Powered by Tofu

About

Hello, Ni hao (Mandarin), Konnichiwa (Japanese), G’Day (Australian), Kia Ora (Maori), Sawa dee-ka (Thai), Selamat (Malay), xin chào (Vietnamese), Suor sdei (Khmer), szia (Hungarian), Salut (Romanian), zdrasti (Buglarian), merhaba (Turkish), gia sou (Greek), Hola (Spanish), Salam lekum (Moroccan Arabic), olá (Portuguese), buenas (Costa Rica)!  I’m Olivia and thanks for stopping by my blog!

I’m a twenty-something (OK, closer to 30 now) Portlander (Oregon, not Maine) with an overwhelming amount of interests.  I originally created this blog as an outlet for all things food, apartment dwelling, Portland roaming, and MBA pursuing.  It then morphed into a way to keep track of my 101 Things in 1,001 Days Project list.  So when I decided to quit my job to spend a year traveling around the world, I thought it would be fun to just continue the journey here.

I grew up all over the Pacific Northwest, so I’m truly a Northwest girl.  No matter where I go, I’m always excited to come back home.  And I’ve been told that I rave about Oregon and all it’s wonders when I’m on the road.  ;)  While I’m kind of a travel junkie now, my first time out of the US (other than Canada, which doesn’t count for Northwesterners -ha! love you my Canadian friends) was in 2006 for a 3 week study abroad in Marseilles, France, during my MBA program.  I officially got the travel bug after that trip.  It wasn’t until a super last minute, budget trip to Hawaii in 2007 that I started contemplating the possibilities of taking a career break.  After several months of planning and thinking about it, I took a “trial” trip to Panama to make sure I really wanted to do it.  Duh!  The hardest part was just deciding to do it.  I started my round the world trip in Beijing, China in late February of 2008.  From there I traveled to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, back to Thailand and back through China to come home to Portland.  I spent two months in Portland (we have amazing summers), before heading to Eastern Europe.  From Budapest, Hungary, I travelled to Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Spain, Morocco, and then back to Spain before taking the slow boat (a transatlantic) back to the States (via Portugal & Bahamas).  After spending the holidays in Portland, I finished up my travels in Costa Rica and came back to Oregon to officially start my job search in March.  Great timing I know, look what happens when one extra worker leaves the work force.  I may have been the straw that broken the proverbial economic camel’s back.  ;)

I’m a strong believer in living consciously (purposefully, deliberately, or whatever it is the kids are calling it these days).  So I love making lists, which is what got me so interested in the 101 Things in 1,001 Days Project.  I love the idea that you’re working on specific, verbalized goals, and while after 2 1/2 years you may not care about 1/2 the things on the list, you’ll still have a lot of really cool things accomplished.

So what does Powered by Tofu mean? Well I’ve been a vegetarian all my life, so it’s always been a running joke that I’m “powered by tofu.”  We even made t-shirts in high school that said “powered by tofu” with a tofu block on them. Alas, I swear that PETA stole my line for their Powered by Tofu shirt.  Great minds think alike.  ;)  Anyway, while I still cook vegetarian, I consider myself a “pescatarian” now, since I eat fish – but only when I’m taking time out from eating tarantulas.

Stay tuned for more travel adventures, job hunting tales, and a look at my rehabilitation back into daily life. 

Thanks, Xie Xie, Domo Arigato, Thanks mate, Ta, Khop khun kha, Terima kasih, Kam ouen, Sourm orkun, Köszi, Multumesc, Merci, tesekkürler, efharistó, Gracias, Shukran, and Obrigado for dropping by!

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