Happiness is...

Hello Again!

Due to a couple factors (laziness and happy chaos) I have been completely neglecting my blogging for... eh, the last ten months / two years? So now with a complete facelift (the blog, not me), I'm going to force myself back into the habit of writing. Today marks DAY 1. Let's see how long this lasts!

I don't think I've ever written a post from the good old USA, but I currently find myself admitting that my stint back home might not be as fleeting as I thought it was going to be. So let's take it wayyy back and see how I've come to be blogging in the middle of a Monday in my sweats, while the rest of the world is working. I could take the easy way out and blame the economy.. but fortunately the story is a bit more interesting than that.

August 2010 was the month that veered my life in a drastically different direction from where it was heading. I went from working a normal 9 - 5 in Columbus, Ohio to playing in the sand & surf of Melbourne, Australia. The birthplace of this blog! I tried to keep up with the constant adventures, blunders, miscalculations / miscommunications, and LIFE in Oz... but more often than not, I wound up grabbing a pint (or three) with the amazing people I came to know instead of jotting down what was happening around me. But, believe me. I have thousands of photos from that year to remind me when this blog falls short.

Fast forward a year, and I'm stepping off the plane in Xi'an, China about to embark on the most challenging journey of my life. My world was quite literally flipped upside down as I stumbled into teaching, a completely new group of wonderful friends, and a life that made the word foreign laughable. If traveling Australia made me understand the joy of this world, traveling throughout China made me realize how little I know about everything. That is a great, and scary feeling.

Fifteen months later, I boarded a flight out of China and into Southeast Asia. Without a set plan, I spent a month exploring Thailand and Cambodia. Bangkok, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Sen Monorom, Hat Yai, and Koh Lipe were my jumping off points into cultures that I had very little knowledge of. The highlights were ::: bathing elephants, exploring Angkor Wat, snorkeling the reefs of the Thai Islands, drinking Singhas on Khao San Road, seeing the Killing Fields and S-21. The negatives were getting hustled in a Thai ping pong show by a madame and a slight motorcycle crash in Eastern Cambodia. But those are stories for another time. When the month was up, I dragged myself to the airport to catch my first flight (out of 5) to get home. Home. It was the first time in 2 1/2 years that I did not have a scheduled flight back to where I was coming from. How can I describe feeling comforted, excited, panicked, overwhelmed, sad, happy, claustrophobic, and unbelievably tired at once? It was a good thing there was complimentary wine on the flight and Starbucks at each airport.

I have been back for three months now, and have pretty much refused to sit still. I spent the month of January roadtripping around the Midwest visiting my favorite places, best friends, and family. In February I went down to Disney World finally was able to experience Harry Potter World in person! (Don't judge, that was high on my bucket list!) And most of March has been spent in the UK... So I can't claim that I have been sitting around with nothing to do! The traveling continues in a week to Las Vegas, The Grand Canyon, and Sedona! I realize I am a lucky, lucky girl.

So, that is the shortened version of why I am lounging about, blogging, and trying to figure out where my life is going on this typical Monday afternoon. Now what? Is probably the most frightening question on earth... but it is a bit exciting as well. Graduate School and teaching abroad once again is where I am leaning. But I am welcome literally any suggestions on what I should do, where I should go, how I can carve out a place in this hectic world!

This was just a starter post, one who's training wheels are obviously still firmly attached. We'll get into the nitty, gritty stories when I can write without using an obscene amount of adjectives and can form proper sentences!

In the meantime, my buddy JFOS (Jeremy Scott Foster) was nice enough to publish an article of mine on his website (Travelfreak.org). Check it out!
My Article!

XO
Em