Notes from the Something

Ain't he cute?

This is Dan:

He's my sweetie. He's smart, funny, tall, strong, has a sexy British accent, and a cute butt ;) -- sorry, no photos of that one (yet). We met, as you know, at a waterfall in Laos. This waterfall, to be exact:

Actually, if you want to get REALLY specific, it was the swimming hole at the waterfall:

(Forgive the poor quality photos (hee hee I wrote "poo quality" - indeed.) -- but I think you get the idea. Un-freaking-real!)

He was with some peeps he met in Vietnam - an Australian brother and sister, and they all ended up in a taxi-van-thingy with two English guys, an American girl and guy, and an Aussie girl, or "Sheila". Actually, her name's Lucy. I went on my own with some boring-ass people from a van my guesthouse got for me... my guesthouse with the hot pink panda sheets and the mattress on the floor - it rocked. I started chatting with the American girl, she introduced me to everyone, and that was that! Love at first sight.

Well, not exactly. My first sight of him was standing knee-deep in the swimming hole water, shivering, glaring white chest and shoulders a stark contrast to the blazing red of his upper arms and face - and I hadn't even SEEN the sock lines yet! His first impression of me after that was me talking about how cute I am (I'm a Leo. Once you get to know me, you'll love me, I promise). I told him to suck it up and jump in.

I was really psyched to meet a group of people to hang out with, so I let myself be convinced (ordered, if you want to get technical) to join them in their taxi home. On the hour ride back to Luang Prabang, I noticed that the blonde British guy was a lot cuter with a shirt on and not shivering. And he really listened to me when I talked. And he had a cute butt (did I mention that already?). We all went to dinner, we all went bowling, we all got way-hay-haysss-ted.... and the rest, as they say, is history.

It was supposed to be a travel fling -- he was moving to Australia, I was moving to Europe. But as the hours and days passed, we both started to realize we wanted more. He started joking that I should come to Australia, and I started joking that I WOULD come to Australia.... and then we both got serious, and I DID go to Australia. And the story is only beginning...

Damn, I love that boy.

I miss traveling :(

There is nothing more wonderful than coming home to the places and people you love after an extended trip, like 5 months in Australia... but it gets old. Being home, especially without a job and with it the accompanying income, alone, for too long, reallllllly starts to suck. I am so ready to move to England!! (Send good vibes that Dan gets this job he interviewed for last week please!!)

I also really want to have some more adventures, especially after reading my friend Dean's blog. I met him in Laos at the same time as I met Dan, actually, and we've kept in touch via Facebook and blogs -- he's back on the road, adventuring in Indonesia.

I've always done fairly *safe* travel things -- I don't mean in the safety sense, it's all very safe, I mean in the easy sense -- but they were still awesome. I did a trek in Thailand run by a guest house - it came highly recommended and was AMAZING.

We rode on elephants, 

slept in village huts, 

schlepped through rice paddies and the jungle, 

and bamboo-rafted down the river (on rafts our guides made that morning).

 It really was fabulous, especially for an ultra-suburban girl such as myself. It wasn't a "package tour" by any means, it was very authentic. BUT all the other people were other backpackers, and our guide led all the activities. And showed us cool nature things, like a "bubble plant" - the sap works as bubble solution when you make a little cup out of a leaf and wand out of grass! It was the perfect introduction to adventure traveling!

I think after the experiences I've had, I'm ready for more. I'm ready to branch out on my own (with Dan, of course) and do some crazy stuff. Not bungee jumping or climbing Everest -- that's stuff's just not my style anyway -- but I think we could do an India-Nepal-Tibet-Bhutan thing and figure stuff out on our own. 

I am just itching to get going again! England will be an adventure for sure, and it will be VERY nice not to be homeless and have a normal life for a while, but I know it won't be long before the jungle calls me again... it's been leaving voicemails for some time now. One of these days I'll get the chance to answer.

How do you get there from here?

We were talking about blogs over at the Tri-Dub (my favorite online forum hangout), and my friend Heather mentioned she wanted to hear more about my traveling, which is  a HUGE part of my life (though not right this second) but I don't talk about it very much. I started wondering WHY I don't talk about it that much, and I came up with a few reasons:

1) I read about travel a lot. And I meet a lot of travelers when I'm traveling. Because of this, I assume everyone has the same experiences and mine aren't that special. But I guess it's like a doctor who only goes to the bar across the street from the hospital assuming that everyone everywhere is a doctor too, right? So just because I think I'm run-of-the-mill doesn't mean everyone else does too! Just trust me that there are WAY cooler travelers out there.

2) There is so, so, SO much to tell about that it's overwhelming to even think about it. To circumvent this, I think I'll just start randomly posting stories with only as much background info as you need. If I tried to sit here and "write about travel", I would end up going all the way back to 2004, when I read an article about orphanages in Thailand in Mothering magazine leading all the way through to the other day at the library, when I thought I was over it but I walked past the travel books and got weak in the knees, and then my head would explode and I would spend an hour looking at LOLcats and not post anything.

3) I tell the stories a lot in real life, so I feel like typing them out is redundant. But YOU'VE never heard them, have you? 

So, let's start with one of Heather's questions:

"I'd REALLY love to hear how you decide to go somewhere."

There are many ways I choose a place. Some, like Oregon, are because I have a friend that lives there and she says it's cool, and she's cool so I trust her ;), and it turns out to be AMAZING! This is Cannon Beach, about and hour from Portland. Portland is the coolest city on the planet, but you already know that, right?

I choose some because it's common knowledge that they are amazing -- like Fiji. Fiji is heaven on earth. Everyone should go to Fiji at least once in their life. 

(Note: I took these photos with my point and shoot camera and before I knew about editing... I like them better than ones I take now with my DSLR! Maybe I need to go back to those days LOL)

And then there are the places that are serendipitous... places I never would have thought of going, but end up there for one reason or another. When I arrive there, I know it's exactly where I need to be. 

Like Laos. It's that beige shooting-star-looking country that's not even labeled. 

(picture from Google Image Search)

It's a tiny country between Vietnam and Thailand, not the sort of place that tops vacation lists, but it's amazing.

The story of how I got there is a great one! It deserves its own post, after I tell you about Dan... or maybe to start out me telling you about Dan, but to do that I have to find my favorite picture of him on my external hard drive that I somehow deleted from my computer in an attempt to export.... it's complicated. I don't know. 

Anyway, I will make that my next job!

Travel Bug

Reasons Why I Am Mildly Interesting #1: 

Two years ago, I decided to quit my job, pack up my life, cash in my savings, and travel for a while. No real plan or destination, I just figured I'd see some of the cool stuff in the world that I was going to miss if I stayed where I was ... I figured once I had tenure in my teaching job and bought myself a house, there was no way I'd ever leave. I had every intention of keeping a travel blog, but the best I did was emails home, a Flickr album, and the occasional post on Travels with Swatchy. I do want to share my travel stuff here, though, because it was the most amazing set of experiences!! I can't even tell you what was my favorite - a month of yoga in the Bahamas? Trekking in Thailand? River tubing in Vang Vieng, Laos?  6 weeks in Italy? Portland? Fiji? 5 Months in Australia?

But I WILL tell you about all of it, eventually. Bit by bit, most likely. But it's a start.

I have been home for periods on and off since then, and the itchy feet are calming down a bit, but not nearly as much as I thought - I walked past the travel book section at the library the other day and got weak in the knees. There are so many places I haven't been yet! Including England, where I am MOVING in just a few weeks!

So tell me, where have YOU always wanted to go?? Maybe it will be next on my list ;)