Last week, my sister and I travelled around the US. This was our first ever travel trip without our parents, so it was a fulfilling journey of independence and learning (along with ridiculously crazy instances).
Here’s what we did in a nutshell:
We organised this trip primarily to tour around campuses of the universities we may be joining this fall. So our first stop was Illinois, as we wanted to see the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It was located at a serene location complete with squirrels, rain drops, fresh trees, and lots and lots of greenery.
We also stayed in Chicago for a day and something really scary happened. We were filling the gas of our (rented) car and in America, as I learnt, we have to do everything by ourselves. How very convenient… not. So when we were adjusting the gas, the petrol splurted all over my clothes 😱. Luckily there was a gas station convenience store, and the guy let me change to a fresh set of clothes in the bathroom since we had our luggage! I used to love the smell of petrol. Now I’m traumatised…
Our next stop was Seattle where we saw the University of Washington (where I’m most inclined to go). A soft pink campus complimented with a touch of blue – perfect for the princess I like to pretend I am!
We also stopped at the Starbucks Headquarters. It was a luxurious private reserve where we treated ourselves with a scrumptious skillet chicken with white wine sauce and an aromatic latté.
Our last stop was New York where we saw NYU 👩🎓, and there are no words to describe the vibrant, buzzy lives people live over there. We were walking all day to get from place to place and that was what I loved the most about this city (Psst…I didn’t workout for a whole entire week otherwise🤫). Also, here, and in fact in all the other cities, it was lovely to encounter a lot of Mexicans from Latin America, so we got to practice our Spanish! ¿Que guay, no? (How cool, no?). The people were also incredibly kind and in general we felt safe (considering this city can get pretty unsafe if one isn’t careful).
All in all, we had the time of our lives and travelling without our parents was a not-so-bad-as-I-thought experience. I love my parents to the moon and back, but a bird must eventually leave the nest of her family, right?
⁃ SaaniaSparkle 🧚🏻♀️
saania2806.wordpress.com 
I have never been to America, Saania. But I think if I had the chance to choose a place there to attend university, I might pick somewhere with better weather than those three cities. 🙂
It rains all the time in Seattle, and Chicago winters are harsh. New York is very cold in the winter, and very hot and humid in summer.
Given your age, from the three choices shown here, I cannot help but think that New York City would be the most exciting place for you.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Great images and yes, you both look so alike. I’d love to visit America but I’d have to spend at least a month over their to see what I want to see.
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Bonjour ou bonsoir SANIA
Bise Amitié à plus Bernard belle journée ou soirée
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just so great! Incredible moments captured right there! 📸sounds like one hell of an expedition!💛👭.Thank you for taking us with you!
Best of luck in your placement🎓 and many more journeys to come. S.S
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Hey Saania: So our little princess is now a solo traveller 🙂 And how confident – criss crossing Chicago, Seattle and New York! Flights, metros and taxi – just by the twin sisters not even 18.
Very proud.
Papa.
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There’s two of you? Never knew that 🙂 Glad you both enjoyed the journey.
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Haha there’s two of us indeed!
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Very brave girls to accomplish all that on your own.
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😄😄
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Beautiful 🥰🥰🥰
You clear had the time of your lives😁
Sorry about the petrol incident😊
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Haha thank you very much Jeremena
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What an amazing trip! You guys look like you had a lot of fun 🙂
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We did, a hundred percent!
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how exciting! Thanks for sharing!
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My absolute pleasure Andy
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my my How Time Flies Seems
Like Just Yesterday When You
Were Blogging at 13 or So and
Now Headed to University So i’ll
Just Refer to You As SaaniaSparkle
Now Instead of Young SaaniaSparkle
Of Course You’re Still Very Young Hehe
Anyway Glad to See the Small Print as
at first i Thought i Was Seeing Double Until
The Clarification You Have An Twin Identical
Enough Looking It Seems True too And Yes Yes
West Washington State A Safe Enough Place to Live
And Go To College As You Surely Seem the Jetting Setting
Type Already
Now At Just 17
SMiLes We Didn’t
See my Father’s Identical
Twin until We Were Older
Children it Was Surely Odd
to See A Copy of My Father
Yet it Was Clear He Was Only
Clark Kent HAha as He Wore Glasses like me too
And of Course Shades Now As it Seems That’s How
You Get Famous
When You Wear
Them At Night Dancing in
Public First Not A Penny
or Job Title Required First HAha
Anyway That’s Another Life Story
And 16,688 Miles of Public Dance
in 105 Months With Just About
8,000 Miles Left to Public
Dance The Distance
Around the
Equator
of the Globe
Again Anyway
Just Another ‘Forrest Gump’ Story With SMiLes
Hehe Jet Setter i Am Around the World Without A Plane
Yet Somehow i Manage to Fit 244 Pounds in this Fiber Optic Cable
Too With 10.5 MiLLioN Words of Free Verse Poetry And Here’s the
Moral oF A STory The Three Degrees in University Didn’t Teach me How to Truly
Live
An
EPiC
Life
FREE
LOVING
IT ALL
Just a bit
A Little Advice too
For Free of Course
As i Learned Fortune
isn’t Necessary to Truly
Earn Living Legend and
Famous Status By Living
Folk’s Legend At least With SMiLes
And i Didn’t Even Start Any of it Until 53
Oh ‘Just Imagine the places You Will Go’
If You Keep Going And Do Not Stop Like So many
Clark
Kent’s
And
Lois Lane’s
Sadly Do Be
A Surprise A Really Big one
At Your 50th Class Reunion Hehe
As Really That Mind Sound Impressive
Yet It’s Not As My Grandmother Who Raised
Her Three Daughters Without A Husband Who
Quit School To Help Raise Her Two Sisters Picking
Cotton For Her Father From Sunrise to Sunset so the
Two Sisters Could Go Off to College And Make A Good Living
Meanwhile my Grandmother For a Decade into Her 50’s Was
Still Walking to Work Waitressing 12 Hours a Days A Week
Probably at
Least 20
Miles A
Day Put on her
Feet And Here’s Wait
i Mean About Not Stopping
A 10.5 MiLLioN Word Longest Long
Form Poem in 105 Months Might Seem
Like A Big Deal Yet it Isn’t if You Write About
3.3 Thousand Words A Day Without Fail as it’s
True i’ve Been Writing Online Since Thanks Giving
Day of 2010 Now Consecutively Without A Day’s Break
No Matter
What Happened
in My Life And There
Surely Were Some
Challenges Ranging
From Real HeLL ON Earth
to Heaven of Course too And
As Far As Public Dancing 16,688 Miles
A Day for 105 Months Too Doing it Every Day
Only Averages Out to be About 5 Miles A Day
True A Record Breaking Life is Mostly Just About Not Stopping
As Genuinely A Turtle Ages More Slowly This Way and Wins All the Races
As He
Never
Races
He And or
She Only
Savors in Flow Every
Move and Love of Life New Now
Effortless Ease in EPiC Living Indeed…
Here’s A Real Key Though Wherever
You Go Be You And Not What Anyone Else
Ever
Expected
To See in Life BREaTHE Free…
Just
Love It
With SMiLes…
And Here’s A Last
Key if You Go Somewhere
Where You Might Not Be
Welcome Just Copy and
Paste Your Life Where it Might Be Needed hehe..:)
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Man, it looks like you both had a lot of fun!
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We did 💯
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That is the great Trip..
Thanks for sharing.
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My absolute pleasure
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Sounds like an amazing trip!
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It really was!
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University of Washington looks very nice – at least from the outside!
And you are right: a bird must eventually leave the nest of the family. This is when life begins to become interesting.
Greetings!
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How very brave of you and your twin sister to travel to America, Saania. And your travels were extensive, from coast to coast. Great photos and great adventures. Congratulations on this adventure.
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I have never made it across the Atlantic but I am sure I would love the buzz of New York. Walking is the only way to know a city. Well done with your trip. We will all look forward to hearing what you both decide to do. Ps – very brave driving on your first visit.
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How amazing! I didn’t know you had a twin sister (I have a twin sister too!)! 😊 Traveling without your parents for the first time can be scary but it is also very liberating! I hope you’ll end up in the university of your dreams!
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Surprised no one asked, and I don’t think you said, but I could have missed it – are you and your twin going to attend the same college?
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Hello! Ah you’re right I forgot to mention ☺️.
So, I’m most likely going to the university of Washington and my sister NYU now that we’ve had a while to think. She also received an offer from LSE in the UK but that’s with conditions based on final examination scores, so that is an option for her too.
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You’ll have so much fun visiting each other. Don’t limit yourselves to just the coasts, though. You’ve already been to Chicago but you should really visit some of the other “flyover” states, too. There are so many Americans whose thinking is limited because they’ve never been anywhere else but home, even in their own country.
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I wouldn’t worry so much about the rain of the University of Washington. I live in Vancouver, which is a rainforest wet city just across the international border from Seattle; and the rain is quite tolerable as it is quite often just a light drizzle. Get a hoodie. It’s all you really need.
— Catxman
http://www.catxman.wordpress.com
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Sounds like a fun trip adulting. All good except the gas spill. New York is a blast! I live less than an hour away and have time to enjoy all the sights. Hope you had a great time.
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Thank you very much, we indeed had a blast in New York and you’re lucky to live so close by. Do you use the train?
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When I go I take a New Jersey train into New York. It takes 30 minutes from my location. From there, I take the NY train system to my destination. Sometimes I go the wrong way, but that’s just as fun in NY!!!
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Very nice pictures and reporting, very cool 😉
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What an exciting time for you both, will your sister go to the same Uni as you? I guess it makes sense when sharing lodgings? Is there a good university near your current home?
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Sounds like an exciting vacation/uni hunt for you and your sister, Saania. Seattle university is beautiful, but have you looked at Canada? Just sayin’ 🙂
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Bonjour ,SAANIA bon mercredi
Ce matin
La fraîcheur du matin
Le chant des oiseaux
Le soleil qui se lève
Les rayons passent à travers les rideaux
Je viens te dire bonne journée
Attention aux grosses chaleurs restons au frais
Bisous Bernard
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Good luck in college, wherever you decide to go. Bob
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Looks like a marvelous trip! (Except for the incident with the petrol in Chicago…) Thanks for sharing these great photos.
Have you decided which college you’d like to attend?
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Wow sounds amazing! I have been to New York before. Ugg I cant imagine how terrible getting that all over your clothes.
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Happy Birthday to you and your sister! I really enjoy visiting Chicago for friends and business. In addition to writing, I work as a private college advisor to students around the world Some of the students I work with want to go to UChicago or Northwestern–both super hard schools to get into–and two of them got a YES this year. I’m an alum of NYU and my daughter is a 2020 grad of TISCH school of the Arts.
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I too have been to Seattle and just had to stop at Starbucks’ headquarters. You and your sister looked to have had a great time. Wherever you decide to go to college I pray you have many blessings and great success! Blessings and Peace!
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Solo trip should have brought many learnings to you – making foundation for the life ahead.
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Woha, simply mind blowing scenes Saania!
Looks like an ideal place to explore, looking at all of these stunning sceneries.
This brings back memories on an expedition I took part in the beautiful island nation of Sri Lanka in South Asia.
I set out on a journey to explore the longest river of Sri Lanka; River Mahaweli with a group of kayakers paddling for 3 long days.
And trust me when I say this, it was ‘heaven on earth” from lush greeneries to all the flora and fauna simply captivated me. Read the full story here, https://sachsattic.wordpress.com/2022/07/24/exploring-the-river-mahaweli-on-a-kayak/
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Thank you for sharing your adventures!!.. When you visited the University of Illinois you were near where I live as I live in a small farming village not to far away… 🙂
Hope you and your sister had a wonderful experience with your travels and until we meet again..
May the sun shine all day long
Everything go right, nothing go wrong
May those you love bring love back to you
May all the wishes you wish come true
May peace be within you
May your heart be strong
May you find whatever you’re seeking
Wherever you may roam
(Irish Saying)
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Fantastic..Nice trip.
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