What is this?

We are Dave (a high school math and computer programming teacher) and Jen (part-time programmer, part-time poker player); we've been living together in the San Francisco Bay Area for the last 5 years. As soon as school ends in June 2009, we're planning to take off on a year-long trip to explore the world some. We'll be including some notes about our planning here for now, and will document our trip here once it starts.

It seems (from our initial internet reading) that people have different things in mind when undertaking this sort of trip; none of which we share, exactly. Some people plan with the aim of making sure they don't "miss" anything. Others seem to follow an "extended vacation" model in which they plan with an eye toward doing the kinds of things people do on vacation: sight-see, go to cultural events, and so forth. Still others are aiming at a sort of low-budget (or sometimes high-budget) exotic world wilderness trek. And, of course, there's the famous bum-around-another-country with a backpack.

We think all of these have something going for them, but also miss something that's important to us. Berkeley is one of my favorite places, but I've often found myself at a loss when charged with showing someone around. My love for Berkeley is more about how it feels to live there than any particular event or destination in it; and this feeling of living in a place is a large part of what we hope to get at in our travel.

Put differently, we're medium-interested in seeing how other people live around the world, and very interested in seeing how we live around the world. Practically, this means that the pace of our trip is likely to be different than the "can't-miss-anything" or "backpack-bumming" models. Our provisional plan is to choose a handful of places where we'll stay for 4-8 week stints, settling in somewhere with a kitchen that might plausibly feel like a potential home. It also means that our destinations may differ from the "world's best things to see and do" and "exotic trek" versions, as well. Basically, we'll choose locations in places we're curious about that seem likely to provide us with an enjoyable living experience. We will pay some attention to the proximity of good hiking, sights, or cultural events; but we want them to be available side-shows rather than the main attractions.

Because of these considerations, we hope to prepare in the spirit of Eisenhower's observation that a plan is useless, but planning is essential. We hope, in the coming months, to become thoroughly versed in all our possible options, but leave most of the specifics of the actual plan to be loosely improvised within the few constraints we're required to fix in advance.

Check back as we investigate the food, weather, political, housing, and transportation considerations for our various destinations!