There's No Place Like Oz

Before I take off on this adventure, I want to say thank you to three guys who helped me get this site up and running! I’ve had journals or blogs in the past, but I knew I wanted something new for this experience — particularly, my own domain. The only problem was knowing where to […]

Everyone knows where I’m heading, but most people reading this probably don’t know where I’m from! My Twitter profile simply states, “Virginia, USA”, and that’s where I’ve lived for all but eight years of my life. To get more specific, for 12 of the last 14 years I’ve called Charlottesville, Virginia my home. I love […]

This is the fourth post in a series about my 30th birthday trip to Dublin this past March! On Tuesday seven of us decided to take a day trip, and shortly after breakfast we were whisked away from the city to the Wicklow Mountains. Apparently Over the Top Tours had booked all of its Wicklow […]

Ever since the first days of February I’ve been on a roller coaster of emotions. Maybe it’s because this trip went from “happening” to “definitely happening” once the Department of Immigration approved my online visa application in 20 minutes. It’s likely due to the fact that I was getting ready to enter my busiest time […]

This is the third post in a series about my 30th birthday trip to Dublin this past March! On Monday morning we snagged our free breakfast from the hostel and eagerly awaited Nicole’s arrival! At 10:20 she appeared in the lobby, and like a champ, she stashed her stuff in the room and was ready […]

Long before I decided to embark on this journey, but definitely during the time I talked about wanting to do it, I received an email from one of my best friends. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but I’m guessing he had been pondering this for a while. It was a relatively short message, […]

This is the second post about my 30th birthday trip to Dublin. You can read the previous one here. On Sunday, Evan and I landed in Dublin after a layover in Copenhagen. We had both slept the entire 2-hour flight — a welcome event since we hadn’t slept in about 24 hours by that point, […]

Written on Thursday, March 25 Tomorrow afternoon I have a meeting with my supervisor. Instead of discussing my mid-year evaluation, I will have to start the meeting by telling her I am resigning. I have written my resignation letter, but I’m not quite sure how to actually begin the conversation. Will I get nervous and […]

During the last four years as a career counselor, I developed a reputation for being the “go-to” person for any student interested in interning or working abroad. I’m no expert, but with my personal interests, I knew about a variety of visas and paid opportunities. For the travelers reading this post, this is probably no […]

In the summer of 2003, I was reading an issue of Budget Travel magazine and found a killer deal for a week in Ireland: $399 (pre-taxes and fees) for a round-trip flight from Baltimore, 6 nights in a B&B, and a rental car with unlimited miles. The catch? The available dates weren’t the best. Still, […]