Michael Chamberlain and Amy Torres stand in front of the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest during their trip around the world. Courtesy photo
In November 2011, one year and four months after their wedding, Michael (BSBA ’08) and Amy Chamberlain-Torres (BS ’09, MBA ’09) took the plunge they’d talked about for years. They quit their jobs, put their possessions in storage and set off to travel around the world. The couple — who met on their first day at the University — are blogging about their experiences at chamborres.com. By mid-August, the pair had traveled to Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Denmark, Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Bosnia, Turkey, China, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.
Q: I saw on your website that you’re traveling very light and just carrying one pack each. Do you think that’s going to give you a different perspective when you come back, as far as how much stuff you actually need in your life?
Amy: Definitely. Our life is packed away in a storage unit in Denver, and I think when we come back we’re going to realize, “Wow, we have way more than we really need to live life.” We’ll see how that goes when we get back.
Q: You’ve been at this since December — what are some of the other lessons you’ve learned along the way?
Michael: One that we talk about frequently is we’re on this trip thinking it will be so great to quote-unquote “see the world,” but every time we go to a city, the world’s not getting any smaller, it’s just getting bigger and bigger, and we’re realizing more and more what an enormous place it is and how much there really is to see out there. Instead of trying to conquer it and see everything, we’re just trying to really enjoy every day and enjoy what we can see.
Q: Do you have the sense that the trip will change the course of what you want to do, career-wise, when you get back?
Amy: It’s something we talk about often. Both of us were very content and excited about our career paths before the trip, so it’s definitely something we would consider going back to, but after months on the road, we’ve learned so much and talked about different businesses we’d like to start. We’re both really entrepreneurial, and we’d love to make the travel industry part of our career path. It’s definitely still up in the air as to what it will look like if and when we go back home.
Q: You both studied abroad while you were at the University. Did that change your outlook on travel at all, or did it reinforce what you already thought?
Amy: For me it changed my outlook because of the fact that I lived with a host family. I’d never traveled with a home-space situation before, so being able to dive into one culture and really become a part of it changed my outlook on travel. When you are a tourist in a country, it’s a totally different experience than when you live with a host family or surf on someone’s couch. DU study abroad opened me up to the possibility of immersion travel rather than tourism.