Joe's Abroad Blog

A blog for abroad. An abroad blog. An a-blog. How about a really cool abroad blog? A bomb abroad blog. Or, in conversation: "That a-blog is the bomb."

As much fun as the blog naming is, I've got to take all of you people in to account, those who are actually reading this, laughing at how clever my tongue twister above was/didn't think I'd actually take your advice and start a blog, and quickly realizing that I have no idea how this abroad blog business works.

I've seen a few abroad blogs. Some are really cool, and some are totally smelly. So, what am I supposed to do? How do I write an abroad blog that is actually interesting and that you will enjoy reading?

A lot of people told me, pre-abroad, to write everything down and to share it with them. But let's be honest: do you really want to know everything I do every day? For example, "Today, I woke up. I forgot to buy cereal at the store last night, so I had to wait to eat breakfast until after I showered and grabbed a croissant from the store on the way to the bus stop." Probably not. Do you want to know all the names of the people I'm hanging out with. For example, "Today me and Jim saw Nancy and Kelly at the store. They were standing with John, which was so funny because John and Nancy don't even get along!" Probably not.

While this whole experience is amazing and certainly life changing, not every conversation is earth-shattering and not every trip to the grocery store is a milestone - like some abroad blogs will make you believe. I'll try to make this some sort of interesting read for you.

One last note: I want to dedicate this blog to everyone who gave me the following great advice before I left the US: "Joe, remember...This is the time." Riight.