Blogs from Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, North America

This will probably be my last entry for the blog (is anyone even checking this anymore?!) and I'm writing from my new office! Classes have officially started. I've met my professors. I've started reading. I've learned my vocabulary is insanely small and I combine words to make up new ones (which the one time came out as a real word with a waaaay different meaning than the made up word I was trying to say). My other best friend, Shaun, is back in town so I'm happy about that (not that I'll see him a whole lot, but it's gotta be more than twice a year, right?!). I've questioned about 100 times if this is really what I want to be doing, and keep telling myself I'm here for a reason, but I'm in all honesty ... read more

Family Road Trip to Texas and points south Day 1 - We had some unexpected delays with our car and van so we didn't leave Hampstead, MD until about 10:30 a.m. this morning. Weather was sunny and clear and very hot and humid. We made our way through Westminster, Frederick and onto Route 81. Although the traffic was somewhat heavy for a Friday morning and midday, we made good time. Our main goal today was to break up the ride from Hampstead to Nashville, where we have friends we are going to visit. We made it 500 miles to Knoxville by 8 p.m. tonight. Thankfully we only have less than 2 hours tomorrow to Nashville! After a very long wait to check in, we settled in and then made our way to a Chinese buffet....not so ... read more

A year ago almost to the day we Couch Surfed with Matt and Rachel in Azerbaijan. At the time they were both Peace Corps volunteers but now they have returned to the USA and are living in Knoxville, Tennessee. As we were just a couple of hours drive away over the Smoky Mountains, it would have been rude not to call in and say hello. According to our guide book, Knoxville is the erstwhile underwear capital of the world. When I told Matt, who had grown up here, it was news to him! It's supposedly to do with textile factories but maybe we'll never know!! Anyway, these days it is the location of the University of Tennessee and everything associated with it is delightfully orange. Okay, maybe not delightfully, but tact is called for here!!! Their ... read more

We are a group of 5 women travelling to Morocco to volunteer for 2 weeks. Here is a little bit about each one of us.... Cheryl Garin is an IT project manager whose love for travel has taken her to destinations as far-flung as Antarctica and Iceland. “My passion for travel was cultivated by my parents. A good deal of my childhood was spent in the back seat of a car on family road trips all over the United States. Back then international travel was not common unless it was business related. But through those experiences I developed an insatiable curiosity for other places and cultures.” Cheryl volunteers for Friends of Literacy in Knoxville, Tennessee tutoring English as a second language and reading skills. Her desire to help others and her appetite for roaming fit the ... read more