All posts filed under: New Experiences

Jack of Few Trades

Published by Troups

When we decided to travel around the world, we had a lot of ideas on how we wanted to travel. Though we were successful in certain areas like traveling ultra-light, avoiding big hotels, visiting local farmer markets, hiking where ever possible, effectively communicating with each other under life-threatening situations (well, almost!) , we weren’t very successful when it came to our desire to work and live on farms or pick up new skills (like learning new language). The desire to pick up new skills stemmed after reading 4 hour workweek by Timothy Ferriss and from the realization that apart from doing “office work”, we didn’t really have a lot of “life skills”. We wanted our lives to have diversity of experiences and connections with people from all walks of life. We figured no better way to start than on our world trip. We had signed up for a service called HelpX (similar to WOOFing) before we left on the trip. The service allows farms, B&Bs, ranch owners to invite volunteers to work in exchange of …

Cooking Continues..

Published by Troups

Gone are the days when I used to have white-collar IT hands, soft like a baby’s butt, only capable of typing away on a computer. Now, I have “worker” hands — tough and callus-stricken — capable of chopping, beating, kneading and butchering.

The Vegetarian Killa’

Published by Troups

When the headless chicken and I first locked eyes, I thought that there was no way I was going to survive the culinary program. It was only the second week in the kitchen. I knew when I signed up for the program what I was getting myself into. I figured I would be able to handle the dead meat. When the moment actually arrived, I was squeamish and disgusted. The blood dripped off the poor chicken’s dead body. I was so shook up for a second that I couldn’t tell where the legs were and where the wings were. Random thoughts raced through my mind like, “How would I feel if someone did this to me?” Weird, I know. My Kill Board The funny thing is that I have tried chicken before. Dan even cooks it from time to time at home. We buy the breast or the thigh meat at the big grocery stores where all meat looks the same. Red or white. You can barely tell what it was before it was cut …

The Vegetarian Killa’ : Culinary School Adventures

Published by Troups

Another Year, Another Adventure..

Published by Troups

It was exactly one year ago on March 4th, 2012 when our friend Doug dropped us to the Newark Airport early in the morning. It is one of those moments I will never forget. We had been busy wrapping work, packing our apartment, renting the place and stuffing everything we would own for 5 months in our backpacks. For weeks, it hadn’t hit us that we were leaving our jobs, our home, our friends, and our lives behind. We had been talking for almost one year about travelling around the world. The idea seemed silly. We joked and laughed about it. It was something that would never ever happen. Who would leave their good jobs, their home, to live out of a backpack for months? We weren’t ready to do the planning that went into something monumental like this. The Day Dan’s ‘stuff’ for 5 months My stuff for 5 months But the idea stuck in our heads. We talked about it every weekend. And, then we talked about it every day at work, …

Bushwacking through Cinque Terre, Italy

Published by Troups

No surprises. We were lost yet again. This time on a trail in Italy. It all started as it usually starts. We both mutually decide to climb to the highest point in the town in the hopes of getting the best views while burning calories from the food intake from the night before. If only we could stop stuffing our faces or be less guilty about stuffing our faces, we could actually spend our time enjoying the town and not being lost in the wilderness.