It goes without saying that my journey in North Korea was far from ordinary.  It was far from a conventional destination, far from the known, and far from the typical place one might celebrate a 23rd birthday. Upon returning to the U.S., and as posed to me many times before departing, a question echoed: So, tell me again, why would you go to North Korea?

Travel is a means by which one can escape the ‘everyday.’ Routine does not exist while traveling and the ‘routine’ that is present is exciting at every moment (good or bad), which, by definition, is anything