Well, there’s “right” as in successful, but personally, I wouldn’t feel morally “right” about it.

I’m just glad this wasn’t an American company welcoming passengers at JFK’s entry area.

On the way to the branch (aka stream) by the house on the road, near Rock Camp, West Virginia.

From infancy to the time I worked (and thus had few vacation days), I have visited West Virginia. I still try to visit at Christmas. My mom’s from there, and my grandmother still lives there “in the house by the road,” not to be confused with our pre-Civil War “house on the mountain,” which is–as to be expected–on top of a mountain.

Some of my fondest memories are riding on the tractor with my grandfather and picking green beans with my grandmother. My cousin Laurah and I had “cow sticks,” though what we thought we were going to do with them is a mystery! Whenever I had free time on the house on the road, I usually could be found by the branch (aka stream). I made a little swimming area by damming it up one summer. One year I even found a crawdad in the water.

I think this is why, as a person, I am so full of contradictions. I love the city, the things to do, the diverse people…But I dream about having a garden. I joke (but not really) about getting a goat, and I dream about having a beehive.

Wild, Wonderful West Virginia is in my blood.

During the Ireland/U.K. trip of ’08, my best friend Jessica and I took a Black Taxi tour through Belfast to hear about the Troubles, the strife between Catholics and Protestants that, sadly, continues.

This particular picture was taken in the Catholic neighborhood, where there are murals all along the wall by Falls Road. Some murals are meant as a show of solidarity with other troubled people around the world (Palestinians and Basques), while this one is a criticism of America’s Iraq policies.

With that said, I’d like to introduce my new blog feature, Off the Wall, where I will show some of my travel photos, whenever/wherever I might have taken them. Guessing is part of the fun–plus, a shameless ploy to get non-spam comments in my blog!

First up, Cà d’Zan Mansion in …

Cà d’Zan Mansion, as seen in the 1990s film version of “Great Expectations” was the home of John and Mable Ringling. “Cà d’zan” translates to “House of John” in Italian.” The house is beautifully ornate and overlooks the bay. I sit there all day with such a view.

For more information, visit Ringling.org.

However, I wanted to share this article. Apparently, a family’s Christmas card picture ended up as an advertisement in Prague. Even more interesting to me–because I love these small-world type stories–is the fact that she had a high school friend driving around in the Czech Republic who actually spotted the sign. (Personally, I think that owner needs to send that family a bottle of wine no matter where they live.)

Hmmm, maybe I need to start putting watermarks on my photos.

From the window of the Norman keep, visitors can see Cardiff Castle, a medieval building later updated in the neo-Gothic style.

In it, I discuss five cities you can’t miss in England and Wales: York, Stratford-upon-
Avon, Cambridge, London, England; and Cardiff, Wales.

It’s slightly bittersweet that it ran because with the shortage of people at work, it may be my last actual article to run for a while. (However, I will have some book reviews.) We’ll see–maybe I’ll snag some freelance work soon!

A co-worker designing the April 19 MyWeek, the travel and arts section of the newspaper, mentioned that it would have an article on Couch Surfing, and she thought it would be great if I could create a sidebar about my experiences.

I wrote something on the fly, unsure whether it would be used, because the editor had the weekend off and I was going on vacation the next day and would be unable to speak to him. I left him an e-mail but didn’t hear anything the following week.

Happily, though, they used my sidebar. It’s nothing fancy, but it does accurately convey my experiences with the Web site.

Update: If you use Google News to find an article on CouchSurfing, my article is the first one to come up (at least today). Score!

Update 01/05/11: The News-Journal takes down its articles after two weeks, so here is the original article. Sorry, Twitter followers! I know now to check my links!

I hesitated when my best friend Jessica, a recent college graduate, mentioned CouchSurfing.com as a way to cut expenses during our month-long trip to visit Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. It didn’t help when people in the newsroom thought I would be showing up on the news soon — and not in a good way.

I didn’t need to worry because the Web site is all about fostering community and mutual respect. In Dublin, Ireland, nearly 20 people turned out for a random pub meet-up.

In Cork, Jessica and I met up with two American backpackers and an Irish journalist — whose friend on the phone turned out to be someone we had met in Dublin — for what turned out to be a spirited conversation with locals in a pub.

CouchSurfing.com turned out to be a fantastic way of meeting people, getting recommendations for places and easing convenience, particularly in Stratford-upon-Avon, where the hostel was miles away from the city center. We brought our host coincidentally her favorite sweets from a local shop and slept on a comfy pull-out couch. (I also managed to get actor David Tennant’s autograph from my host’s suggestion.)

Surfing doesn’t even have to be done during a trip. I made friends with an Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University exchange student through the Web site. She turned out to live in the same apartment complex as me.

The important thing is not to be stupid about it. In meeting someone in York, England, we gave out the person’s name and phone number to the desk attendant “just in case.” Though the meeting started off OK with him picking us up from our farflung hostel, introducing us to people and conversing, he later became so drunk we had to walk back in the rain.

On the whole, however, couch surfing made our trip that much more memorable, and we now laugh about the cold walk we had in York.