We are Rachel and Al. In July 2021, we both retired from jobs we loved to begin the next great adventure in our lives. We hatched the plan as an interesting idea to talk about, far in the future: someday we want to live in a different country each year, for a full year, for ten years. Now the future is here! Our kids are grown and scattered, our health is still good. We seized the opportunity presented by an early retirement offer to fast-forward the time frame, sold nearly everything we owned, and here we are, exploring the world, one country at a time. COVID has surely complicated things, but, like everyone else, we have learned that things can change in an instant, and we just need to adapt. If you’re interested in following along with our adventure, sign up below! If you want to learn more about us, click on About. If you want to learn more about the plan and how we launched it, click on the links to other articles we’ve written. And if you want to catch up on where we’ve been and what we’ve seen and learned along the way, check out our Blog and Photo galleries (above).

Latest Post

Calafell Farewell*

The parakeets have disappeared. We thought they were permanent residents of the palm trees here, but it turns out they only stay for the winter—just like us. We noticed their absence a few weeks ago. It seemed to be around the same time that the last remnants of palm-date bunches had finally fallen to the…

10 Things I’ve Learned About Spain (Since Being Here)

What is it like to live in Spain? The longer we are here, the more we realize that it takes more time than ten months to answer that question. When we started this adventure, ten months in a place seemed like an incredible luxury and plenty of time to get a sense of a place.…

Friends, Food, and Sobremesa

When we ate our first paella in Spain, we had no idea that it is much more than a well-known rice dish. It’s a long process, a way of joining culinary and cultural traditions, and only tourists and fools attempt to rush it. Back in November, we traveled along the Costa Brava with one of…