So hello to Mom and Dad, my two faithful readers, and hello to the other people out there who probably accidentally found this page!
For those who don't know, I graduated high school last spring ('14) and am currently taking a gap year to get more acquainted with the world and with myself.
I spent the fall traveling in a group in Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand, and it was one of the most amazing experiences. It's absolutely impossible for me to sum it up or even begin to capture my trip in just a few sentences, let alone one blog post, so I won't even try. If you do want to hear more about it or the program that led the trip, you can check out the group blog here. Or, just wait until I get back home, and I will be glad to talk your ear off about my time there!
After three and a half months of pure adventure in Southeast Asia, I came home to spend the holidays with friends and family. As nice as it has been to be here and to sleep in my own bed with my giant stuffed monkey and stay up late watching One Tree Hill with my parents, I have definitely been bitten by the travel bug and am ready to get going again.
So this Tuesday, seeing as I will be freshly 19, I consider it the perfect time to head to the airport and take off on a solo trip to South America. The plan, which inevitably will change, is to spend two months in Peru--visiting friends, catching the sights, learning salsa, and taking a course to be certified in teaching English as a Second Language--and then find my way to Ecuador to put those teaching skills to the test. Along the way, who knows whom I will meet or what kinds of challenges I will face, but there's no turning back down. The tickets are purchased and the bag is...well, almost but not quite packed. Armed with my Spanish-English dictionary, a giant bag of medications for "just in case" scenarios, and about a million too many copies of such and such important documents, I will arrive at the Lima airport in just a few days. This gringo gal is ready to take on Gap Year Semester Dos!