Bishop Castle

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There aren’t many castles in the United States, but there is at least one in Colorado. The Bishop Castle has been under construction for quite a few decades and is the fruit of labor from one man. Jim Bishop bought the property and ultimately ended up building a castle upon it. He was challenged multiple times by authorities over rights of the building materials and zoning requirements, but the castle still stands strong.

A couple friends and I drove down from Wyoming to central Colorado where the castle is located at and checked it out.

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Semester Abroad in Germany

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While I was at the University of Wyoming, I toyed with the idea of doing a semester abroad. I had just recently come back from South America and my Spanish was okay, but I was interested in improving it further. I looked into doing a semester abroad in Central or South America as well as Spain, but I quickly realized that I would not be able to afford a semester abroad. Not only would it mean that I wouldn’t be working, but I would have to pay for additional costs like an apartment, the flight, food, and any other fees. Since I barely had enough money to go to University as is, I dismissed the idea.

At some point, I got an email that was sent out to all the students in the College of Business (CoB). The email explained that the CoB and Hochschule Pforzheim had an exchange set up and that the CoB was sponsoring students to go there. One just had to apply, and if you were selected, then your flight would be paid for as well as lodging, plus a little bit of spending money. I applied, and as luck would have it, I was accepted along with 3 other students.

My job would let me resume working once I returned, and my landlord in Laramie was fine with me not paying for the half-a-year I would be gone, so I got to keep all my stuff stored in my room in my absence. It all worked out quite well.

The time came for me to leave, and I flew to Frankfurt.

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South America Expenditures

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As I have been recently posting, after living in Chicago for a year, I decided to go to South America. While living in Chicago, I was studying, so I only had enough time to work part-time. In that time, though, I still managed to go to a couple conventions, I went to Canada, and I managed to save up enough for my South-America trip. Continue reading →

South America: Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia

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I was running out of time in my 3-month journey in South America, and there was still so much I wanted to see: notably Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and then I somehow had to get to Bogota, Colombia, since that’s where my flight back home left from.

I got to the outskirts of Santiago de Chile where I started hitchhiking towards the pass that would take me to Argentina. Somebody picked me up and then took me as far as the Casa de Aduana (border control) on the Chilean side of the border.

I went inside, as is standard procedure, to get my passport checked before continuing on, but we were notified that the pass was being shut down due to a blizzard that was setting in.

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South America: Peru (Part 2)

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After I left Trujillo on the bus, I arrived in Huaraz, which is one of my favorite cities in Peru, if not my favorite. Tucked up in the mountains with lots of nature in the surrounding area, it reminded me of my hometown, Jackson, WY.


The air was crisp and clear with a nice chill that made sure you stayed awake. I was in Huaraz for a couple days, but my main goal was to go hiking in the mountains. Continue reading →

South America: Peru (Part 1)

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While I was living in Chicago, I had been studying online through colleges in Wyoming since the tuition was cheaper than studying in Chicago. As I progressed toward my degree, the possible classes that I could take online became fewer and fewer, and eventually, I had to take classes in person which meant that I had to move to Laramie, WY, to continue going to class.

In between the spring semester of 2011, which I took online while living in Chicago, and the fall semester (when I would have to be in Wyoming) I had a summer off. I had decided that I wanted to travel while simultaneously improving my terrible Spanish skills and it worked out that I would go to South America.

I didn’t plan everything out and instead opted to just go there without any plans and see where the wind blew me. As such, I purchased a flight into Lima, Peru, and I purchased a flight out of Bogota, Columbia, about 3 months afterwards. What happened between the 2 events would be up to destiny to decide.

I drove back home from Chicago and visited my family before going to the airport and flying to Lima.

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Ireland

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A few years ago, I went to Ireland for work. We had a partner who was going to start selling our product, and I had to show their sales and support team how it all worked.
Our partner was located in Carlow, which is a smaller town in Ireland. I flew into Dublin and had a day there before I took the train to Carlow.

One of the first things I noticed in Dublin was the very helpful reminders on all street crossings for those who drive on the right side of the road. Continue reading →

Spring Break in Canada

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While I was still living in Chicago, I wanted to legally drink alcohol while I was still younger than 21 since that’s the legal age in the USA. You always hear about people going to another country and drinking before they were “legal,” and I wanted to do it as well. The obvious choice was Canada since it was so close.

I was 20 and had some time off for spring break so I drove my car from Chicago to Toronto, Canada, which was only about 8 hours.

On the way there, I had to go through border control, and I actually had some issues. The first was that I had not previously booked a hotel or hostel or anything since I wanted to just wing it. They found that incredibly suspicious. I suppose with my lack of specific destination other than “Toronto” and with the way my car looked:

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