About Me


My name is Nicole Mekker. I'm an explorer, artist and designer currently living in Syracuse, New York.

I love to travel, learn different languages and cultures, document experiences through photography and writing, and do all things creative! I have a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts and a minor in Spanish. I also have a certification for teaching English.

My travels have led me near and far for school, for work, and for leisure adventure! I've found the best way to keep my memories alive is to document them online to share them with my friends and family, as well as anyone else wanting to read a few stories or find information for their own travel plans.

The previous title of this blog was "Waygookin' Round the World," which spoke to my perspective as an outside observer and student of the world traveling to different locations and learning all its unique histories, languages, cultures, habits, sights, etc. The word "waygookin"(외국인) means "foreigner" in Korean.

I changed the title to "Nic Trips" because this blog is no longer centered around my Korean travels. Rather it is about traveling all corners of the world and letting myself trip and fall into any obscure location that I might come across.

Above all, I am interested in traveling. I have a passion for learning about other places, cultures, languages, people and ways of life that are different from my own. I have traveled a lot thus far in my life and hope to continue doing so forever.

My Professional History..

I studied Fine Arts, with a concentration in painting and a minor in Spanish, at Alfred University from 2010 to 2014. After completing my Bachelor's Degree in May 2014, I traveled immediately after graduation (literally the day after) to San Jose, Costa Rica to attend the Idiomas Mundiales English School and took a course to become certified in TESOL (teaching English as a second language).

Following that certification, I was employed by the Ministry of Education of South Korea as a Guest English Teacher from 2014 to 2016, stationed in the city of Ulsan at Sincheon Elementary School.

Once I'd completed my teaching contract, I moved back to my hometown of Syracuse, NY and began began to train, work, and gain experience in the field of graphic design. I worked as a freelancer then a contract designer with the goal of creating a career for myself working 100% from my home computer and phone to give me more freedom to travel.

I worked several jobs freelance and had a full time job as an administrative assistant at a law firm as a "side job" for a couple years while I built up the foundation of my new career. In October 2018, I officially moved to a full time position with a marketing company working remotely from home. Now that I have the freedom of working from wherever my computer is and choosing my hours, I have a lot more traveling plans in store for the upcoming years!

Travel Stories...

My significant travels (as I deem it to be) began in 2009 when I studied abroad at a Japanese high school for a summer semester. I applied for and won the Japan-US Senate Youth Exchange (JUSSE) scholarship through a program called Youth For Understanding (YFU), and lived with a host family in Toyohashi, Japan for 7 weeks.

Chou High School, Toyohashi, Japan
In 2012, I studied abroad in Spain at the University of Salamanca in order to gain some class credits towards my Spanish minor. I traveled through the AIFS program and got the opportunity to travel all over northern Spain as well as Portugal and London.

Plaza Mayor, Salamanca, Spain
In 2013, the Alfred University Chamber Singers of which I was a part of toured in Italy for 10 days. We performed in Rome, the Vatican, Florence, and Venice.

Rome, Italy
In 2014, I traveled to Costa Rica to take a four week course at the Idiomas Mundiales English school to get a TESOL certification. After the course, my mom flew down to meet me and I stayed for an extra 9 days to backpack around the country.

Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica
In the fall of 2014, I moved to Ulsan, South Korea to live and work as a Guest English Teacher through EPIK (English Program In Korea). I extended my initial teaching contract to stay for 1.5 years. I loved every minute of it, and miss living there everyday.

Beomeosa Temple, Busan, South Korea
Throughout my stay in Korea, I had the opportunity to travel all over the small country (South Korea is approximately the size of Indiana to compare), as well as to several of the surrounding countries in Asia.

In the first part of my winter break of 2015, I traveled to Thailand for 5 days with 2 of my teacher friends. We stayed the entire 3 day center of that trip in Chiang Mai and got to see temples, markets, waterfalls, and volunteer at an elephant sanctuary!

Chiang Mai, Thailand

In the second part of my winder break of 2015, I traveled to Philippines for a total of 10 days. The first 5 days I spent alone (though I hung out with other travelers). I explored Manila for a day then traveled north to the mountains for a few days to see the rice terraces and stay in a tiny village. For the second half of my trip, a friend flew out to meet me and we traveled to a volcano on the main island and then to the town of El Nido on the island of Palawan to do some island hopping.

Batad, The Philippines
For my summer break in 2015, I took a trip on my own to Japan to visit my friends and host family from my high school trip 6 years prior. I got to go to Kyoto, Toyohashi, and Tokyo in just 5 days.

In 2016, for my final winter break from my teaching position, my mom flew out to visit and we met up in Beijing, China to see the Great Wall as well as a few other things for 2 days, then we flew down to see Hong Kong for a day before returning to show her Korea for the rest of her trip.

Jinshanling Great Wall, China

In 2016, I moved back to Syracuse, New York to reconnect with my family that I hadn't seen in nearly 2 years and to work towards a new career. In these past few years I've traveled a few places around the US and Canada to visit friends and family, including: Boston, MA, Providence, RI, Cleveland, OH, Indianapolis, IN, New York City, NY, Niagara, NY, Toronto, CA, and more.

In the summer of 2017, 1.5 years after returning from Korea, I couldn't bear to be parted from my favorite country any longer! A few friends and I returned to our home-away-from-home for a 4 week sightseeing trip and food tour!

Andong, South Korea

Upcoming in my travels throughout 2019, I will be taking several week or month long road trips around the US and Canada as I get acquainted with my newfound freedom of working from home. I also plan to take another trip to revisit Japan and Korea within the next year.

In 2020 and beyond, I hope to start taking my traveling career across seas to South America, Asia, Europe, Australia and more!

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