my awesome little sister.

my little sister casie leaves today for a 2 month adventure.
she is going to amsterdam, france, germany, italy, england, belgium...all over europe. she's doing it BY HERSELF, too. how freaking rad is she???
she leaves today, & i'm pretty sure i'm going to miss her, slash hate her for how awesome her life is, slash live vicariously through her.
if you'd like to live through her adventures too, follow her blog here. i'm hoping she'll post ALL THE TIME so that we can make sure she's still alive.


she decided a few months ago that she wanted to go on this adventure after a lot of issues with nursing school (why does college have to suck so much?) gave her a semester off. at first i was just JEALOUS. i mean, REALLY?? living abroad in europe would be phenomenal. 
so now i'm looking closely at how my sister did it, & it seems so not as expensive as you would think. she's doing WORK AWAYS, which is where you work at a home in exchange for free food & rent. i've been looking up some places in florence & southeastern france, & there's a lot: everything from hard labor to volunteering at "spiritual camps" to working at a bed & breakfast.
the places where she isn't doing a work away, she's staying at a hostel. hostels may have a scary vibe to them, but they're so cheap & a lot are right within public so it seems relatively safe.
with that leaves airfare, train fare, museum/recreation costs, & misc food (&, if i were to go, wine. my sister won't be doing that though.) she says her total cost will probably end up a little closer to 4-grand. but now that i'm looking at it, that's aiming high.


with that said, i'm starting to seriously consider copying her in a year. if i'm lucky, i'm going to graduate in december, & rather than immediately start working for corporate america, why not go on an adventure?!? i told luke about it & he's down to start saving his money. i won't know exactly when to go until i know more about when i'm graduating. it could easily be next summer before i go. but i'm making it happen..it's been on my bucket list for forever, so why not!?!
CHEERS TO EUROPE! i'm making it happen.