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Trip Date: June 28, 2008

Do I remember how to get home?

I Need to Travel Like People Need to Breathe

At the end of this trip it had been about a year since I was in the US. The plan, when I left Korea, was to start a new life in the US, the country to which I belong. I would get a real job, buy a car, get a mortgage, and get all the other trappings that come with being a rooted non-wanderer.  I even started applying for jobs before I left Korea. But somewhere in Vietnam I realized that I would not be happy here.

I love traveling and I cannot live anywhere for too long without feeling boxed in. I crave seeing new places, finding new ways to live, and getting immersed into new cultures. I must travel to live, like people need air to breathe.

SMOEs week-long orientation at the Hyundai Center in Seoul, South Korea

SMOE

While stuck in Mongolia during this trip and searching the internet for ways to leave Ulaanbaatar, I came across a job ad for S.M.O.E., the organization that places native English teachers in the Seoul public schools. I applied for the job and sent in my resume, covering letter, and references; all before entering Russia.

Shortly after that, while in Finland, I got a reply and set a date and time for a phone interview. Luckily for me my mom had an international cell phone on which they could call me, or else I would have had to call them from a payphone somewhere. An S.M.O.E. rep called me while I was waiting for the Eurostar back to London. By the time the call ended I knew I had the job. The next day I was e-mailed an official letter stating that they were offering me a job and a list of things to do to get a visa.

Within months I was packing my bags again to head back out into the world. She never said it, but I think my mom was hoping that I would live in some other country so she could come visit me. She’s already been to Korea. My mom is a traveler too.

My family (years before I was born) moving from Panama to Grand Cayman. The little boy is Malcolm.

A Reading Rainbow Kid

I love to read. So let me recommend some books about traveling. These are books that I have read, loved, and enjoyed at various stages in my life.

• The Alchemist
• Around the World on Two Wheels
• Adventures in Time and Space with Max Merriwell
• Black Wave
• The Book of the Maidservant
• Catch Me If You Can: The True Story Of A Real Fake 
• The Dark Tourist
• The Daughter’s Walk
• Eat, Pray, Love
• Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History
• The Geography of Bliss
• In a Sunburned Country
• In the Heart of the Canyon
• Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure
• Lost and Found
• The Lost City of Z
• The Lost Continent 
• Lost on Planet China
• The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom
  • Looking for Mr. Smith: The Quest for the Truth Behind The Long Walk, the Greatest Survival Story Ever Told.
• Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe
• Notes from a Big Country
• One Thousand White Women 
• Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire
• The Poisonwood Bible
• Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America’s Hoboes 
• Shantaram
• Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival
• Three Weeks With My Brother
• The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven 
• Vagabonding
• A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

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The United States of America

How to get there:

You can enter my country by land, air, or sea. But I think flight would be your transportation method of choice.

I have no clue how to get a visa to the US or who needs one.

Phone:

• Use 911 for the police, fire department, or to get an ambulance
• Use 411 for information (This might cost money.)

Website:

• Tourism Website 1
• Tourism Website 2
• Unique Tourist attractions 

Downloads:

• Apps

Videos:

• Crash Course:
  • US History
• CGP Grey:
  • Canada & The United States
  • American Empire
  • ‡: Are US Military Bases and Embassies American Soil?
• Mental Floss:
  • 50 Great Facts About The 50 States
  • 50 More Facts About the 50 States
  • 50 Interesting Facts About The 50 State Capitals
  • 45 Odd Facts About US Presidents
  • 44 Facts About the U.S. Presidents
  • 46 Facts About the First Ladies
  • 107 Regional Slang Words
  • Where Does the $ Sign Come From?

Books: 

• American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot
• American Prometheus 
• Area 51
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X
• Dandelion Wine
• The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty
• The First Family Detail
• Girl in Translation 
• Guantánamo Diary
• The Hemingses of Monticello 
• History Decoded 
• Lies My Teacher Told Me
• The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid 
• The Lost Continent 
• The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl
• Notes from a Big Country
• One Summer: America, 1927 
• One Thousand White Women 
• Operation Paperclip
• Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America’s Hoboes 
• The Secrets of the FBI
• Stealing Buddha’s Dinner
• That’s Not In My American History Book
• A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
• The Water Is Wide
• Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland

Notes:

• It’s a big country. You’re going to need a car.

Map:

Click here for Google maps