Bucket List

Jumping back in to the January blog-a-day (I told you I wouldn’t hit every day… I might miss the next few days too), today’s topic is “Bucket List”. I’ve never given this much thought before. Turns out most of mine center around travel experiences. No surprise there.

The fun part was, as I was thinking through possibilities, several of the things that came to mind were things I’ve already been incredibly blessed with doing. I guess I’m off to a good start.

Watching the sun rise over the Grand Canal in Venice in 2002.

Already checked off the list:
Watch the sun rise over the Grand Canal in Venice

Travel is Good for the Soul

(In front of the continental divide in Costa Rica.)

Travel is good for the soul.

Getting back from our 10-day trip through Costa Rica, I am already wondering where we can go next. There’s something about travel (especially international travel) that I find kind of addicting. It started for me when I studied abroad in Spain almost 10 years ago, and I’ve never been the same. My worldview was blown wide open and I’m very grateful.

There’s something that changes in you when you can experience the world through a different lens. When you explore new landscapes, foods, and experiences. When you interact with different types of people. When you let go & get out of your comfort zone.

Mission to Moscow

This is the 2nd in my series of posts going back and talking about how I developed my love of travel, mission trips, etc.

Red Square with St. Basil's Cathedral, Lenin's Tomb, & the Kremlin

After studying abroad in Spain, I found myself continually plotting what my next trip would be. About a year later, during my junior year of college, an opportunity presented itself to go to Moscow, Russia with my college Sunday School class on a mission trip. While most people went to the beach for spring break, we went to cold, snowy Moscow!

Semester in Spain

The gorgeous plaza in Salamanca that I walked through many times a day

This is the first of a couple posts that will talk about formative times in my life, when it comes to travel, embracing life, and serving…

One of the defining moments, or time periods, in my love of travel is when I decided to study abroad the second semester of my sophomore year in college. Before that time, I had traveled a lot within the country – on family vacations (we would just pick an area of the country and drive around for 2 weeks to see everything we could see. And we definitely saw a lot!), youth group trips, college scouting trips (I visited 21 schools across the US. My parents were very obliging) – but had only been outside of the country to the near parts of Canada and across the border to Tijuana, Mexico.

So when I chose to study abroad in Salamanca, Spain it was the start of something significant. I was officially bitten by the travel bug…