Salutations
I’m Jane Ellyn, I’m a photographer, writer, house sitter, and traveler.
In an odd incident my husband and I were once told that,
“There are two types of people who [travel], those who are running from something and those who are running to something – you guys are definitely running to something.”
You know that sensation you get when something really resonates with you? Well, that was the moment for us both; we’d taken a huge plunge in selling all that we had, quitting our careers, and moving from the U.S. to China to teach English as a second language, so those seemingly offhanded words, uttered by a complete stranger at that, came as a sort of stop-you-in-your-tracks moment where we truly felt we’d made a good decision.
And we’ve yet to look back.
Even before we turned our world upside-down (no pun intended) and moved to the other side of the globe to teach, we’d adopted a minimalist outlook on life. And, now we’re hopeful one-bag travelers just looking to connect with others; even if it’s as simple as a passing conversation – sometimes those can be the most meaningful.
We’re travel junkies; food lovers; cultural inquisitors; lazy language learners; storytellers; and all and out adventurers looking for the beauty of life in the simplest pleasures. We travel to meet people, gain new perspectives, ask tons of questions, and to take in life in slow, consuming strides.
Maybe we’ll meet you one day, too.
Until then, we’re happily, but purposefully, wandering in search of those who wander too, and if we’re lucky enough we might just catch a glimpse of what their lives are all about – if only for a moment.
“Don’t adventures ever have an end? I suppose not. Someone else always has to carry on the story.”
– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Our Mission?
While traveling can be a completely leisurely endeavor, it seems like more and more people these days are turning to it as a particular type of lifestyle. Like many others, we flirted for years with dropping everything in our lives in order to join the nomadic portion of the world and now that we’re here we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Our approach, however, isn’t to rush into seeing as many countries as possible just to “check them off our list,” but we want to experience them. With that being said, the more we travel, the more we’ve found that while there’s insurmountable traveling resources floating around on the web, sometimes that informations isn’t always clear and concise (although it is well-meaning). We hope to help clarify, and more finely hone in on the already stellar information present, making actual travel a slightly less stressful venture, and much more of an adventure. Of course, travel mishaps are bound to happen at some point or another, so in thinking positively, try considering that some of those travel hiccups are just a natural part of the traveling experience – appreciate it for what it is when it happens.
At the heart of it all, as we wander ourselves we’ll always take time to really explore and reflect on the beautiful people, places, and cultures at hand, because if travel doesn’t change us in some regard, perhaps we’re doing it wrong.
