So it's midnight and I have spent a leisurely and organized day preparing for my journey. Sort of.  By 9:00 p.m., I had packed ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. But with Paul's help, I was able to pack everything I will need for my five-week trip into one extremely heavy suitcase and a backpack.  Best of all, we only had to unpack and repack everyth...

Today was the day that me and Mary would be leaving Munich to go back to our good old home town of CHICAGO!!!! Yay, I'm so excited to be seeing all of my family and friends, I miss them so much!!! We went down to have some breakfast after making sure we didn't leave anything behind. We checked out of the hostel and took a cab to the airport, I d...

Today we leave.  Wish us luck and keep us in your prayers. love ismael and melanie

 I flew out of Phoenix Friday morning on U.S. Airways flight 1 and arrived in Chicago 12:45PM.  After catching the train into the city I arrived at our hotel, the Mariott Magnificent Mile, that was just a block off Michigan Ave.  This provided a good central location for the weekend (not to mention we got a steal of a rate wi...

Had a nice time sitting in all the Chicago Traffic!!  It took forever!!!

I have decided to move back home. I don't want to leave. My heart actually feels a bit broken from the decision I've made, but the truth is I'm never going to be a great fund-raiser. And because I've never been consistent I will always have to fight to keep afloat in an already competitive job. My decision was made based on the fact that I don't...

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OK - I'm still here in Chicago getting prepared for my big departure, but I really have no idea what to prepare for...so here's the first entry of many that I hope will eventually turn into a running profile of my trip. If for any reason you'd like to be removed from this update, not a problem...but I'd love to hear from you. And most importantl...

Welcome to my soon-to-be-enormous travel blog. We're on our way to Montreal! Not much to report so far, but we're hitting the road for Montreal tonight and tomorrow will yield not only stories but also a fictional entry from the future of my world travels. Please stay tuned.

Just visit http://360.yahoo.com/aphoenm to read about my adventures...I don't know if I really want this travel log...I just don't know how to delete it.