October 24, 2016 – the day of our exodus from America. Two bon voyage parties and tons of goodbyes later (you’d think we were leaving forever), we headed to San Francisco International Airport for our 1am flight to Bangkok.

Last American meal – turkey sandwich, chips, and red wine

First leg of the flight was about 13 hours. Slept for the first 5-6 hours, missed the first in-flight meal, and watched a couple movies – Finding Dory and X-Men Apocalypse (horrible). Breakfast options were sausage and eggs or porridge with pork. This would be the only time I ever choose porridge (because fuck eggs). Took a few bites and devoured the roll and some tea.

We had a couple hour layover in Taiwan where we ate some dumplings and stretched our aching legs.

The flight from Taiwan to Bangkok was just under 4 hours and felt like a breeze (mostly because we had exit row seats and leg room for days).  We landed at our destination around 11am, waited in the customs line for about 45 minutes, and took a taxi to our hotel.

Our almost 24 hour trek was over and we were exhausted. BUT WE MADE IT!!!

Once our minds were set on leaving our jobs, we had to figure out the destination. South America and Southeast Asia were at the top of our list, specifically Argentina and Thailand. In the end it came down to the place where our money would go furthest. Aside from being cheaper, Thailand is geared toward a younger crowd, has a larger ex-pat presence, and a bunch of surrounding countries worth exploring.

With some wedding money still in the bank, we started saving as much as possible.

It didn’t make sense to keep our apartment in Los Angeles so we put in our 30 day notice and found a cheap storage space to keep our necessities. Most of our furniture was either sold or left out for grabs in our back alley.

Leaving our fur babies behind was, by far, the most difficult part about moving. If you know me, then you are aware of how obsessed I am with my dogs. The thought of not seeing them everyday was going to be near impossible. Luckily they have always had a second home with our parents and we knew they would be in good hands.

We booked our one-way flights, a hotel in Bangkok for a week, and an apartment in Northern Thailand for one month. There is a lantern festival that takes place in Chiang Mai in mid-november and we want to be around for that. You do not require a visa if you are in the country for less than a month so we booked a side trip to Singapore to visit a friend for a few days and exit the country before our 30 days are up. We also arranged a trip to Phuket to meet up with our friend from the states and do some island hopping before heading back to our apartment in Chiang Mai. Basically, we know where we are going to be for the first month of our trip. Besides that, our plan is to wing it. We’ve researched the area and have some ideas of places we want to check out – Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar – but the beauty of having an open ended trip is that we have the ability to figure it out as we go.

Goodbye Lionsgate, it’s been real.

Quitting my job was a scary, exciting, and liberating feeling. Having worked since I was 15 years old, the thought of not getting a weekly paycheck frightened me to the core. I didn’t love my job. In fact, most days I hated it. I had been at my most recent company for 10 years working in International Digital and TV Servicing. With the word ‘International’ in my job title, most would assume traveling would be part of the gig. On the contrary, I spent all of my days at a desk communicating with people all around the world, only daydreaming of the places they lived. Sitting at a desk every single day was the thing I dreaded most when I was a child, and yet it became my reality. Working to live and not living to work.

Traveling has always been Sean’s and my greatest passion but our 9-5 jobs did not accommodate our desires to see the world. We’ve done a fair amount of expeditions together – China, India, Peru, Italy, Croatia – but 2 weeks a year was never enough time. Not to mention the stress that awaited us at our jobs upon returning home. We needed a change.

About a year after getting married we made the decision to quit our jobs and move to another country for a few months, or at least as long as our money would last us. But how were we going to pull it off? Where would we go?