So… I currently live and work in Fawnskin, California, which is a small town across the lake from Big Bear in the San Bernardino Mountains. This is about a 3 hour drive from where I more or less am from, San Diego (America’s Finest City). I am working as the Registered Nurse for a YMCA summer camp, and the job is amazing. It is the perfect mix of outdoors, office, autonomy, children, and fun. I am currently having an awesome time, but the one drawback of the job is that it is only seasonal. I am employed here for not but 9 weeks. The summer is coming to an end, and with it, so does my job (and paycheck). I have approximately 2 more weeks to go here- I am officially done on the 22nd of August.

I’ve been contemplating what I’d be doing afterwards, and I had yet to come to a concrete decision. I was looking at jobs throughout the United States, but my passion is truly international travel and I’d love to just go for it. Being an American citizen has its drawbacks though, and the one that I’m really upset with is that many foreign countries do not like to hire American citizens for employment.

This morning I woke up early, and couldn’t sleep. I’d been considering going to Europe in the fall, but I had been putting it off. So in my sleepy haze I logged onto some travel sites and came across an $850 round trip plane ticket to London. It’s not the best of prices, but considering it is a round trip, New Zealand Air direct flight (only 10 1/2 hours, no layovers) from Los Angeles the first week of September, I was stoked on the price. I decided to just go for it and book it. Yeah, 85 days in Europe.

Now what? What am I going to do in Europe for 85 days? Well, the primary purpose of my trip is to secure a job that is willing to hire an American citizen, preferably one in the popular ski destination, Val d’Isère, France. I have a friend that highly recommends the ski season work experience there, so I would love to check it. Well, besides the job hunt, I would also like to spend my time adventuring.

This is the tricky part. I do not have a lot of money to spend. My budget is pretty tight. When I say pretty tight, I mean really tight. What I mean is, I have very, very, very little money to be throwing down for the necessities of life, such as food, shelter, toiletries, etc… So, this is the deal. I would love to see how far I can go with as little money as possible. Budget is pretty much miniscule. I am going to come to depend upon the kindness of strangers and other comrades I meet along the way. Although this is not the first time I’ve attempted this, I usually end up going to places where I have numerous friends that will often go out of the way for me. This time, I am going to areas of Europe I am not quite so familiar with, and therefore, have fewer friends in surrounding regions.

On the other hand, I do have an awesome friend of mine joining me for the journey. For this, I am grateful. Even though I don’t mind going at it alone, it’s always better when you have a good friend by your side, especially somebody that you respect and trust. Most importantly, we always have a good time together. So basically, this blog is just a precursor to what is to come. I am working on a general tentative itinerary, or more of a to do list, but in our situation, that is going to be a bit difficult. We are basically at the mercy of of our collective decisions and the will of the universe. I have faith in mankind. I’ve done my fair share of traveling in the past, and I’ve never felt as if I’ve been thrown into a situation I couldn’t handle.

Anyways, I’ll be adding to this until I embark on the trip and whilst on the trip as well. Sorry if this was a long, all over the place blog, but I’m starting to get tired.

Over and out

Curt