About

I’m a Pennsylvanian who left home at 18 to see the world.

For 10 years I lived and worked in Paris, Italy, Singapore, China (x2), and New Zealand. I was an expat pretty much my entire adult life, traveling the world while building my dream career in media and the Olympics, and eating & drinking my way through 15-20 countries a year.

In 2018 I moved back to the States for work (and to try out the country as an adult, ha) and have since lived in Denver, San Francisco, and Chicago. While currently not an expatriate, it won’t be long before I head back overseas and this blog name makes sense again.

If you’re here for the how I did it: this detailed anniversary post is a good place to start. If you’re looking for a good stalk of my life story or just a timeline of the past 10+ years, here you go.

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[2008-2009: CHINA] My first move overseas was at 18, as an extended gap year halfway through college. I taught English in the northern city of Dalian, then worked for a city blog and a tech start-up in Shanghai.

At 20, I (reluctantly) returned to the States and finished my degree in political science.

Two weeks after graduation, I left the US for good.

[2010-2011: SINGAPORE] Freshly 21 and degree in hand, I moved to Singapore on a whim — I had $700 to my name, zero job prospects, and only a hazy idea of where to find the country on a map. Ultimately, I found myself running social media for an Asian reality television show.

But it was because of Singapore that I was able to kickstart my career in international sports — a path that, for the next three years, would take me to the London and Sochi Olympics, and sporting events across three continents (including two memorable months with FIFA in Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates).

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[2012-2013: PARIS] At 22, I moved to France on yet another whim — I’d never been to Europe, but decided I wanted to learn French, so off to Paris I flew. Though the first year was rough, the second year was full of cheese and cocktails and picnics and I absolutely fell in love.

[2013-2014: ITALY & SOME OTHER PLACES] After leaving Paris at 24, there was a failed attempt to live in northern Italy.

Post-Italy debacle, I spent a few months backpacking Europe and Southeast Asia, went to Russia to cover Sochi 2014, and then decided to take a break from the industry.

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[2014-2015: CHINA, AGAIN] At 25, I moved back to Shanghai for a second stint, this time working for Ford on their Asia Pacific communications team. I definitely enjoyed the high-flying corporate marketing life for a while, but I still quit my job the following year to return to my true loves: travel, food, and the Olympics.

[2015-2016: ALL THE PLACES] On my 26th birthday, I began living out of a suitcase and traveling full-time. Over the next 18 months I said yes to every opportunity — producing a show for BBC Travel; working Rio 2016; filming Snapchat campaigns all over the world — until I ran myself into the ground.

2016 was by far the most exhilarating year of my life, but it wasn’t sustainable and I was burning out in spectacular fashion.

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[2017: WELLINGTON] So at 27, I decided to take a sabbatical to pursue a growing passion: spirits and cocktails. I put down the suitcase, moved to my fourth continent, put a pause on travel and sport and spent the year as a professional bartender in Wellington, New Zealand.

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[2018: ON THE ROAD, AGAIN] Now 28, I returned to living out of a suitcase. I spent two months in Korea working at Olympics #5, then went on a reunion tour visiting friends scattered across the world and having one last summer in Paris. Around the time I turned 29, full-time travel began to feel heavy and lacking and unfulfilling. So I signed up for AmeriCorps, moved to the American West and joined a mental health nonprofit serving Asian immigrants and refugees in Denver.

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[2019-2020: DENVER, SAN FRANCISCO, CHICAGO] Following my AmeriCorps year in Colorado, I moved to San Francisco for what seemed to be a dream job in food media and photography…until Covid-19 hit and I was laid off the first week of California’s shelter-in-place order. I am now currently in the middle of moving from San Francisco to Chicago, where my partner lives, before deciding which country I want to move to next (whenever it may be safe to do so again).

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I blog to share many aspects of my life, but also because I believe:

You don’t need to sacrifice a career to travel. One doesn’t necessarily come at the cost of the other. Not only have I managed to find jobs in each country I’ve moved to — being abroad is what enabled me to fulfill my lifelong dream of working in the Olympic movement.

You don’t need to be rich to travel. I grew up with very little; my parents were immigrants who came to the US as grad students (and also for political asylum). Yet even on minimum wage, my parents still scrimped enough to fly me to Shanghai every single summer to visit relatives — teaching me the value of cross-cultural experiences over material possessions.

I absolutely recognize the privilege I have in possessing an American passport, but I want to make it clear I do not come from money nor do I have heaps of savings that I splurge on big trips. It has been through the prioritization of my finances and career, as well as some luck (aka a combination of certain societal privileges that have opened doors for me), that I have been able to create this consistent life of travel.

In short: a life of travel does not just fall into your lap. It’s about saying why not?, buying that one-way ticket and making it happen for yourself.

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MOAR STUFF

* I’m obsessed with playing Gaelic football around the world. I picked it up in Dalian a decade ago and have since played with teams in Paris, Wellington, Hanoi, and across China.

* I love gin (Martin Millers & Sipsmith), rye (Rittenhouse & Distillery 291), a good Belgian blanche, and seriously dark porters and stouts.

* I live for bad puns, and will also go to some pretty reckless lengths for a good viewpoint.

* I’ve been published in a book! It’s this one.

* I’m also in a TV show! It’s this episode.

* The photoblog of my China years can be found here.

Contact

Want to get in touch? I can be reached via edna at expatedna dot com, facebook, G+, twitter, and instagram.