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2010 Event Attendees Who Said “Go!” – Part 3
Monday, August 29th, 2011

In the months after our Inaugural Meet, Plan, Go! event, we never get tired of hearing stories from those who attended and decided that they would Go! Here are a few more that have been on the road, or will be hitting the road soon. Hopefully you will find some inspiration from them as well.

Liz Behler – Washington DC Event

One Year Around the World
The Travel Beast

Liz and Derek Poe are currently about four months into our year-long break. “So far we’ve seen Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Italy, the Canary Islands, Morocco, Spain and are now in France. In a month we’re heading to Ireland, and then making our way to Asia where we plan to visit Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia before heading to Australia and New Zealand. It truly will be an around-the-world trip!

“Some of our adventures so far have included riding horses with gauchos in Argentina, traveling by camel through the Sahara, spending a week in the rainforest in Brazil, and hiking through mountainous vineyards in Italy’s Cinque Terre. We’re planning to WWOOF on a farm in Ireland for about a month before heading to Thailand where we’ll soak up some sun and $5 beach-side massages. We’re also planning to attend a Mahout training while there and partake of some cooking classes (yum!). In Indonesia, we’d like to work with a woman we know on her farm project that benefits disenfranchised women and their children in East Bali. In Australia, we’re planning to get work visas to help recoup some of our costs and pay for a plane ticket home.

“Without a doubt, I can say this trip has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. Ever. I was so nervous to leave behind my job — something I had worked so hard for and that had consumed every waking, and sometimes non-waking, moment of my life. But four months into our trip, I can honestly say I feel happier, healthier, and perhaps most of all, stronger than I have in years.”

Ali Garland – Atlanta Event

Four Month Adventure
Ali Adventures

Ali has her sights set on Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Easter Island for her adventure.

“I just turned 31 and taking a long-term trip is something I’ve wanted to do for years. I finally started trying to make it a reality in the middle of 2010. Shortly after the research phase started, I met another travel blogger (@groundedtravelr) through Twitter and we fell in love over Skype, Twitter and email. I let him know that this trip was important to me, and he’s been very supportive even though he won’t be able to join me.

“We got married at the beginning of June, I’m moving to Germany (where he lives) at the beginning of July, and I’m going to travel from the end of September 2011 to the middle of February 2012 before going back to Germany to continue learning German and eventually finding a job there.”

Erica & Shaun Kuschel – Austin Event

Childhood Sweethearts Traveling the World Together
Over Yonderlust

Erica & Shaun’s adventure started four months ago in Mexico and are making their way south through Central & South America.

“We were best friends who fell in love and were quick to realize that there was nobody else in the world that we’d rather grow old with. Before we had gotten married, neither one of us had a passport. Our only experiences outside of the U.S. consisted of walking into Mexico for the afternoon. Our desire to see the world had always been present, however, it was not truly realized until the promise of going to Barbados for our honeymoon was fulfilled. It was then that the wanderlust took over.”

Check out other attendees who said “Go!” – Did a Meet, Plan, Go! event inspire you to start planning your own career break travels? Be sure to register it with us!

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2010 Event Attendees Who Said “Go!” – Part 2
Monday, August 1st, 2011

In the months after our Inaugural Meet, Plan, Go! event, we never get tired of hearing stories from those who attended and decided that they would Go! Here are a few more that have been on the road, or will be hitting the road soon. Hopefully you will find some inspiration from them as well.

Delphine & Michael – New York City Event

Delphine & Michael - New York City Event22 months surfing the globe
Surfing Round the World

Staring in July 2011, Delphine and Michael are embarking on the surf trip of their dreams: two years riding waves across five continents and fifteen countries. Both of them had been surfing for several years at Rockaway Beach in New York City before they met for the first time on the boardwalk. Five years later, they’re now partners for life and regularly wake up together at 4:30 a.m. for dawn patrol.

In addition to surfing, they also plan on taking language lessons and volunteering while visiting Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Chile, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii.

Stu – Seattle Event

One – Two Years

Stu just quit Microsoft after working as a developer for 3 years and got sick of the corporate America lifestyle. “I have wanted to do this for a long time and finally I came around to doing it. Its quite funny, as soon as you commit to doing it, you get so much help to do it. Since I started telling people I was quitting my job I started learning about all sorts of resources that accelerated and helped motivate my efforts.”

Stu set out on the road in May 2011, driving from Seattle down the west coast of the Americas, eventually ending in Argentina. While camping in his 1972 Volkswagen bus, he will be surfing, playing guitar, learning Spanish, participating in vipassana courses, volunteering, and “whatever else pops up”.

Kailey – Toronto Event

Kailey - Toronto AttendeeTwo Year on the Road

Although Kailey had been dreaming of her around the world trip for three years, after attending our Toronto event, she was inspired to join our Basic Training class. “I’m glad I got to participate as a student. It was really fitting and gave me a lot of inside knowledge.” That knowledge has helped her on the road, which she set off for in December of 2010.

She is currently surfing her way through Australia before moving onto Fiji, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and India.

Ms. Half Empty – Washington DC Event

Ms. Half Empty10 Weeks with Mr. Half Empty
Half Empty For Now

This couple is spending the summer of 2011 traveling around the world. They’ve dubbed this trip the “30/40 World Tour: Quest for Passion.” What does that mean? “I am 30-years-old and Mr. HalfFull is 40-years-old. These are supposed to be big decade birthdays, so we decided to do something big — namely, travel around the world!”

Their plans will take them to Fiji, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Australia, Mauritius, UAE, Germany, and Spain.

Renee – Boston Event

Undetermined Time on the Road
Career Breaking

For many years Renee dreamed of traveling. “After being stuck in a cubicle for a long time, too long, a door opened, and I made a run for it.” That run started in January 2011.

“Since January I have been in The Netherland Antilles, Mexico, and Ecuador. In the Spring I will be back in different areas of the US for a friends wedding in Florida and prewedding activities in MA, MN, and NYC.” After that she plans to visit Alaska and Canada for the summer then back down to South America for the Fall. “That’s the plan for now…plans seem to change.”

Jesse & Dave – New York City Event

Jesse & DaveOne Year on the Road
JD Mesh

Jesse & Dave left on their journey shortly after attending the NYC September event. “We spent the first 3 months in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, then about 3 weeks in South Africa, 3 weeks in the Middle East, a quick European ski break in Austria (with some Germany and London thrown in), 6 weeks in India, a month in Thailand and a month in Nepal. We’ll spend the remaining 5ish months of our trip in SE Asia and then take the Trans-Siberian RR through Mongolia to Russia. If we have any time and money left, we’ll see some of Eastern Europe.”

Check out other attendees who said “Go!” – Did a Meet, Plan, Go! event inspire you to start planning your own career break travels? Be sure to register it with us!

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Studying Spanish in Argentina
Monday, July 4th, 2011

Briefcase to Mochila: Getting the Most out of Studying Spanish in Argentina

Sarah Gottlieb and her husband Gabe initially were planning on working for a year abroad in order to travel more when they thought, “What if we just travel for a year instead?” Nine months of planning, three yard sales and two RTW tickets later, they were off and flying. While naturally curious, Sarah found herself lacking the bravery she wanted to be able to live up to the adventures the year threw at her. She began writing stories of her battles with eating bugs, swimming in anaconda infested waters and fighting thieves in Buenos Aires at Fraidypants Princess Travels the Globe. Gabe and Sarah have recently finished their year abroad and are residing in Los Angeles.

Sarah Gottlieb

My backpack had hardly touched the floor in our new apartment in Buenos Aires when I was already illuminated by the friendly glow of my netbook, searching for a school to enroll in. I was eager to hit the books after so many years in the workplace and wanted to take advantage of every second of Spanish that I could absorb. Being a little older than your typical study-abroad student and already fairly fluent, I was a bit leery of the private language mills with their revolving hung-over students. My goal wasn’t to be able to say, “I’d like a shot of tequila please”; I wanted to speak with confidence about things that probably hadn’t happened in the past, but might have—in other words, to finally master the subjunctive mood.

I soon had a spreadsheet full of different programs ranked by cost per hour, students per teacher, reviews, and length of program. But after narrowing down the choices, I still wasn’t happy with the results. I was afraid that my classmates would all be Americans and the classes were surprisingly more expensive than I’d expected.

I made one more stab at trying to decipher the public universities’ Web sites and discovered a program for foreigners at the University of Buenos Aires. In theory, it was exactly what I was looking for. I’d be surrounded by local students, with a mix of international teachers, local prices, and local professors. Unfortunately, the Web page didn’t offer much information other than an address.

The next day I felt like I was traveling back to the ’90s having to go physically downtown to speak to someone in person about signing up for classes. As luck would have it, they were testing for the new semester that week. Soon I was squeezed into a desk chair nervously biting my pen and berating myself for not thinking to brush up on grammar! After finalizing my enrollment with an ATM withdrawal, I walked back to my apartment and savored that special in-love-with-a-foreign-city romantic feeling. Soon I’d be reading Borges while sipping a cortado, in the very same corner café where he wrote the lines.

The UBA (pronounced “ooh-bah”) classes proved to be everything that I was looking for. The professors were dedicated, educated, and professional and the subject matter was intriguing. They had classes about Argentinean immigration, oration, film, etc. I enjoyed the opportunity to learn about a new culture while living in it.

My classmates were the mix that I had hoped for, with students from countries like France, Brazil, Germany, UAE, and New Zealand. It also happened to be the cheapest cost, at $3 per hour of learning.

Sarah Gottlieb

While I knew classes were the first step to getting myself thinking in Spanish again, I had told myself ten years ago while living in Spain that if I ever studied abroad in the future I’d get a tutor and make more of an effort to set up intercambios – language exchanges. Thanks to Lonely Planet Thorntree I found Maria, a private tutor teaching out of her apartment, who was part of Ñ de Español. She was able to really target major problems that I had, help me with my accent, and give me an insider’s perspective on life in Buenos Aires.

I used Conversation Exchange to set up a number of coffee dates with other local women who were looking to speak better English. We’d chat about family, food, Grey’s Anatomy, our hometowns, and anything we shared in common for a half hour in English and then in Spanish. I made a bunch of nice friends and loved venturing out to different neighborhoods and cafés to meet with friendly Porteñas.

I can’t stress enough how rewarding it was to take a portion of my trip around the world to work on a skill that I’d wanted to improve. I highly recommend setting a goal or two in the middle of a travel sabbatical; incidentally, it has made me a more valuable “briefcase” as I reintegrate into the workforce.

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A Year in Paris
Monday, June 6th, 2011

Jenny SundelIn the months leading up to her 33rd birthday, Jenny Sundel’s high-paying, but deeply unsatisfying interim job ended. After a decade of working around the clock – and sleeping next to her blackberry! – she knew she needed a break. “That only crystallized further when I attempted to find another job, right smack dab in the middle of a recession no less. ‘Knowing your background as a freelancer, are you sure you could truly be happy in an office,’ asked one interviewer. ‘Um uh um uh um uh um,’ I stammered. Needless to say, they gave the job to someone eIse.”

Jenny was so burnt out that she could no longer imagine returning to her prior freelance life either. “I had lost all motivation to hustle for assignments along with any passion for my work. I felt disillusioned, purpose-less and un-inspired. And all this right as I was turning 33, otherwise known as the Jesus Year. It was the perfect time for a reinvention.” Jenny decided to move to Paris and shares with us how her life is changing

I always dreamed of a year in Europe, having taken several trips abroad from the time I turned 16. And I had been stashing money away for years due to the instability of freelancing. But that should be used for down payments, or riding out a down job market, or…Paris, as would come to me the weekend before my birthday after months of selling off my possessions to people who kept asking me if I was moving from Los Angeles, my home for eleven years. “Yes.” “Where?” “I’m not sure.”

Nearly two months after my birthday, I arrived in Paris in the middle of a snowstorm armed with my rusty high school French (sadly, not much has changed in that department!) and two contacts – an old kindergarten pal whom I had not seen in years and a Facebook “friend” who had written a letter on my behalf so I could secure a visa even though we had never met.

Eiffel TowerNotre Dame

Now, five months and three apartments later, I have made friends from all over – the Philippines, the Czech Republic, and my beloved Italy, which I have already visited twice since my arrival, lucky girl that I am. I have watched the sky change from moody grey to fairytale blue, spent all of my Euros on eye palettes and lipstick from Bourjois in a (failed) attempt to look French (on one particularly good day, I passed for Italian!), and learned to read a map so I can walk around this beautiful city rather than travel underground in the metro.

Not that I haven’t seen some uh-mazing sights on the subway, too, like the time I spotted a girl in heart tights and begged her to tell me where I could get them. (Yes, I bought the tights. No, I still don’t look French. That certain effortlessly chic je ne sais quoi? Turns out it’s not for sale. Trust me, I’ve looked. Plus, I still have a dopey smile plastered on my face – a dead foreigner giveaway.)

But there’s nothing like walking home along the Seine and spotting the sparkling lights of the Eiffel Tower every hour on the hour or looking out at the magical glow of the city perched atop one of the romantic bridges next to some couple making out (yes there is a reason it’s called the City of Light and the City of Love). In moments like these, I stop and think, “Wow, I live in Paris?!!” The surreal amazingness of it all washes over me at least once a week. Still.

But live here I do. I have my routines, my favorite walks, my go-to spots: underneath the bridge in Ile St. Louis where I often see brides posing for photos – turns out I’m not the only one who likes the Notre Dame backdrop; the café in Saint Germain with the best people-watching and the flirtiest waiters; the Aussie-owned coffeehouse in my hood where I order green tea and asparagus soup – tres important after a steady diet of croissants and macarons; the Irish bar where they know how to make my fave hard drink when I tire of my usual kirs and vin rouge (note: vodka-soda-limes are soooo not French); the Apple store at the Louvre, where they have learned to…tolerate my tech tantrums; Le Bon Marche where I drool all over the dessert case in their food hall and the tres chic (but way out-of-my-budget) designer duds in the adjoining department store.

Macarons in ParisNapping Cat in Paris

I no longer get chastised daily (just every other day?!) since I have learned to follow the unspoken rules here, or at least knowingly break them. “Bon appetit,” someone will undoubtedly say with a smirk if I choose to eat my pain au chocolat as I walk down the street rather than on a bench or in a café. When I forget to mind my manners and ask the salespeople for what I want as soon as I approach, “Bonjour,” they will remind me before forcing me to repeat my question after a proper greeting. And I still pat myself on the back when I order something in French and actually get what I think I ordered. (Although, after five months, perhaps I should set the language bar a bit higher?!)

I have given French people directions (ok, just the once, but still!); held an entire conversation in (broken) French with a locksmith when I could not open my door despite having my key in my hand; and found escargot totally palatable! There have been plenty of other surprises along the way, too. First, that I don’t actually have to know French to live in France since most people speak English (but I really should); that accomplishing a simple errand can often take all day and require a mound of paperwork; that I cannot subsist on croissants and cigarettes alone (try as I might!); and I will let just about anyone walk me home if they let me practice my French in the process (just ask one persistent stranger who took me the long way on Valentine’s Day).

From the moment I made the decision to spend a year abroad, my life has no longer felt purposeless. Yes, there are new challenges now. Don’t even get me started on this whole double-kissing business. (Is it an air kiss? A real kiss? Just me pressing my cheek gently against someone else’s while making a smacking sound?) But my biggest concern is to make sure to “profit” as the Frenchies say, from every minute I’m here. I mean that’s a lot of pressure! Especially now that half of the year has passed. Have I seen enough? Done enough? Met enough people? Should I move to another country for the second half of the year or stay in Paris now that I have created a life here and actually built friendships?
Montmarte, ParisSacre Coeur, Paris

But these are high-class problems. I no longer feel that emptiness, that void, that lack of balance that came from only focusing on my career and getting ahead. In its place, I feel a passionate desire to discover new things and – cue the cheesy soundtrack – try to live life to the fullest. Not that I’ve figured it out, but I’ve had a helluva good time trying.

My absolute favorite thing to do is just roam around Paris without a plan and see where I end up. Now, after years upon years of worrying about what’s next, that is how I have chosen to navigate life, too.

Jenny Sundel has written for Los Angeles Times, USA Today, People, Women’s Wear Daily, and New York Post, among several other publications. She is currently detailing her 33rd year of life, otherwise known as The Jesus Year, on her blog. You can also follow her on Twitter at @JesusYear.

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2010 Event Attendees Who Said “Go!”
Monday, May 9th, 2011

Eight months after our Inaugural Meet, Plan, Go! event, we never get tired of hearing stories from those who attended and decided that they would Go! Here are a few that have been on the road and hopefully you will find some inspiration from them as well.

Julie – Boston Event

Julie - Boston Attendee5 Weeks on the Road
Life Without Excuses

After attending Meet, Plan, Go! in September, Julie took a short-term leave of absence from work (as did her husband) and spent the month of January in Southeast Asia (Hong Kong, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore). “Going to the event in Boston was like finally admitting that ‘My name is Julie and I am a travelling addict’.”

Both Julie and Drew documented the planning stages and life on the road in their “Asian Adventure 2011” section of their blog.

Pablo – San Francisco Event

One Year on the Road
Latitudes-Longitudes

“I was very excited to know there are people organizing this type of meeting and giving a human-touch reality to the blogs and travel sites I followed for years. The biggest impact I got was to realize that I am not the only one taking a career break. Now I’ve been traveling for 3 months and I am as happy as I can be – this is my dream slowly becoming reality day by day.”

As Pablo is originally from Argentina, his blog is in Spanish [with English translation], and he has gained a big Latin readership. “I can’t believe how many people contacted me saying they needed the inspiration to know that a Latino can quit his job to travel the world.” So happy that he is inspiring others as well!

Katy – Chicago Event

Katy - Chicago EventSix months on the Road
Katy’s King-Size Adventure

“There is so much in the world that is just sitting there waiting to be explored! The Meet, Plan, Go! event helped me to see that there’s no better time than NOW to start! I was amazed at all the people that have already done this and it was so helpful to see that this idea I had to leave my job and travel was not a crazy idea!”

Katy’s Adventures started in North America (Canada, NYC, Boston, LA) before heading to Australia, New Zealand, Peru and Europe. “The decision that I made to leave my job was a hard one, but it was also the best decision that I’ve ever made. I’m having a blast and am so grateful that I have the opportunity to do this!”

Sarah – Washington DC Event

One Year Teaching English in Chiang Mai

Sarah applied for a teaching position at a University in Chiang Mai just days before attending Meet, Plan, Go! “I was then offered the position and had only three weeks to pack up my life and gather enough money for a plane ticket. Three yard sales later, with my car sold and my life reduced to a few tupper ware containers I was on my way to Thailand.”

In addition to teaching English, Sarah has been studying Thai, hiking the foothills of the Himalayas and biking the quiet sois of Northern Thailand every chance she gets.

Did a Meet, Plan, Go! event inspire you to start planning your own career break travels? Be sure to register it with us!

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What’s the Right Amount of Time on the Road
Monday, April 11th, 2011

When I first started backpacking nearly 20 years ago, I never heard about gap-years, or for that fact, career breaks. I was traveling as a college student, adding to my education by backpacking through Europe and studying in London. That experience led me to realize that I wanted to incorporate travel throughout my life – whether it was three months in SE Asia or two weeks in Ecuador.

San Blas, Panama

And during the majority of my travels, the Internet was not a prevalent part of my planning until the past few years. So I was unaware of any other people outside of my circle taking sabbaticals or career breaks to do extended travel.

But since co-founding Briefcase to Backpack, many more career breakers and RTW travelers have come on my radar. And sometimes it seems like many feel that they need to travel for at least a year or more, and in some cases, sell all of their belongings to do so. But in my experiences, I don’t feel that that is always necessary. Yes, there are many fascinating places in the world to see, but is it really necessary to check them off all at once?

I’ve found that I much prefer taking shorter breaks (a minimum of two to three months) every few years – focusing on a certain area of the world. And knowing that that is how I prefer to travel has also made it easier to incorporate those breaks throughout my career – utilizing time between jobs to travel. And personally, I really look forward to returning home.

My most recent career break was only just three years ago (my fourth), and I’m continuously asked when my next break is going to be. And I thought that it would actually be at the end of this year, when I celebrate my 40th birthday. I’m not sure if it is the milestone birthday or the “pressure” from writing and editing other people’s career break stories – or a combination of both – but my recent vacation made me realize that I may not really be ready for a break. I’m very happy building a business and living with my husband and two cats in New York City.

San Blas, Panama

I think that because of my early travel experiences I have learned how to really make the most of my vacations, using the week or two to also experience new cultures while enjoying the time off. Michael and I just returned from 10 days in Panama, where we took in the diverse neighborhoods of Panama City, experienced the Canal from various vantage points, visited the Pacific beaches on the Azuero Peninsula, and enjoyed the seclusion of the San Blas islands. It was during that vacation that I realized it’s not the length of the trip that is important – it is what you do with your time that is. And that is something I learned from my various career breaks.

Of course RTW trips are an amazing opportunity for many people, and I don’t discount them. I just know that that style of travel is not for me. Nor is the nomadic lifestyle of my business partner, Sherry Ott.

In fact, when we first started Briefcase to Backpack, we didn’t want to tell people how to plan their own career break, because we knew it is a very personal experience. But by featuring the experiences of others, you could find a variety of inspirational stories and then decide what would work best for you. I just want people to also realize that a career break and extended travel doesn’t have to be a one-off experience – it can become a part of your life moving forward.

So in planning your own career break travels, really think about the amount of time and experiences you want to take in. Don’t necessarily worry about keeping up with the Joneses of the RTW travel community.

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On the Road with Kailey Lockhart
Monday, March 14th, 2011

Basic Training member Kailey Lockhart had been dreaming of traveling the world ever since she was a child.

“I feel like extended world travel has been ingrained in me for as long as I can remember. My parents used to say that when they asked me what I wanted to be when I get older, I would always say ‘I want to travel the world.’”

Kailey Lockhart

For three years she had been mentally planning for her round the world adventures, which finally began in December 2011. “Before I left, I looked into my heart and I asked myself what I really wanted from this trip. I didn’t even ask myself why, I just wrote down some of the things that I felt were me.”

(more…)

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On the Road with Warren & Betsy Talbot
Monday, February 14th, 2011

Shortly after hosting our Inaugural Meet, Plan, Go! event in Seattle this past September, Warren & Betsy Talbot (aka Married with Luggage) took off for their three year career break. Now with four months under their [shrinking] belts, we check in with them to see how they are adjusting to life on the road.

You spent two years planning your career break travels. Now that you have been on the road for four months, what have you found to be the most valuable aspect of your preparation process?
We have found that living on a budget is the most valuable skill for a long-term trip like this. In addition, doing the research to figure out what the trip would likely cost for our style of travel means that we are comfortable traveling with the budget we set out for ourselves and do not anticipate running out of money early. We lived for 2 years on a fairly tight budget, which means once we started on the trip, there was absolutely nothing to get used to. In fact, we felt like we could splurge more once we were on the trip because we had lived under budget for so long – which is a great feeling!

Another thing that really worked well for us was selling off our possessions. We know this isn’t right for everyone, but for us it gives us nothing to think about but the trip. Our advice for anyone planning a trip like this is to make sure you have your “home details” locked in before you leave – hopefully with someone else to look after them – so you don’t have to waste any of your energy on what you left back home.

Warren & Betsy Talbot

Do you feel like you were over-prepared in any ways?
We bought into the hype that we needed special travel clothes, gadgets, and medicine for the eventual “traveler’s illness.” This was a big mistake because we spent too much money on things we either don’t like, never use, or can find abundantly (for less) in every country we have visited so far.

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Traveling with Kids: Building a Foundation of Learning
Monday, January 17th, 2011

Rainer Jenss was a Vice President and thirteen-year veteran of National Geographic. As the Publisher, he helped transform National Geographic Kids into the most widely read consumer magazine for children throughout the world. In the summer of 2008 he decided to put his professional expertise and personal passion to the ultimate test by traveling around the world for a year with his family.

Rainer continues to report on family travel as a Special Correspondent for National Geographic Traveler’s Intelligent Travel Blog and shares with us why traveling is a great way to build a foundation of learning in your children.

Kyoto, Japan

If you’re reading this post, you’ve probably fantasized about quitting your job, packing a suitcase, and leaving town for a while to travel the world. When we first got married, my wife Carol and I often contemplated taking the leap — sometimes seriously, sometimes not. There always seemed to be some excuse why we couldn’t, wouldn’t or shouldn’t. Our careers, responsibilities, and commitments had to be considered, and how about what our friends and family would say? It was always something. Then after the birth of our sons Tyler and Stefan, all this talk about packing our bags seemed to suddenly fade away. After all, you can’t possibly do something like this with kids, right?

If we teach our children to travel, we thought, then they will travel to learn –
a foundation that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

In January 2004, it all came roaring back. I had just returned with the family from Europe after visiting relatives for the holidays when Carol and I started reflecting on how much the boys (then seven and four) seemed to enjoy the experience of being in another country. Couple that with the post-9/11 mood of a country that was getting deeper into a war in Iraq and isolating itself more from the rest of the world, and suddenly it dawned on us that taking a year off to travel the world might actually be more sensible now that we had children. Increasingly, we found ourselves looking at taking a year off to travel not from the perspective of what we had to lose, but from all the benefits we could gain.

(more…)

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Career Break to Antarctica – Part 2
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

In “Career Break to Antarctica: Part 1” Keith Martin beautifully described his arrival to Antarctica. How did he make the adventure happen?

Keith MartinI have never been one to give up on my dreams easily, so I started looking for other ways to get to Antarctica. Everything I found, from the cruises to mountaineering trips on ski-equipped planes, was exclusively reserved for wealthy travelers. I got my break when I came across a news story that talked about the research going on in Antarctica. That article led me to the website for the U.S. Antarctic Program (currently www.usap.gov), which, in turn, led me to the website for Raytheon Polar Services, the scientific support contractor for the U.S. Antarctic Program. I devoured every tidbit of information I could find regarding the Antarctic Program and working in Antarctica and quickly decided that I was going to work down there. The problem was solved, sort of…

There was no question about whether or not I was qualified for the jobs down there, since there were job postings from dishwashers and janitors all the way up to engineers and helicopter pilots, but getting those jobs proved to be another problem. The first year I applied to all of the jobs that I was most excited about: Field Camp Manager, Search and Rescue/Field Training and Equipment Staff, Antenna Rigger – All jobs that would get me out in the field exploring the amazing wilderness. I also applied to the engineering positions, since I am an engineer, but I ignored all of the ‘unskilled’ jobs. In hindsight it is no surprise that I didn’t get a single call.

(more…)

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