…is difficult.  I guess that should come as no surprise – trying to order food in a foreign language is difficult enough,  so obviously dating should be a bit tricky.  Communicating in any sort of relationship is always complicated at times, even when you do speak the same language.  Add to that a different culture, […]

Lately I’ve been having people ask me how I made the decision to leave home.  It wasn’t easy, and a lot of thought and planning went into it, but the turning point came when I stumbled upon this quote.  Cliche?  Maybe.  But I scribbled it down in my planner and kept returning to the phrase […]

I hate saying it, but I felt kind of apathetic about the New Year.  I didn’t even hear the countdown to midnight though I was in the center of it all in Chiang Mai – one moment I knew it was getting close to 12:00 and the next moment fireworks were going off – but […]

I first visited Thailand more than three years ago for a quick trip.  Before those two weeks were even up, I already knew that I wanted to return and spend more time soaking up this country.  It felt so alive – dirty and beautiful – somewhere that felt completely new to me but where I […]

I have an issue with taking pictures of people when traveling. In the past year and half going through Thailand, India, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam I’ve come across several situations of travelers snapping away at locals.  Sometimes it’s in a situation that I find okay – like, say, with a tour guide who really makes […]

Oof. A lot has happened between when I first published this post and now, and I am definitely not with the same person. While I should update the post, let’s be honest, I’m not getting around to it anytime soon, and there are still a lot of relevant points. so, enjoy. There’s a stereotype in […]

When I first came to Thailand I thought I might be gone for about a year – teach a little bit and travel around SE Asia, then head to Australia and New Zealand, and ideally make my way home via Europe.  That was in May 2011. Instead, I haven’t even managed to get out of […]