Hello everyone! I am sure that most visitors to this site will be reading this only because I threatened them with physical violence if they did not, (yes, be afraid!) but just in case you are lucky enough to have stumbled across this site on your own, I will provide you with a brief yet profound bio of the real Alex.

Hi! I'm Alex. I am a Greek-Scottish-German-American girl from northern California who loves to snowboard, loves to travel (obviously), and wants to see everything and experience everything. I am (a little too) passionate about politics, and one day I naively hope to change the world. I just graduated from Sonoma State University in northern California, and am currently applying to graduate schools in the field of economic development. My career goal is to help create new policies for developing countries that are based in sustainability and Fair Trade.

I have traveled all over Europe, and have spent a lot of time in Greece, where I have family. I highly recommend the less-visited Greek island of Paros, especially the southeastern towns of Piso Livadi, Logaras and Pounta Beach - I love them!! I have been all over the US (except for the south - one day I hope to eat gumbo on the bayou!) and have traveled a little in Canada and the Caribbean.

Finally to the point...

After choosing to take a year off of school, I decided to travel to Thailand this winter to participate in a volunteer program. I wanted to travel for as long as (monetarily) possible, but I knew I had to come back to the States sometime, as I was planning on traveling to Greece this upcoming summer to stay with some family. Hmmmm.... a dilemma. This is when the light bulb went off in my head, and I abruptly changed my mind, quite to the dismay of my parents. (They had purchased a round-trip plane ticket for me as a graduation/birthday/you'll-owe-us-forever present, and now I wasn't even going to use half of it...hey guys-I love you!!!) I thought, 'Why don't I just stay there?!' and the rest is history. Thus, I am now planning on staying overseas and traveling overland from Thailand to Greece.

The itinerary looks something like: I fly into Thailand January 1st (yes, I will be on the plane for New Years!). I will stay there for a couple months, and then I will be traveling through Cambodia and Vietnam up to Beijing, then I will take the Trans-Siberian Railway over to Moscow, then up to St. Petersburg, and then to Budapest. I have yet to figure out how I will get from Budapest to Spain (I will probably buy a rail pass), where a friend will be flying in to meet me. We will then visit a mutual friend who is attending business school in Alicante. Next, we will travel overland through the south of France, through Italy, by ferry to Corfu, then over to Athens, and finally ending on some sunny beach in the Cyclades. I have to add a disclaimer here: this is just the plan. I am, as those of you who know me the best can attest to, not one to plan every detail, and I plan on "winging" much of this trip, be that a positive or a negative thing.

Well, there you have it! Rough? Yes. Inadequately planned? Perhaps. Am I going to run out of money half way through and end up trading the clothes off my back to some Mongolian tribesman for a llama? Most definitely. But am I looking forward to every second? (Well, except for those seconds spent in the squat "restrooms" with no toilet paper.) ABSOLUTELY!

For those interested, I will be participating in a volunteer workcamp set up though Volunteers For Peace. They set volunteers up with grassroots organizations internationally. The grassroots group centered in Thailand I will be working with directly is Greenway. I will be staying in the southern Thai village of Songkhla, and I will be mainly teaching English to Thai children. After a while here, I will travel back up north to the Burmese/Thai border to offer my help at another NGO, Dr. Cynthia's Mae Tao Clinic. This clinic provides medical attention for Burmese refugees, or simply can provide them with asylum from their government. If you have any questions about my experiences with any of these organizations, feel free to drop me an email, or leave a message on the board.