About Jen

Welcome to the blog! In this you’ll find fun anticodes, travel stories, heroining tales of seeking coffee in foreign lands, and much more. Jason might make a guest appearance too, who knows!

Jen Hawse is a foodie, traveler, soul seeker, and big hugger. She grew up around Annapolis, Maryland, where she developed a love of crabs, Old Bay, and hushpuppies. After graduating from University of Maryland Baltimore County with a Sociology and Gender Studies degree she went on to work in the District of Columbia for four years for various environmental nonprofits and government consulting groups.

During her tenure in the District she fostered a great passion and love for food and food justice. To take her love to the next level she decided to give up the office, move to Southern Indiana, and take an eight month farming apprenticeship at Living Roots Farm and Ecovillage. She learned massage and practiced yoga while growing, tending to, and selling a variety of beyond organic vegetables. She wanted to know about food from the ground up and found the farm work challenging and the most rewarding thing she ever did.

When she was done working on the farm Jen decided to head home to serve Maryland’s local food community. She took a job with Relay Foods, the healthy online grocery store, because she believed in their commitment to local and organic food access. For 3.5 years she worked as the DC and Maryland Regional Market Manager, overseeing dozens of employees and leading the largest market in the company to sales growth and overall expansion. The work was great, she was happy, all was well till June 2016 when layoffs for over 30 employees were announced, including her entire department.

Jason, her long time boyfriend, and her had already decided they were going to make some big life changes even before the layoffs occurred, but the layoffs propelled possibility into reality for long term travel.

So, starting September 13th of 2016 Jen and Jason go rogue. They will travel through over 20 countries in approximately 11 months. They’ll meet and greet hundreds of people throughout the world. They’ll eat foods they’d never dreamed of from back home. They’ll conquer a dozen fears and they’ll do this all together, trying not to commit bodily harm to one another. 😀 Join us for the fun!