Dear Santa,

I thought the best part of leaving the day after Christmas was going to be the fact that you would be helping me with some of the key ingredients of my travel supplies. Sorry, Santa, turns out I was wrong. The best part about leaving the day after Christmas is having your whole family at home to hug goodbye on the morning you leave.

I made it to Bangkok safe and sound.

Dear Mom and Dad

Despite my best efforts to rewrite history and erase this little blemish from my past, in order to best explain how this blog has come to be, I must face two glaring realities:

1) I once lived for 4 months in Russia and took only one roll of film;
2) I once lived for 4 months in Africa and only called home 3 times

-cringe-

So, in light of these, shall we say--oversights of documentation and communication(?), I have decided to increase my level of accountability and responsibility and set up this blog. Merry Christmas mom and dad! True, it is a christmas gift that cost me $0. But think of how much you get for my no-money... frequent updates of my travels accessible at any time, pictures along the way (so you don't have to sit through a 3 hour slideshow of my whole trip) and of course, more technology to deal with (which I know you guys love).

When you are reading my blog, try to think of my adventures as a roller coaster. There will certainly be highs and lows, ups and downs, corkscrews and everything else you might expect. That's all part of the journey. Now consider that there are two ways to ride a rollercoaster. Eyes shut, hands clenching the safety bar, praying to make it back safely. Or laughing out loud, eyes open to the world with both hands up. I choose the latter.

And to everyone else who is following along: Thank you for helping me write this story.

"The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head. There is the illusion of aliveness."

- Tim O'Brien