4 times McKinsey was totally out of her element

It is only fitting for the sake of this #tbt that I reminisce and therefore, share my reminiscing with my followers & friends out there. I traveled to so many places while I was in Thailand and I can't help but plugging in my hard drive that holds thousands of memories and feeling all of those exciting moments again - picture by picture.

More times than not, though, I was TOTALLY out of my element. If you haven't traveled before, you might not know what this feeling is like exactly. Maybe you do. But when you are abroad, especially in a country where the language is unfamiliar to you, there is an overwhelming since of what the fuck am I doing here? Yeah, that's something I experienced quite often.

At the end of the day though, those are the experiences that you get the most out of. We don't grow as much in situations where things come so easily to us. Therefore, I dedicate this #tbt to remembering:

4 times McKinsey was totally out of her element

1. Thong Pha Phum National Park | that time with no electricity

Picture this:

I am laying in the make-shift bed that is inside the treehouse (featured below).
I just got done washing my face with the freezing mountain water that comes out of our sink.
I ate a handful of almonds for dinner.
9 p.m. hits and the electricity we had for three hours shuts off across the entire park.
It's pitch black.
I hear things walking around.
I, obviously and very rationally, assume its a murderer or a bear.
I'm scared shitless.
I am totally out of my element.


Hey, do NOT let me keep you away from visiting this place. Actually, it was such a great time. I may have exaggerated the above story (I didn't - it was pretty scary) because, in all honesty, this was one of the most beautiful travels of my entire trip.

The reason for my 'out-of-element-ness' can go to my good friend Cat Costa. This lovely, little son-of-a-beyotch asked my roommate, Caroline, and I if we wanted to go away for the weekend to a little town and have a relaxing time. There was no mention of the lack of electricity; nor was there a "hey, you should pack something more than almonds to eat tonight because we will actually be staying in the middle of no where!" *Shout out to Cat - much love*

Check out my full post on the Thong Pha Phum National Park.

2. Bangkok 'Shutdown' 2014 protests | that time with grenades

Most of you will be able to recall all the protests that went on in Bangkok earlier this year. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I was studying in Bangkok right in the heat of all that. I found it really interesting and was really pumped to go to the protests to take pictures and document history!

However, most people warned us to stay away from these areas; to not even go near these areas; to avoid these areas at all costs. My very protective boyfriend, Justin, was the one warning us the most to never go to these protests - they can be very, very dangerous. *Shout-out to Justin - I love you*

Well, you can guess where this is going...

My roommate and I accidentally (I swear) stumbled upon a protest - a big one. We were on our way to MBK, which is a big, horrible, stressful tourist shopping mall that we obviously had to go to! Apparently, this is in the same location as one of the biggest protests. 

Hmpf. What do we do now? 

We should get out of here.

We should just turn around and go home.

We should definitely not stay and take pictures.

Well...

The time we spent in the protest taking pictures was about 45 minutes. We even bought a couple of shirts & buttons to remember the history of Bangkok and these protests. We didn't feel threatened or in harm or in danger. We felt fine. My roommate and I even giggled a little bit about how safe we felt and how everyone was silly for warning us so profusely not to visit these areas.

My feeling of being totally out of my element came later in the night when we met back up with Justin and he told us that that very same afternoon a grenade went off at another protest site. We were lucky and also quite stupid to risk our safety to be apart of this. 

After all that, I'm still really stoked I was able to photograph this historical moment. 

Check out my full post on Bangkok 'Shutdown' 2014.

3. Singapore | that time I didn't know there was going to be a time

My backpacking trip across Southeast Asia was supposed to be the time of my life! I'm a young girl with nothing but a care in the world! I'm ready to learn and explore!

Backpacking would be fun they said. 

Backpacking is something you gotta do they said.

Nobody told me how much my back would hurt and how uncomfortable backpacking REALLY is. First off, I'm never traveling with a backpack again. THEY HURT YOUR BACK. But, hey, I think that's my fault for thinking that carrying 40 lbs on your back while walking through countries should be comfortable. 

Well, aside from THAT WHOLE EXPERIENCE being out of my element - my baby trip to Singapore was... a doozie. 

Long story short, I read the flight information incorrectly when I booked the ticket. Instead of a three hour layover in Singapore on our way to Indonesia from Thailand, I booked a flight with almost a 24 hour layover in Singapore. 

You wanna know the best part? It has to do with the point at which I realized the giant mistake I had made:

on the taxi ride to the airport to get on the awful, almost 24 hour layover flight.

Yeah, so... My travel buddy and I get off the plane at Singapore. We think Hey, maybe this won't be so awful. We can probably sleep in the airport, use the wifi, eat some expensive airport food - whatever. NEGATIVE GHOSTRIDER. For your future reference (dear God, I hope that you never have to deal with a long-ass layover) if your time between flights is more than 12 hours, you have to leave the airport. This was the case for Singapore anyway. 

You wanna know the second best part? It has to do with the time at which we landed and found out we couldn't stay in the airport:

midnight.

Ha, so... We are in a country that we had no intention of being in; we have zero plans for accommodation or food; we are exhausted and it's almost midnight.

We were totally out of our element.

Eventually, we found a last minute hotel we could stay at - in a not so great of town for a not so cheap price... but we found it. We slept for the night and awoke to this funny little situation I had gotten us into. 

Overall, it was an interesting almost 24 hours in Singapore.

Check out the full post on the Impromptu Singapore Trip.

4. Hutsadin Elephant Foundation | that time I tried solo-travel

This is something I can say I had never done before. I've been traveling for awhile now and feel pretty independent. I feel like traveling has given me a sense of independence that nothing else really can. But, I've always traveled with a partner or that group of friends. But, ya know, I've always had a handful of my travel buddies who seek out on their own two feet and solo-travel. 

I had to do it! 

I wanted to prove to myself that I could rely on myself and myself only to navigate a new city, find accommodation on my own, and sit alone in my thoughts for days on end. Well, as soon as I said goodbye to my boyfriend and was on my solo-way, I felt that feeling... I felt out of my element. 

I knew this was totally just all apart of the process - the part of my first solo-travel that I feel alone and a little lost. So, I tried to embrace it. I went out for solo-dinner and wrote in my journal and was quiet all night long. 

The next morning I had to solo-navigate my way to the Hutsadin Elephant Foundation. This was the reason I chose to travel to Hua Hin - this wonderful foundation accepts volunteers for any length of time to come and do some real nitty, gritty elbow work for orphaned elephants. This is exactly what I wanted to get into.

So, here I am on my first morning alone. I wake up, go grab a coffee, put on some sunscreen, and decide that it's time to go find a motorcycle taxi driver to take me to the foundation.

I feel like I have to add in a tiny side note here: my boyfriend is SO great. He speaks Thai and English, therefore, he is my personal translator wherever we go in Thailand. He clears up all the miscommunication and knows everything and is just wonderful. So, communicating with the locals is definitely more difficult when he isn't around. The locals didn't speak hardly any English and I speak even less of Thai. 

So, back to the story...

I go up to a posse of motorcycle taxi drivers and tell them I need a ride to the Hutsadin Elephant Foundation. I even try to add in a fun Thai accent so maybe they will hear what I'm saying better? I don't know...this is the only logic I had at the time. I spoke to several different drivers trying to explain where I am going. I'm using pictures and spelling it out and speaking slowly - nothing. Until finally, one beautifully large, large man (I'm serious...large) knows what I am talking about! He will be my driver! I'm so excited! 

At this point, I'm feeling like...wow this guy totally gets me. Like, he just gets me. 

HAHA. No. This guy scams me so hard. He wants to charge me almost five times what they normally charge. But, I'm in no place to even argue with this guy... Hello! Language barrier! BUT DON'T WORRY I TRIED ANYWAY. I said "Dude, you serious? Bro, you pulling my chain? You are totally scamming me, you large Thai man." He didn't understand any of that.

I gave him way too much money and sent him on his way again.

It's times like these that I felt totally out of my element. It would have been so great to have a partner there to help me out or make me feel better about being scammed out of money for being a tourist. It would have been nice to have Justin there to share the experiences and yell at that large Thai man for me.

In the end, the solo-travel was not my scene. I like sharing memories with people better. I'm happy I did it though! Because you never know until you try! 

The time at the Hutsadin Elephant Foundation was beautiful and wonderful. I met a lot of great locals and many kind, caring volunteers. The time I got to spend on my solo-journey surrounded by people and elephants was my favorite. 

I guess it wasn't really a solo-journey in the end. (d'aww)

Check out my full post on the Hutsadin Elephant Foundation.

warrensburg, missouri

I've been traveling for years to foreign locations. I've had two blogs dedicated to sharing my photography and telling the tales of times abroad. But here's something I haven't done... created a post and shared stories about home.

It is the most simplest of ideas. To me, home is so normal and it is so bland. Why would anyone, including me, want to read stories or indulge in pictures about the middle of America?

One of my most amazing experiences was when I spent half the year studying in Auckland, New Zealand. New Zealand, as you can only imagine, is one of the most gorgeous pieces of land. It has everything from rolling green hills, snow-capped mountains, beaches, etc. If I could choose to live anywhere again, I would pick this very place.

So, why is it that every Kiwi I encountered asked me how I could have possibly wanted to come to New Zealand to study? The locals were bewildered and couldn't believe that anything exciting was of their land - their home.

If we can think of our home as a beautiful and exotic location, I believe we would be able to experience something incredible and possibly feel a greater sense of appreciation in what we consider mundane.

So, here is to Warrensburg, Missouri - the town I spent four years in during my time at the University of Central Missouri getting my Bachelors degree in public relations. Don't let this fool you, I'm still here... but for only 27 more days. Graduation is upon me and for the most part, I'm terribly excited. This was the perfect time to step outside, walk around my town, and appreciate all that it has given me.

Warrensburg is home to around 16,000 people - with 11,000 or so of those people being students. In most senses, Warrensburg is a college town. It's a ghost city when school isn't in session with students being back in Kansas City or St. Louis.

Featured below is downtown Warrensburg which consists of a few streets and the infamous Pine Street. Pine Street is where the young folk of the town go to get drinks, dance and be far too loud. After I turned 21, I spent many Thursday nights on this street bouncing from bar to bar with my friend. Numerous hangovers later, my inner-old woman kicked in and I spend most Thursday nights in front of my fireplace playing sweet music and editing photos.

The Amtrak train station goes across the whole country. Many students take the Amtrak to Kansas City through Columbia all the way to St. Louis. 

Thank you, Warrensburg. Your small town coziness provided me and my friends with the atmosphere we needed to make it through our studies and create memories to remember for all of the years.

gili trawangan, indonesia

INDONESIA! Ya know, that place where Julia Roberts rides around on a bike & teaches a medicine man English & falls in love with that dreamy, Brazilian dude? THAT IS HERE.

The flight was long and extremely grueling. I, accidentally and unknowingly, booked a flight to Bali from the south of Thailand that included an 18 hour layover in Singapore. I took it upon myself to make it as fun as possible and do what I referred to as the "impromptu Singapore trip". You can take a look at the blog post and comical video I made here. 

So, after we spent a very weird 18 hours in Singapore, we finally made our way to Bali. We arrived late at night and did what every foreigner does when they land in an Asian airport - bargain and negotiate with the taxi drivers who will inevitably attempt to scam you. This is where its really important to do your research before you go traveling. I'd been in Asia long enough to expect such behavior and negotiate a better, more fair (but probably way too high) price for a taxi ride. 

Our taxi driver asked us "which hotel, ladies?" and we, as backpackers of the land, said "we don't have a hotel... take us to a good area and let's find one!". Luckily, our taxi driver was in good spirits and helped us find a good place to stay. Many places in Bali were already booked up so we had to stop at several joints before finding one to stay at. Advice here : book your hotel in Bali BEFORE you arrive.

Bali is, however, not where my friend and I stayed. Many of the friends I made in Thailand traveled in Indonesia before me and said to skip Bali... go to the Gili Islands. I had never heard of the Gili Islands but I received nonstop recommendations to check them out. "Bali is super tourist-y" "Skip over Bali and spend your whole time in the Gili Islands." So, we did. 

The next morning, my friend and I woke up and hopped in a cab headed toward the dock. We were told to find a "speed boat" to get from Bali to Gili Islands. Now, when I say "speed boat"... I mean it. This boat traveled entirely too fast. Like "are we going to make it there alive" "omg I think I'm going to be sick" fast. The boat ride lasted 45 minutes (45 minutes too long...) but we did arrive safely. 

There are three islands that make up the Gili Islands. The one that was recommended by most is called Gili Trawangan or, more commonly referred to as, Gili T. HOWEVER... if I could do it all over again, I would skip Gili T and head over to one of the other two islands. We stayed on Gili T for 3 days and by the end of the first day I was already complaining about it being too loud and full of partying foreigners. I asked someone about it and they said "Yeah, that's why people come to Gili T. It's full of drugs and alcohol and people wanting to get fucked up." If you know me, you'd know that this is exactly 100% opposite of what I was wanting to spend my time doing. 

If you're looking for more of a laid-back, relaxing, wine-sipping by the ocean vacation - go to Gili Air instead. I didn't visit Gili Air due to an unforeseen diagnosis of Dengue Fever on my poor, poor friend. Speaking of which, here is a no-shame promotion of a hilarious video my friend and I made of her in the hospital being diagnosed with Dengue Fever. PSA : wear more bug spray than you think you should.

Bintang is THE BEER you drink if you go to Indonesia. It's their pride & joy, I think. Although I have only been to 2 different countries in Asia, I know that their beer is absolutely not something to be that proud of. European beer and American beer is FAR better! 

You can catch more footage of me at the Sweet and Spicy Indonesian Cooking School in my video up there. This cooking class was so wonderful. I took it alone and was nervous it wouldn't be fun but the cooks and I had such a great time together. The place serves beer (Bintang, of course) and they crank up the tunes so everyone is having a blast. I cooked a total of 7 Indonesian dishes with 3 Indonesian cooks for around 25 USD - ABSOLUTELY worth it. 

Did I mention that the Gili Islands were EXTREMELY small? Gili Trawangan is the largest of all of the islands yet, there are still no cars or even motorbikes. Your only options for transportation are bicycle (which you can rent for around 5 USD for 24 hours) or a horse-drawn carriage. The horses are small and decorated so beautifully. 

The ever-so-famous Bintang beer.

Here I found a couple of workers lounging on a giant pile of God knows what. 

Indonesia is such a beautiful part of the world. I can't to go back and spend more time exploring.