Ch-ch-ch-changes...

It's been a year with no travel - and, frankly, I'm going a bit stir crazy. That said, it's also been a year full of change I never expected; my life is very different than it was just a year ago - and I'm phenomenally happier.

In late January, I changed jobs - turning down a management promotion at one of the most well-known companies in the world to follow my heart and return to a small medical device company that laid me off in 2008 when I came back from Morocco. (The layoff was due to the economic craziness of the era and ~25% of the company downsized at that time.) Then, in early February, I closed on my first house. While I certainly won't voluntarily enter escrow in the middle of changing jobs ever again (really - not recommended!), I've got to say that I adore my new home; it's more than I ever expected to be able to afford in a first house, and I'm extremely blessed. I hope to be here for a long time. To top it all off, I've now got ~5min commute to work - and, yes, I'm still in Southern California. It's ridiculously awesome!

Anyway, I'm brainstorming a 2wk trip for Feb 2011, but my ideas thus far haven't panned out. Who knows where the future will ultimately take me...

Belfast and N.I.

I slowly bussed my way from Galway to Belfast, by way of the Dublin airport. It was the cheapest and quickest route I could easily figure out. I honestly don't know what I expected to find in Belfast; what I found, though, was altogether different. The bus from the airport dropped me off in downtown Belfast and I had to walk a mile or two toward Queen's University and my hostel. Other than the fact of being conveniently located, having a decent attached cafe, and featuring some cool dorm-mates, the hostel wasn't great; it was "just a hostel" and had some semi-creepy African refugees that were leering at all the young women traveling alone.

It turns out that my mother's people are actually from Belfast... However, I didn't learn that until I got home. All I knew while on the trip was that Belfast "spoke" to me in a way no other part of Ireland did during the trip. Go figure...