Tip #1: Bring warm clothes, even if you’re there in the summer, good hiking shoes, and a raincoat/windbreaker. Tip #2: Buy your food at the grocery store rather than eating out. On average, a bowl of fish soup seemed to be about USD $10. Tip #3: You can travel on the Hurtigruten ferry without needing a…
I have an addiction. I will openly admit this. Not to anything harmful, rather to something rather wonderful: travel. I spend a significant amount of my time dreaming about travel and planning my next trip (or 2…or 3). Like others I know with a similar problem, I feed this addiction by reading travel articles and…
Tip #1: If Gladys is there, talk to her and pay attention to her stories. Tip #2: Go diving! They have awesome dive masters! One of the best things about my trip to Little Cayman was staying at Pirates Point Resort. It’s not what I was expecting, and I’m grateful for that fact. When I…
Tip #1: Don’t over pack. This is a super laid back island, you don’t need a lot. Tip #2: Do bring what you need, the essentials (sunblock). As everything is imported, buying things on the island is expensive (think $10 for a pint of ice cream and $18 for sunblock). The Cayman Islands used to be…
Body Image / health / Life / Relationships / Weight
How I see myself affects my relationships and I imagine this is true for others as well. If you don’t feel good about yourself, why would you think other people have positive thoughts about you? If I don’t like the way I look, why would anyone else? If I feel fat, other people must be…
I don’t know how it happened, but getting a work holiday visa wasn’t something I was really aware, at least not until recently, of as an option for working overseas. This isn’t an option that necessarily comes with a job lined up before you arrive at your destination, but it does let you pick a…
I traveled abroad for the first time when I was 13, but this wasn’t what set off my travel addiction. We didn’t take family vacations when I was a kid (when my parents were still married, this was something to be thankful for), but we did host foreign exchange students. Maybe this contributed to my…
I’ve struggled with my weight for a long time. As a younger child I was active, horseback riding, swimming, or just running around and playing outside. I see pictures of my 7 year-old self and wonder, how was I ever that fit? And tan? I certainly don’t get tan now. Anyway, I was a healthy,…
A Spiderman doll lynched and hanging from a tree. This was undoubtedly the most disturbing sight I saw along the West Virginia road heading to the cabin some friends and I had rented for a weekend away. This also should have been enough to keep me from later going back to the small town nearby and exploring.…
Tip #1: Go right before or right after high season Tip #2: Once again, pack layers! Layers are vital! From Hyannis (Cape Cod), Massachusetts we continued north to our final destination, Bar Harbor, Maine. This was about 7 hour trip as we actually stopped for food along the way. Once again resorting to the handy-dandy…
Tip #1: Pack layers! Tip #2: If you can, stay on Nantucket I’m not one who is big on travel within the United States. If I’m going on vacation, I want to go somewhere different, explore another culture, and really get away from home. However, for my last trip, that just didn’t work out. I…
I finally know what I’m going for the next year or so of my life. I was all set to go to Saudi, even getting excited about. I was offered a direct hire position with a University in Riyadh with compound housing, good pay, health care, the whole works. Then, a recruiter who found my…
Life happens and things change. Things often change because of what happens in life. I’ve changed my mind about what to do with mine frequently. One second, I’m set and ready to leave for Saudi Arabia to teach ESL, and the next second I just want to stay here, safe and content with the familiar.…
This winter was brutal, and escaping the trail end of it to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, was seriously wonderful. I’d been there four years ago, as a graduation present from my moms best friend who has a time share there, and loved it. And it didn’t let me down on my trip this year. Puerto Vallarta…
I still haven’t made decided whether I’m going to stay home or take a teaching position in Saudi Arabia, and time is running out. Tomorrow I’m going to get my finger prints taken for my background check which will take about 2 weeks to process and then that’s it, I have to make a decision…
This Unsettled Life 