Biography
Although most of the people that visit my site know me, hi Ma, it seems that a few people have stumbled across it as well. Also, while you get to know a person fairly well during a week in a hostel, you don't always know that much about them, like their last name for example.
I'll start with the first question that you generally hear when travelling. I'm from Boston, which is in NE of the US (NE being either New England, or North East). What's Boston like? Well, it's a sports town. I left Boston on September 27th, 2004. Before that, I spent two years working for STA Travel and living in Cambridge Mass, which is on the other side of the Charles River from Boston (15 minute walk or 2 stops on the T (subway)). Before that I traveled in Europe during 2000 and 2001.
I grew up 30 minutes outside of Boston in a small town. My home there is on a dirt road next to an apple orchard. I moved away from home at 14 to go to a boarding school 40 minutes away (a. I'm lazy, and b. this was two years after my parents split and I was sick of having two bedrooms). Milton was great, especially the friends that I made there.
In 1995, I fell into the French Exchange Program at the last minute, one week before they left on a three week trip. My first time out of the US. I got sick immediately, and was nursed back to health by the mother of my host family hwo also sent my jeans to the tailor. Those three weeks planted a lust in me to further see Europe, and I vowed to return for a longer period of time.
I returned in 1998 while at Vanderbilt University, which is in Nashville TN. My grades in French weren't enough for Vandy's program in Aix-en-Provence. I wasn't allowed to enroll in any other program in Aix, so I settled on Avignon, an hour away, where I enrolled in an accelerated program for those with a passion for French. I was a bit of a surprise to them. I'd wanted to be near Aix as Kathy Lambert, an old family friend, lived there. Avignon was also on the TGV (Aix wasn't in 1998) and made for easier weekend explorations.
I arrived a month before my program started, originally intending to travel with my girlfriend at the time before our semesters started. Things didn't work out and I decided to head to Europe alone rather than mope around Boston for another month(yes, I'm a moody, sulky son of a bitch).
From the moment I landed I met not a familiar face, though I was met by Kathy's ex husband's hygenist (he's a dentist). 3 hours later I was alone, travelling solo for the first time, a dumb ass Yank, totally terrified. when I think back on all the travel that I've done, that first train ride from Marseilles to Nice was the longest of my life. In Nice I met Sundae, and their my Life on the Road began.
I spent the next months seeing a little of Italy and Greece. I tried to follow one of the first pieces of advice I was given by my cousin, Big Bob: see more of fewer places.
I returned a wreck from that first month, I'd caught a cold in Florence, and collapsed sick at Kathy's. From there I finally made my way to Avignon and began my semester there. During my first week of classes I managed to juggle my schedule so that I took 15 hours of class between 9am Lundi and 3pm Mercredi, leaving me four and a half days of freedom. I lived with a family, Danielle and Thierry (a mother and son), just outside the city's ramparts in a lopsided room with a private entrance through the jardin. Most weekends, save two, I spent elsewhere. I visited 9 countries that semester though many were just for a weekend. At the semester's end I was exhausted, weary for Home, but eager to return. I had brief tastes of the wild variety of Europe and I craved more, richer tastes of what I had beheld.
I graduated from Vanderbilt in the spring of 2000, with a degree in Philosophy and minors in Art and French (with a C average). Armed with these, I began my career as a Professional Vagabond. I returned to Europe after working the summer for the American Red Cross which was my summer job throughout Vanderbilt. I had no time line, no real destinations in mind, total freedom. My plan was to travel till winter then spend the season working in the French Alps. And that's what I did. I travelled about Europe, Rambling without Direction, till winter came and the call from the peaks went out.
I went to Val d'Isere a ski area I'd visited in 1995 during my Milton trip. I found a job and eventually a steady job (the au pair one didn't work out too well). It was a wild winter, I drank far too much but I skied almost every day. My job was at one of the trailside restaurants, and I could ski from there home each day if I chose.
I'll start with the first question that you generally hear when travelling. I'm from Boston, which is in NE of the US (NE being either New England, or North East). What's Boston like? Well, it's a sports town. I left Boston on September 27th, 2004. Before that, I spent two years working for STA Travel and living in Cambridge Mass, which is on the other side of the Charles River from Boston (15 minute walk or 2 stops on the T (subway)). Before that I traveled in Europe during 2000 and 2001.
I grew up 30 minutes outside of Boston in a small town. My home there is on a dirt road next to an apple orchard. I moved away from home at 14 to go to a boarding school 40 minutes away (a. I'm lazy, and b. this was two years after my parents split and I was sick of having two bedrooms). Milton was great, especially the friends that I made there.
In 1995, I fell into the French Exchange Program at the last minute, one week before they left on a three week trip. My first time out of the US. I got sick immediately, and was nursed back to health by the mother of my host family hwo also sent my jeans to the tailor. Those three weeks planted a lust in me to further see Europe, and I vowed to return for a longer period of time.
I returned in 1998 while at Vanderbilt University, which is in Nashville TN. My grades in French weren't enough for Vandy's program in Aix-en-Provence. I wasn't allowed to enroll in any other program in Aix, so I settled on Avignon, an hour away, where I enrolled in an accelerated program for those with a passion for French. I was a bit of a surprise to them. I'd wanted to be near Aix as Kathy Lambert, an old family friend, lived there. Avignon was also on the TGV (Aix wasn't in 1998) and made for easier weekend explorations.
I arrived a month before my program started, originally intending to travel with my girlfriend at the time before our semesters started. Things didn't work out and I decided to head to Europe alone rather than mope around Boston for another month(yes, I'm a moody, sulky son of a bitch).
From the moment I landed I met not a familiar face, though I was met by Kathy's ex husband's hygenist (he's a dentist). 3 hours later I was alone, travelling solo for the first time, a dumb ass Yank, totally terrified. when I think back on all the travel that I've done, that first train ride from Marseilles to Nice was the longest of my life. In Nice I met Sundae, and their my Life on the Road began.
I spent the next months seeing a little of Italy and Greece. I tried to follow one of the first pieces of advice I was given by my cousin, Big Bob: see more of fewer places.
I returned a wreck from that first month, I'd caught a cold in Florence, and collapsed sick at Kathy's. From there I finally made my way to Avignon and began my semester there. During my first week of classes I managed to juggle my schedule so that I took 15 hours of class between 9am Lundi and 3pm Mercredi, leaving me four and a half days of freedom. I lived with a family, Danielle and Thierry (a mother and son), just outside the city's ramparts in a lopsided room with a private entrance through the jardin. Most weekends, save two, I spent elsewhere. I visited 9 countries that semester though many were just for a weekend. At the semester's end I was exhausted, weary for Home, but eager to return. I had brief tastes of the wild variety of Europe and I craved more, richer tastes of what I had beheld.
I graduated from Vanderbilt in the spring of 2000, with a degree in Philosophy and minors in Art and French (with a C average). Armed with these, I began my career as a Professional Vagabond. I returned to Europe after working the summer for the American Red Cross which was my summer job throughout Vanderbilt. I had no time line, no real destinations in mind, total freedom. My plan was to travel till winter then spend the season working in the French Alps. And that's what I did. I travelled about Europe, Rambling without Direction, till winter came and the call from the peaks went out.
I went to Val d'Isere a ski area I'd visited in 1995 during my Milton trip. I found a job and eventually a steady job (the au pair one didn't work out too well). It was a wild winter, I drank far too much but I skied almost every day. My job was at one of the trailside restaurants, and I could ski from there home each day if I chose.
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