Summer Vacation: Oneika

If you want to travel...i suggest going to Oenika's blog and exploring and then deciding which part of the world you want to go.  This lady has been everywhere and after visiting her blog definitely leaves  you the traveling bug! I came across her blog a while ago and realized we went to middle school together and knew some of the same people.  The world is small.  But in her experiences as a traveler, Oneika's makes the world big for all of...i hope you enjoy her post.  I wish for Baby Pancakes, a love of travel.

Thank you Oneika, take it away!!

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I'm a Canadian who calls London her home, 

and has previously lived in France, Mexico, and Hong Kong.  

I've been to over 50 countries and have had a variety of experiences abroad 

including going trekking in Nepal, sailing in Croatia, and going on safari in Tanzania. 

How the heck did that happen?

Well, I’ve always had a passion for travel.  The thought of jetting off to a faraway land, with its foreign language, culture, and sometimes bizarre customs, has always excited me. 

Crazy foreign films get an A+ in my book, and I drool over foreign accents 

and get giddy when it’s time to go to the airport.

So, it came as no surprise that when the opportunity 

came up to study abroad in France for a year during university I leapt at the chance. 

After all, pourquoi pas? I was 21 years old when

 I stepped off the plane in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport, wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, 

and it was my first time outside of North America.

I learned a lot about life (and about myself!) after amazing year travelling around Europe,

 indulging in French food, learning more about French culture, 

and dabbling (just a little bit!) in French men (mais oui!).

 I realized that I was hooked on this travel thing!  

And thus began my intense love affair with travel. 

 I schemed and plotted and found a way to return for a second year in France.  

This time around, I worked as an English teaching assistant in a high school.

  It was then that I realized that teaching abroad 

was a GREAT way to see the world whilst getting paid. 

So I went back home to Canada and got my teaching credential,

 which certified me to teach English and French at the high school level. 

And so off I went.

I never looked back.  I decided I wanted to learn Spanish, 

so I searched for work in a Latin American country 

and ended up getting a job offer at a school in Mexico. 

After a year-long contract teaching there, I moved home to Canada, 

thinking it was time to "settle down".  

But once I was home for a little while, I started getting bored!

 I realised I was dying to experience life in Asia, 

so I moved to Hong Kong, where I taught for two years.  

I ended up falling in love with a lovely German man working in Hong Kong,

 and subsequently moved to where I live today, London, to be with him after his job transferred him there.  I've been in London about a year now, and travel maniacally during all of my school breaks and holidays.  London is a great hub for travel within Europe and beyond!

Travelling and living abroad has it drawbacks, but in general I’ve found it to be incredible.  

I think travel is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, and I blog about my travel adventures to encourage others to get out there and see the world (check me out at www.oneika-the-traveller.com!).  Seeing how other people live, bearing witness to jaw-dropping sights in person, living and breathing in all the culture and history a foreign land brings is simply amazing to me!

 Oneika Raymond

http://oneika-the-traveller.com