Finally Here

Well, the day has finally come, I have arrived in Oxford. After two weeks of visiting London, Paris, Edinburgh and many cities in between, I have finally landed in the city that will be my new home for the next 5 months. It has been an amazing trip so far, marked by cold weather, thick Scotch accents, foggy lakes, sunsets over green rolling hills, confused cab rides in Paris, beautiful castles and cathedrals, a lot of laughs, a few tears, some tasty ales and above all, the joy of living and making the most out of each day God has given me.



In three days I will begin orientation for a very academically rigorous semester, filled with rich learning experiences in and outside of the traditional classroom. Hopefully, I can use this Blog to finally fulfill the purposes I intended when I created it months ago, and chronicle my journey and some of my insights. In the next week or so I hope to upload some of the my pictures and post a few of my journal entries from the last two weeks.

Cool New Thing

So as I am getting ready to travel and study abroad for the next 5-6 months, I thought it would be a good idea to start posting some photos online. I wan't people to read about what I'm learning, but I also want you all to see it! I've just subscribed to a service called Flickr. I can upload photos and put them in albums and possibly a lot more. I am working on trying to get a slideshow in my actual blog, but until I figure that out, I figured you could at least check out my Flickr page for yourself. There is now a permanent link to it in the sidebar.

I took over 500 pictures this summer, and the 11 pictures posted now and not that great, but I just wanted to get something up. Stay tuned for more in the near future.

Oxford and Road Trip?

So it's still not 100%, but I think I'm gonna get to go to Oxford next semester. I'm starting to get really excited about travelling, and that's all I can think about. The plan is to leave December 15th, the day after I'm done with finals for Fall Semester. Then my family will meet up with me December 20th, and we'll spend Christmas together in the UK. Then my family will leave and I'll stay the semester. Since I have a wedding to go to on May 12th (also my 21st birthday), I'm planning to come back around May 9th.

After I get back, I really want to visit my college friends in their home states. That means, hopefully, a trip to Northern California, Oregon, (maybe Washington too?), Colorado, Texas and anywhere in between. If you know of any places I might be able to stay, let me know please!

Anyway, that's an update of my current travel plans. They might change, but please tell me if you're going to be travelling in any close proximity to me during the next 6 or 8 months.

Blessings!

Reasons and Background

So why did I decide to create this blog? I've been working for my Dad recently, helping him set up a website and blog for a small non-profit organization called TEAM International (teaminternational.blogspot.com). Though it has been difficult at times, learning how to use technology to communicate the values of an organization has been a great learning experience. Doing so has made me realize that I wanted a better way to tell my story to more people. So here it is. My goal is to share where I've been, what I am learning, and where I want to go.


This is Papa and I at Pali Lookout, on O'ahu, Hawaii. It was one of the last days in an amazing summer trip with TEAM International around Asia. The wind was gusting up to 60 mph!

I'm still learning how this works, so bear with me through the technical side of things. In the near future, expect stories from Thailand the last two summers, and more updates on the possibility of studying abroad in Oxford, England next semester.

Love one another.