Las Vegas x Arizona x Los Angeles

As we have gotten older, I've been seeing less and less of my siblings. Both my sisters live in different provinces right now. Even when they come home to visit we still don't get to spend the same quality time we did the past. Although my brother lives in the same house as me, social lives and age differences keep us separate. So it was pretty nice being able to spend a full two weeks with all of them, with limited wifi so we were forced to hang out with each other. We did a little circuit - landed in Los Vegas, drove to the Grand Canyon and spent a night in Flagstaff, explored Sedona for a day, spent a few days in Phoenix and another few in Los Angeles, then ended up in Las Vegas for the last leg of the trip. Spending so much time with my family made me realize that although sometimes they drive me absolutely crazy, I do love their company so much. My siblings are so ridiculously funny and so good to talk to. While I do enjoy my own personal space, a small part of me misses sharing a bed with my two sisters and all the time spent driving in a minivan.

I want to make sure I remember all the little things that happened this trip, because it'll be months before I get to see my sisters again. The first night in Las Vegas my younger sister and I stayed up till three in the morning looking over my food pictures on my phone. On Christmas we ate at Denny's for lunch. My mom yelled at me for jumping by the rail at the Grand Canyon. We rode Space Mountain for the first time ever. I cried laughing telling my older sister about something silly that happened regarding my younger sister and a coat. We watched Love the last night we were in Las Vegas and could not stop talking about it. I'm so, so grateful and thankful that my parents took us on this trip and I'm so glad we got so much out of it.

Thailand

I honestly didn't think anything would be able to top Vietnam, and when we first got into Thailand I was still convinced. Bangkok was cool, but did it live up to everything we had already encountered? Not really. We did get to stay in a really, really nice hotel and learn what luxury was all about. After a long night at the airport, we flew down south to Krabi and then endured an uncomfortable trek to a small island less frequented by tourists called Koh Lanta. Everything seemed to line up perfectly for us; despite it being rainy season, the weather was perfect every single day we were there. And because it was rainy season, the island was virtually empty and we got to enjoy life with the locals with barely any other tourists in sight. We spent the entire time there zipping around on motorbikes, stopping whenever we saw something cool and having delicious meals essentially home cooked for us.

Koh Lanta was the perfect place to settle down and relax after so many days of jumping from city to city and sleeping in a different bed every single night. The best way to wrap up an unforgettable trip.

Vietnam

Vietnam holds a very special place in my heart. There was just something extraordinary about the whole feel of everywhere we went there; the food was amazing, the scenery was beautiful, and the people were so earnest and kind and hardworking. I loved being able to just walk aimlessly around, stumbling across street after street of little shops. We started out in Hanoi, after a stressful ordeal regarding visas before even boarding the plane. An attempt to spend a few days out in Ha Long Bay threw all our plans out the window, and suddenly our mantra became "we'll figure it out later". And it worked for us. After revisiting Ha Long Bay a few days later, we hopped on a train to Hue; booked a last minute motorbike tour to get us to Hoi An; booked plane tickets literally the night before flying to Ho Chi Minh City. Rarely would we have a set plan for the day, and yet at the end of it we'd go to bed feeling buzzed about what we did.

Experiencing Ha Long Bay at night. Learning how to ride a motorbike in Hanoi. Biking in the middle of the night to the outskirts of Hoi An. Riding badass motorbikes in the countryside and having adorable Vietnamese kids run out to yell and wave hello. Eating countless bowls of pho multiple times a day. These are some of the experiences I will never forget, and I am so glad I get to share them with my friends I made in Hong Kong, Chris and Dylan, and Kyle, Dylan's friend. I was slightly nervous about traveling with people I had barely even known for over a month, especially when they were all guys, but I had an amazing time with them and they really helped make the trip what it was.

Hopefully someday soon we will return to Vietnam again, the four of us, because I miss it every single day.

Hong Kong

I'm going to miss so many things about Hong Kong. The spectacular views walking back to the dorms. The cheap, delicious food. How efficient the MTR was. Being able to meet up with a group of friends in five minutes' time and go out to explore the city. How many amazing things there were to experience. In the span of six weeks I met some really cool people and did some really sweet things. I've hiked to an elusive waterfall and cliff jumped. I've ridden a speedboat to a pier in the middle of nowhere. I've stayed up all night to watch the sun rise over the mountains. I've seen tens of thousands of Buddhas, eaten a ridiculous amount of sushi, and learned a bartender's life story. I'm so glad and so lucky I got to go on this exchange. I would do it again a hundred times over - maybe minus the actual classes.

Taipei

My roommate in Hong Kong, Colleen, and I decided to book a trip to Taiwan on a whim. We had literally known each other for two days. I packed and flew to Singapore for a weekend. I flew back to Hong Kong, unpacked, repacked, and then we flew to Taipei the next morning. Three days of extreme heat, countless trips on the MRT, sharing a bed. I'm glad we booked that trip. The thing I immediately loved about Taipei was how gritty it looked on the bus ride from the airport. It was still clean and safe, but there was still that feeling of being a little run down. I don't know what it is about that kind of city. I guess it just feels honest.