My First Trip Abroad

If you have a goal to travel, or you simply want to expand your horizons to another country or two, there will eventually be your first trip abroad. My first, was in Thailand. Now, I can honestly say, as my first trip abroad, this was not the first place I had in mind. However, the opportunity presented itself, and I took a chance. I was scared out of my mind. I didn’t know what to expect. And I learned the difference between vacation, and travel.

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Vacation vs. Travel

Now, vacation and travel do have similarities. Often times they both involve traveling to a new place, learning something, and trying something new. However, at least for me, travel, is not relaxing. It’s not carefree and refreshing, and it is most certainly not without challenges. With both travel and vacation, you will have ups and downs, but my main point in bringing out the difference in these two things is to tell you one important fact. Vacation is for relaxation, and travel is for learning.

Is Your First Trip Abroad Supposed to be for Vacation or Travel?

This really all depends on you. Usually your first trip abroad is to help you find balance. If you are a workaholic who’s idea of a fun time is reorganizing your file cabinet, maybe your trip abroad should be to a relaxing beach, or a historical location. But if you’re more of an indoors person who shudders at the thought of grocery shopping, then maybe you’ll want to expand your horizons with a few character building experiences. Just an idea.

What my First trip Abroad was Like

As I mentioned earlier, my first trip abroad was to Thailand. Now, I am a quiet and timid person with a personal space minimum of 4 feet. So, yeah. I listened to music like it was my life support, and I relied on literally anyone because by this point, anyone within my sight line had more experience than me. I had never been in a foreign country before, I had never traveled without my parents, and I had never been away from home for anything close to the 3 1/2 weeks I was in Thailand.

I learned some things pretty quick for example, if you look scared at the airport, like, borderline about to cry scared, TSA will be really nice. Next I learned that you can live off of jerky, chips, and dried mango. I think between my traveling companion and I, we polished off 7 containers of dried mango, 10 full bags of chips, and around 20 jerky sticks. Not that I didn’t try new foods, but about half way through my first official week in Thailand, I learned that some Indian foods have cashews in them. A nut, which I am allergic to. It was at this point in my trip, that I learned I can have an allergic reaction in a foreign country, and be perfectly fine. Well, at least after I fill the toilet with my dinner. Yuck. Anyways…..

When driving around certain areas, I made sure to take note of different land marks. The huge fountain by the beach, a fancy health spa by our friends house, and where the nearest 7 Eleven is. By doing this, if my partner an I were ever dropped off somewhere, I wasn’t completely turned around, and could get us back to the house. Eventually.

One of the greatest things I learned on this trip though, was patience. We waited for taxis, people, food, planes, and I learned to accept that there are some things that you just can’t control. I couldn’t make the bus move any faster to the airport. My running would not have gotten me there any sooner. And I learned patience towards people as well. I mean, you don’t know what people are going through in this day and age. So if ever a person seemed a little frustrated or rushed, I’d try to give them a soft smile to let them know, I’m not judging you, I’m just trying to survive in this weird (to me) place so do whatever you’ve got to do.

Traveling With a Partner

Now, I don’t think I would have made it home without my traveling companion. I do think towards the end we were driving each other a little crazy, but I wouldn’t have wanted to go on my first trip abroad, without my family, with anyone else. If you’re reading this and thinking of going somewhere, seriously, don’t go alone. This is a scary world in scary times. With two, you can work together to have a great time, and still get home in one piece.

That’s it!

These were my experiences and lessons learned abroad. In summary, be prepared for anything, always act with kindness, and don’t go it alone. And you know, I was scared to go on this trip. But now that I’ve done it, I learned so much, and I’m now able to face the world just a little more confidently before. So I will definitely keep traveling as much as I can. And hopefully, you’ll all enjoy hearing about my experiences and fails.

Thank you so much for reading another addition to the Welcome To My Shoes blog! I will keep adding to this blog every other week so you all can keep hearing about all of my adventures and mishaps as I explore the world one step at a time.