A Little About Me

Fun fact, I’ve been nominated for the Liebster Award before (back when Samantha Elisabeth was my main blog of choice). I’ve been playing with the idea of putting more personal content on this site between my guides and inside looks (as you can see from my last two posts), so this award is actually coming at the perfect time! While I never want There She Goes Again to only be about me, Sam, I do want to share more of my personal experiences and relationships with travel beyond the confines of my more informational guides. Basically, the site is going to be split between guides, reviews, and the blog, so for anyone who just wants to the quick and informational guides to x, y, and z, they don’t have to sort through blog posts to find it. Lot’s of fancy updates comin’ as I work on them between teaching!

Anyhow, I was nominated by the lovely Christine of Tour de Lust and Sarah of Global Gal, so I’ll be doing a two-in-one post! I hope you enjoy getting to know me a little more!

What is the Liebster Award? 

Basically the award was created to spread love between bloggers, especially the newer ones who are still finding their footing in the blogging world (can you believe There She Goes Again is almost a year old?). I will answers the questions Christine and Sarah have given me and come up with my own questions at the end.

My Travelin’ History

• What’s your earliest travel memory?

Camping with my family!

• Tell me about your most recent trip.

I just spent a long weekend in Tongyeong, a port city along the southern coast of Korea. You can read it about it here, but let me tell ya, it was certainly the adventure.

• What is the scariest thing you have done while traveling?

Taking a bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap. I know that’s small fry stuff compared to other travelers, but it was one of the tensest trips of my life. The border between Cambodia and Thailand is filled with scams and just an uneasy vibe, but there’s really nothing you can do about it.

• Where is your hometown? What is the best thing about it?

My hometown is along the East Coast of the US (I’d prefer to keep it vague for privacy reasons :p). Technically I was born in China and raised in New Jersey for a few years, but I’ve been living at the same address since I was three or four, so I claim it as my hometown. I actually kind of hate it, which is probably what fueled a lot of my wanderlust as a teenager. I love my actual house and my family and friends, but I can’t imagine living in my hometown for forever. I will say, there’s this brunch cafe in town that only accepts cash, and it’s hands down the best brunch place ever.

Plans for the Future

• Where is your next destination?

Country wise, I’m off to Bali!

• What are your travel plans for 2016?

Late June I’ll be in Yeosu. Mid-July I’ll be up in Seoul to see Wicked.  August I’ll be off to Bali for a week. September (hopefully) is Taiwan. October my teaching contract ends, and I’m going to Jeju for a few days then to Seoul for a week or two. Then it’s home!

• What is at the top of your bucket list?

Top of my bucket list… Hmm… Well, I guess the top would be the trips I’m about to take since they’re most prevalent in my planning and thoughts. I’ve always wanted to stay the Chillhouse in Bali, so I’m super excited to it’s all officially booked for August.

• Where is your dream destination? Somewhere you haven’t been and don’t have current plans to be.

Hm, tricky! I guess my dream destination would be Brazil. My roommate my sophomore year in college was Brazilian, and she made me want to visit so much. I’d love to see her in person again (it’s been four years already!), and, I mean, it’s Brazil!

• How would you spend one day in your current home if money was not an issue?

Hm. My current home is pretty small and inexpensive! They are preparing to open this very fancy hanok stay in July, so I’d probably stay there for a night. Then I’d walk around Gwanghallu and enjoy the garden. I’d then probably do a mini hike up to this pagoda and have a picnic with views of the city below. I’d end the day meeting up with friends at our shabu shabu place, which is the bomb.

My Travel Preferences

• How would you describe your travel-style?

Slow travel. I’d rather spend more time in one place than try to go to a lot of different places in that time.

• Backpack or suitcase?

Suitcase! Two words: back sweat.

• Do you prefer a sunrise or a sunset?

Sunrises.

• Who is your favorite person to travel with? Or do you prefer solo travel?

I don’t really have a favorite person to travel with! I’ve really enjoyed all the people with whom I’ve traveled, and I don’t think I would have ever broached the subject of traveling together if I didn’t like them. I definitely don’t prefer solo travel, and my ideal love life involves traveling or living abroad with my boyfriend/husband. Of course, I read an article about a girl traveling the world with her cat, so that’s always a potential option too…

• What is your favorite thing about traveling?

I love when a new place starts to become familiar. When you first get into a new city or town, everything is so foreign. The streets, the buildings… Nothing is comfortable, and you have to be on your toes the whole time. But around the second day, once you’ve gotten yourself a map, figured out the layout of the city, and have been able to start walking around, you start to recognize your surroundings.

• What is your favorite city? Why?

I was just chatting with friends about this the other day! It’s hard to choose because I’ve been at such different places in my life in all the cities I’ve been to, but I will say Seoul is definitely up there.

• If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

San Francisco. My happiness depends a lot on the weather, and it would be amazing to live somewhere with cool, dry weather all year round. I love fall, but I figure I can visit somewhere for a week to get my autumn leaves fix. Now, if only it wasn’t one of the most expensive cities ever….

On There She Goes Again

• Why did you decide to start your travel blog?

I’ve been blogging for roughly eight years now, and I’ve always changed names and forms. You can read the whole history here if you’re really interested. I started my personal blog, Samantha Elisabeth back in 2013 as an outlet from college, and then as a guinea pig for business blogging in 2014. I realized quickly that I really just wanted to talk about travel and all things related to that, so I sat down and began planning and outlining what kind of travel blog I wanted. And so There She Goes Again was born.

• What plans do you have in the future for your blog?

There are so many plans for this site, I’m bubbling with excitement over it! Basically I want to separate my content between static pages and an ongoing blog. Kind of like how a clothing company might have their main product, their clothes, but as a side they’ll have a blog. The blog can provide different, more conversational content as well as some more behind the scenes looks into the over all business.

My main product, though, is going to be my reviews, interviews, and guides. There’s a lot of different things I’m doing BTS to make these guys fancier and more useful, so stay tuned!

• Is there a story behind the name of your blog?

Nothing too exciting. I obviously had the song “There She Goes” remade by Sixpence None the Richer in my head when I thought of it. I also used There She Goes Again as the name of the tumblr blog I had while studying abroad.

My Questions to You

1. When did you realize you loved travel?
2. What has been your favorite experience while traveling? Just a single moment or memory.
3. Hotel, hostel, or Airbnb?
4. Where would you go right now if money wasn’t an issue?
5. What’s one place you see yourself returning to over and over again?
6. What’s the biggest thing you hear from friends and family who don’t travel?
7. What’s your favorite article of clothing to wear while traveling?
8. Who are your top five favorite travel bloggers?
9. What’s one tip you wish you knew before you had gone to a certain place or traveled in general?
10. Best book you’ve read or listened to while traveling?

I pass this on to the next five readers! Tell me about yourself!

Words and Photographs by Samantha

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