Consider Yourselves Briefed

I am about to embark on a South American Adventure in a matter of days and I'm still waiting for a meltdown. Many of the details of my trip have just come together in the last couple of months and even weeks, but in many ways, I've been training for an experience like this for some time now.

Backstory

Where I'm coming from...I am originally from exotic Wisconsin, a land flowing with cheese and Miller Light. I went to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis which is even colder than my hometown. After graduating in 2009 and surviving almost two-decades of brutal, kick-me-when-I'm-down Midwest winters, I knew I now had the mental toughness to make it just about anywhere but had lost the desire to shovel snow ever again. I had family in San Diego so I packed up my Toyota Camry and headed west in hopes of escaping diphtheria and building a life in the promised land: San Diego. I acclimated quickly to San Diego and now call North County San Diego home.

Where I was at...I enjoy traveling and always want more. Among other places, I've been to Germany, Switzerland, France, Nicaragua, Turkey, etc. I've talked about dropping everything and traveling for an extended period of time but, like most people, have never been able to pull the trigger. Why South America? I took Spanish in college but never studied abroad and always regretted it. My parents lived in Peru before they had children so I feel like it's fitting that I go there too to make the Johnson-family travels come full circle. At work I could get by with my current level of Spanish but know the next step to really improving my espanol is immersion. There are so many places I want to see in South America and around the world and, with only two weeks of vacation from work every year for the rest of my life, I would need to be Methuselah to see it all. And as my last, catch-all rationalization, insert stereotypical phrase here: if I don't do it now, I'll never do it; youth is wasted on the young; etc.

Where I'm going...I really started to seriously think about a long-term South America trip when I met with an acquaintance who has traveled extensively in South America, 18 months in total. Okay, you caught me. We dated briefly. Anyways, he recommended workaway.org and helpx.com, two websites where travelers can do light work in exchange for room and board. I perused host options and finally signed up for workaway, 25 Euros for a 2 year membership. I emailed several hosts all over South America. Many hosts only know their job needs a few weeks in advance but I got a quick response from a hostel in Cordoba, Argentina, where I'd work as a receptionist 20 hours a week. With an opportunity like this, I knew the whole idea was possible and I was all in. After all, I had already committed to 25 Euros and wasted an entire Sunday afternoon trying on backpacks at REI, so I better go for it.

Let me save you all those clicks of a laborious Google maps search. 

How I'm getting there...First step was obviously an excel spreadsheet with a budget and the sum function as often as possible. Looking back on my budget, while I saved hard and worked even harder, I am among few twenty-somethings blessed with being debt-free, without school, car, or home loans, making this whole adventure possible. After that, other logistics seemed to fall into place. My apartment lease was up so I moved in with my cousin rather than renewing. I had been looking for flights to Cordoba and they were consistently between $1000-$1300 until one afternoon when I witnessed a little miracle, a flight for under $700! #Buynow The bright side of being a mild hypochondriac (oxymoron?) is that I already have a travel first aid kit. And with a mother like mine, vaccinations, payment on death forms, and an affordable travelers' insurance policy with a helicopter-me-back-to-my-homeland-when-I-am-dying benefit were items at the top of my to-do list.

And, yes, I most definitely have a to-do list. So now I can cross "blog" off the to-do list. I wanted to do a blog mostly because I'm lazy. Rather than email personalized accounts of my adventures to my friends and family, here's a blog to keep everyone equally abreast of my whereabouts. Feel free to live vicariously through my travels, laugh at my inevitable misfortunes, and provide my last noted location to the appropriate consulate when needed. In any event, feel free to follow my travels in South America, as I see it.