Rome, Italy – Summer 2018

At the airport leaving the USA on a one way ticket to Iceland

We met as random roommates studying abroad in Rome, Italy in 2018 through SAI. It was truly the best 6 weeks of our lives. We learned a lot about ourselves, and most importantly we developed new passions for traveling and exploring. We realized how much of the world was still left to see. We promised ourselves that in 5 years we would have a celebration trip back to Europe to commemorate our time there. Jordan went to the University of Alabama, and Christen went to Auburn University. Yes, rival colleges. We didn’t know each other until we got placed as random roommates studying in May of 2018 at John Cabot University. Two girls that didn’t know each other existed back home in the United States, but immediately became like sisters when studying together in Rome.

Photo taken in Petra, Jordan.

Instead of just a small trip back to Europe 5 years later, we decided to quit our jobs in America and live out a shared dream to travel the world. Both of us share the same passion for adventure and of course our love for travel and wanted to take our friends and family along for the journey with us and in the process started the social media account wheretonexyall. In 2023 we traveled to 20 countries in 6 months around the world with a goal to see as much of the world as possible. In 2024, we decided to do it again and have now visited 28 countries together across 6 continents. In the process, not only did we get to explore areas of the world that only existed in our textbooks, but also we quickly learned how similar we are as humans, no matter what we look like or what language we speak. People from remote corners of the world can still find deep connections, and what you realize at the end of the day is that there truly is more good than bad out there. One of the most exciting parts of traveling is not only exploring new destinations and checking off bucket list places, but it’s also the unknown. It’s the hiccups in the road that teach us new problem solving skills, the strangers who help us along the way when we are lost in a foreign country, and the friends we meet who end up feeling like family that keep what we do exciting and special. If it wasn’t for SAI, none of this would have happened. So we will forever be thankful to the team that randomly paired us as roommates at 18 and 19 years old.

2024 Photo of us (Jordan on left, Christen on right)

Switzerland 2024

You can follow along with their adventures on Instagram and Tiktok at @wheretonextyall

If you are a SAI Alumni and want to share your own updates, you can do so here! 

Written by: Christen Puckett ( & Jordan Carlyle (University of Alabama), Summer 2018 SAI Rome Alumni