About

Hi! My name is Chewy. Actually, that’s my nickname, which I got while playing my sport of choice. I’m traveling when I can, usually solo, and now based in New York City. Welcome to my blog, Chewy Travels!

Apparently, I’m very much a typical millenial traveler. The main things I can ascribe to are thinking of myself as an explorer, choosing Airbnb over hotels, cities over beaches, big adventure and nature. Also, not only do I have a valid passport, I got it with double the number of passport pages!

An introvert and a graduate student, I was based out of Singapore and London from 2013 through 2016, traveling when I can. New Yorker through and through, I try to keep an open heart and an open mind. I’m now back in New York as a science journalist after finishing my PhD in 2018.

Here you’ll find musings about my travels, thoughts about culture and place, and delicious food. Mmmm, delicious food… I want to learn about other people and places, and to think about what my tiny role on this earth might be in the short amount of time I have. I named this blog Chewy Travels as a bit of a double meaning: I (aka Chewy) travel and these travels are often chewy because food is a big part of my travel.

My journey so far

Me at five years old in Hong Kong

This photo of me is from when I was 5 on my first trip ever! (Apologies for the poor quality photo…I will scan these eventually.) My parents brought our whole family to Shanghai and Hong Kong, where they are from or spent a lot of time growing up. As an Asian American, I often think about race issues when I travel and when I come home to the US.

There are very few things I remember from that trip, but I remember the feeling of excitement of being somewhere totally new, meeting people I had no idea existed, and experiencing different food and culture. My next big trip wasn’t until I was a senior in college to return to China for a summer study abroad program. I’ve been trying to travel as much as possible since then!

Having thoughts in Venice

I try to stick to a pretty tight budget. Check my Travel Plans page for more details!

If you are looking for more Travel Tips, I’ve got some on this site but if I haven’t covered it yet, shoot me a message.

On a train from Ella to Kandy in Sri Lanka

Traveling by train in Sri Lanka

Random things I’ve done

I like to try new things, sometimes related to dance or the outdoors. A few of the things I’ve done at some point:

Korean fan dancing (Buchaechum)
Step dance
Radio DJ for college radio station [Most recently I was a Radio personality for Radio Pulze.]
Kayaking
Archery
Hip hop dance
Aerial fabrics/silks
Squash (though I really stink at it)

I hope to add to this list while on my travels!

Languages

I grew up in New York City, and consider myself Chinese American. I’ve had the opportunity to learn the Shanghai dialect growing up, and Mandarin in school. I’ve spent some time learning Japanese and Spanish as well, and hope to level up in those languages. I used Duolingo for Italian for a trip to Italy, and also for Spanish for a conference in Spain in 2015.

Check out this blog for language inspiration!