It's pretty late on the night before we set sail, so I'll keep things brief with a few pictures to catch you up on all the fun!

Yesterday, I flew into Long Beach and drove down to Temecula for some relaxing wine tasting with my aunt and close friend from college. Such a beautiful part of the valley!

My aunt and I enjoyed a wonderful fireside dinner at a cute restaurant in Escondido. Who would have thought something above a car dealership could have such great apps and waiters!

Then today I spent the day finishing up last minute shopping and just trying to relax. I realized that there are definitely some late game jitters popping up, so time at Pacific Beach and a little wave watching definitely helped calm a few fears!

Then I got to enjoy a sunset and dinner with a great college friend! So blessed!

But alas...

NO GREEN FLASH! :(

I'm not even sure if they are real...




So... here I am... the night before this incredible adventure... 4 months of clothing, shoes, toiletries, accessories, school supplies, medicine, and of course, a TEXAS flag all packed into two small bags. I'd like to pause briefly for all of the women out there who are unsure if this is a real picture... yes, ladies, two bags! I think there should be awards for something like this... just sayin'.

"Take what you can use and let the rest go by."
-Ken Kesey

I'm definitely still a little nervous, but as I wrote in the previous post, I've just decided that there are some things in life more important than our fears. I'm putting all my hope in faith that something amazing will come out of the next 4 months... I just can't wait to see what that will be!

Catch you from the SEA on the next post!

Question of the day:

Has anyone ever seen the damn green flash thing?!

The Adventure Begins: How I Got From the Trading Floor to the Lido Deck

"I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate."
-Vincent van Gogh

Hi everybody! Welcome to my blog!

For some of you, this initial post comes (hopefully) highly anticipated and (unfortunately) long awaited! For others, you may be interested in travel, curious about the ramblings of a soul-searcher, or otherwise randomly stumbling on this site for the first time. No matter what, I hope this blog not only informs you, but also speaks to you in some way… Whether that be inspiration or annoyance, only time will tell! 

Today marks the beginning of a great adventure around the world on a Semesterat Sea. But the real journey started one year ago when I got my first inkling that my job as a bond salesman might not be where I wanted to spend the next 30 years of my life. The stages of realization and self-awareness (some more painful than others) all began with a few simple ideas:

1.       It’s ok to not like what you do.

2.       It’s ok to want to do something different.

3.       It’s ok to leave and find that thing.

(I love lists, so you’ll find them popping up pretty often.)

A lot of us convince ourselves that we like what we do, because think we should like it. We lose sight of what we want to do (or never look for it at all) because we spend all our time doing what others say is right. We shy away from the chance to go find what we love for a myriad of reasons but mostly because it’s a scary risk. It would be easy to say that once I admitted those things to myself, everything else just fell into place.

Well, it didn’t.

Those ideas started the train of thought that continued to push me forward, but would often times leave me oscillating between the extremes of having it all figured out and feeling completely hopeless. After an incredibly long (and did I mention somewhat painful) year of soul-searching, mentor-seeking, passion-finding, many other hyphenated ‘ings’, and sometimes just doing noth-ing, I still really hadn’t figured it out. I finally decided (as with most of my better decisions) to let my gut tell me what to do.

Now, there are a few things you should know about me so that you can hopefully understand my tummy’s guiding forces and how they led so perfectly to my next adventure- a Semester at Sea.

I love people.

When I was in high school, I was asked on a scholarship questionnaire to describe my ‘passion.’ By then I knew that sports and academics, although enjoyable, weren’t it. I started to think about the things I loved most in life and realized they all revolved around other people.

Friends and family were only the beginning. I wanted to get to know everyone, figure out their desires, learn what made them get up in the morning (alarm clock is still the best answer I’ve heard), and explore what we all had in common—our innately social nature and our need for each other.

For that reason, I knew that while my searching was personal and internal, it would have to involve other people. Semester at Sea will have over 650 students and several hundred faculty and staff from all over the world, each with varied experiences and interests, each eager to learn and see the world. Like freshman year or your first day at work, we get to be new again.

My heart is set on traveling the world.

I think the travel bug first bit me when I decided to live and study in Rome for a summer in college. From that short 5 weeks of cobblestone streets, fresh air markets, and hazelnut gelato, I was hooked. I have since revisited Italy and traveled to several other European countries trying to expand my global understanding as much as possible.

This was probably my tummy’s biggest motivator. Every job opening I researched felt like delaying an inevitability of exploring the world someday. The chance to travel to Asia and Africa in such a structured way really drew me to the itinerary of this semester’s voyage. 12 countries, 16 cities, 106 days... not too shabby.

I’m in fear-facing mode.

I have a friend who likes to jump off buildings and another who climbs mountains. I know people who have moved to foreign countries sight unseen. I have several friends who put their lives in danger daily. All of these people face their fears instead of letting them get in the way of their passions.

I’ll be honest here, guys. this trip scares the crap out of me.

I was terrified of leaving my job and remain terrified of never finding one again. I’m secretly worried that I’m going to wake up somewhere in the Pacific Ocean during the ten days at sea between Hawaii and Japan freaking out and wanting to be airlifted back to the US. But deep down I get most nervous that maybe this trip won’t be the answer and my tummy was wrong. But I got so unhappy, that I just decided to go forward regardless.

Feel the fear and do it anyway!

I hope to do some social good.

Working on a trading floor, although lucrative, was not all that inspiring for me. Despite being well-compensated, working with intelligent people, and getting to progress quickly, I found myself lacking desire for my work. I had spent two years in finance and wanted to translate that experience into something that motivated me more and made me feel like I was making the world a little bit better.

Enter the Unreasonable Institute.

This semester, our ship will also play host to 11 tech entrepreneurs who will be working closely with students to address some of the major social problems of today ranging from clean water initiatives to local commerce solutions. I’ll also be taking a course in global sustainable entrepreneurship in the hopes that I can learn as much as I can about the ways we can address all of our societies’ needs.

And all of this will hopefully get me to the most important part...

I want to create something that helps people.

At Yale, I majored in psychology, but not to practice or counsel. I was never really drawn abnormal psychology or evolutionary theory. And the great majority of researching and statistical work was definitely not for me.

I wanted to inspire.

Say what you will about the positive psychology movement… I’ve heard everything from crunchy to downright fake. But there is something to be said, something undeniable, about the strength we have to overcome hardship, kill with kindness, and find our happy places. As one of my greatest mentors says, "we co-create reality," and we have the power to change it.

So  now that I’ve finally resigned from the bank and joined the legions of American fun-employed youth, I can see why so many of us feel lost and confused. The portion of our identities that we derive from whatever we do for work is lost. And for some people, that’s a huge portion- a king-size, if you will.

When people ask me ‘What do you do?’ or ‘Where do you live?’ I no longer have easy, crutch-like answers to use as identity markers. I’m no longer a bond salesman living in Connecticut. That Tracy is gone.

But by letting go of that identity, I gained the time and opportunity to find the real one. And my real hope is that my sometimes insightful, generally funny, and eternally honest postings on this blog might get people thinking about who they really are too.

And if not, at least you guys will get some cool pictures out of the deal.

We officially set sail on Wednesday January 9^th, but until then I’ll be traveling through California visiting friends and family. 

Tonight I had dinner at Don Pistos is San Francisco, CA with some wonderful college friends. Gelato at Naia sealed the deal on an amazing first day of travel.

So send me emails, comment on the blog, and let me know what you want to hear about! Coming soon will be travel itineraries, frequently asked questions, and hopefully more pictures!

Question of the day:

What is your passion and how are you living it?