Jonah's Gap Year Journal

This morning I woke up at 9:30 am, walked 15 minutes to return my surf board to the rental place, came back to the hostel, and slept from 10:30 until 3:30 pm. My body is constantly reminding me that I have four years of sleepless high school to make up for, and I could not be happier that I can sleep as much as I want during my time in Tamarindo. I'm starting to really become comfortable in this town. I've also realized what a gift this hostel is. Everyone from the volunteers working the front desk to my roommates to the folks I meet from other rooms is a friend to me from the moment I meet them. Despite the dizzying rotation of 4-day guests making way for new short term visitors, I can always count on having someone to go out for some food and drink with. The new "Botella de Leche Family" group chat includes besties such as Rosie, Matilda, Denise, Ofir, Malka, Sofia, and more. Jimmy from Atlanta, Georgia (NOT Alabama) left this morning with a sweet text message. My t...

As I have spent more time in Tamarindo, Costa Rica, I've only fallen more in love. The people here are so friendly and the hostel is full of travelers with great stories. I'm so glad I gave myself so much time at this hostel to really become comfortable. Today is day 5 and I have 13 still ahead of me! I make so many fantastic memories every day here that it will be impossible to recount all of them, but here are a few of my favorites: I rented a surfboard with Jimmy and yesterday we took his friend Matt to a beach about 30 minutes south of Tamarindo by car. When we got there I soon realized the waves were much bigger than the baby waves I learned on here in Tamarindo, and after 5 minutes of struggling to paddle out past the break I made the realistic decision to leave my board in the sand and go for a swim instead. The experience of both diving under and floating over waves taller than myself really put me in touch with the movement of the ocean. It was so fun to watch Matt an...

Wow! Time has escaped me. I hoped to make a post in the last two days but never got around to it, so even though it hasn't been very long since the last post I anticipate this one will be longer than the others. I arrived two days ago at my hostel, La Botella de Leche (that's "the bottle of milk"), in Tamarindo, Costa Rica. Upon my arrival in Liberia I was faced with the choice between a 90 minute air conditioned taxi ride for $120 and a 3.5 hours plus series of bus rides that would cost me a whopping total of 6 US dollars. One lost water bottle and a pint of sweat later, I found myself meandering around the rough terrain of Tamarindo's dirt roads in pursuit of what would be my home for the next 18 days. Immediately when I walked in I was greeted by Juan, the friendly front desk guy who gave me a tour of the quaint hostel. I realized even though I didn't see many people here at first this would be a cozy place to stay with all the resources I would need. Of ...

Over my trip, I've been filling up my notebook with the most eclectic cocktail of content, from lists to drawings to poems to narratives similar to those you will read here. Mainly, they're for my own reflection later in my life and as such I don't expect much of my blog/journal content to cross over. However, I made a list of things that I learned in Miami that I thought I should meditate on. I think a lot of these things could help any fellow travelers as they navigate the world or realistically anyone navigating life! So, I decided to copy it word for word for you guys to read: The importance of LISTENING Go into hotels!!! They are beautiful!!! A good deal of German vocab, including: Schnorrer (mooch), Muscheln (shells), and Kaninchendraht (rabbit wire) The usefulness of Citibikes, trolleys, and all other affordable public transport (ubers are a last resort!) To tell people in India I'm from Canada- they don't like Americans To book the emergency exit seats on...

Miami beach is so hot! Thankfully, I think other than maybe Ecuador this is the hottest it's gonna get. I'm already thinking in Celcius; its about 32° here and turns out it's only about 30 in India right now. Even so, sunscreen and cold drinks have been my best friends. After a 14 hour train ride from Charleston I arrived at my hostel at 7:30pm last night. Immediately upon walking into my 4 person room I was greeted by Marie, a German traveller on her last stop of an American vacation before returning to Cologne for her law internship. We connected immediately and have gone basically everywhere together since. I really hope it's this easy to make friends everywhere else; it seems we haven't gotten tired of each other yet and it's so nice to have someone to walk around with and learn from. She reminded me of the importance of taking buses as opposed to ubers as it's a lot cheaper. We went into downtown Miami today and took some pictures in the Wynwood art di...

I arrived at the apartment of my good friends Myles and Eco in Charleston, South Carolina at 5 in the morning today. After 2 hours of struggling to sleep despite the apparent cat allergies and uncomfortably bright plant light in the corner, I was able to sleep from 7 to about noon. So happy to be reunited with my friends and the sense of relaxation and comfort I have makes me indescribably excited for my upcoming journeys. To be in charge of my own schedule and have time to lounge and relax is something I have craved for a long time. Currently I'm watching Myles play a game on the Nintendo Switch and I even indulged in my long lost affinity for gaming for the first time in a while. I love it. Other than the considerable amount of admin work I got done on my laptop earlier, there's nothing on the schedule for today except CHILL. Charleston is lovely. I did get bitten by about 5 mosquitoes in 2 minutes at 1PM. Peace and love and try not to fight each other, Jonah

I'm writing now from the cafe of a train to New York. From there, Charleston! At this point, I've said bye to my family and my friends and there's no turning back. Already, a flustered man who identified himself as Kenny frantically ran through the car I was in and announced that he left his phone behind. I offered for him to use my phone and he made about 5 unsuccessful phone calls before Beth picked up. Whatever she said clearly frustrated him even more and he told her he would just buy a cheap phone in New York. He was grateful and very polite to me. One one hand, the encounter was reassuring to me because I proved to myself I was able to handle a chaotic situation like that carefully and safely with a cool head. On the other hand, I made a promise to myself that I would do my best to avoid getting into a situation where I'm the Kenny. *reaches down to make sure my phone is in my pocket* Peace and Love and stay safe, -Jonah

Here is the first official timeline! Departure Date Departure Location Departure Time to Arrival Date Destination Arrival Time  Fri 9/15/23 Miami, FL MIA 7:00 to Fri 9/15/23 Houston, TX IAH 8:49 Fri 9/15/23 Houston, TX IAH 9:39 to Fri 9/15/23 Liberia, CR LIR 12:10 COSTA RICA 21 DAYS (9/15 -> 10/6) Fri 10/6/23 San Jose, CR SJO 16:35 to Fri 10/6/23 Quito, EC UIO 19:50 ECUADOR 9 DAYS (10/6 -> 10/15) Sun 10/15/23 Quito, EC UIO 12:40 to Sun 10/15/23 Houston, TX IAH 5:50 Sun 10/15/23 Houston, TX IAH 7:30 to Sun 10/15/23 San Fran, CA SFO 9:30 SAN FRANCISCO 4 DAYS (10/15 -> 10/19) Thu 10/19/23 San Fran, CA SFO 23:10 to Sat 10/21/23 Auckland, NZ AKL 8:10 NEW ZEALAND 8 DAYS (10/21 -> 10/29) Sun 10/29/23 Auckland, NZ AKL 12:45 to Sun 10/29/23 Sydney, AU SYD 14:10 Sun 10/29/23 Sydney, AU SYD 17:50 to Sun 10/29/23 Bali, ID DPS 21:25 INDONESIA 28 DAYS (10/29 -> 11/26) Sun 11/26/23 Bali, ID DPS 16:10 to Sun 11/26/23 Bangkok, TH BKK 19:25 Sun 11/26/23 Bangkok, TH BKK 22:25 to Mon 11...

Hey guys! Life has been crazy these last few weeks, but here I am at the 3 day mark whether I'm ready or not. A few important things have happened since I last wrote: Autumn (my older sister) went back to her sophomore year at the University of New Hampshire I took a 4 day half-road-trip to Columbus Ohio to drop off my love and best friend B at Ballet Met for a dance traineeship I made one night trip to Montreal with my besties Nick and Kaeleigh to celebrate my 18th birthday on the 23rd of August Despite all of this I have been planning (anxiously scrambling) for gap year and now that I'm back from Ohio it's time to spend every minute of every day preparing. Shopping, doctor's and dentist's appointments, bank visits, and visits to the RMV are only a few of the items on my unreasonably long to-do list for the next 3 days. Wish me luck and now that I'm diving into it I'm sure the posts will be a lot more frequent. As promised, I've finished drawing up my f...