Island Time
Travelling goes hand in hand with making discoveries and learning something new but this time I may have hit the jackpot – I have learnt how to become totally relaxed. The location for the source of this new found skill is Gili Trawangan, a tiny paradise island in Indonesia and a short hop skip and jump from popular Bali. Let me set the scene – calm, clear water lapping at the shores of white beaches, no cars, just bikes or horse and cart for... Read More
Travel in Peace: Review of Dovetail Travel Bands for Women
I’m not a knapsack or fanny pack type of traveler. I have traveled with a loose passport more often than I should. On my recent trip to New Orleans, though, I tested out the Dovetail Travel in Peace Travel Band and Travel Wing. While I didn’t need my passport, I did feel surprisingly more secure knowing I had hidden just-in-case cash and credit card. Especially as a female traveling alone, this was a bigger relief than I had expected. Dovetail... Read More
Itchy Feet
Backpacking It’s true what they say – time really does fly when you’re having fun. It has now been two-and-a-half years since I left my safe life in Chester, UK, to embark on an adventure, although at the time I had no idea I would be away for quite so long. I had a professional job, great friends and a lovely house share with equally lovely girls but I was also restless. I had always had itchy feet but early in the year of 2009 when... Read More
Tunes and Tombs: Solo Sammy Goes to New Orleans
Hurricane Katrina Monument “Let the good times roll,” indeed! As the play closed, I had one week of spring break left and ran off to New Orleans for four days. It was not restful, but it was a different type of necessary. “It’s a small town, but it’s a busy city,” said one of my very clever and friendly cabbies. It was everything I needed for my first solo vacation. There was the music–everywhere, live, and impressive. There... Read More
Choosing the Where in Your Study Abroad Adventure
The shelves are filled with rows of glossy magazines, the walls hung with framed pictures of architectural marvels (the Eiffel Tower and the Great Pyramids are among the most popular monuments), and the desks littered with numerous trinkets that look vaguely East Asian. Sound familiar? This description categorizes the study abroad office, whatever its particular title may be, at any number of universities across the United States. Studying abroad... Read More
Finding Home: Perfection…less
This afternoon, I sat in a circle and introduced myself. I was visiting a group (Al Anon) you can find in just about any city in the world, and many of the towns as well. A group that deals with steps that deal with boundaries and self-love (among many, many other things). The topic today was perfection, and the women around me had quite a lot to say. I am home in the U.S. for almost two months, doing my now-normal couch-hopping marathon in which... Read More
Face Depression on the Go
For many suffering from depression, stress can be an easy and constant trigger that brings many symptoms to surface. These symptoms can include over-eating, sleeping too much, not sleeping enough and various emotional highs and lows. Being a college student struggling to find my way in the world can be stressful so adding depression to that can often make for a troublesome and highly emotionally unstable situation. There are many ways to relieve stress... Read More
The Road Rage and Wonder of Travel for an LDR
Eleven hours. It took eleven hours of travel to arrive where I am today, sitting on the couch in John’s apartment. The eleven hours of travel is worth it to share in his life, in person, for a little while. This week is his Spring Break, so our time together is more open and relaxed than usual, when he has stacks of homework and I have only the weekend away from school. I typically travel by bus, usually through Megabus. This time I left home for... Read More
Travel and perspective
I first started writing for Go Girl while interning for a conflict resolution NGO in Côte d’Ivoire. I was coming out of a semester abroad in Cameroon. My writing from that summer was about passing in between cultures, travelling alone as a woman, pushing my personal limits. After finishing up my undergrad in Washington D.C., I’ve found myself in Bologna, Italy for the first years of my M.A. in conflict management. Over the past six months,... Read More
Finding home: Here and now, and…then?
Consult the self-improvement powers that be, and you’re likely to hear one of two things: 1) Embrace the present 2) Envision the future What you won’t hear, what is to be avoided at ALL COSTS is living in the past. Don’t let past heartbreaks, failures or disappointments keep you from tapping into your radiant core and maximizing your full potential. (And this, my friends, might be why my life coach fired me.)Of course it’s true... Read More
