Zeigler and her husband scuba dive at Turks and Caicos. Photo provided by Minnie Zeigler.by Aozora Ito and Zainab Khan, staff writers
Having traveled to many exotic destinations, Minnie Zeigler, an Advanced Placement (AP) English Literature teacher at Fountain Valley High School, shares her experiences and thoughts on traveling.
“Travel is the best educator. In every way, travel challenges your expectations and transforms your perspective,” said Zeigler. “It teaches you what is valuable and what true strength is.”
Zeigler has been to over a dozen European countries, describing them as colorful and familiar. Several years ago she along with Annalise Attreed and Sara LaFramboise helped chaperone a group of students to England, France and Spain. In addition to Europe, her top non-European picks for exotic destinations included Turks and Caicos, Japan, South Africa and Indonesia.
- Turks and Caicos: Zeigler described Turks and Caicos as exotic in terms of crystal blue waters and powdery white sand where she loves to scuba dive.
- Japan: She went during Hanami, when the Japanese celebrate the beauty of the flowering cherry blossom trees, as well as doing the “touristy stuff,” such as going to the Tsukiji Fish Market, Harajuku district, the Imperial Palace and the National Museum. The most sobering part of the trip, she said, was the visit to Hiroshima, the surviving atomic bomb dome.
- South Africa: Zeigler visited the western, southern and eastern parts of the area, emphasizing the similarity of Cape Town to Southern California. At Kruger Park, she indulged in photography, one of her oldest hobbies, and it really “made [her] feel like [she] had traveled back in time.”
- Indonesia: Zeigler has been to both Bali and Wakatobi Island. According to her, the Balinese people are very kind and there was a “palpable sense of peace and calm that envelopes [the] very spiritual land.” She advises people to not carry anything in your hands that resembles food if you don’t want monkeys clawing all over you.
Zeigler believes traveling is visceral; it teaches people about the world, its inhabitants and yourself. She described her first solo trip to Europe in her twenties, trying to navigate London’s bus system.
“I may or may not have chased down a bus in order to experience Stonehenge. It was a comedic scene, really,” she said. “Imagine flailing limbs, flying water bottle, and a screaming lunatic calling for the bus to wait.”
Zeigler compared literature to traveling; in her mind, literature is all about how it reflects the universal human experience, while traveling is the living, experiential version of it.
“Instead of it coming to life between the pages of a book, it unfolds before your very eyes,” said Zeigler.
