Monica Suma
Three words define me: travel, write, photograph. Romanian by birth, but New Yorker at heart, there is nothing that brings me more joy and satisfaction than traveling and discovering other cultures. As a spontaneous avid traveler, I have fed my thirst for discovery with extended stays in my native Eastern Europe, in exuberant Spain and in unbelievable Shanghai. For the past seven years, New York City is where I call home.
My 20-something relentless quests stem from a long bucket-list. This includes soaking up the sun on Brazilian beaches, staying at riads in Morocco, riding elephants in Chang Mai, and embracing a simpler life in Southeast Asia. I speak fluent Spanish, and I’m having lots of fun learning basic conversation in Mandarin Chinese.
I have a Media Studies and Journalism degree, however deeply entrenched in online media is where you can mostly find me. I’m a contributor for several online magazines, where I write about travel, lifestyle and New York City. I’m a social media advocate, fascinated by the power of the ever-changing digital world.
In my tireless pursuit for words, I took on blogging and travel writing. A creative person by nature and analytical by default, I live by creating and devouring stories and images of travel. When I’m not blogging, I am surely photographing places and snapping away pictures with my iPhone. Striving to learn from the best, I am enrolled in the travel writing program at MatadorU and the Digital Media Marketing program at NYU.
You can follow my adventures on my blog or on Twitter.
You can work pretty much where you want to – on the road, do you find it hard to work or do you just have fun and work when you come back home?
Do you feel many people are envious of your lifestyle?
In which countries have people recognised you, even when you thought nobody would?
Which three items would you never travel without?
My iPhone would be second; I am a big social media freak, I instagram (more pictures), tweet and Facebook a lot, all related to my travels. The third one would be my HSBC card, which I only use abroad. There are no ATM fees, and most countries have HSBC banks.
I also cannot go anywhere without my light MacBook Air laptop, as I spend a considerable time blogging and writing (I'm pretending you didn't notice I exceeded my must three items list).
Are there any specific souvenirs or other things you collect from the places you go to?
More recently, I started collecting jewelry from every new destination. While I was in China, I became so obsessed with jade, that I ended up buying a necklace and a ring to wear with some of my other jade jewelry, so much so that a lady told me at the airport "wow, you must really like jade." The best souvenirs, though, are those that capture smells and sounds, like incense, certain instruments, a song, etc.