Wandering into 2011

I have to admit that 2011 has gotten off to a bit of a slow start.  My internet presence has been negligible and real life has taken over.  Since December my focus has been the holidays, family, friends and work.  I had hoped for a winter getaway but instead stayed home and shoveled snow.  A lot of snow--I haven't seen a winter like this since I was small.

2011 so far has also brought a couple of firsts for me as a blogger too.  I wrote my first ever guest post.  To read my post, Living with Less:  What Travel Has Taught Me About Money & Material Things, head over to Spunkygirl Monologues.  Pam, both a fellow traveler and fellow Albertan, runs the site and this month is hosting posts from other spunky girls every day.  I am very glad to be included among them. 

I was also excited to hear my site has won its first ever award.  E College Finder.org went looking for sites promoting study and work abroad opportunities and experiences.  And they found me.  Wow.  Consequently I've been recognized as one of their Top 75 Study Abroad Ambassadors!  I'm in good company too, among some of the sites I enjoy myself such as Do It While You're Young, Two Backpackers and Traveling Canucks.  There are many other great sites as well!  There is a whole list of links to check out and if you are looking for study/work abroad info you should take a wander over there.

The new year is still pretty bright and shiny as far as I am concerned and there is still much to come.  As always I am looking forward to sharing my wanderings both past and future with you and I hope that 2011 has started off with a bang for you!

Living with Less: What Travel Has Taught Me About Money & Material Things

A funny thing happened to me as I attempted to do some Boxing Week shopping at the end of 2010.  I made my way through several stores, amongst the throngs of bargain hunters, looking for a bargain myself.  I had decided that if I didn't go on a trip over the break I would treat myself to a new (and bigger) TV.  But even though I found many a tempting deal I just couldn't do it.  I couldn't part with my hard earned cash for something as frivolous as a new TV when I had visions of beaches and ruins and fabulous foreign food dancing in my head--you see, travel has simply made me change the way I think about money and "stuff".

Before I traveled I had spent most of my life attached to stuff.  Books, magazines, old clothes, gifts I received way back when I was a teenager (which is a half a lifetime ago now), and even some of my old school assignments that I was particularly proud of…I had kept them all.  When I packed everything up to pursue a chance to live overseas there were an awful lot of boxes that I packed up and stored for my eventual return...  


To read the rest of my very first guest post please head on over to Spunkygirl Monolgues. While you are there check out some of fellow Albertan Pam's posts about her adventures in Asia last year. 

Guest Post By Krista D. Ball

Not everyone has the desire to travel the world. Not everyone has the means, either. Yet, I think a little exploration can do our minds good. If we spend too much time in the same place, we become entrenched and our world view becomes stilted.

As a speculative fiction writer, the imagination needs constant stimulation in order to keep up with creating new worlds, cultures, and even races. Visiting new places, even as simple as a new ethnic restaurant or a small town gift shop, expands my world just a tiny bit more.

I confess that I’ve never had a burning desire to see the world. I trust the internet when it says that there are pyramids in Egypt and that there are leaning towers in Pisa. However, I have travelled in small ways and have seen many things crop up in my writing.

I’ve been along the coast of Labrador and saw firsthand what cultural genocide, corruption, and alcoholism can do to a proud people. I’ve been to outport Newfoundland where I saw people cling to their culture in the midst of economic upheaval. And I’ve seen the Rocky Mountains and myself an early explorer.

As humans, we need to continue expanding our minds or else we risk mental atrophy. Regardless if it is grand or small, travel is one of the important ways that we continue to explore the world around us. And, in doing so, we explore our own lives.

Krista D. Ball is a speculative fiction writer in Edmonton, Alberta. Her upcoming novelette, Harvest Moon, travels back in time to visit a fictional First Nations tribe in northern Alberta.