Dream it. Wish it. Do it.

I have been fairly abysmal in updating my blog over the last year, but truth be told I have been too busy enjoying life. Not a bad excuse really, now is it?!

I sat down last night, having just sold my beautiful car, and thought about the future, and what lay ahead. You see, I have recently quit my job, sold my car, booked flights to Bali and Malaysia and accepted a job in South Korea starting in July.

I wasn’t happy about where I was and the direction my life was going, so I decided to change it. I dreamed about travelling more, about teaching, about working with children again…I wished I could leave the office job behind and head off on another adventure. Then I did it. I actually did it.

Some may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one….

All of these big decisions and dreams for the future got me thinking about the year gone by and I realized that the last 10 months have been the busiest in my life thus far. Simply jam packed with work, with study, with travel and with spending quality time with friends and loved ones, 10 months seem to have flown by in the blink of an eye.

Working full time while writing a masters thesis, and keeping up my reputation (and love) of being a party girl while continuing to work towards my goal of visiting 50 countries before I’m 30 made for ONE BUSY YEAR!!

So, what kept me so busy you ask??

Well here is a recap, in numbers, of 10 months in the life of Janet - 

Jobs : 2

1. Manager of Language in Group Summer School
2. PR and Media Coordinator for The Hope Foundation

Being PR coordinator lead to me being photographed in lots of newspapers!

Continents traveled : 3,  Countries visited: 5

1. Europe (Ireland, England, Netherlands and the Canary Islands -Spain)
2. Asia (India)
3. Africa (Kenya)

Some of the Turkana that I met while doing research in Kenya

Road Trips within Ireland: 6

1. Two great trips to Baltimore, West Cork
2. Girly weekend in Galway
3. Adventure weekend in Kerry
4. Adventure weekend in Meath
5. Two weekends of partying in Dublin

Adventure weekend in Kerry – amazing fun!

Masters Thesis Completed : 1

1. Title: The impact that water and sanitation hygiene projects in schools can have on the comprehensive security of a community. A case study of the Turkana region of Northern Kenya.

The day I submitted my Masters Thesis.

Masters Degrees completed: 1

1. Master of Science in Humanitarian Action. (Sadly I will miss my graduation, but I have been awarded a 2.1)

Amazing Friends made : Countless!!

Great times, with great friends!

Thank you to everyone who made the last year so special.

You will always be apart of my life.

Feel free to come visit me, wherever it is that I end up, and don’t be afraid to LIVE YOUR DREAMS. Xx

The Cliffs of Moher

When the sun is shining and the grass is green…there is no place I would rather be than Ireland!

The Kindness of Strangers

I was talking to some friends last night about solo travel and the enormous benefits bestowed on people who are brave or adventurous enough to set off on their travels alone. I thought I could use my blog to share some positive experiences I have encountered with total strangers but mainly I wanted to use this post to hear your stories!

Have you ever experienced the kindness of strangers while on your travels??

Be it someone who helped fix your puncture in the Australian Outback or a young kid who helped you find your hotel through the winding streets of Venice??

On my way to Australia last November I had a great experience where I befriended a stranger on the plane from Cork, who turned out to be an extremely well off but more importantly very inspirational business man who employed over 800 people in a Tech company in China. He taught me many a thing that I still keep with me today, and also treated me to a delicious meal while waiting for my nest flight. An experience that can be read about here.

Almost a year later and as my trip to South Korea began, I found another stranger putting a smile on my face. After a short flight from Cork to London Heathrow, I had another dreaded 5 hour stopover. As all the restaurants were super busy I was asked to share a table with a few other travellers. No problem. I got talking to the guy opposite me, mainly because the cocktail he was drinking looked interesting so I decided to order the same(!), and he turned out to be a very good-looking and interesting Irish guy (if you are reading this…HELLO!).

We had a great conversation about work, travel and life, as he asked me why I had decided to jet off to Korea for a year. We chatted for a while and then he bid me farewell as he had to run to catch his flight. As he stood up to leave, he informed that he had been so intrigued listening to me talk and was so sad that he had to depart that he had paid for my meal and drink as a farewell gift. I was actually speechless but secretly delighted.

I’m sure we have all been that kind stranger too, at one stage or another. One memory I have, which while not entirely a ‘kind’ gesture, is certainly something that put a smile on the face of many strangers.

It was a day I will never forget…the day I got naked with a few thousand other brave souls in Dublin harbour as part of a Spencer Tunick Art Installation!

Standing knee-deep in the freezing, Irish sea or laying down on the hard, cold rocky pier back to back with naked strangers, as a ship sails in from England (no doubt full of puzzled passengers!) was a morning I’m not going to forget anytime soon! I can’t begin to imagine what was going through those passengers minds as they saw a few thousand naked Irish people welcoming them into Dublin Port at 5 o’clock in the morning! “Welcome to Ireland, the friendliest nation on Earth!”

Giving out FREE HUGS to bewildered students in a trendy shopping area in Seoul, South Korea was also a great way of spreading job to strangers! That, and the day I spent dressed as a clown and face painting kids for free in Dublin, Ireland.

Nothing can put a smile on your face like the kindness of strangers.

Please share your stories in the comments below! x

Would you like the BEST JOB in the world??

 

 

 

This is my friend Allan… being crazy. As usual. 

He is in the running to win his DREAM JOB. Actually it’s not just his dream job…but also the dream job of 45,000 other people who applied for the same job of Outback Adventurer in the Australian Outback. Luckily for Allan, he beat off the other 44,975 other applicants, and is in the FINAL 25!

Lucky git.

So, why am I bothering all of you?? Well, you can help him to WIN! He is SO close and he needs YOUR help to get a little bit closer to landing THE WORLDS BEST JOB. I hear you, I hear you. “But I live in South Africa, I can’t help him.”  Or “We’re all the way over in America and he’s in Ireland, we can’t be of any help.” FRET NOT! All you need to do, from the comfort of your own couch/desk/bed is to follow the instructions below…

 

 

To Tweet your friends, CLICK HERE!

Ten things you NEED to know about Ireland

In line with my Irish patriotism this week, and declaring war on anyone stupid enough to refer to St Patrick as ‘st patty’, I am dedicating this post to the little (but awesome) nation of Ireland. So here is a list of things you may have thought were Irish but aren’t and things you may not have thought were Irish but are!! Confused yet? You will be!

10. Saint Patrick was neither a Saint nor Irish!

Many people are completely oblivious to why Irish people all over the world celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Why do over 2 MILLION people show up to watch the parade in New york City,  why they go as far as dying the river GREEN in Chicago and why 100,000′s of people in Ireland hold a week-long festival  around this time every year. Well it is all in the name of Saint Patrick…despite that NOT being his real name and him not been born in Ireland. So now every year we get polluted drunk, dress up like leprechaun with lucky charms dangling for all and sundry to see, dancing around in circles praising some Welsh man who apparently rid Ireland of snakes. Crazy, right?!

9. Potatoes are NOT from Ireland

So turns out St Patrick is no more Irish than potatoes. Which, FYI, originally grew in Chile as far back as 500 BC and only arrived in Ireland as late as the 16th Century. Crazy..I KNOW! On the subject of potatoes, or spuds as we call them back home, people in Uganda have a special name they call mashed potatoes and I didn’t believe it until I visited for myself. In Uganda, if you want some mash with your dinner you must order some “Irish”.

8. U2 isn’t even Irish!

Well not all of them anyway. In fact not only is half the band NOT Irish but they hail from a land Ireland believes to be it’s enemy…they hail from…ENGLAND!! Both The Edge and Adam Clayton were born in London and Oxfordshire to Welsh and English parents respectively. Only Bono and Larry Mullen are Irish true and true!

7. There is a place in Ireland called MUFF.

And as ridiculous as it is for a Journalist to start a sentence with “and”, it is also ridiculous that there is, you guessed it, a diving centre located in this lovely little town in North Donegal, the ever popular ‘Muff Diving Centre’. There is also a “Muff Hair Dresser”, should you feel the need for a trim. You could always take a trip town to the quaint little town of Nobber in Co. Meath or Sally’s Gap in Co. Kerry if you get bored.

6. It is illegal to drink on the streets in Ireland!

Everyone imagines Irish people stumbling around the streets of Dublin, pint in hand singing to our hearts content. The reality is a little sobering. Drinking on the street or anywhere outside of a licensed premise is in fact illegal in Ireland. Pubs/ bars / clubs etc are all  closed by 2.30am, what could be one of the earliest closing times out of all cities in Europe! Ok it may be one of the most ignored rules in the history of any legal system and if it were to be enforced half the population would be thrown in cells each weekend, would it is technically illegal!

5. Everyone wants to be Irish!

This isn’t some light-hearted joke, “har har har sure everybody wants to be Irish on St Patrick’s day!”. No! This is a fact. How is it that while the population of Ireland, which is a tiny Island really, is only 5 million (and decreasing every day) yet over 80 MILLION people worldwide claim Irish ancestry and hold Irish passports or dual citizenship?! That is a WHOLE lot of people “claiming” to be Irish! Wannabes.

4. Guinness ISN’T that popular in Ireland!

Granted the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin is the most popular tourist attraction in Ireland and Guinness had been around now for OVER 250 years, but I’m sorry to say the drink itself is far from popular. Old men in small quiet pubs can be seeing drinking it day in day out. Some Younger guys and a sprinkle of girls perhaps but that’s about it. Yes Tourists love it, or at least claim to! But the fact remains that MORE GUINNESS is sold each year in NIGERIA than in all of Ireland! Now THAT is crazy!

3. Saint Valentine’s ashes are in Ireland

We may not have St. Patrick, but we do have Saint Valentine! The remains of St Valentine, the Patron Saint of Love and Lovers, are held in the Whitefriars Street Carmelite Church in Dublin. They were discovered in the early 1800s in Rome and some three decades later were given to a Dublin priest by Pope Gregory XVI. After nearly a century in storage, the relics were rediscovered about 50 years ago and are now housed in a shrine at the church, beneath a statue of the saint holding a crocus flower. I think few people are aware of this one!

2. No one’s as Irish as Barack Obama!

For this one you REALLY need to listen to this song on YouTube.

“O’Leary, O’Reilly, O’Hare and O’Hara There’s no one as Irish as Barack O’Bama. You don’t believe me, I hear you say But Barack’s as Irish, as was JFK. His granddaddy’s daddy came from Moneygall, A small Irish village, well-known to you all!”

On the topic of Irish-American relations, did you know that James Hoban, an Irishman, designed the White House and apparently Irish composer John Stafford Smith wrote the tune to “Star Spangled Banner” back in 1750! BAM!

1. Irish people struggle to speak Irish.

 Thanks to the decrease in the Irish language, when foreigners ask their Irish friends to speak Irish they will *most likely* shout random Irish words such as “Ciúnas! Bóthar! Cailín! Bainne!” and  nobody has a clue what they’re saying.  And all thank’s to a clever advertising genius in Calsberg.

“On the day of Judgement, while Christ judges all other nations, St Patrick will be the judge of the Irish.”

St Patricks Day….in Ireland!

Yes, Yes, I hear ya! An Irish person, living in Ireland, preaching about the awesomeness of St Patricks Day. How cliché!

But hold up a second, I have my reasons for being seriously over excited about St Paddys Day this year. On March 17th 2013, 9 short days from now, I will get to celebrate all thing Irish on my home stomping ground for the first time in FOUR YEARS!! That’s right, I have spent the last 3 years in a row abroad, and have celebrated Guinness, Leprechauns and ‘The Galway Girl’ in not 1, not 2, but 3 different continients.

 There is so much talk at the moment about emigration and how there is nothing left in Ireland for young graduates. It would seem while most of my generation have already emigrated, and many more are debating the move in the near future, I have strangely found myself back in Ireland, back in Cork, living at home and working locally. And dare I say…I’m loving it.

So while I look forward to St Patricks Day at home this year, 2013 – The year of The Gathering, I find myself reminscing about the last 3 Paddys Day spent abroad..spreading my love of all things Irish to the Ozzies, the Koreans and of the Dutch! The only thing that would make this year better would be if all my amazing friends that I made, loved and sadly had to leave whilst abroad could be here with me to join in the celebrations. Here’s to you….Slainte!

 

Paddys Day 2010 in Melbourne Australia with some awesome Couchsurfers!

Teaching ‘all things Irish’ to my students in South Korea. Paddys Day 2011.

My students in Korea enjoying St Patrickd Day decorations!

Cycling to the pub…only in Holland!!

Spending Paddys day with my classmates from Brazil ans Sweden in an Irish pub in Holland!

 

 

 

 

 

Money for Mud

I’m delighted to say that I shall be putting my travelling shoes on again in March, on a journey of a lifetime to Kolkata, India.

India will be country number 36 for me…a tiny bit closer to my goal of traveling to 50 countries before I’m 30.

However before I go, I am determined to raise €1,500 for The Hope Foundation, a charity which does amazing work in Kolkata with street and slum children, giving them a brighter future. HOPE has so far helped over 30,000 children through education alone, and I want to be part of their amazing story.

SHOCKING FACT: There are currently over 250,000 street children living in Kolkata, living on the streets with no shelter from the elements, no one to care care for them or to protect them. HOPE works tirelessly to help these children through education programmes, healthcare, skills training and their 8 protection homes for young boys and girls.

To raise money for HOPE, I have signed up for the ‘RUNAMUCK CHALLENGE 2013′ which considering by shocking levls of fitness, is sure to be quite the challenge! If you would like to donate to this very worthy cause, and like to see me get absolutley battered and bruised and covered in mud from head to toe..then PLEASE DONATE HERE!

I will post photos here of both this event and my experiences in India, so you will be able to see exactly where your money is going and all the good it is doing!

Thanks for your support!
Janet xxx aka Journalist On The Run

Sunsets – Warming up the Irish Winter

The Deck of Cards

Last weekend I had 3 friends visiting from Holland and brought them to colorful Cobh for the day. On of my favorite things about Cobh is the ‘Deck of Cards’, a row of beautifully painting houses stacked up on a hill overlooking the town below. With the stunning St Colman’s Cathedral perched on a hill behind them, the houses make for some pretty amazing photos.

What do you think , fancy living here?

..and her name was Katie Taylor!

Katie Taylor 

Check out this amazing video of the ‘Thai Tims’, kids from a school in Thailand, singing loud and proud about the legend that is Irish Olympic Gold medallist Katie Taylor.

Absolutely love these kids, such an inspiration for all.