Hello and welcome to my blog! My journey began just over 27 years ago on September 7, 1977 in Nashua, NH. I lived there for four years, but I don't remember much. Pretty much all I can recall is that we had a swing set in the backyard and that our baby-sitter was either named Brandi or had a dog named Brandy...

I then moved to Randoph, NJ which was where I spent the next twelve or so years of my life. During my years there two very important, life changing things happened: I met my best friend Ann and I learned how to juggle.

Then my family moved to Shelton, CT. One very important life changing thing happened while there: I turned 18 and left.

A couple weeks after my 18th birthday I packed my bags and moved across the country to go to school at UC San Diego where I met lots of great friends, started a juggling club and, after about two years, decided to study Anthropology. In my sophomore year I also decided to study abroad, but could not figure out where.

And thus the following September I found myself on the S.S. Universe Explorer as a student on Semester at Sea. While on the program I went to Canada, Japan, China, Vietnam, India, Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Morocco, and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I also caught the travel bug -- Africa started calling to me soon after I returned.

After Semester at Sea, I returned to San Diego, finished up my degree, and got one of those "job" things. I also started going to juggling festivals on a somewhat regular basis. At the juggle fests I met lots of cool people and got to see many exotic locations such as Montreal, Germany, France, and Reading, PA. But Africa kept calling. So I saved my money, told my friend Jason that he was going to Africa with me (even if for only 3 weeks), gave notice at my job (48 hours left, but who's counting?), and bought a ticket to Nairobi which leaves January 11, 2005.

As for the rest of my story? Well, that is TO BE CONTINUED...