Introducing myself from Los Angeles en route to Cambodia? Brazil? Or northern Thailand? Hmm…

Poll: What do you think? Where to next?

In honor of the recent release of Starcraft 2 which I may or may not have excitedly preordered months ago, we went into the archives and dug up some long lost (and awesome) footage from our season in Seoul and this interview with the world’s premiere pro-gamer.

In Korea Starcraft is like baseball in America.  A huge audience , multiple professional leagues, and most everyone has or does play it.  Its just part of the culture.  We were lucky enough not only to see a couple professional matches while we were there but to interview the best eSports player of all time – Lim Yo-Hwan aka “SlayerS_`BoxeR`” aka “The Emperor”.

BoxeR as he is more commonly known makes over $300,000 USD a year to play and has endorsements that bring in around an additional $90,000 each year.  That’s right.  Almost a half million dollars a year to play video games.  Oh, he also has a 500,00 person fan club, most of which is female.

Live eSports match. Feel the intensity.

In Korea there are actually two e-sports channels and at any time of the day you can flip on the TV and watch televised Starcraft matches complete with three different announcers providing commentary.  It’s so popular that lots of bars will turn on all of the TVs to cover the big match of the week.  Oh, and it doesn’t stop there.

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The beginning of my lifestyle transformation: circa 2006-2008

Before Alicia Keys and Jay-Z coined the term ‘concrete jungle’ in the new age NYC theme song Empire State of Mind, it was more readily know as the term for the city donning an abundance of concrete streets, and the attitude to match. Fair enough.

Today, it represented my running workout around the Bronx. I have a daily workout routine that I can say gets done more than it doesn’t. Obviously, this whole peep show into my life, via Jet Set Zero has just started so there’s a few things you guys don’t know yet.

For example, I currently weigh about 60 pounds less than what I did when I started traveling back in 2006. Hence the very real photo posted above. I debated on putting another, more recent, photo up to give you a glimpse into what I look like now. Then I realized, there’s no suspense in that at all. You’ll have to wait and see. (HINT: Photo is -47, and I’m now at -55ish)

What does this mean in regards to Jet Set Zero?

As of right now, all three of the countries we’ve narrowed down as possibilities involve serious beach interaction. We’re all probably going to me in a bathing suit, more than not.

As a person, but more specifically, as a woman this can go either way in regards to becoming a beautiful nightmare.

As always, it’s more about the health for me than it is the need to be skinny. I don’t play that skinny card. I’m a tall, full-figured woman, with the curves to confirm it. I’d have it no other way!

So, I am whipping my ass into shape. This is officially part of my prep for this trip!

Priorities:

Money: Huh?

Job (sss): Current freelance gig ends next week, shooting nightclubs, looking for any and everything!

Fitness: Hitting the concrete!

It was brought to my attention by @CatholicTravel that TrenItalia now posts their strike schedules online. How 2.0, Italy.  Problem:  we didn’t know this until after we stranded ourselves at a train station right in the middle of a big annoying strike. Solution:  take inventory of the situation and make the best of it with a bag of cookies and a digital camera.  Here’s how:

Stranded at the station

First Hour: Eat cookies until you’re high on sugar

cookieeeeeeees

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Get ready to be inspired, folks.  Our third Jet Set Hero is Steve Bramucci, a travel writer, professional misadventurer and wordsmith whose got a hell of a lot of perspective on life at the ripe age of 30.  He’s managed to do what we at Jet Set Zero would all secretly love to do…turn that zero into a figure that actually pays the rent without sacrificing life on the road.  His job is his passion, the world is his “research” and going back to his position at Merrill Lynch…well, that’s his nightmare and we don’t blame him.

Steve in Kenya

Nationality: American
Job: Travel Writer
Currently In: Laguna Beach, CA
Check out his Travel Series: www.bootsnall.com/howitravel
Twitter: @stevebram

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I worked at Merrill Lynch and my boss told me: “every day I come to work and I feel like I’m shooting hoops.” I loved that philosophy.  I quit Merrill the very same day.
I didn’t feel like I was shooting hoops in the finance world.  But I do feel like that with writing, teaching, storytelling and all of the other assorted work that I do in order to make sure rent is on time. Most of all, I feel that way about travel.  It might technically be work but it feels 100% like recreation.

Everything I do on the road I attribute to the “grand adventure” and chalk up as “research.” Those are my go to phrases—especially when the car gets stuck in eight inches of muck, the ferry is a day late or the hike that was supposed to take a day ends up taking three.  If I was looking for a job title I think I’d call myself a Professional Misadventurer. The hardest days on the road inevitably become my favorite days of “work.”

Besides day labor, short stints in hostels and volunteering, my only experience working abroad has been as a travel writer.  People always tell me how lucky I am to have that chance.  Those people are right.  Don’t worry, I work hard for it and appreciate the hell out of every trip.  I get to indulge my curiosity, talk to people, tell stories and trust my instincts.

Over the past ten years, I’ve left a lot to go traveling. I’ve left jobs with the casualness of a person who has no clear conceptualization of the economic crisis.  I’ve left cities that felt safe and comfortable.  I even left college.  Every one of those times it was the right choice.
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Evita

Evita. Yes, like “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina!” If I had a dollar every time I was sung that song, I probably wouldn’t have to worry about how I’m going to fund this insane new excursion I’m about to go on in a few weeks, with Jet Set Zero.

Hello, world! I’m Evita. I’m 26 years old. I’m an artist dabbling in the creative spaces of the Universe better known as writing, film, and photography. Currently based out of the Bronx, New York I’m best described as that “Other” box you check on applications. In all seriousness, I’m like a walking manifestation of the United Nations. Brad and Angelina would love my genetics. I’d be lying if I didn’t recognize that part of my lust for travel definitely comes from the fact that I’m so diverse in my own bloodline.

Travel is my drug, and Jet Set Zero has taken on the role of my new enabler for three months. How fun!
The ironic thing is, I just got back into the country. In a few weeks I’ll have to throw deuces (translation=peace sign) to my disgustingly cheap NYC apartment, the dopest cat on the Earth, and my boyfriend, all over again.

On my birthday, March 31st, I returned back to New York after living for a year in Japan, and traveling into India for the Holi Festival of Colors. Now, some four months later, I’m doing it all over again! I know, somewhere lurking underneath all the support, my family and friends want to force me to a chair, implement a straight jacket, and tell me to sit down! Heaven knows my bank account does. Until then, onward!

So…my life according to bullet points:

• Graduated from Iona College in June 2006.
• Traveled to Amsterdam
• Moved to Paris to study film with the New York Film Academy at La Femis in July 2006 (I made it a point to NOT look for a job right out of school).
• Groveled in shit at the 9-5 job I did get upon returning to New York, from Paris.
• Quit.
• Started freelancing in TV production with damn near every major television network alive and breathing.
• Scored a really cool gig, with an awesome boss.
• Walked into work one Friday in November 2008, to find the entire department had been fired, my boss included, giving me two weeks to figure out life.
• Packed my bags and took my mother on a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. Freaked out about finding work the entire time there.
• Scouring the internet for jobs like I was attached to a financial atomic bomb.
• Saw the opportunity in the crisis, and decided to see if working abroad made sense.
• January 2009 notified I’d been hired to teach English in Niigata, Japan.
• March 2009 landed in Japan and began navigating through the most intense culture shock known to (wo)man.
• Became comfy with the realization that no one from the outside world was going to visit me in Japan, thus I needed to find a way to take it to them.
• Created my awesome web travel series, Nomad•ness (http://www.youtube.com/evierobbie) and started writing my first travel memoir.
• Traveled to India and hit up 4 cities in 11 days as if trying to shatter some world traveling Guiness Book record.
• March 2010 returned to New York City on my 26th birthday, with one thought….when am I leaving again?

Jet Set Zero has answerd that question for me. I’m psyched to meet all the cast mates, and more importantly the new city I’ll be calling home for three months. I beg of you, don’t judge our follies, but enjoy our journey! Here’s to seeing what happens when adventure meets opportunity!

Peace,
Evita

We Love Italy!

I did the math today and realized that you, our devoted Jet Set Zero readers, are being hit by 12 separate bloggers on the site right now.  That’s a lot of traveling to digest, even for the most travel-obsessed of the bunch.

Our friends over in Lost Girls world  have done us a sweet little favor by posting weekly recaps of the JS0 Italy cast.  In case you’ve missed something just check back each week for a round-up of our Italian adventure.  Thanks LGs!  Here’s what they’ve got so far:

Week 1:  The Adventure Begins

Week 2:  Journal

Week 3: From Pizza Man to Italian Men

(Version française plus bas)

We have seen lakes, mountains, volcanoes, the ocean, blue-footed boobbies, whales, pelicans, cuy, churches, villages and bigger towns, but there is one things we haven’t seen. Pre-Columbian ruins.

Jenna and I decided to visit El Machu Picchu of Ecuador: the ruins of Ingapirca. The site is probably not as impressive as actual Machu Picchu (in Peru) but it is much less crowded, and our guide’s explanations made the visit worthwhile.

The inca and canari ruins of Ingapirca

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By now you’re all aware of the Jet Set Zero model of travel. If not, refer to Episode 2 (and find out about the dead guy on our doorstep) as the job hunt begins in Quito and see how we fare when Episode 3 airs this week.

Jet Set Zero goes like this: 1 country. 90 days. 4 soon-to-be-friends.

Problem: No money.

Solution: Find job.

I caught the traveling bug long before I joined Jet Set Zero. How did I foot the bill for my wanderlust before?

Soaking it up in Rio de Janeiro

I’ve financed my travels in different ways, including working both stateside and abroad. A fellowship in Tokyo during university landed me a job in asset management in Singapore post-graduation. Like Freddie and previous Jet Set Zero cast members, I also taught English in Korea, which offers some of the best paid ESL jobs coupled with a high standard of living. We at Jet Set Zero are living proof that working while abroad is one of the most rewarding ways to sustain a life overseas.

My favorite street meat stand in Busan, Korea

Whenever I’ve returned home to Los Angeles between trips, I’ve spent time working short-term contract jobs to replenish my bank account – anything from assisting the CEO of a hedge fund to conducting research for a consulting firm. I’ve also freelanced for my alma mater, writing economic forecasts on the real estate markets in Southern California for USC’s Lusk Center for Real Estate.

Catching up with friends back home

Working in this way – on my own terms – has given me the ability to save money for traveling and the freedom to travel as needed. And yes, for me, travel is a need.

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by freelancing guru Michelle Goodman, author of My So-Called Freelance Life and the inspirational blog The Anti 9-to-5 Guide. Her book and website should be some of the first stops for anyone aspiring to break free of the bonds of cubicledom. Michelle was interviewing people who, like me, resist the security of a permanent job in favor of the perks – ahem, freedom – of contract work or consulting.

Check out what I have to say in her article on ABC News Money column.