Announcement - Sorry, I can’t make it. I’m busy next year… traveling around the world!

Hey friends,

Ahem. For those who haven't heard... guess what? I’m going on a trip around the world!!

Having been in school for what feels like two hundred years and having spent at least the last three dreaming about taking off a year to travel, the time has arrived. This year, the perfect storm of opportunity arose: I finished my grad studies program, had a decent amount of savings and a relative level of freedom from real responsibilities, etc. This made the decision to go for it really easy. So off I go.

I'm headed out on Boxing Day and although my ticket lets me be away for up to one year, my funding or my tolerance for homesickness will probably run out before then. At this time the itinerary is roughly as follows...



But most of it can be tossed to the wind if necessary: a couple of days in LA, a fortnight or so in Mexico, a bus-tacular crawl through Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, a hop over to Peru through Bolivia to Chile, flying over to New Zealand and Australia, wandering through Southeast Asia, bumming around Europe and topping it off with some exploring in Ethiopia before I come home. I'll be doing the Americas leg of the trip with my friend Mick, taking serious advantage of my cousin Mike and his girlfriend Ashley's hospitality in New Zealand, and sauntering about Australia, Southeast Asia and Ethiopia with my friend Mehron. Europe is still being sorted out, as some of my friends who live/want to go there can't plan this many months in advance.

Please read along, post comments, suggestions, recommendations, email me, whatever strikes your collective fancies. I love getting mail when I’m away from home. No promises on how regularly I’ll update, but I’m generally a good correspondent, so hopefully I can keep that up on the road. I’m leaving in less than a month, which leaves me many things to do and less time to do them in.

Wish me luck.

Cheers,

Holly