Hello, and welcome to Amy and the Great World!
I’m Amy, the girl behind the blog. I–and my hair, in varying levels of insanity–have been traveling the big beautiful world of ours for awhile now, although this blog is only a few years old.
I started this blog in the fall of 2013, after a summer spent interning in China and traveling around Europe. Meeting up with my then-boyfriend now-husband in Belgium and traveling through Europe together inspired us to make the big move abroad–although I had to finish my master’s first!
Finish it I did in June of 2014, and leaving our comfortable apartment, stable jobs, and family behind, we enrolled in an TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Program in Prague, Czech Republic, with plans of staying as long as we could.
So began one of the best years of our lives, teaching and traveling throughout the Czech Republic and the Continent. We fell in love with Europe, fell more in love (and got engaged in Venice in March, 2015!) and, unfortunately, had some visa trouble. We spent the summer of 2015 traveling in Europe, went back to the States to get married, honeymooned in Central America, and grabbed at another chance to live in Europe: this time in Budapest!
At Amy and the Great World, I strive to provide travel tips, photos that will inspire wanderlust, and a snapshot into my life as an immigrant/expat/serial traveler/nomad/whatever I happen to be at the moment.
Oh, usually the above is served with a side of sarcasm.
I pride myself on “real talk” about my life abroad, in posts such as 30 Lessons from 30 Months Abroad, Outtakes, Expectations, Lessons from Living Abroad. Ultimately, I hope to inspire you to explore the world around you–near or far, no snobbery allowed here!
So, let’s connect. Let’s be friends, via the interwebs or in real life. Don’t be shy! Please email me at amy [at] amyandthegreatworld.com, find me on Bloglovin’, or get in touch on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook!
Some Things:
I am currently teaching English in the beautiful city of Budapest. Before this, I most recently spent a year teaching in Prague (can you tell I love Europe?). I also love teaching, and suddenly can’t imagine doing anything else with my life.
I finished my M.A. in International Disaster Psychology from the University of Denver in June, 2014. The best paper I wrote in that degree program involved diagnosing Voldemort with a personality disorder. This makes me want to get a degree in…Harry Potter.
I’m obsessed with orange–the color, and the flavor, but not the fruit so much, oddly.
I married my long-time love, E, during the fall of 2015, in a beautiful backyard ceremony on a lovely fall day in Washington state. E and I love to travel together. Although I’ve traveled quite a bit without him, we’ve managed to see 22 countries together and hopefully many more places will follow!
I studied abroad in Cuzco, Peru, which I’ve hardly written about. I also spent several months teaching and touring in Southeast Asia after I graduated college. I’ve also hardly written about that.
I love everything about fall and winter: cold weather, snow, skiing, bundling up, and when it’s so freezing out the inside of your nose freezes when you walk outside.
I get excessively excited about holidays. I am always concerned I will regret not enjoying the holiday enough, so maybe sometimes I go a tiny bit overboard. Oh, yes, I suffer from severe FOMO (fear of missing out) in so many areas of my life.
I love coffee, researching travel, travel planning (see my travel services page), hot drinks in general, snacks, swimming, rainy mornings and teaching kids.
My first true love, before traveling, was reading, and eventually writing. My blog title actually comes from one of my favorite childhood books.
Need more?
Check out my past travels, a brief travel history, my life list, the beginning, my ABCs of Travel, and these post series: Behind the Scenes: Instagram, By the Numbers, Daily Life in Prague, How Not to Travel, Daily Life in Budapest, and Imagine If I Lived Here.