it's here

oh. my. gosh.  the day has almost come.  in just over 10 hours i'll be getting on the first of many planes en route to australia.  as far as the packing...it was delayed until last night, and then i fell asleep and woke up when i was supposed to be leaving my house to come to dallas, sooo i frantically packed in just under two hours.  pretty impressive for a month-long trip if i do say so myself.

today was christmas for my parents, my brother, our dog, and me, since i will obviously be out of the country on december 25th, and we had a great time hanging out.  now it's getting late and i'm still up going over and over all the last minute things, making sure i've got everything covered at least three times.  i might be a bit paranoid, but it's a lot easier to get a handle on everything sooner rather than later.  and i hate being unorganized in my bags, so i'll be waking up extra early to put everything in its proper travel position.

in ~30 hours (yeah it's a ridiculously long travel itinerary) i will be stepping out into the melbourne sun (or rain, as it's predicted).  catch y'all on the flip side, literally.  simon shields, do not forget to pick me up from the airport!! :)

under a week

"it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live." -j.k. rowling


when i booked my very first trip, this is pretty much the thought i had in my head.  (i also may or may not be wearing a harry potter shirt today..) people talk about traveling all the time, the places they want to see, the things they want to experience, and it all sounds so magical.  but it's only a dream if you don't act on it.  there will always be things that need to happen at home, at work, things you need to save for, always an excuse to put it off.  but for me, the thrill of the adventure is right in there at the top of my to-do list, something i need to survive and to complete me as a person.  i need to breathe in the air of a new place.  i need to move.  i need to experience the unknown.

how can i afford it?  i save a lot of my money (relative to the majority of the american population) for travels.  i try to cut down my expenses so that i have more to save for traveling.  and then when i travel i am still thrifty.  my good friend jeff told me that when i had an unexpected expense for my trip to not think of it as "lost money" but rather to think of it as "found fun."  and that's exactly what it is.  i don't get to travel nearly as much as i'd like but i even saved all my vacation days for a longer trip.  it's completely possible if it's something you really desire.

which leads me to the whole point of this post - i leave in 6 days!!!  everything i wanted to do this year i will now have completed.  on monday morning i will be on my way to adding a whole continent to the list of places i have been.  and i cannot wait to see all of my friends in australia and new zealand!!  and new year's on the sydney harbour.  this is unreal that it's already here when i've been waiting for almost a year.  next post sunday night, hopefully i'm packed by then...

eighteen

y'all.

18 days til the trip.

i'm not prepared but i'm ready, if that makes sense.

slightly freaking out.  no, scratch that, i'm definitely about to start running around like a chicken with its head cut off because of how little i've done to prep.  and i don't have weekends between now and then to pack/plan either.   aaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!

new pack!

pretty self explanatory, i got a new backpack for the upcoming trip!  while i love my eagle creek truist pack  i took to europe, it was way too big for this trip.  i'm also not checking my bag this time so i needed to downsize to one i could fit in as a carry-on.  now i have a gregory sage 45 (it's a women's pack, the men's is another name, same features, different fit) in maroon (yep, gig'em aggies!!) and i love it.  it has everything i like in a pack and the top is even a dry bag in itself.  super excited about my new pack!!!!

on that note, i'm freaking out about how little time i have left.  while i'm starting to walk a little better, i still have a ways to go.  i also have quite a few things to plan for.  better get myself organized!

35 days til the trip!

good news monday

happy monday!  well....as happy as monday can be!  i have lots of good news for you so get excited!

good news #1 - this past weekend i had so much fun with my brother, my old rooms, and my brother's friends at auburn.  sam (rooms) picked me up from the airport in atlanta friday night, we drove over to auburn right away, just in time for the party to end...but we did get to hang out with some of the group for a little bit before everyone crashed for the night.  all day saturday we tailgated and then walked (or in my case hobbled for the first time without crutches) over to the stadium to watch my aggies beat the hell outta auburn.  it was freezing but still super fun for me and sam to watch!  not so fun for the tigers but they were good sports.  the rest of the weekend was relaxed and i got to spend time with sam, jason, heather (jason's girlfriend who i officially met for the first time this weekend, she's such a sweetheart!), sarah & danny, and a few more of the industrial design kids.  also, my flight wasn't cancelled or delayed for hurricane/frankenstorm sandy out of atlanta so all in all i'd say a successful weekend!  and crossed off trip #3 of year 2012...

good news #2 - today we got the official doctor's ok to start walking without crutches and without leg brace!  my legs are so sore from walking just for a little bit on saturday at the game, but i guess that's what happens when you don't use your muscles for three months.  i've done a fair bit of walking short distances today so my knee is starting to hurt, but i figure it's bound to after so much sitting around doing nothing and then trying to heal.  wish me luck in rehab session one tomorrow...

good news #3 - last wednesday night i officially bought my to/from tickets to new zealand!!!  the trip is now officially real, and i am so incredibly excited.  i still need to get tickets from city to city but those will be cheap.  thanks to adventurous kate i found flightfox, a website that lets you post the details of your flightplans and any additional information you want out of your trip (i.e. layover in a certain city, traveling with small children, etc) and then "experts" will send you itineraries that are cheap and within your restrictions, all for a finders' fee usually $30-40.  plus side - i saved about $300 by using the one i picked.  down side - i switch planes and airlines at every stop.  worth the savings?  absolutely.  best part of my criteria?  i wanted an overnight or really long layover on an island, so on the way back i'm spending the night in honolulu!  it's not fiji, but it'll do :)

T -7 weeks (49 short days) til australia & new zealand trip

check out the links!!

http://flightfox.com/

http://www.adventurouskate.com/

texas a&m btho auburn

resolution check

how are y'all doing on your 2012 travel resolutions??  it's almost time to make your 2013 travel checklist!!

here's mine for 2012:
vancouver - check
california - check
auburn - this weekend (bonus - i get to see my brother AND my rooms!) and then check
australia and new zealand - less than 2 months away, ticket will be bought this week or next.  and i'm freaking out because it's so close!!

my wishes for 2013 are already pretty set as i previously mentioned, but you'll have to wait to find out the full details on that ;)  you have just over 2 months to fulfill your 2012 goals, so hop on a plane and get them done!!

also, one week til i'm fully walking again :)

Travel Packing Tips!

Found this on Kayak's twitter and thought it was so great!  Check out these really cool tips for packing for your trip:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/marriott/14-clever-travel-hacks-to-make-your-trip-awesome-7bu6?b=1&utm_source=buffer&buffer_share=12c9f

http://twitter.com/kayak

2 is the magic number

2 weeks left of crutches and the brace and then i'm back to walking without the brace - completely back to normal (plus rehab).  it will have been 12 total weeks of recovery since the accident

2 wonderful parents that have helped me through this whole ordeal and have gone out of their way to make their little girl feel better.  i'm so lucky to have them :)

2 months until i leave for australia (that means i have to buy my ticket in the next 2 weeks - yikes!!)

2 days til my birthday...

october!

one year ago i was wrapping up my trip and on crutches.
exactly one year later, i'm on the same crutches.  my, oh my, how things stay the same yet become so different.  but that's not what this post is about - this post is about the greatness that is october.

i'm seriously going to list out great things about october now, because it is my favorite month (and the best month hands down) of the year, and i can't contain my excitement.

-football season is in full swing
-fall shows start back up
-fall weather is starting, which is the best
-that means we get to start wearing jackets and boots
-you can rake up piles of leaves to run and jump in.  this never gets old.
-if you're not on crutches, it's perfect running weather
-pumpkin spice lattes at starbucks
-pumpkin beer (specifically dogfish head punkin ale)
-pumpkin anything
-pumpkin carving (i love pumpkin, can you tell?)
-halloween, because sadly that's the only socially acceptable time of the year to have costume parties...i miss sorority life when a non-themed party was boring
-kappa delta was founded on october 23rd, 1987
-my birthday is in 17 days
-texas state fair
-wine season


there are so many things to love about october.

i love october!!!

ps, feel free to add on to the "things you love about october" list!

planner

who have i become??  i'm obsessed with other places.  dreaming of going away has consumed my thoughts, my dreams, and my calendar.  so much so that i think i've already hit my vacation day limit on planning out all of 2013's travels.  two trips out of country, at least two domestic.  i can't contain my excitement!!!

but you don't get to know where til new year's  ;)

30 pounds

that's how much weight i am now allowed to put on my right leg.

it's been 6 (and a half) weeks since i broke my leg, and i have now been given permission for partial weight bearing.  and full range of motion vertically - no more locking on the brace.  however, i thought that would be for a week and then i'd be on my way to walking.

i was wrong.

partial weight - 30 pounds max - is all i can do for the next four weeks.  and then after that we can consider starting to walk.  i won't even be walking on my birthday (which is at about the end of the four weeks, in case you were thinking of sending me anything...i can wish right?).  so for at least the next month i'll still be your resident crip, as they call me at work.  it's sad news because i thought i would be up and going much sooner, but staying cheerful knowing i'll still be capable of getting around by december.  it's not too much of a setback.

in other news, my wonderful mom is taking a german class!  she's prepping for the trip we are planning to take in a year, September 2013.  when i came back from europe i wasn't expecting to get to go back to germany so soon, but i am very excited for the opportunity and to be able to share my love for this country with my mom.  if you want to skype with us so we can learn/practice our german, let me know!!  so proud of her  :)

mending

thank you so much to everyone who has been praying and thinking of me!  it's been 3.5 weeks since my injury happened and i can tell you that it doesn't hurt at all anymore.  which means 2.5 weeks til i can start walking and get off these crutches - the same ones i got from the hospital in vienna in fact (earlier post).  instead of a cast i was outfitted with this intense full leg brace that locks into position, so for the past week i finally got to move out of "perfectly straight" mode (which was torture) to 30 degrees of bend, and now today i got moved to 60 degrees!  according to x-rays i am healing well and swelling, although still very obvious, is going down.

sadly, i am still on crutches and won't be able to polka dance this weekend at westfest.  i'll just have to make up for it with more beer and kolaches.

also side fun fact, tomorrow is the one year anniversary of when i met one of my favorite people from eurotrip, chris from australia, who is mentioned in a couple of my posts from a year ago.  he thought i was really weird when i told him we should hang out on the train going from barcelona to nice because we both spoke english, and even weirder when we discovered we were going to the same hostel.  but my adventures in nice, florence, and rome wouldn't be remotely the same without him, and i'm so thankful to have met him and all the other people i'm now friends with from that adventure.  happy anniversary, aussie, see you in december :)

broken

in case you didn't catch it in the "crutches" post, my leg is broken.  and it's a pretty bad break.  the pain keeps me from sleeping, which is why i'm up right now.  it happened a week ago and the past week has not been much fun dealing with the injury.  this week i'll be trying to get into a specialist asap to get a cast on it and then wait 6 weeks to hear more.  no, i will not be telling the story of how it happened anymore but it's happened and i can't change that so let's move forward.

we are hoping i won't need surgery because they couldn't even see it in the x-ray.  they only saw it in the MRI so hopefully simple rest will heal it.  then there's the issue of physical therapy and getting back to normal.  i have to stop reading testimonials online because everything i'm reading makes me depressed, so i'm coming to you and asking for your prayers.  pray for less pain.  pray for no surgery.  pray for full recovery.  pray for my job, since i can't do part of what i am supposed to do now and for the next few months.  pray for my bank account, because hopefully insurance will cover everything but who knows.  pray for my family and friends, that they will be understanding and supportive and help me get through this even though it's going to be a hassle for them too.  and pray for me, that i can stay optimistic through this.  sure, i got injured before and during my eurotrip, but those weren't anywhere close to the scale of this.  and before that i had never really been injured in my life, so this is a bit hard for me to handle.

one of my biggest fears is that i won't fully recover, which would really put a damper on traveling.  if i don't recover fully by december, i might have to cancel australia this year, which will just kill me because i've been planning on that for almost a year.  and if i can't walk very well in the future, that'll definitely put a dent in my ability to explore new places.  for right now and until the cast comes off, help me not think about these things.  anything could happen between now and then and hopefully the promise of a full recovery is in the cards.

crutches

comparing cultures is extremely interesting to me.  the similarities, the differences, the reasoning behind it all.  when i was in Europe, i went with an injury boot on my ankle - something that is completely normal here in the States but not used at all in Europe.  it made sure i was noticed everywhere and i was even complimented on my fashion statement in france and italy.  silly europeans.  they thought my accessory was strange, but then when i got crutches there i looked at them in disbelief and asked "no really, can i please get normal crutches?"  you see, the crutches over there are the kind that only come up to your elbows, or "polio crutches" as a few people have named them.  they require a lot more balance and a lot more strength than american crutches, and the also have little reflectors on them since europeans generally walk instead of drive to their destinations.  pretty smart if you ask me.

anyway, now that i'm back on the crutches from vienna, austria, a second time, it's fun to get people coming up to me and asking about them.  i even let most people try them out if they want, including the lady who took my MRI and a random girl in urban outfitters.  they're different, but instead of disliking the stares i now love them because it gives me the opportunity to share my travels with more people than i would have reached otherwise.

vancity - part 2

the plan for the night:  ride bikes all night through stanley park decked out in our DDP gear and shoot fireworks for canada day.  and stick to the plan we did.  there wasn't an extra bike for me, but there was a random tandem bike...which meant martin and i had to figure out quickly how to ride it and show it who's boss.  we picked up the tandem and rode over a few blocks to gary's to put on our banana suits and everyone else put on their gear.  the majority of the group below..

the all-night ride was super fun.  stanley park.  lookout by the bridge at night with the lights sparkling on the water.  outlook over the trees.  fireworks.  preventing martin from dying trying to climb onto trees.  playgrounds at 5 am or something ridiculously early.  2nd beach.  more fireworks.  killer raccoons.  breakfast at denny's.  it was a good night and a good way to spend canada day.

monday - after that martin and i walked through chinatown and had a second mini-breakfast at the community center.  then he dropped me off at the hostel and i grabbed a shower to head out to granville island market.  should i have taken a nap?  probably.  did i?  nope.  grabbed the bus and went to get my culinary shop on.  tried rose chocolate.  whiskey chocolate.  sockeye salmon jerky.  fish and chips.  clam chowder.  maple walnut ice cream.  stopped by the granville island brewery to try some of their beers and got to talking with this guy at the bar about what i'd done this weekend.  he didn't believe me so i started to show him pictures.  his tab comes and by this time he's dying laughing so he says "put hers on my tab, this is pure entertainment, totally worth it."  as soon as he leaves the bartender comes up to me and says "well played."  why thank you, mr. bartender, i thought so too.  as i'm eating the aforementioned fish and chips i'm literally falling asleep bite by bite, so i figured it was about that time to head back and finally get some sleep.  between my arrival friday night and this time (monday afternoon) i'd had about five hours total of sleep so it wasn't too unexpected.  had to crash some time.  six hours later i woke up and met martin for all-you-can-eat sushi at this freaking delicious place he knew.  basically talked about life and stuffed ourselves to the brim (pun intended) and then went to sleep "early."

tuesday - said bye to my new british friends that were only around for a day to get their bikes put back together.  they were biking from vancouver to san francisco and then deciding where to go from there.  crazy, but they seem like driven guys so i think they'll do just fine.  as long as they carry their good luck charms, the "oh, henry!" chocolate bar and pippin the penguin.  you can follow their travels at robbieandhenry.wordpress.com.  well-rested, i headed out to hike around grouse mountain.  thanks to the DDP, i knew how to catch the sea bus to north van and then rode the bus to the suspension bridge park.  it was pouring, so they gave us these awful fashionable yellow ponchos upon entry.  this particular area of the park wasn't huge but i did spend about two and a half hours just walking around exploring.  the mountains are always beautiful, but this one was actually classified as a rainforest.  there were strange bell-shaped flowers, giant trees, a rushing stream below, magnificent rocks (i like geology, don't judge), and a stream of smooth rain falling on me.  i could hear all the sounds of nature growing around me the further i walked.  i could see my breath.  meanwhile in texas it was about 100 degrees and here i am in a rainforest at about 50.  it was magical.

but after i'd checked out all the open paths to that part of the park i went back to the city and somehow navigated my way to gary's.  didn't do much but sit around, but really that's all i was looking for.  watched blair edit the AMD edition DDP video, ate ants on a log with gary (thank you gary!), and took home a sweet boombox.  chris, one of the friends i made at the party, had invited me to a couchsurfing meetup at the cinema pub so i went straight there instead of stopping by the hostel.  which meant taking the boombox with me.  hell yes.  had a good time catching up with chris and meeting some other vancouver couchsurfers, then we walked back towards the hostel...in a roundabout way...with some french guys we had met at the pub. once back at the hostel i found my hostel friends downstairs and called up martin to make it just in time for last call.  things i learned that night:  1 - no one knows how to two-step in vancouver; 2 - canadians don't belt out journey songs like we do in texas; 3 - the world is tiny, and when someone says "you don't know my town" it's always worth a shot.  to cillian -  i met someone from athlone, ireland, and he almost didn't believe that i knew someone from your town.  it was a good, chill last night in canada.  but not forever, just for a while.


wednesday - slept in a bit, still wasn't ready to give up my time in canada so i just went walking.  i left the hostel and just started walking down the street, up and down random crossroads, up to the pier, along the water, through any areas i hadn't found yet and through places i'd made memories.  spent some time chatting with one of my favorite hostel employees, brian, about his home country - ireland - and our favorite places there.  as much as i tried to put it off, it was time to head out to the airport.  checked my bag so i could carry on my boombox, which once again got lots of attention.  go ahead and just look at it.

thanks for the good times, canada.  til we meet again.

don't forget to keep checking out theddp.com and following Tom&Gary to see when the next DDP will come to your city...or where you can go to meet up with the DDP.

vancity - part 1

the trip to vancouver was a rush.  it may have started out a bit slow and frustrating, but it quickly picked up and turned around.

friday - on the flight in i sat with an older couple going on an alaskan cruise out of vancouver.  they were from mississippi, and the wife kept feeding me snacks from her snack bag as if i were one of her grandchildren.  at first i felt bad for taking her snacks, but then i saw my weakness - a nature valley oats 'n' honey bar in that shiny green wrapping.  i can't resist those so i gave in and took it.  she gave me her phone number in case i met some crazies in the hostel and needed a hotel room to crash in, which was super sweet, but this wasn't my first rodeo.  customs was a trip - got held up because the agent didn't believe that i was going to vancouver "just because" and by myself...clearly he doesn't know me.  the conversation ended once he asked what i did and i responded "i'm a rocket scientist." and then further explained what i did.  he then just handed my passport back and called the next person haha!  once i finally cleared i hopped on the sky train to waterfront station and after a half hour  got off and turned left towards cordova and cambie.  by this time it was 10 pm, and the bar at my hostel was alive and kicking.  i must have looked pretty ragged from just traveling all day because i definitely got some looks walking in.  no worries.  a few minutes after dropping my stuff off in my room and i was ready to go!  went downstairs to the sardine-tight packed bar, grabbed a cambie beer, and scouted for some fun looking people.  i met vancouver natives bruce and rob...soon after we recruited troy and a few of his friends...and by the end of the night our entourage was about 12 people and we closed down the place with our singing and whatnot.  sadly, i never saw them again, but they were good people.

saturday, the actual day one of the trip, i went out to walk around the downtown area in the morning.  not five minutes down the street, this couple stops me to ask for directions.  "uhh i'm from dallas, texas, this is my first day in canada ever."  "oh.  we're from houston."  i get mistaken for a native a lot, but the closeness of that encounter was probably one of the best short conversations i've had from that mistake.  around 1:30 pm i made my way to the vancouver art gallery, ready to get to dancing in my neon headbands, bright blue tights, and hot pink legwarmers (thank you tabitha for letting me borrow them!!).  decentralized dance party #50 was imminent.  little did we know, slut walk had also chosen to set up in the same spot.  so here we had an awkward mix of girls dressed as sluts pissed off and yelling about sexualization of women (while topless...umm what??) and people dressed in neon workout gear with boomboxes ready to dance.  the dynamic was very interesting.  the news crews were beyond confused.  once the slut walk departed, the happy, bright group of people started getting out boomboxes and turning them on.  if you don't know what a DDP is, essentially it's a giant dance party that moves.  every boombox is tuned in to an fm transmitter that sends out mindblowingly awesome dance music and everyone dances for about 10 hours throughout the city.  if that explanation doesn't make you want to drop everything and dance, check out this video.  a few days before the event, i had submitted to become part of the banana task force, a small group of bananas that dance their asses off to keep the party going when some get tired.  van pulls in, banana suit goes on.  boomboxes passed out.  fitness equipment ready to rock.  the rain tried to rain on our parade, but we started DDP50 anyway.

through this collection of amazing people and hours upon hours of dancing, i had my first ride on the sea bus, got to attempt to sing the canadian national anthem for the first time, watched a guy get arrested while screaming political rants at the police (not connected to the party), saw the olympic village, rode a gazelle on the sky train, partied on party island, took pictures with a lot of strangers, crashed a jazz festival, watched sunset on the west coast, stood next to a good friend as he sang meatloaf to the cops in an attempt to negotiate for a few more minutes of DDP (it worked), and rode a party cab.  i'd say it was a pretty kickass way to do my first day in canada.  some great pics by my friend abi of abi rhi photography are located here!  the pics of the party from my camera aren't anywhere close to the caliber of hers, but if you haven't had enough DDP pics, mine are here.  the rest of the night consisted of going out to the town to keep dancing in our banana suits and shades, and taking even more pictures with strangers.  everyone loves seeing bananas.

sunday - happy canada day!!  downstairs at the restaurant, i found martin - one of my fellow bananas - and joined him in watching spain slaughter italy in the final eurocup game.  while he went and took a nap to recover from DDP, i went with a few of my friends from the hostel to check out the official city activities down at canada place.  there were tons of people milling about, but no one was actually doing anything....a song would play every 20 minutes or so, no one would dance, and there were no events.  just people walking around aimlessly.  very strange.  so after an hour of that i started the walk back to the hostel and decided to stop into steamworks pub to grab a pint and see who i could find.  found this really funny aussie who was on a layover from a few months in toronto and on his way back to his homeland, so we chatted for a bit and then headed over to the cambie to meet up with martin.  i stopped off in my room to drop off some stuff i'd picked up and rounded up two more aussies to join us.  the five of us went to the bar next door for dinner and caesars, wishing everyone who passed by us on the patio a happy canada day, and just talked about random thoughts.  it was a good time.  but then the solo aussie had to catch his flight and martin and i had to head out for our plans the the ddp crew.  we headed out to martin's where i got to see the city from the rooftop as the fireworks started, which was one of the best views i had the whole trip (thank you martin for sharing it!)  then we caught a cab over to gary's for a great canada day night....

vancouver ddp

so in my research of fun things to do in vancouver, i came across something magical.  the decentralized dance party.  basically, saturday night, a bunch of people from all over will gather in the streets of vancouver with portable boomboxes.  the leaders will have fm transmitters and start playing a mix of awesome mindblowingly fun music.  everyone taking part in the ddp will tune their boomboxes to the specified channel to create a traveling dance party. 

this saturday is the 50th ddp and tom+gary are bringing it back to where it began - vancouver.  theme is workout, complete with gear and a sea of neon.

donate - you'll get sweet stuff in return even if you can't make it!
http://www.indiegogo.com/DDPVANCITY
facebook
https://www.facebook.com/events/367420349982426
twitter
https://twitter.com/#!/ddpFTW
official press release
http://www.pitchengine.com/decentralizeddanceparty/tom-and-gary-announce-north-american-party-safari-and-global-party-pandemic

seriously. 
get your party selves to vancouver for DDP and donate so the party can happen. 
spread the word. 
and start tweeting the following to @ddpFTW:

@sarahinspace for #Vancouver #DDP #bananataskforce

edit:  i'm a DDP banana!!!  keep getting awesome swag by donating!!!

back up again

after evaluation, i have decided to stick to the original plan.

vancouver in two weeks!!!!

reasons:
-it was already planned
-ticket was already purchased
-cheaper because now i don't have to use a change fee to go somewhere else
-get to spend time at home with family and friends in dallas too
-still get to do canada day and independence day in the same week in their respective countries
-it's just cheaper not to book a whole 'nother trip

looking forward to it.  it's going to be much simpler than another trip.  and i have a really good feeling about it. as always, suggestions on what to do are welcome!

back up...

so...canada may be off.  not off forever, just off for a year.  here's the situation:

we recently found out at work that we have a surprise week off for free - no vacation days to have to spend, just a pure week off work.  it happens to be the week i was already taking two days off for canada.  now, if i have nine days to do something between one work day and the next, do i want to go to canada for four and then sit around on my rear for the rest of the time, or do i want to go somewhere a little farther to savour the week and do canada in a year when i can perhaps make the most of it with the friends i have living there?

i vote option b.  it'll cost me to change that flight to something else, which sucks, but i didn't pay anything for it to begin with since it was all in miles.  so if i go through with changing this, those miles will become a trip to san francisco for the outsidelands music festival with my good friend evan in august.  and then i will be booking a weeklong trip to somewhere else either tonight or tomorrow.

the cities on the possibilities list:
-seoul, south korea
-tokyo, japan
-buenos aires, argentina
-bucharest, romania

all of them have something attached to them, such as "it depends on if the airfare drops" or "it depends on if alexis is still in romania," so there are still factors i'm waiting on to decide.  by thursday we'll know the new destination, so stay tuned...

vancouver

it's official:  i'm going to vancouver!!!!!

basically it came down to "do i want a free flight or do i want to pay an extra $200?"

vancouver = free - thank you capital one miles that i've racked up
toronto = $200

on my tight budget to save up for other things as well, including australia, vancouver won out.  hopefully i can convince some of my canadian friends in toronto to meet me down there (*cough*myles*aaron*brian*cough*) because i miss them and would love love love to see them again.  now i get to figure out where i'll be staying and what exactly i'll be doing, so if you have any friends in vancouver who would want to host me and take me fun places and go to the big street celebrations for canada day, hook me up!  i'm not a super great cook but i do make some mean desserts.  and they'd get to hang out with a rocket scientist, because who doesn't want to say they've done that??  right?  maybe?


suggestions/tips on things to do would be greatly appreciated!

trip dates:  leaving friday night, june 29th, coming back wednesday early afternoon, july 4th, to be back in dallas just in time for the fireworks.  you didn't think i forgot about that, did you?

vacation days

set for canada.  time off is good to go.  now all that's left is to to figure out where i'm going and buy a ticket!  location still depends on a few external factors on that one that are out of my control, but the decision will be made and ticket bought within the next two weeks. 

look out canucks, i'm coming for you!

privacy

recently a topic has come up again and again between friends, acquaintances, politics, and media.  i would like to throw out some logical comments on this issue.

privacy.

in the last couple of years, there has been a lot of complaining that the government is stealing your information, even possibly spying on you to make sure you aren't doing something wrong.  looking for persons of interest within the walls of our country involves searching everywhere.  people hate it, moaning on and on about how it's not right, it's not fair, it's their human right to privacy (which by the way is not a basic human right).  but then when there is an attack on the states from within, everyone will be up in arms that the government didn't do enough investigations to prevent it.  well, you see, if we ban methods of intelligence-gathering that could protect our nation in return for your individual privacy, bad things can happen on a much larger scale.  and we as a unit will be much more vulnerable to those attacks.

even more confusing, those same people yelling and ranting about wanting privacy are the same ones who are posting every minute detail of his or her life on the internet.  facebook, twitter, tumblr, blogspot, instagram, pinterest, google+, foursquare, etc.  in many cases, way too much information.  really, we do not want to your about your child's rash.  or what you ate for breakfast.  yet they are the same ones demanding that no one know anything about them....hello, anybody home, mcfly??  you are the one putting it out for the world to see!  no one else.  this is all on you.  it's really simple - if you don't want the world to know about your life, then stop posting it and stop whining about it.

in addition to the above statement - if you've got nothing to hide, then why does it matter?  this is something i've struggled to understand my whole life.  if any aspect of my life were to get posted on yahoo's front page i wouldn't care, because i am not doing anything wrong nor am i ashamed of my life, who i am, and who i interact with.  i live with no regrets because everything that could be considered a mistake is a chance to learn.  if you don't make mistakes, you can't learn from it to grow into a better person.  i'm straying from the point, but really, when someone gets really worked up about protecting their privacy, i automatically think they've got something bad to hide.  and that's not the government's fault or a corporation's fault. 

end of initial comments, but i would be happy to start a dialogue with anyone who disagrees.

scuba

fun fact for those who don't live in waco, i am taking a scuba class!  so that i may enjoy the great barrier reef when i am in australia and have lots of fun adventures in the water elsewhere too.  the instructor makes it seem slightly terrifying though because he tells us horror stories of people getting injured, bent, or dying from diving every time we meet.  so i'm not even sure i really want to make this a normal thing, especially considering the really short times you actually have underwater (which i didn't know until yesterday when we learned how to use dive charts).  but i suppose knowing the skill can't hurt.  i just won't be buying anything other than a mask anytime soon...

virgin america

just bought my first plane ticket to fly them!!  i'm so excited!  granted it's not a very long flight, it's only from dallas to los angeles for memorial day weekend, but still, it's going to be awesome.  one way is an aisle seat, the other is a window seat, so i can get the full experience.  call me silly, but i have been wanting to fly virgin america since they were invented.  yay grown up job!  now hopefully i can make sure i have off work that saturday...

trip 1 of 2012 - flights purchased.

one year from ireland

today is march 10th.  a year ago today, i left on a plane for ireland.  it was my last spring break in college so i wanted to really make it count.  my brother had just gotten there for study abroad so i figured what better way to do spring break than to hang out with jason overseas.  so my cousin mary and i bought tickets and flew to dublin to spend 10 wonderful days in the republic of ireland.  we saw dublin, galway, killarney, and cork.  spent st patrick's day in dublin, surfed with two great couchsurfing hosts, kissed the blarney stone upside down, touched beautiful castles, drank guiness at the guiness storehouse, watched a rugby match in a pub (and not just any match, the england v ireland six nations game mind you), ate blood pudding...and liked it, climbed up to the cliffs of moher, took pictures with two different random groups of kappa deltas, and walked in the irish rain with our backpacks, just to name a few of the memories.

but the best and worst part of the trip was something incurable that i caught over there - a little thing called the travel bug.  backpacking for the first time showed me how much i loved everything about it.  making friends anywhere and everywhere, only having a few belongings to keep track of, having the ability to stand out or blend in depending on which i preferred, learning a new culture, and feeling so incredibly free.  and yet having a grown up job allows me so little opportunity to travel often, which leaves me constantly aching for more.  absence does make the heart grow fonder, because it will make me relish each moment i am abroad in the future.

so here's to all the people that made that first trip what it was
-my first travel partner, my cousin mary
-my brother, jason, who i followed the lead of and just went for it
-the id kids that i finally met and fell in love with - danny, sarah, robert, austin
-our philly girl, isabelle
-my galway guys, cillian and johnny
-our dublin rugby pub partner, darron
-our emergency cork host, yvonne, one of the sweetest girls i've ever met
-my aggie host, hunter, who i've had the privilege of seeing a few times again since the first
-name twin, sarah, for getting to have a good friend to celebrate with
-and anyone i may have missed that shared our journey with us


happy first travel anniversary to me

cheers

uganda

no, i did not add uganda to my list of travels 2012.  HOWEVER, one of my closest and longest friends (seriously, we've been together since the 6th grade...since 1997) is trying to go to Uganda.


janelle has been working with Invisible Children and Resolve for 6 years.  one of the huge accomplishments she has made was to get a bill passed to stop violence around africa.  as part of the initiative to get this bill passed, she was one of the organizers of "Coburn Say Yes", which was super successful.  you can read all about this peace-seeking bill here.  and if you look close you can find even her in a few of the pics on both sites.


click on the links below to find out more about the organizations helping UGANDA every day


the resolve
invisible children
e3 - the organization she will be going with on this trip



if you have any questions about her mission, email her at hope4afrika@yahoo.com.  i know she is always ready and willing to share her passion for these people.  it's even easier to connect with her on twitter, at twitter.com/hope4afrika.


please please please help donate so she can go back to UGANDA.  this is what life is all about, helping others.  this is not just a pet project for her, this is janelle's whole world.

DONATE HERE 



and thank you in advance!

canada day

thinking about postponing my canada trip from....

original dates - may 25-28, memorial day weekend
new proposed dates - june 30 - july 4th, the weekend of CANADA DAY!!!

pros - get to be in canada on canada day, get to spend more time in canada, will still be back in the states by the night of the 4th for our holiday
cons - one more day off, might cost more on airfare...

looks like the trips may be shifting.  but definitely still happening.

catching up

this past week has been filled with great experiences.  five people really made the week special, and here they are...

nick - wangaratta, australia.  tuesday night i got the chance to host my first couchsurfer.  as you know, i've surfed a lot...but since i live outside of major cities i don't really get requests.  but nick was bicycling from dallas to new orleans and stopped through waco so i seized my opportunity.  he got a bit lost on day one but i found him after driving a while and looking for a cycler in the dark.  after a brief stop at sonic for fuel, we rode back to waco and chatted with a few friends from work.  got to grab lunch at my fave burrito shack with him and then met up again briefly in austin on friday night.  great guy and wonderful surfer, so thanks for making my first hosting experience a good one!

sarah - austin, texas.  name twin.  oh how i love you.  and if it weren't for couchsurfing and my random quest for a partner in travel i never would have met you.  my weekend in austin was originally planned because she wanted to do the color run and i thought it looked like a blast.  little did we know it would be a mudbath for three miles with no color until the party at the end, but we made the most of it and had fun.  i'm so happy i got to see you and spend time with you this weekend!!

simon - melbourne, australia.  i met simon at plus prague hostel (in prague, czech republic obviously) on my eurotrip.  while i have met up with other americans i met on the trip, he is the first non-american i've met up with in person since i returned to the states.  he happened to be going through austin at the same time so we got to spend the weekend together (with sarah, nandi, and austin...who i'm getting to).  he got to see a bit of where i work even though i practically dragged him there in his half-sleep since he still hadn't quite woken up, and then he got to be center of attention when he rolled into McGregor's finest, The Coffee Shop, with his giant backpack looking completely out of place in this small town Texas diner.  only a few days of catching up, but it was nice to get to see someone from the trip again.  if you're reading, enjoy the rest of your time here in the US of A and see you in december....

nandi and austin - somewhere near tuscon, arizona and fort worth, texas - you guys are great.  they couchsurfed at sarah's place friday night so i was able to go out to 6th street with them friday night, then saturday we wandered around downtown, played mini golf, and watched austin hyped up on 5 shots of espresso all day (it's more entertaining than you'd guess).  saturday night the guys and i hit up pete's dueling piano bar and had a grand ole time chilling and enjoying the last night all together for a while.  they seem like old friends already, and hopefully we'll meet up in dallas soon for a ranger's game!


connecting with the people around you is the best part about life.  it's not about money, or status, or things.  it's about relationships and how you treat those relationships.  i had a great time in prague, but i could have chosen to never talk to anyone again.  instead, i have kept in touch with many people from my trip and plan to visit more in the future.  are you valuing your relationships enough?  or have you lost site of what matters?

accountable

first post of 2012!  i know i'm a little late on this but happy new year (and happy chinese new year)!  wanted to hold myself accountable for my goal, so i did what i thought would be best (or rather, my awesome mom who is super smart suggested and set up for me) and now my travel funds automatically get drafted from my paycheck to go into savings.  by december i will have enough funds for all my leap year trips!  now i just have to make sure i don't dip into savings for anything else and hope that no emergencies come up...and with my track record i'm going to ask that you pray i have no emergencies too!  i obviously need all the help i can get on that front.

T-4 months til canada trip, and after polling i have an overwhelming response telling me to go to vancouver because the weather will be much nicer.  but there's also this really awesome theme park in toronto and the leviathan will open in may.  i know, tough call, good weather or extreme coaster?  but you are probably underestimating my love of the extreme.  it also depends on where all my canadians will be at the time (it's the last weekend in may - put it on your calendar!) and if any fun events/festivals are going on that weekend in either city.  canucks, weigh in!