Day 1 Two words: sensory overload. Hongdae is a stacked array of Parisian-inspired dessert bars, skin food labs, multilevel arcades, karaoke bars, and cafés boasting fruity lattés topped with marshmallows and whipped cream. There’s a sleek Boba tea spot with a line of people waiting behind a velvet barrier rope. A woman with a headset … Continue reading My Week of Seoul Searching
How to Be an Outsider in Cambodia
“Can you speak Khmer?” The customs officer asks me this with his eyes squinted. It’s 10 p.m. at the Phnom Penh airport and I just got off a six-hour flight. “Can I speak—no, no, I can’t,” I answer him, blinking. “Where were you born?” he asks. Literally, you have my passport in your hand. “USA.” … Continue reading How to Be an Outsider in Cambodia
What the Khmer Kids Taught Me
I know I should be listening but I’m zoning out. Teresa*, the head of A New Day Cambodia, is explaining to my family and I how the school works as we sit cross-legged in their main hall. But my gaze is on the long scroll of paper tacked to the wall and covered with Magic … Continue reading What the Khmer Kids Taught Me
Meeting My Korean Relatives
Let me just say, it was unreal. My mom, dad, brother, and I approach a tall building with an escalator traveling into its middle. We wander to the third floor, quietly, because the corridors are silent. (I don’t know why. This is apparently a mall. The hair salons, micro-gyms, and clothes shops must be sealed … Continue reading Meeting My Korean Relatives
How to Show Outsiders What Sanford is All About
Historic Downtown Sanford is too good to keep a secret. Recently we hosted a team of Instagrammers and bloggers from Orlando and Tampa to show them what a weekend getaway in Historic Downtown Sanford may look like. Many stayed in the beautiful bed & breakfast The Higgins House. First Stop: The District This is the happiest … Continue reading How to Show Outsiders What Sanford is All About
A Proposal in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Part One: Asian Food The plan was to meet at HOMES Brewery. Saturday late afternoon, my parents pick me up from the Detroit airport in their rental car and we speed towards Ann Arbor. I shiver in the backseat and check my brother’s girlfriend’s Instagram story. More images of cacti with puns. I’m glad I … Continue reading A Proposal in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Throwback to New Jersey
Why would you want to go to New Jersey? I'm reading Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler and there's this bit where a character says: "Yes, it’s a cool place…cool is always past tense. The people who lived it, who set the standards they emulate, there was no cool for them. There was just the present tense: there … Continue reading Throwback to New Jersey
How to Have Fun in Suburban Florida
What is there to do here? I feel my city girl coming out. Making beelines to hipster bars and any place with the words “Live Music.” But a change of scenery means a change of style and I’ve been adapting. Here's what I've discovered.
Rachel Noelle Sammons 