Reader, I cannot believe April is already over 🫨

I have officially re-entered my digital nomad era and I'm loving it (obviously)! Let me get you up to speed:

📍Where in the world am I?

Right now, today, I am in Spain, kicking off the European leg of the digital nomad world tour! 🥳🇪🇸 The last month has been an absolute whirlwind.

I started April Guadalajara, Mexico, where I then hopped over to Costa Rica (hello black sand beaches of my dreams!) After that, I went down to Panama City for a week, then over to New York City before finally making my way here, in Spain 😮‍💨

That's five countries in just one month. So I've been all over the place! And of course, I have so much content to share with y'all 😍 I just need a day off to sit down and edit everything together...

Biggest takeaways from each destination

Since I was bouncing around so much in April, here's a little tip I learned in every destination:

🇲🇽 Guadalajara, Mexico: The best way to make friends while traveling solo here is with group trips + activities! I made so many friends, and the tours in this region are 10/10

🇨🇷 Costa Rica: Originally, this was a work trip. Intrepid Travel and Nomadness Travel Tribe collaborated to bring a BIPOC Costa Rica trip to life. I intended to go to experience an Intrepid trip as I'll be working with that. But before I knew it, I was just having fun! This trip converted this solo travel addict into a "girls trip" lover 🥹

🇵🇦 Panama: Renewed my love for salsa dancing 💃🏽 Panama City is sort of like the NYC of central America: which means it has a ton of diversity and a huge international community, including Venezuelans who can dance! I took some private dance lessons here and I can't wait to go back to do more 🙌🏽

🗽New York City: I used my time in NYC to set the stage for my summer of travel! I met up with friends, I went out dancing, I went on a date with a French man (👀), went BLONDE (👀?!) and I even got to binge watch the Queen Charlotte Bridgeton show. Overall New York was a space to relax and get ready for the summer.

🇪🇸 Spain: I've been spending my time in Andalusia so far (but will hit Barcelona, Mallorca, and Ibiza soon). So far it's been all about soaking in the sun and Vitamin D. Costa del Sol is the sunniest stretch in Europe they say, and I've been truly enjoying every day of it. 💡My suggested itinerary: Malaga > Marbella > Puerto Banus > Estepona > Casares > Sotogrande. And make sure you rent a car to get around. Mine was about $30/day.

Now... I need to get to work!🔨

I'm planning to have a lot of fun in Spain, but my top priority is bringing you all the content from all these April trips!

If you aren't already following me on Instagram and TikTok, do that now so you can stay updated—there will be so much content coming this week.

Study Abroad Redo Grant updates: timeline + announcements ✈️🤞🏽

If you applied for the Study Abroad Redo Grant, I know you've been patiently awaiting updates! We've had the announcement dates listed on the application page since the start but I'll share them again below for your convenience:

📅 June 1: Deadline for the top 20 internal decision
​📅 June 15: Public announcement of winners! 🏆

The Packs Light Team has spent hours upon hours grading every single application we've received and let me tell you... I have busted out laughing, sobbed crying, and just absolutely in awe of the applications we've received so far.

It's been so difficult to narrow the top down, because all of you are so deserving. I truly hope —as we said in the application—you all still follow your travel dreams regardless of the outcome, and are excited to design your travel life 🫶🏽 And of course, I'm here to help you do it.

Okay... time for me to go find a cafe in Spain and edit all the content for you! Talk soon!

Gabby 🌺🇪🇸