About Me

So, this is about my travels.. but who am I? I find out everyday, so I can't totally answer that. But what I can do is sketch out what I like, and maybe you can get a better idea of who I am. Well, I obviously like to write. I am working on writing a travel guide and using alll kinds of social media plaforms to get my words out. I like to push my own boundaries and put myself in new and unfamiliar places. I love riding my bicycle..especially with my dog in the basket. Lola (the dog) my dog is my heart and  has been with me since my sophomore year of college, but unfortunately she isn’t as well traveled as I am so we had a few tearful hiatuses from each other. I love the mountains, hiking, and being outside..especially if I can find a good river me to swim in as I am often a fish out of water.  I adore photography and the first thing investment I’d like to make when I save up is real camera to practice with. For now, I take photos of absolutely everything with my regular camera. I have SO MUCH I want to learn. The laundry list includes everything from learning Spanish, to painting, snowboarding and even the simple things like learning to whistle better. Did you get a good snapshot? Let me tell my story now…

I graduated in 2009 with a Marketing major from Virginia Tech. I loved every year I had in Blacksburg, VA while at school and there met some of my friends who shared my outlook on life and inspired me to find adventures around the world. One of the biggest moments that determined my future for me was a spring break trip I took my senior year of college. Through a friend I became a part of an organization at VT called Nicaragua Orphan Fund. They had a spring break trip planned to Managua, Nicaragua to work with orphans and communities in need and barely knowing where Nicaragua was on a map, I was determined to go. Unfortunately, the objective of raising $1,200 was creating a major road block for me. How on earth would I get this money with a little over a month to come up with it? No.. I didn't turn to moonlighting, I created my first web page! I quickly whipped up my little project, Donate 4 Nicaragua that I used as my call of action to give potential donors all the information they needed to help send me on my way. I included videos and photos of where I would be going, explained what I would be doing, and how they could donate not just to me, but to the organization itself. Before I knew it donations literally came pouring in. I had no idea I could reach such a vast network of people! The donations added up (donors.. if I didn't tell you enough then THANK YOU AGAIN!) and before I knew it I had reached exacts the amount I needed! Today if you visit this site it now showcase my photography of my journey to Nicaragua and explains some of my experience there. While I could write a book about the things I saw during this short week in Nicaragua, I'll keep it simple: it changed my life. Among other mind-ogling revelations, I realized that if this one place I visited was so insanely different from my every day life, I had a LOT to see in the world and instead of being scared of the unknown,  I wanted to be immersed in it. Crash.... there goes the assumption that after graduating college the only logical path was to start a career. In a nutshell.. Nicaragua wrecked my life.

Now what could I do? Well, I realized I loved kids. Playing with little foreign kids in need every day was exhausting, dirty, confusing (hey! they don't speak my language).. and utterly amazing. As corny as this sounds, they loved with no boundaries and this inspired me. They didn't hold anything back as we were taught to do as kids and that just opened up a whole new world of cultural difference that I knew I needed to discover. Where was I going to end up?! The ideas bounced from one to the other. From living in Guatemala to learn Spanish, to Peru to work as an English teacher, to volunteering in Nepal, to Peace Corps in Africa. But somehow through all that I found Thailand to be the answer. My boyfriend Felix and I literally stumbled across on the Internet a site advertising teaching English in Thailand on a per semester basis. They offered a month of training (for a fee) in the gorgeous island spot of Phuket and then placement in a school. Without much though, we hopped on board.

I wasn't set to leave until the beginning of October so we had a lot of time to fill between graduating in May until then but we weren't going to waste it. Felix had worked in Kauai, Hawaii's smallest island, two summers before and was offered to go back and work at the same place while someone was on pregnancy leave. I didn't have any connection in Kauai, and had no idea what I would do, but without much hesitation, I said let's move to Hawaii! I found a job a few weeks after living there at a booth in a tourist area selling hand painted sarongs which while, not the optimal career, did the trick. We spent our days off exploring all parts of the island and I can honestly say this tiny island, less than an hour 1/2 from one side to the other, was one of the most beautiful places I've seen on earth.

After basking in the sun for months on end, October finally came around and it was time for me to fly to the other side of the world to begin teaching.This blog tells that story. On top of exploring from mountains to islands all of Thailand's nooks and cranny's we took time to discover (many times over) the foreigner Disneyland that is Laos, five weeks in the insanity that of India, a month traveling down the coast of picturesque Vietnam, and a week exploring the historical ruins and learning about the tragic past of Cambodia. I'll leave the reading to you, but spoiler alert: it all was incredible.

Now I am back in the land of the free! After being offered a fantastic job, Felix and I moved to Charlotte, NC. We are brand spanking new to this city and thus far have been nothing but impressed.We found an awesome spot to live in in a very cool neighborhood  and now it's time to tell the story of what we discover during our time here. I am currently working as an Internet Marketing Specialist with focus in Social Media and Search Engine Optimization for a great company called, Web Full Circle. I am learning toooons about the social media world and all the never ending happenings on the Internet.

Don't fret, this will still be a travel blog. After all, now I just have an excuse to plan vacations and explore my OWN country! I still want to learn Spanish with all my heart, so that adventure is sure to come down the road, and I am just raking up a laundry list of places I know I have to see. I won't plan things to much... because if my story tell you anything it's really you never know where the wind will blow you. Don't hide and seek shelter! It just may toss you into some of the best decisions of your life :) 

Thanks for reading, please check out my other social media sites, including some videos captured of my journey and feel free to email me at any time!

Best,

Brienne

Meatball the Tiger in Chiang Mai, Thailand