The Girl Who Goes

independent, intentional travel

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Travel Mistakes: 4 Experiences That Made Me a Better Traveler

travel mistakes - feature photo

When you’re traveling, the road isn’t always straight. I’ve made my share of travel mistakes.

What are the best things about traveling? Trying new foods, meeting new people, embracing a new culture? Is it the feeling of your long flight beginning its descent, getting a new passport stamp, or watching the sun rise on a Sunday morning and the city slowly come to life?

Those are a few of the things I love — but as we know, traveling is not always glamorous. Things sometimes go wrong, and sometimes we make travel mistakes. I’ve been fortunate not to have many of these moments over the years, but they do occasionally happen. And if we’re looking on the bright side, I can admit that each of them have made me a better traveler (in their own, twisted way).

Here are 4 of my biggest travel mistakes from over the years. [Read more…]

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Bringing the World Closer: Hosting a Foreign Exchange Student

foreign exchange students - football game

High school friends at the football game (including foreign exchange students Saara, from Finland and Pietro, from Italy)

Ten years ago, I started high school. Along with the first homecoming dance and first AP class came my first experience with foreign exchange students. I had never met anyone from Japan, or Colombia, or Finland before — yet, here they were, playing alongside me on the school soccer team. [Read more…]

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What Happened When I Decided to Travel Solo

I wrote before about why I personally made the decision to travel solo for the first time.

I was confident in myself and my abilities to successfully navigate a new country by myself, but apprehensive about other aspects of this endeavor: would I get lonely? Feel isolated? Not branch out and try new things? [Read more…]

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The Decision to Go

I’m just a regular person. I’m no longer a study-abroad student with the luxury of living on another continent because it costs the same as my school tuition. I’m not a nomad who sold all my possessions and dipped into my retirement fund to take an open-ended vacation. I’m not an entrepreneur who decided I could work for myself from anywhere in the world. [Read more…]