My name is Caity and I’m the travel lover and writer behind The Pamplemousse Papers.
I was twelve years old when I felt my first pangs of wanderlust – though I wouldn’t have known how to describe the emotion at the time. My sister Sarah had just returned home from a year in Germany, and I heard her speaking the language on the phone with her host family. I was instantly intrigued. I wanted to be able to do it, too.
Seven years later, my first trip to Europe was with Sarah. I used money saved up from scooping ice cream throughout high school to visit Ireland during my freshman year spring break.
Two years after that, I lived overseas for the first time while studying abroad. I took French lessons in Grenoble and interned at a travel agency in Paris. Like so many others, I started my study abroad experience feeling very out of my element. Homesick and terrified, I spent the first few days feeling like I had made a big mistake. But before long, I was relishing the experience (and the pastries). Six months later, I was heartbroken to leave.
After returning home, I was determined to get back to France ASAP – quickly pushing aside the plan to get a “real” job (whatever that even means). I happily accepted my diploma and was on a plane a month later. I spent the next four months teaching English at a summer camp, WWOOFing at a bed and breakfast in the Alps, day tripping to Monaco, Belgium and Italy, and falling in love with Iceland.
Back in the States, I still hadn’t had enough. I didn’t feel satisfied after checking items off of my bucket list. Instead, I felt like I had added to it. The more I saw, the more I wanted to see. A few months later, I signed a contract to teach English to primary schoolers as part of TAPIF (the Teaching Assistant Program in France).
In 2014, I traded croissants for kangaroos and embarked on a one-year Work and Holiday Visa to Australia. I lived first in Sydney and then in a small, wonderful beach town 1.5 hours outside of Melbourne called Torquay. I road tripped through Tasmania, snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef, camped in the Outback, WWOOFed in wine country, and developed a minor obsession with coffee.
In and around these stints of living abroad, I’ve been hungrily soaking up every new travel experience that I can, from couch surfing in Turkey and island hopping in Greece to climbing above the clouds in Switzerland and taking mud baths with elephants in Thailand.
It hasn’t always been easy. Often times, it’s been anything but. Nor has it involved anywhere near the level of glamour that my friends and family at home envision it does. (Which is fair – not many of them have witnessed the sweaty mess I become when carrying around all of my belongings in a backpack the size of a small sedan.) It has always been fulfilling, exciting, beautiful and challenging in the best ways.
The one constant through the ever-changing currencies, time zones, languages and hemispheres? I love to share my adventures. Through words, and, when those fail, lots of photos. Enter: The Pamplemousse Papers. A place to share stories, spread some good old-fashioned wanderlust, and hopefully inspire you to turn that epic trip you’ve been daydreaming about into a reality.
So thank you for stopping by! I’m so glad you did. If you have any questions, comments, travel stories, or writing opportunities, don’t hesitate to get in touch.