Introduction

Okay, so I haven't found myself an active participant in the blog-o-sphere in nearly four years. I was a complete blogaholic during my year teaching English in Korea and throughout my travels in Southeast Asia. I felt that since my time in all these places could be considered a bit of a novelty, then they were certainly worthy of possessing their own individual blogs (Tiffany in Korea and Tiffany in Southeast Asia ). When I was planning my move to Dubai, UAE in October of 2006, I originally decided to hang up my blogging...um...shoes for good and settle into a normal and hopefully semi-boring and uninteresting to anyone else life and routine. However, I was coerced by my followers (all three of them) to continue recording my activities. Therefore, I created a new blog and was trying to prepare myself for another round.

Unfortunately, only a few weeks into my time in Dubai (and about five measly blog posts later, see: Tiffany in Dubai), I gave up on blogging. My schedule was entirely too hectic, and in all honesty, I just wasn't sold on the idea.

Of course, I continuously regretted giving up the Dubai blog, but in this new era of social networking, I found it much easier (albeit lazier and less creative) to simply throw up some photos and accompanying photo comments on Facebook and call it a photo blog, convinced that they could tell a story without my having to construct a single sentence.

Fast-forward to December 2008, and that's where this blog begins. Okay, I know I am leaving out a huge chunk of uncharted territory, so allow me to provide you with a "Cliff Notes" version of those two years: taught yoga for a year, was the only instructor for six months, worked my hiney off for little pay, got a full time job as a Training Manager in a Dubai-based company, worked my hiney off there for just over a year for okay pay and lots of headaches, traveled to Oman, Egypt, Morocco, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, South Africa, Lebanon, China, Qatar, maybe some other places but I can't remember them now, bought a car, moved around about three times, and finally settled into an awesome little apartment right on the beach in October 2008. Whew! So there you go, a whole two years' worth of blogging right there in one paragraph.

Realizing how self-destructive Facebook has become (read: how addicted I became and how I allowed it to take over my life), I have committed the unforgivable act and canceled my account. This finally gives me the time I need to focus my Internet usage on such important sites as Sporcle and People.com, and of course, my newest blog.

So why do I start blogging now? And why I am bothering with a retrospective blog that begins in 2008 when it's already 2010? As some of you know, something happened to me back then that deserves its own blog. The fact is, I've been wanting to write about this for a long time, mainly for myself, but I've not been in the right mindset until now. I do realize that my memory is not the best, and some details may be sketchy, but fortunately I can pull from some of the many detailed group emails I sent to connect the last sixteen months (and feel free to comment with your memories to help me along!).

I also apologize if my writing skills are a bit rusty, as it has been ages since I have allowed my creative juices any leeway to flow...I can assure you that the thesaurus will be my new best friend.

I hope you enjoy this blog, and I do hope it is not confusing, as I will attempt to start this blog from the beginning, in December 2008.  Based on my memories, emails, etc, I'll work my way up to the present tense, until I have a complete literal timeline.  All posts from the past will be dated with the date on which they occurred, not when they were written.  This should explain why I have dated this very first Introduction post as December 10, 2008, even though I wrote it on May 11, 2010. 

I'll also simultaneously add present-day updates, for those of you who know the whole story and wonder what's going on right now.   These posts will be dated on the day which they were written.

I hope this makes sense, and I'll do my best to fill in the gaps as quickly as possible!

Next Post: A look back at a balmy night in December 2008, when a Tale of Two Legs truly begins!