On August 9th, 2014, we are leaving on a trip around the world.
The entire trip will take about two years. We plan to spend the first 10 months in and near Europe, followed by a few weeks back in the USA, and then another year or so in South America, Asia and the South Pacific, and Africa.
We don’t want the trip to be a whirlwind of collecting postcards and thrills from new places and experiences. Or, rather, some of the trip might be like that, but only a small slice.
For most of the trip, we plan to spend about a month at a time settling into a place before moving on. We want to learn how other people live, love, eat, relax, and parent – and how it feels to slip into someone else’s daily routine. We won’t pretend that our journey is some sort of formal study of cultures, but it is an experiment in how our family and these different cultures intersect for a month at a time.
Both of us adult people will be alternating between working part-time (we have laptop-able professions) and watching our son Theo.
In addition to learning about the world, we expect to learn a lot about ourselves as individuals and as a family:
- How many possessions do we really need?
- Can we work part-time and still manage financially and professionally?
- What makes a good day? A good life?
- How can we balance structure with frequent change in the life of a toddler?
- How can we meet the individual needs of two fairly introverted adults and an extraverted toddler while traveling?
- How can we build relationships and a sense of community at the same time as we are frequently pulling up our roots?
As we travel, the questions themselves will likely change. We are looking forward to the journey.
Love,
Amanda
Current interests: books, food, coffee, minimalism
Brian
Current interests: books, programming open-source software
Theo
Current interests: dogs, bubbles, trains, big trucks, birthday cakes, and saying ‘hi’ to strangers