about me.

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.
And you know what you know.
And you are the one who’ll decide where to go!
-Dr. Seuss
 

58659_467818238383_504853383_6573711_6598116_n

I was about to edit this section, because about ten years has passed since I’ve seriously blogged, but so much of this “about me” continues to be about me (go figure) so I think I will leave much of it for now. My life continues to be a complicated series of one-way tickets.

I’m a bit of a hobo. Some might say a ragamuffin. A vagrant. A vagabond. A bum? Call it what you like; I call it an unconventional way of looking at life. A really great way to be broke. ;)

“I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.”-Kurt Vonnegut

What makes you come alive? If you are anything like me, there are probably many things that fall into this category… but travel is certainly near the top of my list.

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. ~Howard Thurman

I don’t have a lot of money. I don’t have any wealthy benefactors. I’m just a teacher who has decided to modify her lifestyle to prioritize certain things – to travel, to experience the cultures of the world, to immerse myself in situations unlike anything I could find at home, to throw myself well out of my comfort zone, and to toast marshmallows on lots of different beaches. I want to be inspired. I want to live.

“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.” – Alan Keightley

Sometimes I backpack, and sometimes I travel with a suitcase. Sometimes (as I have done most recently), I move out of my house, sell and donate my possessions, and move to a new country on a one-way ticket. Each mode of travel has its own benefits and challenges. But a valuable learning I have gained from it all: moving around without much Stuff is fantastic. When you are backpacking, you learn you don’t need Stuff. When you have moved out of your home, well, you don’t have a place for Stuff. That statue of Genghis Khan you found in Mongolia? Stuff. That cute shirt you really liked from the Canary Islands? More Stuff. Where are you going to put it? Is it worth lugging around the world for? Either way, you kind of learn that Stuff is annoying. So you don’t want any more of it. And if you don’t want more Stuff, you save more money. I’d rather fly to Madagascar than spend my money on some passing trend, or another pair of jeans that I probably (definitely) don’t actually need. But maybe that’s just me.

I digress! My aim here is to share my stories. As a solo female traveler, as a traveler with a partner or a friend, as a teacher improving her practice through cultural immersion.. as a human who likes to write.. I’m just here blogging and hoping to encourage a few of you to reconsider your lives and join me abroad (just kidding. Am I?). Solo travel is easy (a lot easier than you think). Traveling light is only hard when you’re packing. Purging your belongings and hitting the road on a one-way ticket isn’t really as hard as you might think. It’s liberating. It’s fun. 

And to be honest, life is just too damn short to be boring.

“What I find is that you can do almost anything or go almost anywhere, if you’re not in a hurry.” – Paul Theroux

I was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. I love Vancouver. I’ll go back one day (maybe). 

Thanks for reading!        

      Kristina :)

“If the clock appears to move faster than it did in sixth grade, it’s only because we haven’t actualized our power as adults to set our own recess schedule.” – Rolf Potts