Caroline Kahle Gives a Single Girl’s View on the City of Brotherly Love
Category: Travels the World
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Right From the Start
The Single Diaries brunches with yoga teacher Megan D’Amico.
Megan D’Amico graduated magna cum laude from Loyola Marymount University with a degree in Communication Studies. We met by chance when she was assigned to be the fourth roommate in our dorm suite, proof that everything happens for a reason. She later became my big sis in our sorority, influenced my decision to stay in L.A. after college, and continues to inspire me in so many ways. This past summer, I had the privilege of witnessing the start of a new chapter in her life: Megan’s graduation day to become a certified Kundalini yoga instructor—an unexpectedly emotional day for me.
In an experience as spiritual as yoga, your teacher’s energy guides the class more than anything else. Her classes are always a perfect start to the week: stimulating, motivating, and thoughtful. Megan shares her journey, her philosophy, and the lessons she learned to get to where she is.
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Single Girl Called to Action | Typhoon Yolanda
“It’s human nature to protect our minds and spirits by fleeing behind the cover of ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ But if you’re reading this and feel your heart reaching out to the people affected by Haiyan/Yolanda, take another couple of minutes to find out if you can help more. It doesn’t take much.”
November 10, 2013. (NOEL CELIS/AFP/Getty Images) Last weekend, one of the worst storms ever devastated the Philippines—the home country of my parents, grandparents, ancestors. We were fortunate that none of our relatives were directly affected, but the Filipino community is small and tight-knit so I know loved ones of friends were affected. Lara Torii shares her experience about the storm passing while she was visiting her family in Manila. Abba Chan talks about Tacloban (her birthplace and the town hardest hit by the super typhoon) and the efforts that her family is making in the wake of the devastation. Read on for their stories and to learn about opportunities to help directly.
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What I Love About My City | Chicago
Jacqueline Howard tells us how she made the Windy City her home
PHOTO: BOBBY SAMAT PHOTOGRAPHY. Welcome back to What I Love About My City—a series in which our favorite single girls dish on everything from the best places for a single girls weekend to the secret spots only the locals know about. If you’re thinking about moving or just planning your next trip, we’ll fill you in with all the essential details on the cities our crew knows best.
Jacqueline Howard is an editor at Huffington Post and a host of Talk Nerdy to Me who holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the University of Southern California. Originally from Cincinnati, Jacqueline attended the University of Michigan, studied abroad in Melbourne, Australia, and lived in Los Angeles for a few years before heading back to the Midwest. It was as fellow interns at C Magazine that I got to know Jacqueline as one of the smartest and most insightful peers I’ve ever met. We became fast friends when I realized I could talk to her about anything (career choices, reality TV, boys, women’s issues in the media) and get sound advice or an interesting conversation. I still miss her in L.A., but I can’t wait to visit her in her new home.
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Lessons in Traveling Alone
What I Learned from Taking My First Trip Alone
At this time last year I was counting down the days until I packed my bags and headed to Thailand. I booked an 11-day excursion abroad and decided to do it on my own. My trip would take me first to Bangkok, then around the western coast of Thailand, and make a final stop in Tokyo. I was excited and terrified to go.
Traveling to Thailand had been on my mind for a few years. I wanted to touch every continent (Antarctica excluded) before I was 25, and Asia was the only one missing from my list. Several friends in college had gone as part of study abroad. They raved about its beautiful beaches, cheap massages, and amazing street food. Their reviews convinced me that I needed to experience this land for myself.
I shared the idea with an equally adventurous best friend of mine; she was immediately hooked. We both had jobs lined up on the west coast and decided Thailand was the post-graduation adventure we needed before we both started our new corporate jobs. That was November 2010.
Over the next few months as we started planning our trip, life got in the way. The pressures of graduation, the looming cost of moving across the country, and family priorities all took precedence over the grand trip we had imagined. I was disappointed but decided to put Thailand on the back burner for another time.
Throughout the following year I brought the idea up to different friends trying to find a travel partner to make the trip with me. Most would express interest but ultimately the complexity and cost of the trip would deter them from commitment. I soon began to realize that if I really wanted to go, I would need to find the courage to do it alone.
I had traveled a lot growing up and through college with family, study abroad, service trips, and an internship with Delta Airlines. Never though had I traveled by myself and certainly not to somewhere as far away as Thailand. The idea was intriguing particularly at that point in my life. It was my first year living away from home, my family, and my college girlfriends. I was newly independent, learning to take on new responsibilities, and growing comfortable being out of my comfort zone. Taking this trip alone seemed like the perfect test to see just how far I could push myself.
There were a couple options to consider. One was the obvious—buy a flight, pack a bag, and go it totally alone. That seemed like a bigger push than I was ready for. The alternate option was to find a tour group I could hitch onto. It wouldn’t be traveling with my best friends but it would be traveling with new ones; that felt like a good compromise.
After some research, I decided on a Thailand tour with Contiki, a travel tour group for 18- to 35-year-olds. For a fixed price Contiki took care of all of the accommodations, local transportation, and excursions. The only thing I had to worry about was my booking my round trip ticket there.
Needless to say, that trip to Thailand was one I will never forget. The tour turned out to be a great option because it brought together similarly aged travelers from around the world, many traveling alone, to share the adventure together. While I did have to navigate the journey to and from Thailand on my own, for the bulk of my trip I had new friends with whom to share the experience.
I know it can be scary to think about taking a big trip like that on your own but I would encourage every Single Girl to give it a shot. You learn that you can be independent, that being alone sometimes is actually nice, and that new friends can be made anywhere. If you are considering a solo trip, read on for a few lessons I learned that you might find helpful.