Global Mischief Blog

The last few days / weeks have been incredibly hectic. We boarded the Kiwi Experience tour bus on the 13th and have been hopping on / off day after day. Mattie, our driver, has kept us quite entertained during the long drives, but I think we are both ready to disembark.

We are currently at the Puh Pub with 85 year old Les. It's a hostel strictly used by the Kiwi experience and I must say it's one of the coolest places I've ever been to. The ceiling is covered in hats from previous costume par...
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Two weeks down, and what an amazing start to this adventure!  Right now, I'm sitting in our windowless, 6-bed dorm room in Auckland, relaxing after a free city tour through Kiwi Experience.  The highlight of that tour was watching a Kiwi (New Zealander) bungy jump from the Auckland Bridge while his friends shot paintballs at him.  It was some sort of radio contest that we inadvertently crossed paths with, and was priceless to see.  Expect a video on the site quite soon!  As for the rest of Au...
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Dated 5 November 2010: Although the next few months will be an adventure for Andrew and I and viewed as crazy or exciting to many of our friends and family back home, we have come to realize quickly that our uniqueness is gone. Since our few short days here in Fiji we have made several new international acquaintances that have just chuckled ever so slightly when we told them how many days we have been travelling (3 at this point). The reality of it is we aren’t all that special anymore. We ...

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We made it to Fiji! It's only about lunch time here and we've already walked the beach, had pizza, played volleyball, re-organized our bags, and are officially relaxed. I am still in la la land, but I am happy about the heat. The hostel we are staying in is absolutely perfect for our first nights accommodations. The owners are native villagers from another island that decided to go into business together. They are only about Andy's and my age, but they have their act together. All the other h...
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I don’t know what I want to write about. I could write about Las Vegas and all the fun Andrew and I had with our parents, but the fact that we said goodbye to them today would only upset me again. I could write about the Chihuahua in the pink jacket obediently following his valley girl master through the airport, but no one would believe me. Then there was the episode of my purse br...

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Check out this article from a travel website Boots 'n All.  Maybe it'll change your opinion.  All three 'misconceptions' about long-term travel relate to Casey and my mindset on our trip.  We're not crazy, we're just bucking the trend!

That's all for now...we're realllly busy with last minute loose ends.  I've repacked by bag four times, Casey can't count the number of times she's redone hers.  But don't get me wrong, it's definitely part of the experience, and helping sidetrack us from how mu...
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October 13th, back in Delaware!  We rolled in around 9:15PM after a roller coaster month in New York.  To say the least, I am just about fully emotionally spent.  While celebrating Kenny and Kirsten's wedding, we learned the somber news that one of the most amazing people I've ever known, my Grandmother, had passed away.

First off, Grandma Z, I'll miss you every day.  You have done so much to make an amazing family, and I am honored to be a part of it.  From your sister, Aunt Anna, her 11 chil...
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If ever there was a need to learn a language, it’d be now. I started the Rosetta Stone Mandarin course and can now recognize a little boy on a horse or under an airplane. I can’t imagine too many situations where I would have to ask (or yell out!) “There is a little boy under the airplane!”, but one can never be too sure! Yes, that is right…I have the arduous task of learn...

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I'm not sure how most people say goodbye to their families for a year when they leave the country, but Casey and I, we're doing it in 'baby steps'.  We said goodbye to my parents in Florida, yet we'll see them again in New York for my brother's wedding, and say our final goodbyes in Las Vegas.  We said goodbye to her parents yesterday, but are going back there after Kenny's wedding for another stop in October.  I honestly don't know who we're trying to comfort with this process, them or us!

So...
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 Today is my last day at Verizon.  What. A. Journey.  I started with this company directly out of college, and was here for 4 years, 2 months.  Three of those years I spent with the CVT (COEP (Central Office Equipment Product) Verification Team) group in Albany, doing barcode verification and equipment installation and removal audits.  Not exactly what I expected to be doing with an Industrial Engineering degree, but a job none the less.  That's what I thought when I signed on the dotted line...
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