Family Vacation to Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia
Spring break, 2012, and my parents, my three younger siblings, and I left North Carolina for a two day stay in a lakeside home at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia. The...
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A Valuable Exploration
In my mind, I pictured groomed, pristine streets overflowing with fashion-conscious, fast-walking citizens. I’d been to cities before, I knew what to expect—but the moment...
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The Big, The Beautiful, The Bison and The Broken
Throughout my life I’ve traveled across the United States after my parents set the goal for me to see the 48 continental states before going to college. However no trip has compared to...
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A Superpower I Didn’t Know I Had: Mission Trip to Ensenada, Mexico
Last Spring Break, I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip with my church youth group. Our team had two goals for our stay in Ensenada, Mexico: to build a house for a family in the area and...
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Cruise Through Radiator Aprings
Schools out for the summer but that doesn’t mean it’s time to stop learning. An education doesn’t always present itself in the form of text books, life experience is a valuable...
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The View of Hong Kong from a Double Decker Bus
After a stressful junior year of High School, nothing could describe how happy I felt when the airplane lifted off the ground of Chicago. I had been anticipating this trip for months, waiting to...
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Definition of Culture
The number of ways to acknowledge another human’s presence is infinite. Waves of the hand, nods of the head, or even twitches of the mouth are all methods of salutation; however, the most unique...
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TCU trip.
In the past five years, my family and I have traveled to many different states. I have family spread out all over the world. I love being able to take a vacation and travel to see them. I can honestly...
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The summer adventure of a lifetime: Summer vacation 2007
In the summer of 2007 my family and I took a trip to Europe. Throughout the trip we explored Berlin Germany, Zurich Switzerland, and Barcelona Spain. Although we had a blast, our main mission in...
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Assimilating with Nature
Traveling can be a very relaxing and rejuvenating experience, specifically when traveling to an area that is open in a variety of natural aspects. Every summer my family travels to San Luis Potosi,...
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Summer days in my Second Home
The sun danced in the sky, on this warm summer day in Bavaria, Germany. After days of rain, the spirit of delight hung in the air, as young and old greeted the clear blue sky. This summer, was spent...
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Pourquoi Pas?
This is me, the health freak who won’t even put dressing on her salad, indulging in ice cream and crepes daily. The same girl who won’t touch beef chomps down on blood sausage and organ meat. When...
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Locks of Love
The Louvre: a famous palace-turned-museum most famous for housing the well-known Mona Lisa, or la Jaconde,...
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Where are the spies in Washington D.C.?
As we stepped out of our car and onto the gravel parking lot, I knew we were going on an adventure that was completely new to me and my family. As we waited for the Amtrak train bound for Chicago to arrive,...
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Uniquely Similar
I woke up to a hint of sunlight, feeling strange that I was not in my own bed. Then it came to me: I was in Madrid, Spain, 3,000 miles and an ocean away from the United States. I weaved my way through...
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The Mountain’s Message of Hope
Every time my phone rings I hear the sound of crickets chirping. This ringtone has special meaning to me. When those crickets start to sing their sweet melody, memories of Guatemala come to my mind....
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The Lives That Were Touched In the City of New Orleans
I view traveling as a privilege, not a right. People travel for many different reasons such as: relaxation or luxury. I like to use traveling to learn about different cultures, people, and history....
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An ocean of sounds
As we walked, passing small stores, people’s shadows and Nigerian men selling coach bags on the streets, we realized that Camila had been crying for about twenty minutes. Her chapped lips were...
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My Trip to MCAD
From the time that I was able to hold a pencil in my hand, I have been drawing. Art has been a part of me my entire life, even through there were times when I wasn’t...
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Boston, MA.: A Look into How the Other Coast Lives
In September of my junior year of high school, I took an unofficial visit to Boston University. Aside from the school’s stellar academics and...
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My 17th Birthday in Belgium
In January of this year, 2012, I went to Belgium with my mom to celebrate my 17th birthday. This trip really changed my life. We only went for three short days, but in those three days I experienced...
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New York City Is a Place To Be
New York City is a place to be. Looking at the city of dreams from a distance, I saw a prestigious monument signifying freedom and hope. I heard the man in the subway effortlessly...
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Kenya 2012
As I boarded Emirates Flight 222 from Dallas to Dubai, a million things were rushing through my mind. Worries as big as living in an utterly foreign culture for seventeen days and as small as wondering...
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Where the Past Meets the Present
The ocean is truth. It doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not, and it doesn’t...
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Fulfilling Dreams in Ireland
As a competitive Irish Dancer for 9 years, I had always dreamed of taking a trip to tour the country of Ireland. I felt that it would help me understand where the roots of my dancing came from, as...
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Roatan, Honduras: A Change In Me For The Better
Last summer, when I was 14 years old, my parents, grandmother, sister, and I took a trip to Roatan, Honduras. When we left, I had the normal thoughts of a teenage girl on my mind. Would...
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Disability Taught me Love
I stood in front of that small fence that was only keeping the children and me apart. Shocking. No, a word that means much more than shocking. Horrifying? Terrifying? What happened to these children?...
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The Edge of the Earth: My Family’s Vacation to Norway, Iceland and Beyond
An eight hour plane ride and a 20 degree drop in temperature was what kicked off the beginning of my summer. After a frenzied week of packing, my parents...
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The UC Berkeley Trip Featuring San Francisco
It was the summer of my junior year going into my senior year and I needed to go and visit my top colleges and universities that I was definitely going to apply to; I suppose that's what led...
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Home Sweet Philippines!
On the summer of 2008, I was twelve years old when we had a vacation in the Philippines. We visit the Philippines every couple years to reunite with our relatives again and explore the country. The...
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Dear John,
I believe I can safely state that we have all had a time where the desire for a restroom outweighs any rational decision making typical of humans. You know what I’m talking about--like that...
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Helen: The Town Where Time Stood Still
In life, there are moments when one feels a sense of happiness that is not common or experienced often. Those moments...
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Life Landscapes
My ideal trips to Paris, India, and Germany do not involve the Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, or Heidelberg Castle, respectively. I went to England and I didn’t see the golden rafters of Big Ben,...
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Dansk!
3/1/12 7:55 p.m. After no sleep for about 34 hours straight it is finally time for bed. Maybe I’m in a sleep-deprivation haze, but the...
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For the love of France!
This summer I was given the opportunity...
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On a Mission: A Week of Service and Fellowship in Bridgton, Maine
From 16 to 23 June, I went on a mission trip to Bridgton, Maine with the Hurlburt Chapel Youth Group. Donning our blue group T-shirts, we flew out of Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport,...
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Serving the Joplin Community
On May 22, 2011 the town of Joplin, Missouri was struck by an EF-5 tornado. The tornado in Joplin was approximately three-quarters of a mile wide and left behind a path of destruction that was 13 miles...
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British Bunting
My sister and I made our way to the nearest underground station, walking swiftly past the plethora of shops lining Oxford Street as light, but steady rain fell. Taking the Jubilee Line from Bond...
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Desperation, Warm Welcomes, and Smiles
I desperately read the signs posted around the Newark Liberty International Airport as I tried to navigate to the gate I was supposed...
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Touching History
In the summer of 2010, I traveled with my high school symphony to a small town in the south of France to play in the international music festival, Le Festival Des Anches D’Azur. We performed...
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Dachau: Preserving the Past
The cool breeze flickers in the air, momentarily relieving my skin from the scorching sun. As we follow our tour guide, I notice how perfectly the tree’s green leaves complement the blue sky....
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A Scintillating Sabbatical in Singapore
After landing from a 20-hour flight I was tired and grumpy. Jet lag was weighing down everyone in my family as we crossed customs and collected our luggage. As we drove through the modern city of...
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Personal Evolution through Familial Tradition
Since I can remember, my family has taken a yearly travel to the beach. Through the changes in my life (divorce, lost friends, and the like) the beach seemed to always be a safe-haven...
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The Greatest Trip Ever
The greatest trips are the unexpected ones. This was the case for my family in April 2012. We were headed back home from a youth convention in New Orleans, Louisiana when we decided to visit family...
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Traveling- It is an Education in Itself
I peered down the airplane window watching the lights glow as I descended into the city of Tehran, Iran. After...
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Somewhere Between Two Oceans
Icy air stung as the weight of panniers propelled my bicycle downwards. The steep road twisted and turned until the sign boldly proclaiming: “Roger’s Pass/ Continental Divide/ Elevation 5,610”...
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Cross Country Dreams
I was once told that everyone out there should save a little time, somewhere in their life, for a cross country road trip and that is exactly what I have just experienced. For the month of...
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A Journey Through Uttar Bharat
I had never been far from the metropolitan city of Mumbai when I had visited India, so traveling to North India, or Uttar Bharat, was the first time I would see different parts of India. North...
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My family’s weekend trip to Barcelona, Spain during the summer entering my senior year of high school
I flew in to Reus, Spain from Frankfurt Hahn, Germany. My sister and I are staying in Germany to visit our dad, who is stationed in the Army, but we took a side trip to Barcelona and flew in ahead....
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