The Update

Natalie …is currently a graduate student pursuing an Elementary Education teaching certificate and masters degree.

Justin…is currently teaching high school English.  Although a full time teacher, Justin recently began taking classes towards earning a masters degree in English Education.

Justin and I will always be nomads in search of the next adventure.  Unfortunately, higher education and priorities in life sometimes gets in the way of being able to pick up and go.

Fortunately, living in Colorado lends to many adventures and outdoor fun!

Where you live can help!

Living in Colorado helps the urge disappear. I play in the mountains!  I hike, climb and explore. It allows some of my travel hunger to melt away. But then I still started a count down on my dry erase board.  The academic school year has not yet began, and I find the Summer countdown at 10 months.  Only 10 months until SUMMER BREAK!!!

Dr. Seuss was right.  Summer 2010, oh the places I will go!

For now I need to suppress this “urge” for travel. The wonder lust that is boiling inside of me. I need to forget that I own a passport. I must long for the end of May, when I can brush the dust off my backpack and fill it with the contents for adventure. 

Pleasant Dreams!

Tonight, I will fall asleep with the world above me, literally.  Today, I posted the world map on my bedroom ceiling. Is this torturous? Should I have hung it somewhere else? NO! It is exactly where it needs to hang, so I may dream of future adventures.

And me. I am exactly where I need to be. I am in Fort Collins, Colorado ready for everyday adventure. Whether it is the mountains or the classroom. Teaching will be a new adventure unto itself. I can apply my new skills and knowledge to future travel opportunities! I can take my teaching skills to any country and offer my knowledge of the English language.  ESL instruction is something that I love. Through teaching English you can have the opportunity to live in a new country for a year or so.

Not Traveling? Life offers other adventures!

Overall, I do miss backpacking. However, I am so grateful for this time to explore a new profession. Especially, a profession as rewarding as teaching. I will have to be content in the classroom and recognize the world will always be there. When the time is right, I will make my next big escape and enjoy another long term travel adventure. Until then, I will savor Colorado and other nearby places.  In fact, the photo above of Justin, was taken at Horsetooth Reservoir only 5 minutes from our home.

Still have the urge? If all else fails…

I bought two guppies. They are my pet fish. Zsigmond (Hungarian) and Santiago (Chilean) are both males.  I’ve seen enough Discovery Channel to know that I don’t want to become the proud pet owner of guppy babies within a week of getting my new little pets.

My two fish are very likable and low maintenance. I can easily transport the little 1.5 gallon tank they live in (currently on my desk) to a friends house, if I need to travel anywhere, anytime soon.

If all else fails, break your travel urge by putting something living on your desk. A plant, a fish or whatever you use to help you break your travel urge.  It must have a certain level of maintenance that allows you to feel purpose where you are. A cactus is a bad example because you could still travel for a few weeks, leaving your cactus high and dry, and it will still be alive when you return. Instead, you need something that requires a bit of daily care. I do not suggest a dog. Leaving for long term travel becomes difficult if you have a dog, unless you are enthusiastic about traveling with your dog/s. Christine, from Almost Fearless often travels with her two large dogs.

Now that you know what to do with your travel urge, I wish you the best. I know it’s not easy. I often feel like a dog waging it’s tail at the world, salivating and trying not to pee on the carpet. Do you ever feel this way in life?

A few months ago, before I became dive certified, I read about the top 10 places to scuba dive.  Of course, New Zealand’s Poor Knights Islands made the list.  I couldn’t decide if it would be worth it.  It would take time to drive up north, it costs a lot of money to dive (still living off the Kiwi dollar), and we could potentially waste several days waiting for safe weather.  I had not previously realized that ‘Dive-cations’ are weather dependent.  When someone travels to a destination to dive, it is important to have backup days, incase a big storm rolls through the dive spot.  This can mix and turn the water and ruin diving for around 48 hours.

Inevitably, Justin and I took the risk.  We drove into the Northland to try to dive the Poor Knights Islands.  After my first dive (we did 2 dives total), I knew why the Poor Knights Islands made the Top 10 list.  The water was crystal clear and oceanic blue.  I saw bright colored fish everywhere.  Blue!  Green!  Yellow!  I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, shortly after arriving in Munchkin land, while seeing all of the spectacular colors swim and dash before my eyes.

While we were swimming along I noticed a small opening in the reef.  Justin (my official dive buddy for life) and I looked at each other and motioned that we were going to swim into the opening.  I swam through the narrow opening first and the narrowness widened slightly.   I was able to swim completely through the reef tunnel for about 30 feet.  I looked behind me and didn’t see Justin.  Within another second, I saw bubbles and then Justin popped up through the tunnel.  While I was in the tunnel I saw a bright green fish that was about two feet long.  It looked like a cactus.  I later found out that this is a scorpion fish and they change colors.  We even saw a sting ray that was 4 feet wide!

During our second dive, we swam through an area known as ‘the labyrinth’.  This provided even more opportunities to venture inside reefs and tunnel in and out of them like my favorite Disney princess, Ariel.  I know it sounds a little silly, but the Poor Knights Islands are on the top 10 list for this magical reason.  While diving the Poor Knights Islands you feel as though you have entered a hidden treasure few experience.  Diving the Poor Knights Islands was the best thing we did in New Zealand.

Justin described it as, “swimming in a tropical aquarium.”  I spoke with experienced divers who told me the Poor Knights Islands were the best reefs and underwater life they had ever seen.  These divers had even dove the Great Barrier Reef.  They told me to forget about the Great Barrier Reef, its overrated.  How do I figure out what’s overrated verse what truly deserves its spot on the top 10 list?  Whether it’s diving or other elements of travel, sometimes I will just take the risk and hope that the experience is fantastic and trust the top 10 list.

I have a new hope in top 10 lists.  Perhaps they are not all hype and ploys to gather more tourist dollars.  I intentionally avoided buying into top 10 lists in the past.  They always seemed lame and overrated.  Why would I want to experience something as commercial as a ‘Top 10 List’?  In the future, I plan to skim over top 10 lists, but not base our entire travels on them.  It can become dangerous if too much emphasis is put on other individuals opinions and ratings.  I might swim with sharks, but basing our time as backpackers on top 10 lists is far too dangerous to imagine.

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Thanks to Steve, we’ve now made our feed available through email. This means that every time either Justin or myself write and publish a post (such as this, that you are reading right now), you will be notified via email if you subscribe to the correct feed. It’s almost magical! But you still have to set it up. Located on our home page in the right column under the heading Nomadic Essentials is the link, - Get the Feed via Email. Click on the link, make sure that you spell your email address correctly, and you should have no problem receiving regular updates.

Check out Steve’s website: www.thailandmusings.com

Thanks again Steve, Justin and I appreciate your help! Hope you like the thank you photo I took.

Help us improve the quality of our blog. Have any ideas for our blog? Please let us know things we can change or enhancements we can make to improve the quality of this blog.

After much debate and consideration, Justin and I have decided to go with Focus Dailies (one-day contact lenses).

There is great appeal to the ease and flexibility of daily wear contact lenses.  We enjoyed being able to pop them in without solution.  While wearing them I could see very well, my night vision especially improved.  And then ending the day was a breeze; pop them out anywhere no need for a case or solution.  Just throw them away!

The only problem we experienced was dryness.  Which can easily be combated by bringing eye drops.  

Overall, we are glad that we attempted to trial daily wear lenses. Otherwise, we would always wonder if they could have made our trip easier.  We hope they will prove to be the right choice.

Are you backpacking?  Are you not?  Do you wear glasses?  Contact lenses?  Nothing?  Sunglasses?   How do you see the world?

For example: On a plane, train, boat, whatever, I like to read and don’t wear my contacts. The next day, experiencing jet lag will make my eyes tired and I will probably go without contacts. Then I might want them for an activity in which I will be hot, and not want to have sweat and oil collect on my glasses (that’s gross). If I open a 1-2 week pair but only wear them 3 of the 14 days that they are usable, it just seems wasteful.

Overall, it’s nice to have a choice. Although, I am still not sure if we will go with the “daily wear” lenses or if we will buy 1-2 week lenses for backpacking.

I have a biased view, due to the fact that while trialing a sample pair of lenses yesterday, I was able to see better than I have in a while. My night vision was incredible!

What do you think? Should we go with the ease, comfort and flexibility that “daily wear” lenses offer? Or should we bring 1-2 week contacts like we have always used?

Originally, I created this information as part of a  static page, but I am trying to cut down on the amount of static pages associated with this site.  Also, I think this information might be read more if it was published as a standard post. – Justin

When I tell someone that Natalie and I are going to spend a year traveling around the world, I receive many different reactions. The more I have thought about it, the more I think these reactions embody a genre of misconceptions that need to be, at least on this site, corrected. To start, if you think that Natalie and I are inordinately special, wealthy, or courageous people you may want to read our bios. The truth is that although we may not be Mr. and Mrs. Cookie Cutter American, we are more or less normal (i.e. we work, pay taxes, grew up in the suburbs, etc.) Perhaps that is why these comments are so interesting.

Example 1

Traveling for a year!?!? That sounds expensive. I will never be able to afford that.

Like you, and much to my disappointment, when I plant a $20 bill in the ground a tree bearing beautiful, green, United States of America $20 does not grow. Even if you make sure it has plenty of water and sunshine this method does not seem to work. That being said, it is true that travel of any kind takes a certain degree of money. The misunderstanding is that the average American cannot afford to spend 6 months to a year traveling the world. Throughout the planning process Natalie and I will write numerous post on how we are saving money for our trip. However, the travel book company Rough Guides produces a book entitled The Rough Guide to First-Time Around the World where they estimate that one year backpacking around the world could cost between $10,000 and $100,000. This basically depends on the choices you make in regards to the following items.

• Travel: How you want to get from one place to another and the level of luxury that you require
• Accommodations: Do you want to sleep in 5 star hotels or do you want to rent a bed in a hostel dorm room
• Food: Do you want to eat western style resort food? Do you want to eat from street vendors? Do you want to cook the food that you have purchased from the local supermarket?

In general I am going to say that budget travelers (i.e. Natalie and I) will spend considerably closer to $10,000 than $100,000. (I figured that was a given but just in case it was not…)

Example 2

Working is a way of life and I doubt that my boss will simply hire me back when I return. It will ruin my career if I do this.

I am not your boss and I don’t know how high you want to go up the career ladder. What I do know is that I think people should work to live, not live to work. You may not get your job back in a year and, if you do, you will probably not get promoted as quickly as people who did not take a year off to go see the world. All of that to say, working 40-50 hour weeks 50 weeks a year ( I hope you get 2 weeks “vacation”) so that you can afford to “live” the American dream may not be exactly what you had in mind.

It is likely that after traveling the world for a year you will be able to find another job. This will be a lot easier if you save some “help me find a job and get my life back in order money” that will not be used on your trip.

Example 3

How can I travel the world? I have never been outside of the United States, I only speak English, and heck, I don’t even have a passport!

Lets start with that passport.  Luckily for you the government is in the business of taking your money (about $100 for first time applicants) and giving you a passport. Even better, the government finally got around to joining the information age (okay, they figured it out about 5 years ago) so now you can find all of the information online.

From what I have read, and my limited experience traveling abroad, it is normal to be apprehensive about traveling to a new country. If you spend any amount of time traveling the world (or with increasing frequency the United States) you will run into people who do not speak English. Although this can be frustrating, treating people with respect and not acting like the Ugly American will see you through the tight spots. Now if you do not want to see other cultures and if you do not want to encounter people who cannot understand English,  than clearly world travel is not for you. But if you want to see the world, allowing a language barrier to stop you would be a travesty