I've been gone about a year, and in that time my blog has been quietly reaching some big goals. It surpassed 20,000 views! And it has had a steady stream of visitors from all over the world. Pretty exciting stuff, I think. I hope what I had posted helped travelers and wanders with their own adventures. My blog has done so much to help me - securing me a position with the Daegu city government, helping get opportunities to write for Daegu Compass - I am pleased to think it might be helping others as well.
As for my blog's direction moving forward. I have some changes in mind. DIY projects, cooking adventures, sewing, embroidery, etc. will be included to a greater extent. My fashion obsessions and music favorites might be showing up more often as well. I'll be sporadically including photography from this year's past adventures - including backpacking central Europe, traveling the US, volunteering in disaster relief, and of course, Alaska. But most of all, it will showcase my life in Taiwan. I am intending to be less image-heavy and focus on more poignant shots that capture the feeling of a place. My habit of incorporating useful information for future travelers, like train schedules and trail guides, is not going anywhere. The new title, Focus on the good, is my mantra lately. It seemed fitting.
Presently I am on the very last moments of a contract in Denali, Alaska. I have been living a mile from the Denali National Park and working at a hotel here. It has been interesting. I've been given the opportunity to see so much here, its truly overwhelming.
Denali National Park from a generously comp'ed flightseeing tour with Denali Air. This is the life I never imagined I would have.
My time here is short, just days at this point. I am about to head to Michigan for a brief visit, then move to Taiwan to start a new contract. Yes, yes, I am back to Asia. I couldn't be more thrilled. Time to re-download skype on my Grandma's computer, to order a year's worth of shoes and carmex, to say the hard goodbyes.