TJM: Total Jo Jo Move

"The Motherland"   Week 2: Part 1 The word "week" is used loosely here, because our whole time in Italy is actually 10 days, & 6 of those days were spent in Sicily, a gorgeous region of southern Italy, also known as the island that the "toe of the boot" is "kicking." For the purposes of this blog and the way I'm telling the story of our 3 weeks in Europe, all of Italy is Week 2. Think of Sicily as part 1 of Week 2 while Rome & Cinque Terre will be part 2 of Week 2. After that, our trip includes 5 more days before we head home State-side, so that will be Week 3 (Paris and Barcelona). Unfortunately I'm a week behind on my posts, but that just means we're having too much fun, right? I think so. As I write this post about the beginning of the second week, I sit on a train to Madrid at the end of our third week. Tomorrow night, I'll be back home in the States. On one hand, it's very hard to believe that this trip we've ...

Marvelous, Mind-blowing, Morocco "I don't think we're in Europe anymore." Links to other helpful sites & blog posts are  underlined .   Les Jardins Majorelle, French-inspired Moroccan garden   Palais Badii (the Badii Palace) in the Medina, the center of Marrakech Truly Experiencing Foreign Cultures Around this time last year, I spent the second to last week of my Australian semester abroad in Indonesia. I spent one week on a solo trip in Bali, and I absolutely loved it. Throughout that trip, I kept thinking to myself "This is the most foreign place I've ever been." Well, Morocco blows Bali out of the water in that respect.    Bali was incredibly touristy, and so was Marrakech, but the culture surrounding tourists in each place is very different. In my opinion, the general attitude of Balinese toward tourists is to please them and to help them have a good experience so the tourism cycle continues. In Marrakech,  t ...

BUEN VIAJE EN MADRID (Meant to be posted after leaving Madrid. Posted after Morocco trip due to low connection speed in Morocco.) Introducción a España  Our first 3 days in Europe were spent in walking the streets of Madrid, surrounded by beautiful Spanish architecture, easygoing Spanish people, & countless adds for tapas & jamón (ham). They LOVE ham here.  Getting around wasn't too difficult. On Google Maps, we had starred many of the places we knew we would want to go, then took the metro to the nearest stop & followed the blue dot as we walked & got a little off-track. Other fun places like local restaurants & pretty side streets were easy to find simply by walking the area.  Sometimes when I spoke Spanish to communicate with natives, I knew I was conjugating incorrectly & stumbled through my words, but for the most part, I communicated the necessary questions or answers efficiently, even if I only used words or phrases instead of full sentences...

The Next Adventure Before the Next Adventure May 2017 I'm finally a graduate. A graduate of the University of South Carolina. It's  hard to believe it's already over, but at the same time, I know my 4 years were absolutely spectacular. I know I'm ready to move on to the next chapter of my life, the "young professional chapter," which is sure to be a period of incredible growth with untold adventures. But first, it's time for a global adventure- another trip across the big pond- but this time I'm flying in the other direction.  Passport to Paris... & beyond Back in November, my sister Lindsey and I went to Mizzou to visit one of our best friends, Mary Pat. Unfortunately, that visit also came with a heartbreaking loss for the Razorbacks, 28-24. However, that weekend also spurred an exciting plan to visit Europe once we all graduated that upcoming May. This plan took shape starting with our $400 roundtrip flight deals on  StudentUniverse  and our Disn...