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My Gap Year Has Been The Worst Decision I Ever Made
Yeah, you read that correctly. Last June, Maggie and I decided to take a gap year abroad and move to Ireland. It sounded like the perfect idea. I was just finishing my Master’s and we both had zero clues what we wanted to do in life. Why not whisk away to an exciting country to forget all of our problems? WRONG! This gap year has been the worst decision I’ve ever made and here’s why. Now as you may remember, my fellow Coddiwompler wrote an article back in August 2016 that told you why taking a gap year would be the best decision you ever make. Don’t remember it? Go…
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I Ended My Engagement to See the World
I’m usually pretty good at starting articles. I like writing introductions. I think they’re fun. But full disclosure: I have no idea how to start this one. So here it is: the story of why I broke off my engagement to see the world. Let me start with some disclaimers. Yes, my ex knows that I’m writing this article. And no, I’m not going to bash him or talk shit about him – if that’s why you’re here, you can go ahead and ctrl+w out of here. Ok. So let’s back up to a time in May, when I moved to Ireland at the beginning of the month. Immediately, I…
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Comeback Kids: The Coddiwomplers are back!
We did the one thing we always told ourselves we wouldn’t do: we stopped writing. You may or may not have noticed that we disappeared (we understand if you didn’t – you’re busy too) but disappear we did and trust us, we didn’t like it. Where did you go? When will you start writing again? Are The Coddiwomplers dead? These are the questions that we have been receiving since our last post back in February. While we love writing as The Coddiwomplers and sharing travel tips, a whole lot of life kept hitting us that stopped us from writing. Probably the biggest or most obvious reason is that we were…
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Why Your Study Abroad Friendships Are the Strongest
As difficult as it is to believe, I just reached the four-year anniversary of hopping on a plane to Salzburg, Austria. I had never been out of the country and had never even flown by myself. As you might imagine, I was absolutely terrified. And when I’m terrified, I kind of quit functioning. Most of my social skills see themselves out the door and I turn into this sarcastic bitch-faced lone wolf. I realized that I had morphed into said lone wolf on about day 2. I was homesick, lonely, and wanted desperately to tuck my tail between my legs and fly home. Friends for a lifetime But then something…
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Amazing Travel Shoes to Help You Dominate the World
One of Maggie and I’s biggest debacle is what shoes we are going to pack for the big move. You want to make sure you have shoes that could handle every possible scenario but also don’t want to pack too many. When traveling, you need reliable shoes you can depend on to support your arches. It would be terrible to waste a day exploring because your feet are wrecked! Here are some amazing travel shoes to help you dominate the world! ***This article contains affiliate links, and we will be compensated for any purchase made by clicking on them. Thank you for supporting The Coddiwomplers!* Sperry’s Sperry’s are amazing and…
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10 Books That Will Make You Want to See the World
Both of us here at The Coddiwomplers are huge bookworms. We met in college and have shared many books about travel and life with each other. I personally (Maggie) feel as though my purse isn’t completely packed if my Kindle isn’t inside. Plane and car rides would drag if I didn’t have a good book to distract me. ***This article contains affiliate links, and we will be compensated for any purchase made by clicking on them. Thank you for supporting The Coddiwomplers!* The books we’ve got for you today aren’t just your garden-variety trashy romance novels. These are books that are going to light a fire under you and make…
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What You Need to Know When Looking for Jobs Abroad
You have decided to move abroad. That’s awesome! What a great decision. Butttt you know you are going to have to get a job, and if you’re looking for a good one, you are going to have to start searching before you leave. That can be tricky finding a job across the pond. There is the time difference, different phone numbers, and no good way to tell if the position is legitimate. However, it is doable! So here is what you need to know when looking for jobs abroad! Right Visa Before you can go start working in any other country, you need to make sure you have the correct…
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How To Not Blow Your Savings On Plane Tickets
As travelers, we spend a lot of the time in the air. But before you can get to the airplane food, getting creative with how to keep your feet from falling asleep, and hours spent on plastic airport seats, you’ve got to buy your ticket. And it’s no secret that plane tickets are one of the most expensive parts of traveling. To help cut down on this big chunk of money, here is some of our very best advice about how to find the top-notch deals on plane tickets. via GIPHY Clear your cookies and browsing history Full disclosure: I’m not a computer geek nor am I very internet-savvy. But…
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Why Traveling Should Be a Part of Your New Year’s Resolutions
That time has come again to make our new year’s resolutions. A new year, a new you and you have a list of things you want to accomplish. More than likely you have getting healthy, spending less, etc. But did you add traveling to your resolutions? Traveling is one of the best ways to grow and discover more about yourself so why not make that a top priority? Here is why I think you should make traveling a part of your new year’s resolutions. Travel on a budget Unless you are some kind of millionaire, when you choose to travel you are doing so on a budget. You save up…
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Is Travel Insurance Really That Big of a Deal?
“Add travel insurance to this purchase?” “No.” Sound familiar? Probably. Most of the time when we book a flight, hotel, rental car, etc. there is a little pop-up message just before confirming your payment. Would you like to purchase travel insurance? And I would put money on it that 99% of us say, “No, ma’am!” I always thought that travel insurance was a big waste of money and was a scam. Why else would anyone be offering me something? Clearly, they’re out for blood. But actually…travel insurance is not the giant scam that we all think it is. Turns out it’s actually a pretty great thing. I know, I know.…
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The Purge Pt. 2
Yes, it is time again to go through all of my stuff and figure out what has to go, with part 2 being the hardest. The holidays are usually the best time of the year but this year it makes getting rid of things even harder when you’re constantly getting more and more gifts. Although I am of course grateful, getting more stuff only makes it harder to let go when the time comes. So here is how I was able to purge more of my things and get closer to moving abroad. If you have not read the purge pt. 1, look over it now before continuing! As mentioned…
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How to Use Your Phone When Traveling Internationally
Anybody who travels internationally knows how confusing it can be when it comes to using your phone in foreign countries. Search online and you’ll find so many articles that mention pre-paid calling cards or satellite phones but those are neither realistic nor needed in today’s technological world. So if you’re not dropping hundreds of dollars on pre-paid calling cards and satellite phones…what exactly are you supposed to do? Worry not, we’ve rounded up our favorite ways to use your phone internationally. Viber (Available on iOS and Android) As you may have expected, there are lots of apps for calling and texting over Wi-Fi. Some popular ones include WhatsApp and Viber…
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The Best Kick-Ass Backpacks for Your Travels
Confession: I always thought that a wheeled suitcase was just as good as a backpack. Actually, I probably would have told you that I preferred it. I loved being able to wheel all my crap through the airport. ***This article contains affiliate links, and we will be compensated for any purchase made by clicking on them. Thank you for supporting The Coddiwomplers and our adventures!* A wheeled horror story Until that one time when my wheeled bag was too big for international carry-on standards. I was flying with RyanAir, a budget European airline, and my bag was too big by – seriously – one inch. The crabby gate agent…
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How to Handle Your Last Holiday at Home
We are already in the swing of things for this holiday season. With Thanksgiving having just happened, you need only to blink before Christmas and New Years are here. But what if this is your last holiday season stateside? This is the last time you will be surrounded by this much family for a while. For me, Thanksgiving was my last holiday because I am not going home for Christmas or New Years. We tend to complain that time with family is not a vacation but rather more work but if this is the last one with them for a while, what would you do differently? Here are some things…
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The Best Travel Apps to Help You on Your Journey
Friends, in case you haven’t noticed, we are living in an era of technology. I personally rely heavily on my phone when I am traveling – it helps me navigate, entertains me on long flights and train rides, and keeps me connected to family and friends when I am away from home. And I do almost all of this with apps. Apps for pre-trip Hopper (iOS and Android ). Hopper is a nifty little app that will alert you when the flights you’ve been craving are at their lowest. You enter your flight details as you would on any flight booking app (departing airport, arriving airport, date, time, etc.) and…
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Products Every Traveler Needs to Look For on Black Friday
When you’re an avid traveler, there are certain things you can’t be without. And let’s be real, if you’re going to be traveling with this stuff, you’re probably going to be pretty hard on it. You never know when something will get tossed into the underbelly of a plane, stepped on in a hostel dorm room, or run over by a raging taxi. Because we need our gear to be such great quality, it usually ends up costing an arm and a leg. And any traveler knows that money spent on gear = less money to be spent on traveling itself. Worry not, friends! Black Friday is upon us and…
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Travel Quotes That Will Make You Want to Quit Your Job
Every traveler has a collection of their favorite quotes somewhere. Some of these quotes describe our relationship with travel, some of them describe our relationship with people who do or don’t understand our traveling lifestyles, and some of them are the inspiration to take a leap of faith. Regardless, I can bet that if you ask a traveler what their favorite travel quote is, they’ll have one ready. The two of us sat down and thought about our favorite travel quotes and have compiled them here for you! “Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.” – Anita Desai “The two most important days of your life is the day…
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Your Burning Questions About The Coddiwomplers, Answered
Since we dropped the bomb that we’re moving to Ireland in May, we seem to be encountering the same questions over and over again. We understand that this decision probably seems like it came out of left field so we thought we’d compile our FAQs to help you get inside our brains. Without further ado… Why are you doing this? Why not? No, but seriously. Why not? That’s pretty much our reasoning. Both of us want to see the world and what better time than now? We figure there’s no time like the present to explore this big beautiful world. What about your careers? Your wedding, Maggie? Your grad school,…
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Volunteering Abroad: What You Need to Know
Volunteering abroad is a great way to see hidden gems around the world. I often feel as though there is an abundance of information when it comes to mission trips and other religious-centered travel programs and there is an abundance of information pertaining to pleasure travel but there’s not much out there for the average Jane who wants to leave a place a little bit better than the way she found it. I got hooked on volunteering while traveling in college when I was a member of a service team. Every year we took a trip somewhere and mixed pleasure travel with volunteering. And I LOVED it! It was such…
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Travel Company or Independent Research When Looking to Travel the World?
You always want to make the best out of your traveling experiences. You want to take as much in, do as much as possible, but also remain in the individual moment. This can be quite difficult to plan for and may take some outside help. So should you go through a travel company or just plan it yourself? Well here is what you need to know when considering a travel company or independent research when looking to travel the world. Companies So when I say companies, this ranges from travel agents or travel companies that will plan your adventures for you. You can find companies that will do as little…
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How to Stay Focused When You’re So Flippen Excited to Leave
I was so excited to write about this because this is something that I have the hardest time with. Staying focused and in the moment when you’re so flippen excited to leave. The second I make a grand decision, I’m ready to carry it out. Deciding to get a tattoo? Let’s go right now! Thinking about cutting my hair? Let’s pull out the scissors! While this can be an exciting quality because I want to live life to the fullest, it’s also a curse because I then want to drop all responsibilities and keep moving forward. Sadly, I don’t have that option this time because I have some pretty big…
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A Girl Has No Money: Saving Money for Travel [Part 1]
Raise your hand if you’re bad with money. You can’t see me but both of my hands are hiiiiigh in the air and I’m waving them like I just don’t care. Except I do care. Because I’m horrible with money. And I’m moving to Ireland in May and need to have a certain amount in my bank account. Do you see where this is going? I need to be saving money for travel. I’m not an expert I feel totally unqualified to be writing this post. I’m not kidding when I say I’m horrible with money. I get my paycheck and immediately turn around and spend it on new clothes,…
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5 Greatest Reasons Why Millennials Should Move to Ireland
Listen up, folks, I’ve got something important to say. Ireland is the mother freaking bees knees. I have visited Ireland twice in my 24 years of life for a combined 14 days and let me tell you that 14 days is all it takes to fall head over heels in love with the Emerald Isle. And oh man, can I give you the reasons why you will fall head over heels in love. It was such a stretch for me to narrow this list down to just five reasons why you should move to Ireland but I did it. Because I love you. And because I want you to stick…
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Taking a Gap Year is the Best Crazy Decision You Can Make
“So what are you doing when you graduate?” Ah, yes. The age-old question that every graduate, whether high school, college, or graduate school, has heard. This well-meaning query often comes from the mouths of an older person, possibly a grandparent, a friend of your parents, or *gasp* your parents themselves. Most people are expecting the traditional answers: “I’ll be starting at Kansas State in the fall,” “I’ve been accepted to a great graduate program in Michigan,” “I’ve been offered a position at Big Corporation in Chicago.” Most people expect the routine high school –> higher education –> career path. But what if you mixed it up? What the heck is…
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What to Expect When You’re Expecting…To Make Big Life Decisions
Life is comprised of many big life decisions. The decision to leave home. The decision to go to college. Buy your first car or maybe in my case, move out of the country. While these are exciting occasions to you, the people that are most important in your life might not be as enthused. And of course, no matter what you say to yourself, it is always hard knowing that not everyone can accept what you are doing. So here are a few things to expect when you’re expecting to make big life decisions. Telling Your Family via GIPHY So I have always been one to run any idea past my…
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Why I Decided to Travel the World Instead of Growing Up
Allow me to introduce myself. I am 24 years old, I hold a Master’s degree in Leadership, I have been with my fiance for nearly six years now, and I have a fur child named Dash. And despite the fact that all signs point to “settle the hell down,” I am choosing to see this wonderful, beautiful world. I am deviating from the classic American dream and choosing to move to Ireland and travel the world. Choosing to See the World Instead of Settling Down Given where I’m at in life, moving to Ireland is not the conventional choice. I know that. I have been told that. Many times. And…
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Why I’m Cashing in the American Dream for the Millennial Dream
Why do you want to do this? Why do you want to move to Ireland? Why would you want to move across the world with no promise of a job, no guaranteed housing, and no familial support? These are the questions I have been repeatedly asked from my family and loved ones that have known of my plans for a while now. Why? I am 23 years old and about to finish up my masters in May. I have been going to school since I was 6 and have been doing what is always seen as the next right step so why would I not want to continue on with…
