Trip Preparation

I've never written a blog before so I'm just gonna start writing and hopefully before too long I will get the hang of it.  My name is Colin Iwanski and in the fall of 2010 I received a $9,000 scholarship from UNC Chapel Hill (where I also graduated this past spring, woot woot!).  With this money I am going to go on a 3-4 month adventure around the world.  My official purpose for this journey is to investigate the treatment of the mentally ill around the world.  However, my reasons for wanting to go on this trip are not so academic.  I am and always have been fascinated by people.  I am hoping to meet new people all over the planet and learn anything I can.  My traveling companion and soul mate Ross Ramsey received the same scholarship and is going to be travelling to Europe with me.  We are leaving August 1st to travel to Dublin, Ireland.  We plan on staying in Ireland for about a week, also visiting County Cork and hopefully Rosscarberry where my mom's family is originally from.  After Ireland, we set out for London, where we will stay for a few days, hopefully meeting up with some friends in the area.  After London, we are going to travel to Amsterdam for some...umm...flowers?  We are going to remain in Amsterdam for at least a week, and then travel to Belgium to visit Bruges and Brussels.  From Belgium we plan on traveling to Munich to visit the fatherland for my German companion Rossicle.  After we rid ourselves of Germany, we are off to Paris, France to end our European tour.  Once we conclude our stay in Europe, Ross will head off to New Zealand and I will fly to India.  I plan on traveling to India for over a month.  After India, I will be headed to the mountains of Nepal.  From Nepal I will travel to Tibet and then to China.  I will be spending about a month in China, Nepal , and Tibet.  After China, I will probably be heading home to North Carolina. In this time, I will have traveled entirely around the planet!  I am so excited for this trip as I have traveled very little in my life time.  I hope you enjoy reading about my travels, but if you don't, this is mostly for me anyways.  Talk to you soon!