Exploring the World
25

countries and counting.

So far, I’ve visited 25 countries—and I’m definitely not done exploring.

Sometimes I travel for a robotics competition or conference, sometimes to visit family, and sometimes simply to explore. Robots have taken me from Bangkok and Bordeaux to Eindhoven, Rotterdam, Seoul, and Osaka. History has taken me to Normandy, Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, Berlin, Nuremberg, Warsaw, Kraków, Overloon, Moscow, and St. Petersburg, where finding the place is sometimes half the adventure.

Wherever I go, I like seeing how people live, trying local food, visiting museums, and wandering around places I’ve never seen before. I don’t travel just to check countries off a list. What I remember are the experiences, and what they taught me.

Ethan laughing and gesturing toward Kraków's Main Market Square at sunset, with the green-domed Church of St. Adalbert behind him
Kraków’s Main Market Square, Poland.
World map highlighting the 25 countries Ethan has visited, with a pin for every city, destination, and U.S. state
VisitedStill on the listCity or destinationU.S. state
Map of North America with the 21 visited U.S. states highlighted and pins for each state and every city visited in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico
North America · 21 states + D.C.
Map of Europe with pins for every city and destination visited
Europe & Turkey
Map of East and Southeast Asia with pins for every city and destination visited
East & Southeast Asia

Tap a regional map to open it full size.

What travel has taught me

  1. Not everyone thinks the same way.

    The more I travel, the more I understand that there is more than one reasonable way to see the world. Something that feels obvious at home can seem strange somewhere else, and the other way around. Travel has made me slower to assume and quicker to ask.

  2. Seek, but don’t follow.

    Thousands of people may visit the same place, but no two of them take the same journey there. The destination can be the same; the journey is always different. Some of my favorite moments happened after I wandered off the expected route.

  3. Everything is connected.

    The more places I visit and the more I learn, the more I see how things connect across vast stretches of time and geography: a mosque in Córdoba that later became a cathedral, an ancient stadium in Athens rebuilt for the first modern Olympics, a beach in Normandy I first read about through an object in my collection.

  4. In the end, people are people.

    Languages, food, and customs change from place to place, but what matters to people barely does: family, friends, a good meal, and a little kindness toward a stranger. It’s the same lesson Food Angel taught me back home.

  • Ethan in a bucket hat and sunglasses walking past the Parthenon in Athens
    The Parthenon, Athens.
  • Ethan grinning and holding up a whole durian on a busy night street in Bangkok
    Holding up a durian in Bangkok.
  • Ethan jumping with his arms raised in front of the church of Sainte-Mère-Église, with a paratrooper figure hanging from the steeple
    Sainte-Mère-Église, Normandy, where a D-Day paratrooper’s parachute caught on the steeple.
  • Ethan doing a monster pose on a neon-lit street in Shinjuku, with the Godzilla head on a building behind him
    Shinjuku, Tokyo, with Godzilla watching.
  • Ethan standing among the red-and-white striped arches of the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba
    The Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba, Spain.
  • Ethan leaning against the stone wall of a Great Wall watchtower at night, with city lights through the arched window
    The Great Wall of China, at night.
  • Ethan pointing up at the Aztec Sun Stone in the National Museum of Anthropology
    The Aztec Sun Stone, Mexico City.
  • Ethan at the USS Arizona Memorial, with the rusted gun turret base of the sunken battleship in the water behind him
    The USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor.
  • Ethan in a plush shark hat under the giant dumpling sign of a gyoza restaurant in Osaka
    Gyoza in Dotonbori, Osaka. Shark hat optional.
  • Ethan cheering with both arms up on the walkway in front of Mont-Saint-Michel
    Mont-Saint-Michel, France.
  • Ethan smiling in front of the entrance to Chungking Mansions in Hong Kong
    Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong.
  • Ethan standing hands on hips in the marble Panathenaic Stadium under the Olympic rings
    The Panathenaic Stadium, Athens. A must-see for a sprinter.
  • Ethan standing in front of a traditional Korean hanok building lit up at night in Seoul
    A traditional hanok in Seoul at night.
  • Ethan smiling in Kraków's Main Market Square, in front of the Town Hall Tower
    Kraków’s Main Market Square, Poland.
  • Ethan striking a pose in front of a tall brick stupa at an ancient temple in Ayutthaya
    Ayutthaya, Thailand’s old capital.
  • Ethan in a yukata reading a book at a wooden table in a tatami room
    Reading in a traditional Japanese inn.
  • Ethan waving in front of the giant Tian Tan Buddha statue at the top of a long stairway
    The Tian Tan Buddha, Hong Kong.
  • Ethan with his arms spread on a green mountain ridge trail above the coast in Hawaii
    On a ridge trail in Hawaii.
  • Ethan on a bridge over the Dotonbori canal in Osaka at night, lined with neon signs and lanterns
    Dotonbori, Osaka.

There’s still a lot of the map left.

Places I’ve Been

  • United StatesCalifornia · Oregon · Washington · Nevada · Arizona · Colorado · Utah · Texas · Louisiana · Illinois · Tennessee · North Carolina · Virginia · West Virginia · Maryland · Washington, D.C. · Pennsylvania · New Jersey · New York · Massachusetts · Florida · Hawaii (including Pearl Harbor)
  • CanadaToronto · Niagara Falls · Vancouver
  • MexicoMexico City · Teotihuacán · Cancún · Playa del Carmen · Xcaret · Tulum · Chichén Itzá · Cabo San Lucas
  • Jamaica
  • Dominican Republic
  • Bahamas
  • South KoreaSeoul · Incheon · Busan · Gyeongju · Jeju · Pyeongchang · Yeosu
  • JapanTokyo · Nikko · Kyoto · Osaka · Nara · Hiroshima
  • ChinaBeijing · Great Wall · Shanghai · Hong Kong
  • VietnamHanoi · Da Nang · Hoi An · Ho Chi Minh City
  • CambodiaSiem Reap · Phnom Penh
  • ThailandBangkok · Ayutthaya · Phuket
  • TurkeyIstanbul · Cappadocia · Gaziantep
  • GreeceAthens · Santorini (Fira, Oia) · Crete (Heraklion, Chania, Rethymno)
  • United KingdomLondon · Oxford · Cambridge
  • FranceParis · Reims · Lyon · Bordeaux · Rouen · Mont-Saint-Michel · Normandy (Caen, Bayeux, Arromanches-les-Bains, Sainte-Mère-Église)
  • SpainMadrid · Toledo · Barcelona · Valencia · Seville · Córdoba · Granada
  • NetherlandsAmsterdam · The Hague · Rotterdam · Eindhoven · Overloon
  • BelgiumBrussels · Ghent · Bruges
  • GermanyBerlin · Munich · Nuremberg
  • Czech RepublicPrague
  • PolandWarsaw · Kraków · Auschwitz (Oświęcim)
  • ItalyRome · Venice
  • Vatican CityVatican City
  • RussiaMoscow · Saint Petersburg