So, why we are doing our trip around the world? Why did we sell our belongings and decide to spend our life savings to take a year off and venture around the globe? Why are we foregoing the down payment on a house and putting a hold on our careers? Why do we feel such a need for this trip?

Jake had the job of his dreams, a job in consumer robotics just as he had aimed for when deciding to pursue graduate school in California after leaving Georgia Tech. Kendall had a challenging role teaching high school English and coordinating the English Language Development program for the school. Newlyweds with a happy young marriage, doing all the right things in life, yet there was still something missing. A hole inside both of us badly needed to be filled before we settled down somewhere. Things in our westernized lifestyles just did not seem right. Rather they seemed closer to insane.

In California a young couple like us doesn’t really have a place to settle. The housing market is ridiculous and unrealistic. Daily expenses continue to rise. It is to the point that even when you consider yourself not to be materialistic, you feel like you are slaving away on a system dedicated to just that, keeping you a slave. People are so wrapped up in their lives, computers, tvs and latest gadgets that they don’t seem to have time to relate to one another. We want something different…something more…to be a part of a community. We want to live and grow somewhere with others that think like us. So we are setting off to learn how others do it.

We start first in the land we love going to all those places that we never had time for with our jobs. Then we move on to other places and cultures. We want to know the myths of others. How do they educate themselves? How do they raise their children? What higher beings do they believe in? How much are they fulfilled? We intend to find out!

Another question is why are we doing our travel blog? Many people keep journals or diaries along a trip. Actually, it is highly recommended from all the hard-core traveling folk because seeing and interacting with people from other cultures can and usually does have a profound effect on you. It is nice later to have this documented. However, you can do this in private. Isn’t it a bit self-centered to think people want to hear your observations and reflections? Maybe so…although most of us enjoy hearing about someone doing something unusual or remarkable. A trip like this has surely been done before, but it is still quite unusual. There is also a part of us that thinks that something is missing from the American culture, something that once was but is fading fast. We really feel that a journey like this can crystallize what that something is and by talking and discussing it we can help bring it back. Lastly there is an artistic side of us that wants to take something beautiful and savor it in the best possible way.