An Unexpected Journey

Now this is the story all about how
My life got flipped, turned upside down
And I’d like to take a minute just sit right there
I’ll tell you how ended up flying to Laos on Asia Air.

Technically, Katie and I actually flew a combination of United, Asiana, and Vietnam Airlines through 5 legs and 36 hours on our way to Laos. Unfortunately, those didn’t play as well into my super lame Fresh Prince lyric swipe.

Our journey to Laos feels as if it has been a long time coming, but it’s actually progressed pretty quickly. Up until February of this year, I was working in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I had a blast during my two year excursion to “The South”. Louisiana itself was maybe not quite my style, but the people I met there made for an amazing experience. My coworkers, hockey and soccer teammates, and my friends from various other activities really made it feel like home which is the most I could ask for.

When Katie and I found out in December (2012) that we were moving to Madison, WI, I was excited. Everything I had heard about Madison was awesome. I was looking forward to four seasons and a city that was a little more into the outdoors. Katie moved to Madison a month before me so when she called me in Louisiana to ask if I wanted to move to Laos, I had some initial reservations. I hadn’t even moved to this cool new city yet and she wanted me to move out of the country! Fortunately, after talking with my parents a little bit, I decided within just a few short hours that I was willing to put my name in. That was good, because Katie decided a few short minutes after our initial conversation to put my name in for me.

Life has been a whirlwind of activity since Fast formally asked us to be apart of the Laos project. We temporarily moved to Denver, sold our cars, moved all of our stuff into storage and tried to prepare ourselves for moving abroad. International credit cards and debit cards, shots, address changes on EVERYTHING. It was a bit stressful. Fortunately, we worked our way through it and were ready for our flight last Tuesday.. which turned into Wednesday after American cancelled our original flight.

In the end we managed to make it through the rest of our trip and all arrived safely in Laos.

So with the exception of this long, drawn out first post, I expect this blog to mostly be a photo blog of my experiences both here in Laos and in the surrounding area during my travels over the next few years. If you didn’t notice the name of this blog or of this first post, I like to think about this opportunity as my big hobbit adventure :)