Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Big News: Grad School and Travel!


My dearest friends, readers, followers, and people stumbling upon my blog for the first time, I have an announcement: after 4 eventful years in DC I'm turning in my grown-up card, stepping out of my work shoes, giving back my key fob, taking a two year break from adulting, and gong back to school in Boston!!!


It's been a bit of a long drawn-out application and decision process, but I've decided to get my master's at Tufts' Fletcher School of International Affairs. The degree is called a Master's of Law and Diplomacy, and I will be focusing on Security Studies and International Conflict Resolution. (Too much seriousness there for you? Anyone who reads between the corgis and music videos and cake in my Best of the Week posts shouldn't be surprised.) Also, I will be living around the corner from Jess – yay!

So that will begin in August, but wait there's more! Before I commit myself to hours and hours of library time (or let's be real, coffee shop time broken up by middle-of-the-day runs....aka who's excited to be a student again? This girl!), I am leaving my life and embarking on an Epic and Grand Adventure!!! I exactly 19 days (eek) I will sit myself down on a plane to Nepal.


After stopping for a day in London along the way, I will meet Sister2 in Kathmandu and we will spend a month trekking and adventuring in the Himalayas (remember when we went to India together? Sister time!).


And oh wait there's more (I told you it was a grand adventure). From Kathmandu I will fly to Bangkok to eventually meet my friend Andy, who is happily taking a break from his own life to be a part of this trip. From Bangkok we'll head to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat, then make our way north into Vietnam. A close reader may have noticed some foreshadowing a couple weeks ago...the reason I was learning how to dirt bike is because we're going to dirt bike tour ourselves through Laos!


Then we'll cross overland into northern Vietnam and leisurely make out way down the coast (possibly by train) to Ho Chi Minh City.


From there we'll fly to Hong Kong, and from Hong Kong I'll fly home to San Francisco, and eventually on to Boston. That's right – I am literally going to make my way completely around the world in the next 3 months.


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I'm excited to go but sad to leave, so for now let's just pretend nothing is changing, ok? And let's be real, I'll be back to DC before anyone knows it. Blog-wise, I'm planning on continuing to post, probably just much more sporadically during my travels. I'll check in every so often just so you all know I'm alive, well, running in Southeast Asia, and eating aaaaamazing Nepalese and Thai and Vietnamese food (I don't know what Cambodian and Laoation food is like...but I bet it's good and I'll let you know).


So here's to Adventuring! I told you this is the Year to Be Brave.