independent, intentional travel
Guess what? Today is my 25th birthday! It feels a little weird to think I’m officially a quarter-of-a-century old, but I wanted to write something a little special to celebrate. I’ve had an awesome year full of travel, so I thought it would be fun to look back on my top 25 travel experiences from the past year. [Read more…]
Packing for Southeast Asia? Please learn from my mistakes.
Back in 2017 when I went to Thailand and Cambodia for the first time, I was committed to packing for two weeks in a backpack. I knew exactly how to pack — I’d done it plenty of times before, and at that time in my life I was working as a traveling consultant, living out of a carry-on suitcase most weeks. So when it was time to start packing for Southeast Asia, I was like “I got this.”
Oh, how hindsight is 20/20.
Not to be overly dramatic, but I did not “got this.” While I used the same principles as usual when it came to packing, my issues were mostly with the clothing choices I made. Fun fact: Southeast Asia’s climate/culture/fashion is totally different from Europe! (Who woulda thought?)
You can benefit from my mistakes! Here are the most important lessons about packing for Southeast Asia that I learned from my trip. [Read more…]
Dinner with Boong in Bangkok
As you may remember, this year my family is hosting a foreign exchange student from Italy. Gaia has joined our family through a program called the American Field Service (AFS for short). These students live with host families in the U.S. for 10 months, from August until the end of June.
When I was Thailand a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet up with a former exchange student from my high school days. Boong was an AFS’er from Thailand at my school during the 2008-2009 school year – almost 10 years ago! We follow each other on Instagram, so I told her when I’d be in Bangkok and we planned to meet for dinner. [Read more…]
I highly recommend T-Mobile for solo travel.
I was 20 years old before I got my first smartphone. I was a sophomore in college. Now, if you’re older than me, you may be saying, “Big deal! I didn’t get one until I was x years old.” However, by Millennial standards, I was absolutely ancient. [Read more…]
When you’re traveling, the road isn’t always straight. I’ve made my share of travel mistakes.
What are the best things about traveling? Trying new foods, meeting new people, embracing a new culture? Is it the feeling of your long flight beginning its descent, getting a new passport stamp, or watching the sun rise on a Sunday morning and the city slowly come to life?
Those are a few of the things I love — but as we know, traveling is not always glamorous. Things sometimes go wrong, and sometimes we make travel mistakes. I’ve been fortunate not to have many of these moments over the years, but they do occasionally happen. And if we’re looking on the bright side, I can admit that each of them have made me a better traveler (in their own, twisted way).
Here are 4 of my biggest travel mistakes from over the years. [Read more…]
High school friends at the football game (including foreign exchange students Saara, from Finland and Pietro, from Italy)
Ten years ago, I started high school. Along with the first homecoming dance and first AP class came my first experience with foreign exchange students. I had never met anyone from Japan, or Colombia, or Finland before — yet, here they were, playing alongside me on the school soccer team. [Read more…]
I wrote before about why I personally made the decision to travel solo for the first time.
I was confident in myself and my abilities to successfully navigate a new country by myself, but apprehensive about other aspects of this endeavor: would I get lonely? Feel isolated? Not branch out and try new things? [Read more…]
My friend Hanna couldn’t go with me. [Read more…]
I’m just a regular person. I’m no longer a study-abroad student with the luxury of living on another continent because it costs the same as my school tuition. I’m not a nomad who sold all my possessions and dipped into my retirement fund to take an open-ended vacation. I’m not an entrepreneur who decided I could work for myself from anywhere in the world. [Read more…]