About Us
Richard (Richmander) and Tracy (Wonton), a couple in their 20s, are originally from southern California. They probably aren’t the typical travel-couple. While most traveling couples probably bonded over their love of travel, there was a period of time where they didn’t think we would work out at all because of the infectious travel bug.
Best friends in high school, they eventually made their way to different universities. Despite the distance, they thought they’d give it a shot. Tracy always dreamed of studying abroad and had been studying Italian for 2 years in preparation for her semester abroad at the University of Padova in Italy. As her passion for travel continued to grow, Richard’s hatred of airports, good-byes, and distance grew.
Their first adventure together, however, proved to be a turning point. The year before they graduated and “stepped into the real world”, Tracy convinced Richard that a winter break abroad would be an amazing experience. They had their first trip (Richard’s first flight ever) in December 2009 to the Netherlands and Belgium and since then, they have tried to travel as often as they can. It was on that same trip that they watched the movie Up for the first time. Richard would hate to admitting this, but the first 8 minutes got him a little teary eyed (as it should!) Pixar told a better love story in 8 minutes – without any dialogue – than Stephanie Meyer did in 4 books and 5 movies. They like to think that Carl & Ellie’s relationship is a reflection of theirs in some ways. Ellie was the crazy, eccentric, extroverted, independent and travel obsessed and Carl was the down-to-earth, introverted, slightly nerdy one who knew it’d be a great adventure. He’s also the one who grows up looking grumpy but has great heart, and who is pretty darn funny without trying to be.
They also found out that they have similar tastes in travel experiences and compliment each other well. Tracy loves planning and Richard likes to be spontaneous and go with the flow. They are much bigger fans of traveling to get to know the culture and locals than the resorts and packaged trips. Although there is something nice about not planning anything for a resort or packaged trip, they prefer the interactions absorbing as much genuine culture as they can without a giant tour bus.
They aspire to eventually take a year or more off to do a Round-the-World trip before “settling down” and are currently saving up for it!
Enough about them as a couple, what about them as individuals and these ridiculous nicknames?
About Richmander (written by Wonton)
Where did this nickname come from? Sure, many of us that grew up in the 90s had at least a small thing for Pokemon. Don’t act like you didn’t. It was awesome. Anyway, for those of you that don’t know, Charmander is a pokemon that eventually evolves into a from Charmander to Charmeleon, ultimately to Charizard once he is fully mature. Richard’s high school friend once referred to Richard as Richmander and explained that one day… far away, he will start his official career and settle down….thus fully evolving into Richard. See the morphology of the ending suffix? I thought it was stupid.
10 random facts about Richmander a.k.a. Richard
1.) He thinks the name “travelgasms” is stupid. “Tracy, you can’t just make up things and put 2 words together because you feel like it. Why can’t we just call it Travel Stories or 2 real words that actually exist?”
2.) He studied Management Science at University of California, San Diego.
3.) He has 3 siblings: one old brother, one older sister, and a younger sister.
4.) He worked at Disneyland and saw a depressed Peter Pan smoking.
5.) He is Mexican.
6.) He works as a personal banker.
7.) He’s never tried to put contacts in because the idea freaks him out.
8.) He was on his senior prom court as a prince.
9.) He can’t swim very well, at all.
10.) Peace and quiet during “his bathroom time” is one of the best parts of his day.
About Wonton (written by Richmander)
A wonton is a Chinese pastry. Tracy is not Chinese. But hey, I thought tempura was Indian. I’m lucky I can successfully put my pants on correctly, but this girl can basically sleep for 4 hours and be as energetic as a Toddler in Tiara amped up on Red Bull and Mountain Dew. She LOVES fast food, even though I constantly warn her of the dangers of being so American. I want to paint her car with danger signs to protect everyone else on the road as Tracy has adopted the “Only Tracy exists at this moment” attitude while driving. Regardless, she is a pretty alright (pretty alright in my dictionary is higher than the average person’s awesome) person, and this is probably why I have been with her for 5+ years and still call her “my little wonton” even though she hates it.
10 random facts about Wonton a.k.a. Tracy
1.) She loses her keys at least once a week.
2.) She doesn’t use chopsticks the “correct way”.
3.) She studied Political Science and Linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
4.) She was obsessed with gymnastics following the “Magnificent Seven’s” 1996 win, but quit because she was scared it was going to stunt her growth even more.
5.) She likes to read indie movie scripts for fun.
6.) She has been to 20 countries and counting.
7.) Her favorite book is Les Miserables and her favorite musical is Into the Woods.
8.) She always eats popcorn with nacho cheese at the movie theatres
9.) She is somehow both a workaholic and a travelholic.
10.) She once cried because we did not have ranch for her buffalo wings (first world problems). She argues that you had to be there.
The nicknames will be fairly interchangeable.
Any other questions?
