Welcome to Adventures of an Average Jo!
I’m Joelle, a US-born traveller, cook, and creative.
Having been to 75 countries by age 24, my biggest obsession in budget travel. When I’m not travelling, I’m cooking my way around the world and creating new projects and crafts that express my love for travel and creativity.
I took my first trip abroad at the age of 12, when I applied for a scholarship to study abroad in Japan. I ended up getting the scholarship, and I spent a month living with a Japanese family in Tokyo. It was so overwhelming, but I was hooked. I spent the next few years looking for scholarships that would allow me to continue exploring the world. I turned 16 in India, 17 in South Africa, and 18 in the UK, all thanks to scholarships that were targeted towards youth travel!
I later went on to get scholarships to finish high school in the UK. While living abroad, I started exploring my love of solo travel. I started with weekend trips to Europe from the UK. After graduating from high school, I took a gap year, where I travelled around the world, working along the way to earn money for my travels.
After my gap year, I continued my studies on a fully-funded university course in the United Arab Emirates. Here, I specialized in Middle Eastern Studies, and I began exploring more of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
I met my now-husband, Saif, on a solo trip to Ukraine in 2022. We were on the same tour of Chernobyl, and we ended up exchanging instagram handles. We began to grow as friends and eventually as a couple as I started travelling more through the Middle East, including his home country of Kuwait.
Today, we’re based in Kuwait, where we both work as teachers. When we’re not teaching, we’re off travelling the world together!
Overall, this blog is written for people who want to experience the world, but perhaps don’t know where to start. Travelling the world doesn’t have to require massive amounts of money; just passion. I’m here to show all travellers how they can explore the world on a budget and with a little bit of creativity!