Adventures

I’ve always been an avid lover of traveling and discovering new places or revisiting old ones. I rode my first plane when I was six months old and I can still remember my travels across America as a child, like going to Disney World or hanging out with my parents in Philadelphia. All the traveling I had done until I was 18 had been with my parents, but traveling without them was something I had dreamed of when I was growing up. It’s not that I dislike traveling with my family – I love it. However, I wanted to experience the independence that comes with traveling without my parents, who essentially did all the planning for trips. When I went to university, I planned some trips with my friends. As of 2020, I’ve travelled overseas twice with my friends, once for an internship (essentially by myself) and once inter-state in Australia for my university extracurriculars.

Within two months of meeting my friends at university, we already started planning trips. Because we all loved Korean entertainment, we talked about traveling to Seoul at the end of the year together, especially since one of our friends was Korean, so she could show us around. We actually made our plans a reality, and by August we had already booked our tickets and hotel. I was living away from home at the top, so this required a lot of phone calls with my mom, who wanted us to stay in the most affordable but comfortable hotel in the city, so that commuting would be easy and we – as a four young girls in a big city – would be safe.

We had a blast in Seoul as we were constantly surrounded by K-pop and we explored the city. Of course, we also did sightseeing around the city, just like normal tourists. Every day, we ate delicious food and shopped so much – we returned to our hotel with our hands full of shopping bags. At night, we would indulge in all kinds of affordable street food and watch street dancers and buskers. On some days, my only updates to my mom would be photos of my food or myself posing with K-pop billboards in train stations.

We counted our Seoul trip as a success and started planning a trip for the next year. My close friend had not been to Japan, and since I grew up there and lived in Tokyo for 10 years, I was determined to be her tour guide. The following year, the two of us embarked on a trip to Japan, where I showed her all the sights – I even became a translator at times. Similar to our Korea trip, we ate delicious food and shopped until we dropped. Because I was so familiar with the environment, we had no problems with transport or commuting, and I knew the trendiest places that we could enjoy.

Although traveling without family may sound like a daunting experience, it is worth it. I felt so independent as I could take control of my trips and plan it by myself. For once, I could do what I wanted to do, instead of following my parents around like I usually do. The most difficult thing was budgeting. Because I was traveling by myself, I used up a great deal of my savings on these trips, and my parents just gave me some spending money. Even though my wallet definitely took a hit, I don’t regret anything. Another difficulty that I hadn’t thought about was packing at the end of the trip, especially after doing so much shopping. However, this just made me more efficient and independent. Nevertheless, I am still grateful for the trips I’ve had with my family, where I didn’t have to worry about budgeting and my only fear was oversleeping and missing a guided tour.

With the COVID-19 pandemic still posing a huge threat, travel bans are still in place in the majority of the world. As someone who travels at least once a year, I miss the feeling of exploring another country so much, where I can discover a whole new culture or revisit an old one. I don’t know when traveling will start again, but until then, I’ll have to resort to the pictures in my camera roll and my memories to try to recapture that feeling.