From Lebanon and Cambodia to NYC & San Francisco

 

Travel Perspectives

                        

This week, we're starting a new initiative at the Center for Global Engagement. Throughout the rest of the Spring Semester, we'll be sharing the travel perspectives and knowledge of our international students. As guest writers, today our students share their experiences travelling within the United States and what their experiences have taught them about the U.S., Tennessee, and the nuances of culture within the United States. 

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Exploring the Big Apple

    Hello! I’m Sirine Moubayed from Lebanon, studying Physical Therapy for an exchange semester in the UGRAD program here at Maryville College. New York City has always been the dream city for me to visit. I did not expect to get the chance to visit as I knew how far Tennessee was from NYC and didn’t think I would be brave enough to travel in the U.S. on my own. Luckily, four other students were headed on the same flight to NYC for spring break! One of them was my companion as we planned to meet other UGRAD students in the city.

     View Outside the Whitney Museum

    Five days of waking up at 8 a.m. and sleeping at 12 a.m. amounted to so much fun and very achy feet, but it was all worth it! We did everything from sightseeing to discovering random live jazz shows we found from flyers in Greenwich Village. It was the trip of a lifetime. We watched a Broadway show, which was absolutely magical. I had never witnessed such a grand production of music, dance, and storytelling. The theater was packed with people, and that made the applause at the end feel much more powerful. It was otherworldly, and as if we had escaped into a different dimension while sitting there.

Walter Kerr Theatre

    After leaving NYC, I learned that happiness isn’t found in a location. Although I had always dreamed of being in and eventually living in NYC, experiencing it first hand showed me that NYC is an idea and a feeling, not just a place. This realization was further confirmed when I spontaneously met a physical therapist who works and lives there. The way she described NYC was so relatable to how I felt about the city. It led me to realize that you can be a New Yorker and live anywhere because, to be a New Yorker, you need to be open to what life offers, never take no for an answer, and be wholeheartedly passionate about whatever it is you do.

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Chasing Dreams Solo: A Cambodian Student’s U.S. Adventure

I’m Phakdeypanhaboth Han, a student from Cambodia, currently pursuing an International Studies major with a minor in International Relations. I’m spending this semester on a Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (UGRAD) at Maryville College in Tennessee.  Far from home, I’m driven by a curiosity about how cultures intertwine. This spring break, my first trip within the U.S., I visited San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Exploring the western portion of the United States has always been on my bucket list. I even included these cities in my application form for the scholarship that brought me here to Maryville, Tennessee. It was not only an important trip, but also my first time embarking on a solo trip. It was just me and my backpack navigating airports and city streets while planning it all myself. The journey was both exciting and nerve-wracking, starting off with a flight across the country to San Francisco then hitting Los Angeles, savoring the freedom of setting my own pace through these vibrant cities, and wrapping up just in time to return back to Maryville.

In San Francisco, I finally saw the Golden Gate Bridge up close—its bold red arches standing tall against the fog. A sight I’d always dreamed of witnessing. I wandered through the bustling Ferry Building, visited Pier 39 with its playful sea lions, and admired the stunning beauty of the Palace of Fine Arts. For me, the real highlight was zigzagging down San Francisco’s steep streets, the "city upon a hill" in an iconic cable car that felt like a rollercoaster ride. I also traveled by boat to Sausalito, a charming Italian-inspired town across the bay. Roaming the entire city, I explored the Financial District, the Painted Ladies, and Chinatown—where I was surprised to find a vibrant Asian community and even met Cambodian and Chinese locals. It was thrilling to live out this dream while discovering a blend of the new and the familiar.

Los Angeles welcomed me with open arms—and an unexpected, cozy rain. To my surprise, the soft drizzle breathed life into the city in ways I’d never imagined. I finally saw Santa Monica Pier, where ocean breeze tangled with raindrops as I walked toward a place I saw on social media become real before my eyes. Hollywood sparkled with its glamour undimmed, and I stumbled into a shop overflowing with pop albums. My jaw dropped at the sight. There, I bought a few albums of Taylor Swift and CAS, a small but tangible piece of my music dreams, right in the heart of Hollywood. I traced the stars on the Walk of Fame and later stood at Griffith Observatory, drowning myself in the iconic view of the Hollywood Sign and the sprawling city below. The rain only deepened the magic, wrapping my California trip in a surreal glow as I explored a place I’d only known from screens and stories.

This journey revealed an America far beyond my daily life in Maryville, Tennessee. In San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge stood as a union of solitude and human ambition, veiled in fog. In L.A., the Hollywood Sign seemed smaller than I’d imagined—yet its cultural weight felt colossal, reshaping how I saw the blend of entertainment and identity. More than just travel, this trip became a mental reset: rebuilding confidence, bravery, and the ability to navigate foreign streets with just a phone, 9,000 miles from home. My biggest lesson? Solo travel doesn’t just reveal the world—it reveals who you might become in it. This spring break wasn’t just a pause; it was a crash course in independence, a mirror held up to my growth—from Cambodia to Maryville to the vast, glittering expanse of the U.S.