I am officially accepted to Edinburgh Napier University! Hooray! With my housing secured, my class schedule formed, and my visa documents submitted, all that remains is to sit tight, try and enjoy my last month here in America, and eagerly wait with a mixture of anticipation and nerves.
But before I begin to move forward into a new part of my life as a student and young adult, I want to reflect on my previous travel experience. Having been lucky enough to experience different cultures in various parts of the world before, I know just how important perspective is. Travel is a fail-proof way to grow stronger, more confident, and more openminded. Besides several smaller road trips throughout my young life with my family, I will be including the travel experiences that I feel helped me grow as a traveller. Here we go!
London
My first (and so far, only) trip to Europe really began with a bang. My older sister was in the middle of her year abroad and the whole family schlepped onto a plane to go and visit her. We started the trip with plans to also go to Amsterdam and Scotland. Needless to say, things did not go as planned. We ended up staying in London for about 10 days after my dad took a hard fall on our second day in the city and was sent to the hospital. Luckily, we had made it out to the Warner Bros. Harry Potter Tour the first day and got to walk the streets of Diagon alley, Privet Drive, and even take a lap around a model of Hogwarts Castle.
The next few days dissolved into a frantic mess amongst a series of hospital visits and cancelled flights. Things were slowly figured out, piece by piece, but we would not waste our chance to sightsee! We did our hop-on-hop-off bus, as well as other typical touristy things, and even celebrated the new year by seeing two West End musicals.
New Years 2017 was the first New Years that I spent outside of the USA and is also my fondest memory of the trip. My mom and younger sister had returned to the hotel to rest, but my older sister, Julia, and I were determined to catch the fireworks above the River Thames. We arrived around 10:00pm to find a good spot and succeeded! The challenge, as we quickly realized, was keeping that spot. Sitting on the freezing cold ground was futile and only invited the crowd to squeeze in closer. Standing was difficult due to our exhaustion and lack of warmth. With an hour left to go, Julia dove into the ever-growing mass of people to find something warm to eat and drink. She returned with two cups of English breakfast tea and a tray of chips (fries). To this day, that cup of tea was the most delicious thing I’ve tasted. We persisted, past the bathroom runs, aggressive crowd, and comments about how Americans are stupid. It was all worth it to see those fireworks in the night sky, bursting forth with the light and optimism of a new year to come. After the fireworks, the entire crowd surrounding the River Thames began to disperse in various directions. Thousands of people just began a directionless, giddy stroll through the streets of London. Julia and I were more than happy to join in the parade of alcohol and winter coats until we slowly but surely began to make our way first to an ice cream parlor, and then to our AirBnb. The next day, I left on a flight back to Los Angeles, but every now and then I take a sip of tea and remember the comfort I was brought by a hot drink while waiting for those fireworks.
Israel
In the summer of 2018, I went to Israel for 10 days on my Birthright trip. Those 10 days have blurred into a sunny haze of iced coffee, cats, and peace. I sometimes think about those days as some of the happiest of my life. Not only did it feel like the first time I was really gaining any sort of useful travel experience in a totally different culture, but the Jewish aspect also made it feel like I was learning a lot about myself and my identity. This was the first time that I felt like I had caught the “travel bug” everyone was always talking about. Whenever I think back to the colorful and vibrant shores of Tel Aviv, my heart aches to go back.
We began the trip in Tel Aviv, which served as our sort of base camp throughout our travels. We returned halfway through and at the end for our departure. Most days composed of eating breakfast in the kibbutz (communal village-type area) or hotel we were staying in and then hopping on our faithful tour bus to take us to whichever town we were set to explore that day. Lunch would be purchased on our own from wherever we could find (this usually meant falafel from the street) and we would partake in a meaningful or educational activity before returning to the place we were staying for dinner and more activities.
My favorite memory from my trip to Israel is when I was bitten by a shark. It’s not as bad as it sounds; actually, it’s kind of a funny story how it happened and I have fun retelling it. My friend, named Michelle, and I were about to go swimming on a beach in Tel Aviv. As we headed towards the water, we noticed other girls from our group frantically coming out of it, along with a couple of guys. When asked why they were leaving so soon, they told us that the guys had said that there were small, biting fish in the water and they didn’t want to risk it. Michelle and I looked at each other in amused disbelief, fully believing that the guys had made that story up to scare the girls. Nonetheless, we waded in anyway. This somehow acted as a spark of inspiration and courage for the other girls, who turned around and followed us back in. Not even a minute went by before I felt something sharp sink into my knee, right on top of where I had scraped my knee the day before. I shouted out in pain and surprise, which startled the other girls even more than they already were, and they started running back to the beach as fast as they could. At this point, I was also running, but Michelle was laughing! She thought I was pranking the girls. However, as we emerged from the ocean and came up onto the sand, everyone saw the blood streaming down my leg and realized the situation at hand. I went over to the medic we had traveling with us, and he informed me that the bite was not caused by a fish, but rather, a tiny shark. To this day, I still have a scar of two bite marks on my knee and I believe I have earned the right to say that I am a survivor of a shark attack.
China
My mom and I traveled to Hong Kong and Guangzhou this past winter, staying throughout Christmas and New Year’s. We went there for business, but having some leisure time in Hong Kong never hurts. Between Disneyland HK, a hike up to the Big Buddha Monastery, and some killer breakfast buffets, Hong Kong certainly served us well-up until the end. I ended up getting food poisoning on December 31 and spent the beginning of 2019 throwing up, just not from the usual New Year’s means.
China, specifically Guangzhou, was a unique and challenging experience because it was my first time in an area that spoke next to no English. We leaned pretty heavily on our friends, business partners, and translators named Betty and Yuki. The closest we got to having a conversation in English was when I ran into a man in the marketplace who had spent some time in South America, and we exchanged some pleasantries in Spanish. Not only did we not speak the native language, but we also did not exactly fit in. We were subjected to an endless stream of stares and photos, as “Westerners” rarely visited the part of the city that we went to.
One thing that made it apparent that we truly did not blend in was when we were waiting in our hotel lobby for Betty and Yuki to come pick us up for the day. There was a huge and lavishly decorated Christmas tree near the entrance, and, like us, Chinese patrons were admiring it. One family came up to us and pointed at the camera and then at the tree with an inquiring gaze. Oh, I thought, they want me to take their picture in front of the tree! I smiled and nodded, taking the camera and following them to the tree. They positioned themselves before pointing at me and repeating the word “you, you” and gestured to a spot they had left open in their line. It clicked in both my and my mom’s minds and we began chuckling as they posed with me in the middle and had someone else take the photo with all of us. The photoshoot was going on for an awkwardly long time, so I eased my way out of the situation and went to go sit, but a sort of paparazzi was following and recording me as I left. One man approached me with a box and tried to get me to hold certain lotions to endorse them. Just in time, Betty and Yuki arrived and saved us from the relentless cameras.
Spending time in China, especially in more industrial areas that don’t get many tourists, was a great chance to step out of my comfort zone and sponsor some lotions. Sometimes I still think about the fact that my photo may be floating around on a Chinese social media site somewhere.
Besides these international experiences, smaller trips across California and over to New York to visit family have helped me grow as a person and a traveller, but these will forever hold a place in my heart and, in some cases, my stomach. I look forward to adding more places to the list in this upcoming year!
Kellie's Year Abroad 