Greetings and welcome to "Traveling with a View!"  After many months of figuring how to go about doing this and with the encouragement of friends and colleagues, I have decided to start this blog.  Even though I have had blogs in the past, life always had a way of pulling me away from them.  It was not necessarily because of loss of interest but more because of work commitments.  However, I have decided to give it another go since I currently have a life that allows me to travel and experience the world in all its glories.  In addition, during my time overseas, I have learned a lot of things during my travels that I would love to share with everyone.

Here is a little background of how I got into this life.

I got my first serious taste of international travel in the summer of 2008 when I was a graduate student studying art history.  I was given the opportunity to study abroad in Rome, Italy for six weeks in order to conduct research for my Master's.  Even though I was in a group of students, the thought of traveling overseas was daunting to me.  Many thoughts ran through my mind, such as "Would I be able to find my way around?", "What if I can't communicate with anyone?", "What if I get lost?", "How do I do laundry?"  These were all legitimate concerns since my only time overseas prior was with family where I didn't have to do much except follow along.  Needless to say, I was nervous but excited at the prospect of going somewhere new. 

However, unlike in the past when I traveled with family, this would be different. In this case, I was expected to explore the city and find works of art to support my thesis while also developing a working draft.  This meant spending a lot time walking around on my own, photographing, taking notes, and trying to get an understanding of the context in which these works of art were created.  To make a long story short, the Rome experience proved to be instrumental in developing my fondness for travel and removing my anxieties about traveling overseas.  I realized afterward that I was indeed able to travel alone and get along fine without too many problems.  Of course, there were many times I got lost, but I always remembered to carry a tourist map with me, and that proved to be invaluable to me.

Since then, I have traveled to places I never would have thought possible, and now I have a strong desire to visit every country in the world including territories and geopolitical anomalies i.e. Transnistria.

Eventually, I reached a point with all my travels that many people began to suggest that I start writing a book or start a website to chronicle my adventures, and that is how "Traveling with a View" was born.  It is my ultimate goal to inform, entertain, and share my experiences with all of you.

With this inaugural blog entry, I am very excited to being able to share my adventures with you, and I certainly look forward to hearing from you and your ideas as well.