5 {travel} things!

(in rhodes, greece. i live for the chance to jump for joy.)

Mel passed the torch on to me. Here are five {travel} tidbits about me! 

• I was 21 the first time I stepped foot out of the country. It was my senior year in college, and I boarded a jet plane to study abroad in South Africa. Go big or go home.

• I've pooped my pants on two continents. I mean, what can I say? When you go big or go home, you also just go, a lot. (They're both epic  stories. One you've heard, and one involves skinny dipping, bandits in the night, and Cormac McCarthy - it's quite the tale/tail.)

• I'm really outgoing in my every day life and get a lot of my energy from being around other people. But secretly, I'm a closet-introvert who loves reading, writing on my own time, exploring remote places far away from the big cities, and who one day wants a house in the mountains or country near great hikes and beautiful vineyards.

• The first mountain I ever summited was Stellenbosch Mountain in South Africa (I don't count Stone Mountain in Georgia - no way, no how!). I hated outdoorsy things, especially climbing up large hilly things and things that generally involved sweating, and I don't even remember if we really made it to the top. But I do count it as my first foray into hiking. Here's how that first hike went:

• I studied karate in Japan....... with black-belt elementary schoolers. And a few incredible adults. My sensei went with me to be fitted for a gi (women's sizes were too small, men's were too large - I was so awkward there!). She surprised me with having my name inked onto my uniform in kanji - Chinese characters. Culturally, kanji names are treated with reverence and used only for Japanese-born. She translated my name, "Cynthia," as forest, poem, and Japan. It's one of my most treasured memories.

 

Now that I've shared my five things, I want the dirt on Jess, Noe, and Paige!