About NICOLE

Travel and the idea of going on a journey has always been a presence in my life. As a child, I loved to read, voraciously devouring tales of distant lands both real and imaginary. I would listen eagerly as my father told me stories of his international jaunts and I always looked forward to the foreign trinkets he brought back for me. I knew that one day, I would see the world too.

One of the most formative trips I ever took was when I moved to Hong Kong for the last two years of high school. My dad got a new job at Hong Kong University and, needless to say, I had refused to go. It may seem trivial to an adult, but for an in-coming junior in high school, it felt like my world was bring ripped apart. I loved to visit, but to live there? No thanks. Of course, my parents paid no heed to my cries of injustice and off I went to a world I didn't know.

I never lived abroad until then and being an expat is a wholly unique experience. It was there on the other side of the world that I found an inner strength and claimed the city for my own. I studied the mini bus routes, memorized the best subway exits at each station, and navigated the back alleys for short cuts like I had lived there all my life. I knew where the best shops were for red bean soup and bargained at street markets in Cantonese. I learned to appreciate the quirks of the British education system and made life-long friends. In the end, I'm thankful for that time when a foreign land became my home. 

Now, this is how I approach my visits to new countries and cities. I research what I want to do and analyze what are the best ways to do them. Going to Tokyo? I'll look up what public transport the locals use to get into the city. Looking for hikes in Ethiopia? I'll search local blogs and websites for images and recommendations. Visiting Jordan? I better brush up on my Arabic.

My travels show that I'm adaptable, resilient, and ambitious. I decide where I want to go and what I want to do, and I make it happen. I love hiking and so I look for the best hikes everywhere I go. If there's a mountain to conquer, I'm there.