Who the.....?

My biggest travel regret happened in college. I was a poor, narrow minded college student who only cared about the next party and spending time with her boyfriend (you'll find out more about him later, but the gist is he does not like to travel). At that time, my oldest brother had just graduated law school (with honors, late in life overachiever who loves to travel) and his first job sent him to Amsterdam for 6 months. 6 MONTHS I had the opportunity to go stay with him for as long as I wanted, to hang out with his girlfriend who would have traveled anywhere in Europe with me. But I didn't. I went back to my small town for every school break/holiday and spent every weekend forgetting what I did that weekend. All from New York.

Looking back now (10+ years later, omg ugh!), I regret that I never took advantage of that opportunity. Like I mentioned 10+ years later! and I would jump on any opportunity to have a free place to stay anywhere in the world and have a travel partner! But getting to this point in my life, I have had some great travel stories and partners. Those are the stories I plan to share. My future travel stories WILL come after.

But before I jump into my travel stories I'll give you some facts about myself. For the past 10 years (ugh) I've worked in the Environmental Consulting business. I am a GIS Analyst. Simply put, I make maps for site remediation jobs and manage large enterprise GIS databases. Basically I see the world through a computer screen. Anyone that works behind a computer all day can testify that it gets old quick. Don't get me wrong I like my job but would give anything for someone to pay me to travel the world (hint hint).

My story began December 2007, one year after I completed college. I was Christmas shopping with my mom (because I moved back home to be with my boyfriend, same one who hates to travel) and my friend Kim called me (you will hear a lot about her!). She asked if I wanted to go to Peru. Peru! I country I never even thought about visiting. I immediately said yes.

So on January 22, 2008 I was reborn and my first passport was issued.