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Cathleen's Discoveries
Experiences/Opportunities/Travel
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Experiences/Opportunities/Travel

If I had to guess, I'd say that the biggest impact will come from the people you meet, so it's worth putting some thought into what sorts of things the people you're most interested in might end up doing (and also whether the thing is conducive to connecting with people).

And otherwise, I'd optimize for diversity of experiences. There's so much value in just understanding what's out there and how it can make you think and feel. (Bonus points for sometimes going solo, so that you’re not bringing your normal comfortable world along with you as you go.) And remember that you can also experience the world through 📚Reading!

(See also: 🏙️Living Life Well)

School

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👭 Cottey College
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🎨 Waldorf School
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🏫 Reunions

Global

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🇩🇪 Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange
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🌍 Immersive Language Camps or Schools

Active

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💃 BYU Dance Camp
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🎾 Community Tennis Classes
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🏕️ Summer camps

Travel Tips/Recommendations

🇪🇺 Europe

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🍨 Germany
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🥐 France
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🍰 England & Scotland
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💃 Barcelona
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🇮🇸 Iceland

🇺🇸 US

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🏞️ California
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🏙 Chicago
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⛰️ Denver
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🎭 Ashland, OR
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🏔️ Alaska

🏝️ Caribbean

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🇧🇸 The Bahamas (Nassau)

🌏 Asia

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🥵 Note on heat and humidity:
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✈️ Asian airlines
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🚕 Southeast Asia “uber”
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🇮🇳 India
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🇸🇬 Singapore
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🇹🇭 Bangkok
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🇭🇰 Hong Kong
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🇨🇳 China (Shenzhen)

General Travel Tips:

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📝 Try not to treat your visit as a to-do list
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🔭 People-watching is underrated
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👬 But try to get a feel for being a part of this place, rather than just an observer/exploiter
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🍱 Especially if it’s outside your culture/comfort zone, try to book a hotel that includes breakfast and budget time to enjoy yourself and try new things at the ~buffet
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🦠 Maybe try boosting your digestive capabilities?
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🥱 Try to deal with jet lag early
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🗺 Try 🐥Pokémon Go for spacial orientation
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🚉 Download “CityMapper” for transit directions
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🎧 The Duolingo podcasts are pretty great for language exposure (though maybe Lonely Planet is better for travel phrases)
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⚠️ Check the state department advisories before you travel abroad (for safety/awareness and also requirements like visas or vaccines)
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👩‍🏫 Check the CIA Factbook (now discontinued but available as an archive)
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🛂 Get a passport (it can take weeks if not months without being expedited (in April 2023 expedited was taking 7-9 weeks+ delivery time)) and never get within 6 months of the expiration date
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🛜 Get a way to tap and pay
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✅ Get TSA Precheck (or Global Entry which includes TSA Precheck) or possibly Clear
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✈️ United is maybe the current best airline option
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🛃 Google Flights is maybe the best current option for finding flights
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♨️ Use a hairdryer to warm up
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🧳 Packing advice
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🗼 Souvenir thoughts

Adventures

🏜️Burning Man

🐙Tide Pooling

🏕️Camping

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🏞 Lifetime National Parks Pass at age 62 (or w/ disability)
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🛶 Canoeing in the BWCA
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👩‍🔬Citizen science!
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🐟 Grunion Greeters (great example of citizen science!)
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🌲—>🎄Harvest your own Christmas tree

Misc food to try (~in the US)

note: this started out as a pretty short list of weirder things like boba and Thai iced tea, but it’s slowly becoming more like what I would recommend if we were at a restaurant together and you didn’t know what to order.

American

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🍺 Root beer freeze (at Foster’s Freeze or at home)
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🍨 Moose tracks ice cream
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🥓 Fried(?) Brussels sprouts with balsamic & bacon & blue cheese
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🍎 Honeycrisp apples (with almond butter)
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🍨 Rolled ice cream (Thai but widely available)
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🐭 (This is not a recommendation, but, fun food experimentation fact: if you try to warm cottage cheese, it will suddenly become cheese in a pretty shocking way)

Indian

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🥤 Mango lassi
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🥟 Dahi puri
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🍢 Chaat

Thai

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🍹 Thai iced tea
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🥥 Tom Kha
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🍲 Green curry

Vietnamese

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🥗 Bun Cha Gio

Japanese

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🍣 Sushi rolls with a slice of lemon on top
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🐟 Saba (mackerel) nigiri
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🍵 Green tea creme brûlée

Taiwanese (but widely available now)

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🧋Boba

Korean

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🍲 Stoneware bibimbop with spicy tofu soup
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🧇 Kimchi pancake

Ethiopian

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🫓 Veggie combo platter
  • See also 🥧Food & Entertaining