Michelle Vogel
I’m originally from Atlanta, GA, USA, but I currently teach fifth-grade English at a private school just outside of Bangkok. Before this, I studied Psychology at the University of Georgia in the small but wonderful college town of Athens, GA. The college town experiment proved successful; I involved myself in an assortment of activities including, but not limited to, making friends out of eight capuchin monkeys, starting a reusable grocery bag campaign, and singing in the African American Choral Ensemble.
Some time during my second year, I contracted the travel bug. Off I went, to live as an exchange student in Sydney, Australia for five months – five mind-blowing, world-rocking months! – after which I returned to the monkeys and the singing and the conveniences of American life, knowing all along that there were many more adventures to be had! Here I am, on my own, living, learning, and blogging in Thailand.
You can work pretty much where you want to – on the road, do you find it hard to work or do you just have fun and work when you come back home?
I guess as an English teacher I can still "work anywhere I want to" but the difference is that I'm not on the road; I settle down into my "anywhere" and it quickly becomes another version of "home".
Do you feel many people are envious of your lifestyle?
That being said, I'm not particularly envious of real travel bloggers' lifestyles simply because of the impermanence of it all. I would rather have a home base from which to travel for a little while; I would rather stick around and get to know a neighborhood and its people than jetset around, only getting to see a city for a weekend.
In which countries have people recognised you, even when you thought nobody would?
Which three items would you never travel without?
Are there any specific souvenirs or other things you collect from the places you go to?
I brought 9 boxes of Tim Tams back from Sydney with me. Souvenir-ing is a hedonistic activity - I tend to just indulge!