February 12, 2021 Of Fernweh and Fast Cars Fernweh. I remember first hearing that word in college in Pittsburgh, sitting next to a teammate of mine who had just about as much of the travel bug as I did back then. We were no more than nineteen or twenty, sitting and staring at maps, language books, and googling flight prices. The literal meaning of the word is something I have experienced many times in my life: far-sickness.
April 7, 2019 Lanterns and Lollipops I’d never liked cherry lollipops. Maybe it was the sharp distinct cherry taste, or perhaps it was the fact they were red, as I’d never been quite fond of the color. All I’m saying is there are better flavors than cherry when it comes to lollipops.
December 2, 2018 Travels from the Time Vault: Czech Republic Growing up, my parents were adamant about exposing us to our heritage. Both of my parents come from diverse backgrounds. My mother is English, Irish, Scottish, and Polish, while my father hails from Germany, Czechoslovakia, and England. Any family gathering we went to was complete with delicacies from every side of our heritage. They spared no expense when time proved available and there was a chance to explore uncharted territory. I was very blessed with a lot of chances to see England, Germany, and other parts of Europe before reaching adolescence. Among those as I reached my teenage years, Czech Republic made it onto my list of places visited.
November 21, 2018 Travels from the Time Vault: Greece When I was sixth grade, my history teacher introduced us about ancient civilizations. We learned about the rich ancient history in Africa, India, China, Aztec society, Incan society, and then we came to the Romans and the Greeks. I’ve always been fascinated by mythology, and Greek mythology is without a doubt my favorite. It was also around the same time that Rick Riordan released the first of his Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, which I still love to this day. I could open up one of those books now and feel the same amount of joy reading it as I did the first time I found them. Sixth grade was also the year that I traveled to Greece.
November 18, 2018 Travels from the Time Vault: Paris Growing up in many movies I indulged in as a youngster, so much emphasis was placed upon the city of lights and romance. Paris was like this beacon of romantic expectation. I imagined being proposed to on top of the Eiffel Tower, overlooking the entirety of the metropolis beneath us. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one. And I’m certain that I’m not the only one who once pictured sauntering by the banks of the Seine, eating un pain au chocolat and sipping un café, and admiring artwork in museums like the Musée d’Orsay. Needless to say, finally arriving in le Havre gave me goosebumps.
November 14, 2018 Travels from the Time Vault: London I don’t remember the first time I traveled to London, mostly because I was only an infant when my parents first took me. My father used to travel a lot with his business, so we went there frequently, as well as other places in Europe. We continued to go there when I was younger, until our family grew a little bit more and things busied up enough where we didn’t have the time. But we had our fair share of family adventures, most of the time accompanied by our favorite cab driver, Charles. It wasn’t until I was eleven that I ventured there on my own with a student group.
November 7, 2018 The Not-So-Snow Day in September It was a Tuesday morning in September. Third grade had just started barely two weeks earlier and I was getting used to my new teacher, Mrs. Crowe. She had long red curls and big brown eyes. When she talked, any topic she brought up was bright and cheery. She made math sound like the happiest thing in the world. Walking around as we worked on our workbooks, enthusing about how “math was the key to everything” and telling us if “we could multiply and divide, you could do anything” in that happy, cheery voice of hers. Some days, I believed what she said to be true.
September 12, 2018 That Time We Stood On A Fortress About a year and a half ago, one of my best friends and I traveled by train down to Kaohsiung. We were going away for the weekend to the hottest city in Taiwan. It was, admittedly, the first time I had ever booked a hotel in my life without my mom or dad assisting. Aside from the moment I stepped away from my family at the airport two years ago, I like to think of that weekend in Kaohsiung as one of the first times I really felt like a responsible adult.
