By: Candace Lu

Most people think a good vacation involves going somewhere or being someplace different. I thought so too until the summer before 8th grade. First, my sister, my mother, and I visited relatives in Shenyang and Shanghai. My uncle and aunts fed us good food and took us shopping. It was an enjoyable time, besides the fact that I got sick because of the plane ride. In Shanghai, we were hit by a sudden rainstorm while browsing a night market. The store vendors quickly gathered their products (and us) under the tents to keep them (and us) dry as the rain flooded all of our shoes. It was a surreal moment for me – in the dark surrounded by water, watching the drips fall through the crack between two tarps. It was strangely captivating. The road back to our hotel was riddled with puddles and cheerful laughs about the event.

We then journeyed to Japan, where we traveled on a cruise ship named Bellisima and went to a multitude of temples with a guide. However, my mom just wanted food, my sister just wanted to be with her friends, and I didn’t want to walk miles just to see buildings. The few good things about the cruise were the all-you-can-eat buffet, the many ice creams and crepes shared with family, as well as the movie and show nights. However, there was one particular occurrence, or occurrences, you could say, that made me feel particularly blissful. In the time before we fell asleep in our shared room, as I laid in the bed that came out of the ceiling,my sister and I would joke about our mother’s snoring and she would retaliate by complaining about my sister’s ASMR.

We then journeyed to Taiwan, where my dad was stationed for work. We would stay in my father’s apartment as he worked. On the days we were home, we visited historical monuments and museums. I was, overall, happy to see my dad again.

Now reunited with my father, our family visited Singapore. It was by far the most enjoyable leg of the journey. We went to Universal Studios, Gardens by the Bay, Mandai Wildlife Reserve, and the beach. Yet, my favorite part of the trip was far from perfect. My dad, my sister, and I had just received the disappointing news that all of the stores at the beach that accepted “Fun Passes”, a ticket that lets you buy gifts, certain food items, and access on rides for cheap, had all closed. We had come back to the beach, which was rather far away from our new hotel, in order to spend all of the tokens in the “Fun Pass”. As we sat glumly on the shuttle bus that would take us to the train station, my sister and father pulled out my map and started planning how we would come back tomorrow and spend all of the tokens.

Most people think a good vacation involves going somewhere or being someplace different. I think a good vacation involves the moments that just feel right even when things aren’t necessarily going exactly to plan like sharing a cabin room with a snoring mother or showing up to spend tokens at closed stores.