Travelling to the US – first solo trip!

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.

Me on your left, my twin sister Diza on your right

My sister and I in front of the UIUC campus

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…

Downtown Chicago

Also downtown Chicago

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!

The University of Washington

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).

Times Square, New York

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 🧚🏻‍♀️