Take in a baseball game at Angel Stadium of Anaheim: Though the Los Angeles Dodgers aren’t too much farther of a drive away from Orange County, if you’re looking to catch a baseball game and avoid L.A. traffic, the Angels are a great second choice. The stadium is beautiful, with a very modern feel that includes a multitude of both classic ballpark food and more gourmet options. There isn’t a bad seat in the stadium and tickets are easy to get the day of the game.

Go shopping at the Irvine Spectrum Center or Fashion Island: If you’re not traveling on a budget and you’re visiting Orange County to live the high-life, consider taking a day to visit these two outdoor shopping malls, that offer department stores like Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales and more. Both centers also have great restaurants and other shops like Free People, White House Black Markte and Apple Stores.

Eat as much dirty Mexican food as possible: Something I didn’t do nearly enough of this trip to California, but usually make a point of. If you love Mexican food, Southern California is the place to be for greasy, delicious, cheesy tacos, burritos, chips, enchiladas, guacamole and more. My first time in Southern California, I managed to eat four burritos in the span of two days. This time around I limited myself to chips, salsa and guac, a veggie burrito and a couple of tacos.

Go sailing: Try and find an affordable sailing excursion…or get lucky like me and know someone with a boat. Though we didn’t actually make it out of the harbor (the winds weren’t great), relaxing on a boat in the Dana Point Harbor of Orange County is a great way to relax, soak up some sun and catch up with old friends.

Spend a day at Laguna Beach: Yes, that Laguna Beach, the one made famous by MTV faux-reality. Though the locals now complain they’re full of tourists, the beaches of Orange County are still beautiful to visit and spend a day swimming and tanning. Finish off your day with a beachside fish taco at one of the many stands just off the main road from the beach.

Take a day trip up to Los Angeles or down to San Diego: Orange County is a great central point to make excursions up to L.A. or down to San Diego. Both cities are an hour away in either direction, though traffic can be rough if you don’t leave at precisely the right time. Leave early to make the most of your day and come back late. Some excursion ideas include Old Town San Diego, the San Diego Zoo, Disneyland, shopping and celebrity watching Rodeo Drive or visiting the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Lucky for me, with the upcoming wedding of my two friends, I’ll be seeing at least two more trips there before this time next year. Though much of Orange County is residential and not your “typical” tourist spot, it’s quickly gaining notoriety as a vacation spot with beautiful people and beaches and easy access to the major cities in Southern California.

Of all the islands visited — Koh Lanta, Koh Phi Phi, Koh Tao and Koh Phangan — Koh Tao easily took the cake as my favorite. Each island was vastly different and beautiful, but Koh Tao offered the most laid back atmosphere and the opportunity for me to learn a new hobby.

Koh Tao is one of Thailand’s most treasured beach locations because of its key location for first-time divers. I had never been diving before, but was interested in the possibility of learning after deciding to stay in one of the many guesthouses with a diving school attached. According to the instructors at the Crystal Dive Guesthouse, about five percent of the world’s divers are certified in the Gulf because of its incredible marine life and cheap costs for certifications.

Andrea and I had decided on the introductory PADI Discover SCUBA Divers course (2,000 baht, or about $60USD) instead of leaping right into the four-day certification course, which is probably one of my biggest regrets of the trip. Though it would have set me back about $300 USD, the certification would have been well worth it because by the end of the day I was hooked. The daylong course though, included equipment, a dive master, basic diving skills and our very first dive: 40 minutes at 40 feet under the sea near the island of Koh Nang Yuan, one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen.

As I said, after just learning the basics in the pool, I knew I’d be hooked on diving.  By the time we actually started diving with our dive master, Ben from England, I knew I wanted to come back for certification. Of course there was a quick adjustment period, some minor discomfort during which I had to rise higher up before descending deeper into the sea, but all nerves and unease seemed to disappear the second I saw my first school of fish jet by me and the anemones below me sway back and forth like the palm trees above water. After our dive and on our  way to return to shore, the boat captain spotted a baby whale shark basking near the surface and allowed us to jump off the boat and snorkel alongside it; something I was told is an incredibly rare and lucky opportunity, especially for first time divers.

Sadly, I never made the time to get back to Koh Tao for certification, so it’s definitely something on my list of things to do on my major adventure (or some time in between!).

I had planned to offer more tips and tricks of travel, especially in Southeast Asia, and some guidelines or activities that I loved for those about to head East. Well, I’ve been doing a crappy job. Aside from offering up my experiences with the Immigration Detention Center (which I still recommend more than anything), I haven’t really said much of anything.

Enter my idea for a series of posts with the headline, “A Look Back.” To get me writing and you all reading again, I’m going to write these look back posts whenever I have a spare moment, in addition to other content about my goings on back home.

Be on the lookout for the first one, about diving on my favorite Thai island, Koh Tao!

Fast-forward a year to Monday evening. It was only then did I remember who these guys actually were and that they and their interviewees were anything but. My sister’s name was drawn out of a hat for tickets to a taping of the Steve Wilkos Show — the one she deems the “most intellectually stimulating” because it talks about “serious issues.” Only, we get to the taping and turns out it’s not Steve we’re seeing, it’s the king of trashy TV himself, Jerry Springer. Production assistants rush us on set and into our seats in the audience where we’re provided with a small list of ground rules:

1. Don’t flash anyone until the comments section.
   
2. If you plan on flashing, you must do a 360 so the whole audience can see.
3. Chant JERRY as loud as you can, but only on cue.
4. The more noise you make, the wilder the storylines usually turn.
5. Don’t curse on camera. Leave it for the show subjects.

Aside from those mind-baffling rules, the 20-somethings in the audience were given a pretty free reign of what they wanted to do and say. The show (and its subject) was a usual Jerry Springer theme. The three storylines included one-night stands, threesomes and a transgender surprise. It was crass, full of fighting, hair pulling, fist-pumping, exposed body parts and cursing. In between sets, Springer interacts with the audience and actually does some pretty funny stand-up.

I have to say, if you live in Stamford or are in the New York/Connecticut border, it’s something you should go see at least once. Not only is it a FREE way to spend an evening out, but it’s a live studio taping, which is actually pretty cool (despite the shows that are taping). The whole taping lasted a little over an hour; just in time to make a night of it and head out for some drinks if you’re in town afterwards. It’s mindless entertainment and while you may feel like you need to shower the dirtbag off of you after it’s over, it really is a different way to spend a fun evening out with friends.

— Rory MacLean, author of my favorite book from my travels, “Magic Bus: On the Hippie Trail from Istanbul to India”

However, for as many mangosteens supporters I had out there, I had two quite vocal nonbelievers: my good friend and foodie extraordinaire Chris Preovolos, and one of my own kind, my father.

When I met up with Dad in Jerusalem for a weekend right after leaving Bangkok, one of the first things he said to me was, “Sarah. Mangosteens? An entire blog post about ONE fruit? How dumb!”

I tried to convince him otherwise; put into words how delicious the fruit was and how many people agreed with me. I knew both of them would love this fruit, but they just weren’t having or hearing any of it. I resigned myself to waiting until I returned to the United States to go on a quest to find the illegal fruit in the place where you go to find all things illegal (counterfeiting, anyone?), New York City’s Chinatown.

Fast-forward to last Sunday. Chris and I go on expeditions for new cuisines fairly often, and on this day he was itching to try BaoHaus’ claim to fame for selling Taiwanese street food. Before we would make it there, however, I was a woman on a mission. Walking down Canal Street and weaving through the produce streets, I was coming up empty handed and discouraged within 10 minutes. Chris and I stumbled upon the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory and got scoops of mango and banana ice cream before moving on to finding a Thai grocer. He told us that mangosteens were out of season, but he had canned juice in his fridge (and it’s now in mine). After chatting a little bit more with the grocer who thought I could speak fluent Thai and a customer who grew up in Bangkok, I picked up some karee curry paste — I’m also determined how to make pad pong li gai (my favorite dish) —  and we headed back out to resume our quest.

Honestly, it took all of about an anti-climactic 10 minutes before I found mangosteens packed up in white-netted bags. While they weren’t on display as prominently as the mangos, durian and dragonfruits, they weren’t exactly hard to find either. But, they were hard. And expensive ($7 per pound!). I knew they were headed out of season as I was leaving Bangkok back in June and the sweet little grocer who thought I could speak Thai also told us the same thing. But I was excited, so I bought some.

After wrestling to open up the little piece of heaven for Chris, I made him try one. It wasn’t as great as they are when in season in Southeast Asia, but still not awful either (it’s probably impossible for a fruit that good to ever taste bad, let’s be real). A few days later, my Dad came back from a business trip and I did the same thing…only, to open this one, we had to use a butcher knife and a meat tenderizer. My mom swears they were petrified and wearily looked on as my Dad popped one of the pieces into his mouth and finally agreed to what I knew all along…

…Despite the fruit being out of season he said, “Wow, I can see how I really would like this.”

Mission accomplished.

I guess I’m doing pretty well. I’m keeping myself busy by making sure I see the people I love and missed most and I’m working hard to rekindle and cultivate those relationships that may have slipped through the cracks while I was away. To keep from feelings of complacency, I make sure I have something big to look forward to each week, be it a meet-up in New York with some Bangkok friends, a Mets game or concert (one of the perks of not blowing all your money), a trip to Long Island for a night out with my best friends or an afternoon out at the mall with my mom. I cut my hair drastically to substitute as a change of scenery (the scene’s now different when I look in the mirror!) and I’m headed to California for a week to visit some friends who are recently engaged.

Sneak peak at new hair and the boredom of a Saturday evening shift.

Everything sounds great, right?

Well, I’m back to working various odd jobs and I’m finding it’s hard to do a job (even if it’s part time) when you just don’t love what you’re doing. I found that to be true with my job as an editorial assistant and it’s even more true when I’m sitting behind a reception desk on a Thursday at 5:30 a.m. as people check into a gym. It’s difficult to put your heart into something that, realistically, isn’t even going to go on a resume.

…I don’t think professional phone answerer is going to be a bullet under the Skills section on my resume, unless of course I was applying to be a modern-day Joan Holloway…

But, you do what you have to in order to work toward the next major goal. The mind-numbing hours every early weekday and weekend morning will turn into paychecks that will eventually be the building blocks toward my next grand adventure. And knowing that it is possible to go on these adventures makes the prospect of saving to leave for one again even more exciting. In the meantime, I’m going to continue looking for a full-time job that will keep me both stimulated and engaged; something I enjoy and look forward to doing every day.

I’m directing my attention toward jobs in global and/or social nonprofits and communications. I’m thinking about taking the Foreign Service Officer exam in October and I’m constantly fascinated by young, innovative organizations like Do Something or the Candies Foundation and the older, yet continually growing Committee to Protect Journalists, UNICEF and the UNHCR. My recent trip help cleared a lot of things up for me in careerland and I know now that journalism isn’t my only answer, though certainly it is still one of them.

How do you balance doing something you don’t love and keep from getting those awful feelings of complacency? Let’s chat in the comments!

It is a historic and archaeological city (named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985) that was established some time around the 6th century BC. The site, nicknamed “The Rose-Red City” was unknown to the Western World until 1812, when it was rediscovered by a Swiss explorer. Today, while tourists flock to Petra, many parts of the rock city are still being excavated and discovered. I spent about seven hours one hot afternoon hiking through the UNESCO site and taking in the beautiful desert scenery. This photo was taken about a third of the way to the highest peak at Petra, from which you can see over 80 percent of the entire rock city.

I learned about the IDC my very first night in Bangkok, Jan. 8. Fresh off a 23-hour journey, I forced Andrea up and out to one of Cody McKibben’s Bangkok Tweet-ups, where I met Dwight Turner, the face behind the incredible hyper-local nonprofit organization, In Search of Sanuk. I spent much of the evening hanging with Dwight “getting uncomfortable,” being light-heartedly ridiculed as the new kid on the block and learning about the different projects on which he works. We parted ways with him reminding me that any time I wanted to “get uncomfortable in Bangkok,” to give him a call or shout on Twitter.

Finished with the loop around Southeast Asia and all comfortable in my new Bangkok apartment two months later, it was time to make good on my promise to Dwight and plan my first of what became twice-weekly visits to the Immigration Detention Center. The aim of visits to the IDC is to bring some sanuk (which is the Thai word for happiness) to the refugees detained in the squalid detention center with fresh food, clean water, hygiene products, and diapers and children’s coloring books for those refugee families with young children. Beyond the material happiness of fulfilling those basic needs, however, lies something much greater. By bringing a group of volunteers, the sanuk is magnified. The detainees in the IDC are held in cells with anywhere from 100 to 300 people and are separated by gender and sometimes age, pulling families apart. Entire families detained in the Center can go months at a time without seeing one another.

Most refugees in Thailand entered like we do. They fly into the country, receive a 30-day visa entry stamp and make their way into Bangkok just like us. However, unlike us, most refugees fear some kind of persecution in their homelands and thus, grossly overstay their visa in hopes of starting a new life. If found, they are arrested and either deported back to their home country or thrown into the IDC, where they can petition the United Nations for formal United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) status. In a process that on average takes around two years (though many are stuck much longer), the refugees in the IDC go through extensive interviews and medicals before receiving status and then waiting for a country to accept them for resettlement.

I would arrive at the IDC at around 9 a.m. with my passport (note: do not forget this like I did my first visit) and after photocopying the identification and visa pages, I receive a detainee’s identification number who hasn’t been visited in a while to “take out.” From there, the registration process with the IDC begins, where I’d fill out forms provided by a usually grumpy guard. After registration, volunteers and I pick up some fresh water and milk from 711, chicken and rice from a nearby street vendor and the usual morning mango shake for myself from the soi in the above photo. Visiting begins at 11 a.m. and after locking up my belongings, receiving a thorough pat-down and a guard examines what we brought for the detainees, permission to enter is granted. It’s unbearably hot and there are two long iron fences separated with a walkway for guards to patrol the visits. As detainees file in, visitors and prisoners on each side grip their respective fences, yelling over the masses to try and speak to one another.

What makes visits so special are the times enough volunteers gather to coordinate “taking out” a whole family, an additional part of Dwight’s missions with former-visit coordinator Becky Hubbell. Without visitors, families are only entitled to see each other once per month, and there are many families who have been there for several years (I’ve met several women who gave birth in the IDC as they were detained while pregnant). While refugees are certainly happy to have visitors, the overwhelming sense of joy they get when seeing their entire family out of the cells together is one that brought me to tears on more than one occasion.

If you’re in Bangkok for even just a little bit of time, I can’t stress enough how important it is to take a morning off from seeing the Buddhas and recovering from a Khao San Road bucket hangover. To learn more about the opportunities with Dwight and In Search of Sanuk, visit his website or follow In Search of Sanuk on Twitter.

Click here to read She’s in Love with the World’s interview with GO! Overseas.

It’s one of my favorite bookmarked travel sites to visit and I was thrilled when they contacted me with the opportunity to be a part of their community as a featured blogger interview and one of their Top 10 Travel Blogs on the web. A big thank you goes to Andrew Dunkle, who helped coordinate the interview and is one of the masterminds behind GO!