Desperately Seeking Adventure: The Fourth Year!

Since 2012 the month of March has symbolised the beginning of a new blog year! On the 10th of March 2012 I uploaded my very first blog, debuting 'My Month In New Jersey'. I can say that my blog, Desperately Seeking Adventure has now reached its fourth birthday! Beginning in Newark, then crossing the pond back to England and then most recently blogging in China! 
For this birthday blog occasion I will look at one month from the previous four years of my blogging history. Beginning in March 2012 it may show five years worth of blogging on my homepage but it's from March to March, even I get confused sometimes! Rewinding back to June 2012 I had an epic month of fun and traveling during my Industrial Placement in New Jersey, USA. Captured to the left is me smiling for the camera in the crowd waiting for the march at NYC Pride 2012, I had my rainbow colours in tow, ready to fly the flag! Going along with some friends I had met in Jersey we had a great day at my first Pride event, we saw many famous faces such as; Rupaul's Drag Race royalty, Manila Luzon and her drag daughter. The march ambassador was the one and only Cyndi Lauper, she came threw on top of a convertible car with her own rainbow flag fluttering in the breeze! June 2012 slayed for certain!
June 2012 fared to be a busy blogging month for Desperately Seeking Adventure's first year. I hadn't found the knack yet with borders and presentation for that would take me two more years to get that perfect but during that time I was having so much fun creating new memories in this blog. Jetting off to Las Vegas with my placement friends with Southwest Airlines was an experience that I captured through this blog, I learnt my lesson not to mix booze with high altitude! Las Vegas showed me so much, I didn't take to the gambling but tried my luck once or twice for the experience to say I had gambled in LV! Going all political I took myself to the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City to be part of a tour around specific parts of the building, it was an eyeopener for sure! Going downtown I endorsed the backstreets of NYC's Chinatown to find something different compared to whats shown in the films! Looking back during this fourth year mark I feel blessed! 
I returned back to Birmingham to continue my degree studies in 2013, the first semester proved to be a chore so I was looking for a speedy getaway once that grueling Spring semester finished. Seeking some Spanish flare I jetted off to Spain for five days of exploring and much more! Barcelona served so much, I was amazed by the history, architecture and the gorgeous hombres! Seeing the Sagrada Familia was beyond, I couldn't believe that construction hadn't finished yet! I found time to publish two blogs about my time in Barcelona, covering the full packed two days I spent seeing sights like; Casa Batlló, Parc Güell and the colourful Mercat St Josep La Boqueria! Barcelona was nonstop, I dashed from sight to sight, pounding the pavements and snapping those photos! 2013's blogs were overloaded and messy, I blogged about stupid things but I knew that I would eventually find my blogging niche. Yaass!
July 2013 also served some throwback blogs from my time as a UCB fresher, with my final year approaching I felt it was an appropriate time to look back and recognize those pivotal moments. What possessed me to publish a blog about my favorite childhood TV programmes? Back to Spain! From Barcelona I took the train down the coast to Tarragona for a superb day out in that Roman infused Spanish city, I clocked the amphitheater and a timeless council building that became one of the focal points of that Spanish travel post. Turning the party up to conclude my Spanish getaway I spent two days in Sitges, a rainbow styled beach town that served body, body and yes more sizzling Spanish hombres! Documenting my time when I got my groove on at Queenz gave me life, after three days of intense sightseeing I was ready to get crazy! My second of year of blogging did see some random and questionable blog posts, I'm now going back to previous blog posts to beautify them!
2014 rolled on and it was time to get my university game revved up with my dissertation, away from my academic studies I used my final year to visit some places in England that I'd always wanted to see. Beginning the year with a weekend in Manchester I moved on to Bath and Bristol, I knew that my Birmingham residency would be in its final stages so I made the best of my location. I began to reign in the amount of blogs that I would post each month to around six posts per month, allowing me to refine my Birmingham experiences without making the same mistakes again. Gaining popularity I was invited to the welcoming event of the first direct flight from China to Birmingham during June 2014, I relished that opportunity alongside my other blogging successes during 2014. My third year of blogging took a change, the right kind of people must of been reading my blog?! Would the success continue into 2015 B?
Captured above is my hometown of Bilston, it's a former industrial powerhouse with a story to tell but it wasn't giving me life after I attended my university graduation in September 2014. The year after I graduated from university was a difficult time for my blog at first, I then refined my blog posts to four features per month and for inspiration I looked closer to home, trusting places like Stoke-on-Trent and Warwick. I had a dream to teach English in China but finding a trustworthy agency or school to sign up with pushed me to my limits, they were just too shady for my liking! 2015 made an appearance with a new outlook for my blog and for my life. The latter part of 2014 was definitely unpredictable for me and my blog but both avenues improved as 2015 drew closer because I didn't have any other choice but to earn some money and accept a job in China! Birmingham left me, Bilston took its place so I had the desire to take this blog back to an overseas location! Let's fly!
Boarding my Sri Lankan Airlines flight I was bound for the Chinese mega-city of Shanghai! Accepting the first legitimate teaching job offer since my job hunting started in September 2014, I had chosen to teach English in Wuhan, China. Prior to my Chinese odyssey I had my blog looking on-point with a slick design and layout that helped to keep a professional image. 2015 saw me get my first post-university job at a Walsall hotel as a receptionist, I got my coins and moved onto my next assignment! Touching down onto Chinese soil I was ready to take Desperately Seeking Adventure back to an international location to reignite the reasons why I began in Newark, NJ during March 2012. Ticking off Shanghai and Suzhou on my travel and blogging list I was pumped to seek adventure in Wuhan on a regular basis, I was itching to get away for National Day to experience and blog about my time in Chongqing and Chengdu! Madness!
Sweeping into 2016 I celebrated the New Year weekend in Xi'an, China to see the Terracotta Warriors and three other Shaanxi delights! With my work permit sorted I had the freedom to travel without stress during the Spring Festival holiday to Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou because I wasn't going to be sticking around in Wuhan for that extended holiday. The newer Oriental blogs have been tough to share because social media works differently in China, keeping things neutral I have to use a VPN to promote my blog whilst I'm in the Middle Kingdom. Chiming in Desperately Seeking Adventure's fourth year feels amazing, being in a new continent and country constantly allows me to push this once unplanned note on Facebook to new heights! Within the fourth year of this blog I want to continue to modify my previous blogs so everything flows and to obviously travel to lots more places in China! I know that this blog won't be slowing down anytime soon! No way, I'm on fire!
Four More Years!
Joseph Harrison