Timpe's in France

Hello again! I’ll pick up where I left off. Sunday night we stayed busy on helpx messaging scores of hosts. We got some responses of people available in a few days and such, but we were really trying to get out as soon as possible. It wasn’t that our situation was so bad, but we were about a 25 minute walk to the heart of town, and we didn’t want to do that very often because we needed to stay in our hotel with WiFi. Our location also wasn’t ideal because transportation was nonexistent. There were no buses or trains from our town, so we had to use a common ridesharing company in Europe called Blablacar. It took us until Sunday night to realize that was our only option other than hitchhiking (we strongly considered it) was Blablacar, and after trying to sign up discovered we needed a phone. Luckily, Monday morning we went to town and found a cell phone to buy from probably the only shop in town selling them. We could now use Blablacar and get out! Problem is, Blablacar still isn’t t...

Upon hearing we couldn't stay in a place for for human occupancy, we packed our things and told Maria we were ready to leave. She was shocked and told us she had just talked to Ron and we could move into one of the rooms in the guest house, then move again on Tuesday when her brother left. This was too little, too late. The fact that they would put us where they did in the first place was reprehensible (I forgot to add - the ceiling was also damp and had mold) and we felt they didn't have respect for us. She began to berate us a bit, and tell us it was disrespectful that we wouldn't give them more of a chance and that only one day wasn't enough time and that things would change when her family left. We took it for a bit, until finally letting her know we felt they were the ones being disrespectful, as we just came halfway around the world to work for them and they put us in an awful place when they easily could have done better. She then noted that we could move into ...

Our host Ron welcomed us with a smile and some laughs as we missed our train stop. We loaded up our bags thinking we had just dodged a disaster, but instead the potential for disaster merely changed shape. Our car ride in a renault car that looked kind of like a honda element was only about 7 minutes, but it was absolutely terrifying. The road was a tiny, curvy European countryside kind of road with no shoulder and often not wide enough for two cars to pass each other. Despite that, Ron drove as fast as the car and curves would allow, and drifted on a couple of turns. From the backseat Tawnie saw the speedometer reach 90 km/h. If an animal or car would have been on the other side of any of the curves we would have certainly crashed. Luckily we made it and we got to load our stuff into our little cabin (more on that later). We were shuffled into the main house where a large table was set for 12 people - our two hosts, our host Maria's brother and father, two guests staying in a ca...

Hi all, Thursday night I grabbed fish and chips next door while Tawnie slept from about 4-9pm. We were exhausted from all the walking, and jet lag was still hitting us a bit too. The hotel was great except that we didn't have a window, so it made it easy to sleep when we should have been trying to stay up. Friday morning we woke up way too early, although well rested, at 5am. At 7 we had a fantastic breakfast at our hotel of croissants, other pastries, meat, cheese, hard boiled eggs, tea, etc. all of which was buffet style. By far the best hotel breakfast I've had. After breakfast we went to the train station to figure out how to get to Stansted airport. It was confusing so we went to a help desk and they told us that the bus would be much cheaper and easier. The issue was that the bus takes 2 hours, instead of the train which we believe only takes 1 hour. But, we took the bus anyway, got to the airport about an hour and 15 minutes before our flight and made it comfortably....

I’m writing from London! 9/20/18 17:15. (Still planning on writing a packing post, just haven’t had time) So far everything has gone nearly perfect. Our flight from Seattle to London Gatwick was delayed 40 minutes, but we found out before going to the airport, so that didn’t really matter. Upon arriving at Sea-Tac we made it to our boarding gate in probably 30-40 minutes, if that. There was no line to print our boarding passes, TSA line was short, and people didn’t have to take their shoes off (unless you were wearing steel toed extra-turf rainboots like me). Once our flight began boarding they herded us onto busses and over to our fairly new, very impressive, Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. I’m not super into planes, but this thing was sweet. It had 9 people per row - 3 on the left, 3 on the right, and 3 in the middle with aisles on both sides of the middle row. This design made it possible for baggage to go in bins on BOTH sides of the middle row, plus the usual overhead bins on the left ...

One of the hardest parts of travelling is saying goodbye to family. Luckily, it also makes for a great opportunity to get everyone together to say 'goodbye' and throw a party! This last Saturday, September 8th, Tawnie's sister, Tasha, organized a get together that Tawnie's Dad graciously hosted at his shop in Long Beach, WA. Tasha's husband, Ryan, masterfully barbequed burgers and hotdogs, everyone else brought a side, and we had a great time hanging out with everyone.  Thank you so much to all of you who came and encouraged us with your support and excitement for us. We miss you already and can't wait to catch up again after our time abroad!          Love,             Sam&Tawnie From Left to Right: Tasha, Eli, Jeff, Ryan, Abby, Sam, Tawnie, Elsa, Amelia, Jeffrey, Sawyer, Melissa, Jake, Brooke, Jed, Tori, Stan. Homer (dog) in the foreground.

How are we doing this?! I mentioned in my first post that there's rarely a good time to travel, as there is always something going on and things to miss out on. So how did we decide that now was the best time to go? The plan was hatched back in February. I was working for the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries. I was in month 6 of a 22 month apprenticeship to become a Workers' Compensation Adjudicator 2. It was a very competitive hiring process, and the journeyman card I would have received after 22 months would have opened many doors for me. The problem was, I hated it there, and I didn't particularly like any of the doors that were going to open. I enjoyed my coworkers, but the actual work wasn't for me. A sea of cubicles. Phones ringing. Chairs squeaking. Speaking to people on the phone when they are at their absolute worst. Overhearing the person in the cubicle next to me take a call from a suicidal worker. It sucked! I needed fresh air a...