I have loved showcasing our travels in photo books and have tried various companies. If you don't know what I mean by a photo book, think a digital photo album of your pictures, printed in a magazine style. Depending on your creative skills, you can design each page's layout of your photos and add whatever text you want. Some software programs are cumbersome and not that user friendly. Some are way too 'pro' for me and beyond my creative abilities. But, in th...

A few years ago, after travelling around Europe for a bit, I began noticing that McDonald's was everywhere! Or were they??? I made it a point to pay closer attention everywhere I went. Soon, it even became a mission to take a picture of every McDonald's I came across. Eventually, I wanted to tabulate all the countries with a McDonald's and publish my findings in a nice little coffee table book. (Yes, I had intended to traverse the entire globe for this proj...

A devestating realization hit me (Nancy) yesterday. While, yes, there are far more greater events happening across the world that is truly tragic, my new revelation is quite a personal shock to me - my hubby's count of countries travelled will ALWAYS be higher than me. ARUGHGH! One of the reasons we were drawn to each other during our courtship is because we identified ourselves as 'travellers', not 'tourists'. It was important to us to experience cultures...

Last Thursday / Friday, Calgary got hit with the worst flood that I have ever seen! Absolutely shocking the destruction that it caused. We (more the global 'we' than me personally) are still dealing with the aftermath of it. My photo album is continually being updated in hopes to record the craziness of it all. I, of course, am only indirectly affected so I cannot even begin to imagine the emotions of those whose homes, businesses, family, and friends that we...

Spoke to our exchange coordinator today about our visa application. It's quite a lengthy document! The usual components are passport photos, letter of exchange, visa fee, etc. The more interesting ones include a copy of my supplemental health coverage to prove we aren't going to abuse their healthcare system, a sponsor in Australia so we aren't aimlessly wandering around unaccounted for, proof that we are financially capable of supporting us for the entire yea...