FAQ for Jayna
Questions I’ve often been asked on this trip…in roughly their order of popularity.
Where are you from? USA But you look like you’re from Japan! Well…I was born in Korea, but I was adopted by an American family.
Are you married? Nope. Why not? *shoulder shrug* I’m too young!
What state are you from? Missouri. It’s right in the middle.
Are you traveling by yourself? Yep. It’s just me and, well, me. My sister did meet me for a week in South Korea, though. Although lots of people said they wanted to join me for a leg of the journey, things like serious relationships, lack of money, or a new job promotion kept them at home. *another shoulder shrug*
What do your parents think of you traveling? Don’t they miss you? I’m pretty hard to miss. But I’d been living in Los Angeles for the last four years, and I’d lived in a few other places before that. Since I was 18, I think they’ve gotten used to seeing very little of me. They worry more than they miss me, I think. My mom is very good at worrying.
When did you decide to take this trip? And how in the world are you paying for it? When I studied abroad, I heard about people taking “a year off” to travel around the world. Since then, I’d thought about it and talked about it…it always seemed a bit of a pipe dream, though.
Then in 2006 I realized I was dipping into my meager savings every time my student loan payments came around. And by last summer I’d started accumulating credit card debt, too, the first time I’d ever done that. I decided I didn’t want to live like that and there really was no reason I shouldn’t be saving money, either. I also decided I was spending way too much time in my apartment and should stop watching Jeopardy! and Seinfeld every night. I figured I could easily solve both my money woes and growing TV addiction, and if I planned carefully I could maybe even take that trip I’d kept thinking about.
So, I got a part-time cocktail server job (after trying a few other lower-paying part-time gigs) and paid off my credit card debt and started socking the rest into savings. I did that for about eight months. At the time I thought it wasn’t hard at all, but now I realize how crazy my schedule was. I was working 40 hours a week at the office and about 35 a week at the bar (plus dealing with time-eating LA traffic); I sometimes didn’t have supper until 1 in the morning, and I often slept only about 4-5 hours a night. But since I was pretty young I’ve enjoyed being busy and productive and multi-tasking. Oddly enough, I’d say those eight months were some of my happiest in LA.
Where will you live when you go back to the States? I have no idea. I’m actually hoping I meet the man of my dreams on this trip and can move in with him. Kidding!
