"Fernweh."

The crave for travel.  

The homesickness you feel for places you've never gone.  

And the perfect word to describe what makes us--Allison and I--want to go abroad this summer.

But before I go into our travel plans & how we arrived at them, I'll introduce you to your bloggers.

First up, Miss Allison Schoon:

@schoonaloona

 Allison, a recent Psych grad from the University of Marlyand, Baltimore, is now working as an intern for The Maryland Coalition to fight against human trafficking.  While not advocating human rights, she's either nannying and/or listening to awesome music.  She's also a singer, a traveler, and quite the fashionista.

And then there's me, Kelsey Marx:

@kelsellen

I'm a senior English major at Mississippi State University planning on graduating this May!  Ah!  I'm currently working part-time at MSU Outdoor Adventures as a Climbing Wall supervisor and a trip guide.  When not schooling or working I enjoy romping through the great outdoors, jamming out to good tunes, and doing yoga.  And I'm a Sagittarius, just in case you were wondering.

So maybe now you're wondering how we met, what with Allison being from Baltimore and yours truly from the Dirty South.  Well, I'll tell you.  In the summer of 2009, Allison and I were part of a mission group that traveled to New Delhi, India, for two months to work in orphanages and leper colonies.  Since then we have seen each other a couple of times a year, usually hanging out in D.C.

Some of team India hanging out in the Amsterdam airport.

First dinner outing in New Delhi.  Mango juice?  Yes please.

Civnan, Allison, and me standing under a waterfall in the Himalayas.

So now that you're all caught up, I'd like to tell you what's next.  

On August 15th of this year, Al-Pal and I will be heading to Europe for a near 40 day backpacking trip, hitting some of the most famous cities in the world: London, Paris, Rome, among others.  This blog will be our comprehensive means of communicating our adventures to you, especially while abroad, be it about our plans, experiences, and/or post-trip sentiments.

So please check back often.  

And leave comments, 

advice, 

prayers, 

love, 

or whatever.  

We'll be missing you all, I'm sure.

  

Thanks in advance,

Kelsey