(Written in 2014)
- I’m most in love with two places that couldn’t be more different: India and…Paris.
- I have a lot of California pride. I love visiting anywhere and everywhere, but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
- In just my 28 years of living, I have learned that life is a series of ups and downs. Neither lasts forever. As a result, I believe we shouldn’t be excessively smug nor down on ourselves at any given point.
- I think the sexiest word in the world is ‘ciao.’ Not to be confused with ‘chow,’ though I love the phrase ‘chow down.’
- I read once that taking photographs is our method of freezing time in an ever-changing world. Bringing my camera along with me automatically improves my life, simply by forcing me to look for beauty. (Hint: it’s everywhere.)
- I LOVE FOOD. I grew up in a family of chefs/restaurant owners/all-around food enthusiasts. I once even ran a “restaurant” out of my grandparents’ home when I was eight.
- When I went to college, I became surrounded by girls who didn’t eat. Thank God I grew up the way I did.
- “Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.” My favorite red: pinot noir. My favorite white: sauvignon blanc.
- Once someone asked me, “if you had to choose either Mexican food or Asian noodles to never eat again…which would you choose?” It was one of the meanest things anyone has ever said to me.
- My soul city is: San Francisco [good thing I live here, phew.] Favorite city to visit: Paris. Close seconds: London, Istanbul, Bombay, Barcelona.
- My favorite country to travel to is: India, or Nepal. My favorite country to “vacation” in is: Italy, or New Zealand.
- I fit the Myers-Briggs personality type ENFJ to a ‘T.’
- I studied abroad in Barcelona and lived with a Catalan family in the Gothic quarter. I spent thirty minutes walking to/from school; most days I would spend the time to walk home just to eat lunch there. I explored the city and/or the rest of Europe on my weekends. Those are some of my happiest memories in my life to date.
- While in Barcelona, I met six of my best friends. We call ourselves the “bouquet” because someone came up to our group and called us one, “each unique and beautiful on her own, but most beautiful all together.” Except it was in Spanish. This is not a joke.
- Cooking at home with the stereo on is my happy place. Oh! Also airport departure lounges, or any place in an international terminal after security.
- I spent nearly ten years living in Southern California. As much as I loved it, I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be back in Northern California where I belong.
- I believe traveling makes you a better person. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person if you don’t travel.
- If you love traveling, we can be best friends. If you don’t, we can still be best friends. If you don’t love food, we can’t be friends.
- Clutter is my downfall. Unless I’m living out of a backpack.
- I studied English literature and Global Studies at UCLA. I’m a proud Delta Gamma. I hated my first year of college, and LOVED the next three.
- I adore British humor (and the accent, duh.) I spend all my time in the U.K. just laughing and laughing.
- ‘Bon appétit’ and ‘bon voyage’ are my favorite things to say and hear.
- Prior to now, I worked in sales with a Fortune 500 company. I spent five years in a job that I didn’t love, because I listened to what everyone else thought instead of what I knew.
- I left said job in 2013, and since then have traveled to sixteen countries and simultaneously turned my life upside down. Suddenly, I became single and searching for a new career, new city, new friends. All at once. It’s really scary, but incredibly empowering.
- I’ve always had a secret desire to be a writer, but I struggle with the discipline and the focus it takes to be really good at it. I love being around people too much!
- It wasn’t until I confidently began calling myself a writer that I actually began to garner respect (and get paid) for being one.
- Listening to my intuition would’ve gotten me a lot farther a lot sooner – in my career, in my relationships, in my health. Traveling puts me in touch with it.
- You can find me attempting to cook Indian food and rocking out to Bollywood tunes when nobody is looking.
- I love Bollywood films in all their silliness and glory. My all-time favorite is Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. If you want to know why, watch this (OMG!), this, definitely this and this. Haven’t had enough? Okay, also this and (yes!) this. Please take care to note to the way her hair is always flowing flawlessly in the wind.
- Running and yoga simultaneously are my de-stressors and my attempts to be healthy. When my mind is over-energized, I run. When my body is under-energized, I do yoga.
- My favorite form of coffee is the macchiato. No, not the Starbucks kind. Just a double shot of espresso with foam.
- I must start my morning with thirty minutes of coffee, silence, and reading.
- I never, ever in a billion years thought I could meditate. I accidentally found myself stuck in an hour-and-a-half guided meditation once while in Nepal (no joke) and I majorly struggled through it. Then I completely changed my tune.
- My favorite pasta is pappardelle. But I don’t discriminate.
- I’ve taken a long flight just to eat something there. I’d do it again.
- I have a weakness for breakfast burritos. Scratch that, I have a weakness for most food.
- Traveling for five months — and just leaving to do so without having all the answers — was the best thing I’ve ever done for myself.
- I sing A LOT but it’s the one thing I’m super shy about sharing with others.
- If we’re really having a drink, I’ll take a dirty vodka martini, up.
- I wrote many books on lined notepaper throughout my childhood. Most of them were of the fantasy genre, like the majority of books I read as a kid.
- I collect vintage postcards, wine corks from special events, and pictures in phone booths of every country I visit.
- I love nerds. Nerds are the best people. I never thought I was one — until my parents moved and needed me to go through my boxes of old coursework from college. I SO AM.
- I’m not very good at change. But I’m learning to be better. If you know someone who is (good at it), I’d like to meet them (I’m still waiting to find this person.)
- Being independent is important to me.
- Women’s rights and education, particularly internationally, is a huge passion of mine. I could open up a can of worms on this, but I’d rather you just read this
instead.
instead.
- I love social media and the way it connects us to one another. I’m kind of a gadget and app geek.
- I’ve wanted to be an author, a marine biologist, a journalist, a professor, a lawyer, (and God knows what else) at different points in my life.
- My first international trip was at sixteen, competing with my high school choir in Vienna and touring Austria, Hungary, and Germany (we took home first place!)
- My first solo trip was to Nepal.
- I’ve had my heart broken twice. Both times it was after I left the relationship behind to travel. These two loves are perhaps my greatest teachers and sources of personal strength.
- I love being by the ocean. (But then, who doesn’t?)
- I’m a dog person. (Thank goodness there’s a dog park less than a block from my apartment.)
- I secretly love in-flight magazines. (And I would totally write for one.)
- My favorite way to get around any city is walking.
- I get weird when it comes to grammar. Nobody’s perfect, but please don’t repeatedly make grammatical errors around me. It’s not pretty.
- In every country I visit I learn “hello” and “thank you” in the language. Other than that, I speak Spanish (especially after a few glasses of wine) and basic French. Also, I can sing in Hindi and count to ten in Mandarin.
- Someone once asked me what my biggest travel mistake was. They are ALL related to missing long flights home (subconscious at work?) Pro tip: if a flight leaves at 3 am that’s THE NEXT DAY, even though it just seems really late on the same night.
- If you haven’t already figured this out, I’m a person who gets quite fixated on things.
- I’m the worst of all with food, obsessions including but not limited to: XLB (xiao long bao, or Chinese soup dumplings,) laksa and/or khao soi (Malaysian/Thai curry noodles,) proper sushi, malai kofta and dosas (Indian,) macarons, aaaand breakfast burritos (perhaps my biggest obsession of all.)
- The place I most want to travel to and haven’t yet is: Japan. Or Tanzania.
- Until I left my hometown at eighteen, I had never tasted Thai, Japanese, or Indian food (can you believe it?!)
- One of my favorite activities to do while traveling is to take a local cooking class.
- I’m terrified of heights. Sometimes I attempt to face this fear.
- I spent one December living in Delhi and teaching third grade at an NGO’s school. I applied for the opportunity globally in my former company. Less than 10% of applicants were chosen, even less from my department. I still remember the email that I was selected. I still can’t believe it happened to me. It completely altered the course of my life.
- I have way more ideas than I do discipline to act on them all. I’m working on this. Still, I’d rather have a lack of action than a lack of ideas, though 99% of the world would disagree with me. (It’s easier to change the former than the latter.)
- I have a mild obsession with books and libraries. Case in point. The Great Gatsby is my all-time favorite (if I HAD to choose.) Huge Fitzgerald and Jane Austen fan.
- I believe: less is more. (Especially when it comes to Facebook posts, but don’t get me started on that.) Quality > quantity, always.
- I love the words “flaneur” and “sprezzatura.”
- I don’t like sharing things about myself. But, here you go.
