I love to travel and experience new things, as you may have read in my other blog entries. Whether it is a short road trip over a three-day weekend or a two-week trip out of the country, I get energized by going to new places and experiencing new things. What you may or may not know is that many of my trips are solo trips, and there are great bonuses to traveling solo.

I’ve traveled in small groups, large groups, with one other person, and solo. Since I moved to California from Indiana, I have become very comfortable traveling solo. The belief that has allowed me to do so is knowing that I may never get to see or experience these places if I waited for others to have the time, money, energy, and desire to go to the same places I would like to visit. I hear too often how others never get to go on their dream vacation for one reason or another, usually having to do with another person who can’t go with them.

How did a Girl from Indiana end up in San Diego?

I grew up the youngest of four in a small Midwest town in Indiana. I love my hometown, the friends who still live there, the beach (yes, there are beaches in the Midwest) and I get recharged every time I go back for a visit but I am not your typical Midwesterner. At a pretty young age, I wanted to live outside the country, learn different languages and cultures, and meet people from around the world.

My first adventure outside of the USA was during my high school senior spring break to Mexico with my Spanish class and teacher Senor Hakim. I loved speaking the language, learning the culture, and meeting the locals. Then when I started my undergraduate degree in college, I visited the International House on campus, who lead study abroad trips, and I felt like I found my second home on campus. Each year of college, I found reasons to leave the country to study Spanish in Mexico, conduct a field study in Coast Rica, live abroad in Australia for a semester, and finally teach English to Romanian children in the Peace Corps after I graduation.