Life update: Press clippings, conference & TV appearances, upcoming travels & more!

BY ONEIKA RAYMOND

Call it the “State of the Traveller Address”.

 Call it the “State of the Traveller Address”. After my personal update at the beginning of the year, I only felt it apt to share what I’ve been up to of late since it’s the beginning of April (and officially the 2nd quarter of 2015– where has the time gone?!)

I’m writing this from NYC, where I’ve been for the week visiting Liebling, but in a few hours will make the 15 hour plane journey back to my beloved Hong Kong. I’ll spend two more months there chilling out, maxing, relaxing all cool — erm, wait a minute, wrong post — I mean I’ll spend two more months out there TEACHING before bidding farewell to the city for good *single tear*.

Time is FLYING and lots of (good!) things are happening in my life.  Here’s the skinny on what’s been going on:

Blog revamp

Surprise! Frequent visitors to the site will have already noticed that I’ve switched up the blog’s design a bit.  I’ve been wanting to freshen up the blog’s aesthetic and reorganize its layout for a while; since I’ve been laying particularly low in NYC and staying in (a first for me since I suffer from severe FOMO and am always out doing something) I figured it would be a prime opportunity to hunker down and restructure my online home. While I didn’t do a major overhaul, I made a few tweaks, like adding some new sections to the site to make it easier to navigate (see reviews, videos, where I’ve been, etc.). I’ve also put some of my more useful content (like the post “How I afford to travel”) on the homepage for quick and easy access.  Have a look around and let me know what you think! I did it all myself, and I am NOT technologically gifted, so with this upgrade I’m definitely feeling a satisfying sense of accomplishment.

Features

I’ve been blessed to be able to share my story and my travel tips in a few places online and on television in the last few months. This sort of exposure is always highly appreciated because it introduces me and my writing to a whole new audience. Black Enterprise featured me in two articles (see here and here), Necole Bitchie did a writeup, and just two days ago I appeared on TVOne’s NewsOne Now morning show, where I shared my tips on the best places for African Americans to travel. I’ll be posting the clip for the TV segment shortly so stay tuned!

New Writing Opportunities

If you follow me on Facebook, you probably already know that I’ve become a contributor to Conde Nast Traveler, which is a huge honour.  You see my articles here. I’ve also recently become a Yahoo Travel Explorer, contributing stories and pictures to Yahoo’s travel platform.  As always, these extra writing commissions are tough to juggle whilst work full time in a completely different industry, but I’m not one to turn away opportunity when it comes knocking.

Conferences

I’m going to be presenting at two travel conferences this year, which is huge as I’ve never even attended one before! On June 20, I will be doing a presentation on the art of storytelling at the Blogging While Brown conference in Austin, Texas.  On September 26, I will be participating in a panel about the business of blogging at the Nomadness Alternative Conference in New York City.  I’m very excited!

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NYC move

So Liebling and I are basically all moved in to our new apartment in NYC! I say basically because apart from requisite furnishings like the bed, couch, and kitchen table, the flat is pretty bare.  We are both terrible at decorating so are hoping for some divine intervention to help us spruce up our very white, very boring walls. Additionally, I’m in the throes of procuring my U.S. residency visa, which, though tedious, is a relatively straightforward process. In other news, since I’ve been in NYC so often over the past months (3 different visits in 4 months!) the city is really beginning to feel like home. I’ll be here definitively come mid-June.

Travel update

My travel dance card has been filling up and I have added more destinations to my itinerary since my last update. I randomly and unexpectedly spent not one, but two weekends with friends in Taipei, Taiwan (in January and March)– I say randomly because I had no real reason for going other than to hang out with friends and keep boredom and bay– and I say unexpectedly because I literally bought tickets for both trips 48 hours before going. I’m living out my last days in Asia in the spirit of YOLO— I figure I might as well enjoy myself thoroughly because who knows when I’ll be back?  In terms of Asia travel, I’ll also be heading to Macau (with friends to see Katy Perry in concert!), Xian, China (for work– leading a group of 65 sixth-graders, eek!), and then finishing up with a solo trip to Hanoi, Vietnam (because again, YOLO).

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Making a new friend in Taipei, Taiwan

The travels won’t stop once I’m stateside.  As it stands, days after my arrival to NYC in June, I’ll head to Austin, Texas for the Blogging While Brown conference I mentioned above. Then I’ll be off to Panama and Ecuador with Liebling in July,  Colombia and Brazil for a girls’ trip with my besties in August, home to Toronto in September, and then to Bolivia with Liebling in October.

I’m also hoping to squeeze in a trip to Jamaica; my dad lives there and I haven’t been back to yaad in ages.

So as you can see I have a number of exciting projects on the go! What’s new with you?

SHARING IS CARING

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