Welcome to my life

Well, here I am. I don't know what this blog will become, public or private, stories of my travel adventures or musings of my day-to-day existence I don't yet know. This is what I do know: I am currently a 20 year old American guy living in London. I am a third-year mechanical engineering student at Tufts University outside of Boston spending the year abroad studying at University College London. I am peaceful, rational, an environmentalist, a vegetarian, Jewish, an explorer, an adventurer, and left-handed. I have a growing urge to sell everything I own and spend years wandering the planet to grow, transform, and learn from the different people and places I encounter. I know this feeling is stemmed largely from the fact that since the very beginning of 2007 I have traveled to more places on this earth than I ever had previously in my life, and could not be more grateful for the insight I have started to gain from my travels. I've never before kept a regular journal or diary, and only time will tell what this one becomes... The short-short-short super abridged version of my 2007 thus far goes like this:

January 1-14: Chile. Travelled with Aish HaTorah to experience the small-but-present Jewish community in the capital, Santiago. Spent time exploring the city, meeting locals and working on my Spanish. Also, spent about 5 days in Pucon, a small but vibrant resort town about 500 miles (800 km) south of Santiago, in the Andes.

January-May: Boston, USA. I spent a few months doing things considered "normal". Also known as the second half of my sophomore year of university.

May 14 - June 3 : Czech Republic, Israel. Aish provided me with a second incredible opportunity to travel and learn abroad. We spent 3 days in Prague, toured the old Jewish quarter of the city and learned of the history there, but also checked out the city's (in)famous nightlife. From there, we flew to Jerusalem. We spent about 2 weeks in the city, walking each day to the Old City and spending a few hours in different classes at the Aish world center Yeshiva. The last few days in the country were spent up north in the Golan Heights, near Syria, hiking and adventuring.

June-August: Boston, USA. More semi-normalcy. I rented an apartment from a friend of mine near Tufts who was spending the summer hiking the Appalachian Trail. I spent a few months working for one of my professors designing a wind tunnel for the mechanical engineering department, while trying to save up a bit of money for my upcoming trip to London.

July 6 - 15: USA. One of my two sisters was living temporarily in Cincinnati and had a new job to start in a few weeks in San Jose. I flew out to Ohio, helped her pack her life into her car, and we took off and drove to the other side of the continent, having plenty of good times along the way before flying back to Boston. We passed through: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California.

August 23 - 28: Rangley Lakes Region, Maine, USA. I spent five days leading a canoing trip in northern Maine with my fearless co-leader, Aliza as an orientation program for this year's incoming freshman. Incredible adventure and learning experience for myself and my freshmen. Windy thunder storms in the middle of a lake in aluminum canoes are scary and dangerous. Lunar eclipses so bright you can read by the moonlight on a rocky beach on a tiny island make it all worth it, though.

September 1 - 14: Home, USA. I spent time relaxing at home with my parents, seeing old friends and family, preparing myself to head out again, in a big way.

Sept 15 - present (October 25, 2007): Moved to London for 9 months. I've been taking my engineering classes for a few weeks now, and things are starting to become routine as I adjust to life here. I'm meeting plenty of locals and foreigners alike. Things are wonderful.

Tomorrow, October 26. I am taking my first trip far outside London. I am spending the weekend in Dublin, Ireland with my friend Scotty and two of his friends he knows from back in America.


I'm planning on making a longer entry on each of the above-mentioned travels before the details leave my memory. That's it so far; welcome to my life.

- Dan