Bucket List

REVISED 9:57PM, 11/19/2025

I have been traveling and living abroad since 2011 (except for 3 year)! Go me! I’m living my dream. My overseas adventure began with a year in New Zealand volunteering on farms, 6 months traveling around Southeast Asia, then another working holiday year in Australia. I worked as an English Teacher in for 2 years in Fukui, Japan, and 3 years in Malaga, Spain. Then I got a teaching credential from UCSB, took a year off to travel and substitute teach, taught in Colombia for a year, and now I’m back in my beautiful hometown of Santa Barbara.

Here are my general goals:

When teaching, or just interacting with anyone, I’d like to spread joy and positivity and inspire people to be confident.
Improve my Spanish, learn basic Italian, French, and German. Continue to practice my Japanese. Learn a few words in every country I visit.
Stay healthy
- A mostly plant-based diet (95 percent vegan, occasional pescatarian, with no guilt for occasional exceptions while traveling.)
- Walk at least 10,000 steps every day and work out regularly.

5 year plan:

Spend more time with family in Santa Barbara, travel and visit friends in the US, and spend 2-3 months/year climbing, hiking, and visiting friends in Europe.

Other things I would like to do:

Do via ferratas (a form of rock climbing) with my dad every summer
A yoga teacher training, perhaps in Spanish, in a warm Spanish-speaking country
Intensive Spanish immersion program
10 day vipasana silent meditation retreat.
Be in a band/go busking
Do a road trip across the USA, stopping to car camp, hike, and rock climb.

General Knowledge I Would Like to Learn:

1. How to make balloon animals (I’m not kidding).
2. Nutrition, healthy eating, recipes, cooking, veganism, raw food, etc.
3. Meditation, breathing, yoga, relaxation techniques, etc.
4. Any kind of healing art: massage, reiki, chiropractic, reflexology…
5. All languages with focus on Spanish and Japanese.
6. How to start a non-profit, grant writing.
7. Business, finance, investing, etc.
8. More hula hoop tricks.

What I’ve Already Accomplished (in no particular order. Click the links to see photos.)

1. Did a solo motorcycle trip in Taiwan
2. Done some epic multi-day hikes in New Zealand – the Routeburn, Greenstone Caples, Mount Aspiring, Stewart Island
3. Visited the house that my great grandmother grew up in
4. Graduated from university – and had a great time doing it!
5. Kayaked and rock-climbed in Vietnam
6. Volunteered to teach English twice in Southeast Asia – Cambodia and Indonesia
7. Traveled with my mom in Australia and Thailand
8. Went on a road trip with some awesome people in New Zealand
9. Was part of an amazing ultimate frisbee team in Santa Cruz
10. Went skydiving in Northland, New Zealand – see the video!
11. Partied with my friend Sajira in Manila, the Philippines
12. Lived at a raw food detox retreat in the Philippines
13. Studied Thai Massage for 12 days in a tiny village near Chiang Mai
14. Taught English for two years in rural Japan – Echizen-shi, Fukui Prefecture
15. Taught English in a pueblo called Almendralejo, Spain for a year, and for 2 years in Malaga
16. Completed grad school at UCSB with a teaching credential and a masters in education
17. Lived for a year in Pereira, Colombia teaching 3rd grade and playing lots of ultimate frisbee