Old City Jerusalem, Arab Quarter
A marketplace. To anyone else my age, this might be considered “ghetto.” But to me, this is beautiful. The walkway is narrow and composed of smooth rocks, with small steps every few feet to follow...
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Seeing Paris Without the Lines
The quintessential Parisian experience that tops everyone's list of things to do is to reach the top of the Eiffel Tower and see the entire city at your feet. What many don't...
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Finding My “Other Half” in China
As I boarded the plane for Bejing, China, all I could think of was the summer that I was leaving behind. To me, a proud California native, my sparse memories of the few visits from my childhood suggested...
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Spirit and Heart Capturer: Egypt
As a young girl, I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to travel. I, personally, traveled to many stunning countries like Greece, France, and London, but the country...
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My Cruise Into Romance
When my dad told us that he was going to take us on a cruise through the Mexican Riviera my entire family leapt with joy. I was especially excited because I was just getting over...
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One Exotic Island – Three Amazing Worlds of Indonesia
It's all about perspective – looking out from a temple across the ocean at sunset, walking crowded streets and hearing motorists whiz past, or breathing in sweet mountain air while watching the fog roll...
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The Happiest Place on Earth? Perhaps Instead, the Happiest Place in My Memories
It is deemed the “happiest place on Earth”. As a teenager, it was deemed by me as “another family vacation”. The last time I had set foot onto Main Street’s walkway...
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India’s Hidden Secrets in the Midst of Wealth and Indigence
My journey to India was unlike any other. Europe and South America are in my blood, but Asia is a whole other creature, and India was simply chaotic. The car ride to the Halcyon Apartments in Koramangala...
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The Warring Polar Opposites of Palestine and Israel
After 9/11 many racial assumptions arose as people questioned others from Arab countries. Two summers ago I travelled to Ramallah, Palestine to learn more about my heritage. My mother and I flew to...
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Dominica, The Island Full of Experiences
Slowly, I drifted my feet in the mixture of sand and rock. The breeze surrounding me was never-ending, but so soft to the point that it could put...
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Braving New Heights
Family trips can be an adventure you never quite expect. When you fill a house and a guest house with seven siblings and their immediate families, you lose privacy and silence;...
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The Streets of History
Thumbs up or thumbs down? I stood inside the Colosseum. It was so great, yet so terrible. It was a house of death where the combatants saw their last moments. As I walked through...
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Goodbye Chicago! Hello Europe!
When we boarded the plane in Chicago, my peers and I knew there was no turning back. No more hiding in the comforts of our hometown. No more kisses from mom and dad. No more communication...
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A Home Across the Ocean
Family is the solid pillar in one's life, no matter how far away siblings and relatives might be. As an immigrant who has lived in America for the past twelve years of my life, I have met many...
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Moroccan Immersion
In January, I visited Morocco with my grandmother. It was the first time I'd ever visited a country and seen how most people really live there: I met with Moroccans in the town...
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A Trip to the Motherland
“Guys, guess what? We are going to Israel! Yes, you heard it right, Israel!” Those were my mother’s first words at the beginning of February of 2011, and she would not stop repeating...
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Changing Locations, Changing Perspective
Seven days -- not enough time to leave an impression on anyone, or I supposed. Lost in translation. I guess the phrase wouldn’t be an adequate way of describing it because I still speak the language....
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A Life Changing Vacation
It’s about 34 degrees Celsius, the bitter cold is numbing against my nose, ears and extremities. I gaze to the north; thousands of square miles of mountains that have slept so...
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A-Da-Ne-Di: My Trip to the Cherokee Nation
As I stepped into the van, my heart was racing, and I was about to overflow with excitement. People laughed and talked all around me, and I could sense that they too felt the...
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We Adopted My Sister
We adopted my sister, Maya, from India when she was one year old. As she grew up she asked questions about where she was from and what it was like there. My parents promised to take her to India when...
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Emotionally Changed
Traveling doesn’t necessarily mean going thousands of miles away from home; it can be as little as five minutes. Traveling to an adoption home about a half hour away was one...
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Exceeding Expectations in Spain
"It will be about $3,000, but we'll do some fundraising please do not be discouraged by the price." announced my spanish teacher Profe Fonken. Instantly my ears perked at the sound...
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Language Barriers
As a child, I never acknowledged my mom’s lack of developed English. In fact, I treated the anomaly as a game for my young self to decipher and put together, like pieces of a puzzle. It wasn’t...
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From One Home to Another
I've loved traveling since I was little and my mom and aunt took me to Colorado. My favorite road trip, however, is the one we take most summers from the panhandle of Florida, where we currently live,...
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The Land Of The Passionate People
Growing up with Nigerian parents and listening to them talk about their "home" all the time, I always wondered what it was like in Nigeria. Was is really that hot? Was it like America? Does my dad really...
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Walking the Sahara Desert and Holding My New Brother
I don’t know if any trip will be as important as the one I took last November. My parents decided to adopt a baby from Eithopia and accepted a 8 month old boy from a tribal village. My sister...
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To Turkey and Back
It was April 10, 2010, and my family and I were off to Turkey to enjoy our spring break. We left from the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, early Saturday morning to arrive in Istanbul later that day. We...
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My trip to Mexico and How It Impacted Me
During the summer of 2008, I took a vacation with my family to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It was my first trip outside...
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Merida, Yucatan
This Past summer (2009) I was blessed with the Chance to Go to my parent’s homeland of Merida, Yucatan. Also known as the home of one of the Seven Wonders of the World: Chichenitza. It...
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Nature Affects A City Girl
I am a Los Angeles teenager who loved every aspect of the urban life. Los Angeles is a city filled with bright neon lights and gritty music venues. L.A. was my playground; a location where I spent countless...
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Snorkeling and Scuba Tips from my Kauai Hawaii Vacation
Snorkeling and scuba diving are both exciting activities when you visit a beach, but only if you are in a nice place to do it. The state of Hawaii offers...
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Australia Done On Wheels
There are things a person learns when they find them self in a wheelchair. For instance, how water fountains are never user-friendly, and how to adjust to being eye-level with...
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2010 Global Youth Leadership Conference in China
The only thing more challenging than eating eel, octopus and jelly fish is writing a teen travel essay using 600 words or less. The only thing almost as exciting as experiencing Chinese culture firsthand...
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My Life-Changing Traveling Experience
During the summer of 2008 I traveled to the Choctaw Reservation located in Mississippi. My church goes there every summer to teach Vacation Bible School to the Choctaw...
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Teen Travel Writing
In the summer of 2007 my family took off for a 3-week long road trip to the Grand Canyon. This is the same trip my mother took with her family as a child. She was determined we would do the...
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I (Now) Love New York
“I’ll go, but I really hate New York City.” “Of course you do. This is coming from the girl who hated...
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Change
Four hours… four hours; for four hours I sat in the passenger seat of my mom’s sky-blue Honda Odyssey while she drove to Tallahassee. For four hours I gripped the armrest of my chair out of terror...
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München: the place to be.
At Arnulfstrasse 102 stands the A&O Hostel of Munich. This past summer I participated in an exchange program through German American Partnership Program (GAPP). Along with nineteen other students from...
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Adoption from China
Last summer I had an awesome experience that I will never forget. It wasn’t just any other trip, I went to China! Our purpose in going was not like most vacations. I went with my parents to pick up...
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Working Vacation
The past summer, my Dad told me we were going to go on a camping trip. We were going to do some backcountry camping in the Black Hills and the Badlands in South Dakota. I did a quick image search in Google...
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Santa Fe: Spain in the Heart of America
Bright colors, festive music, and delicious smells greet me as I step into the plaza. An old man in a serape leans down and speaks in Spanish to a young boy, who is showcasing his wooden handicrafts...
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California Family Vacation
After spending a week visiting our relatives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, my family and I boarded a plane to California before going back to our home state of Alabama. Sight-seeing California was a much...
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The Power of the Pen
It is amazing what the power of the pen can do inclusively, it granted me the opportunity to go on an expense free trip to New York and Washington D.C
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My European Adventure
Our parents were saying goodbye and crying like we were being sent off to war. I could not stop smiling. THIS IS IT! The sophomore class Euro trip was finally commencing. It was almost unreal. Take...
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The Piece of Puzzle Found in Japan
Stepping into a room filled with nakedness, I wondered to myself just what I got myself into. Japanese ladies were walking in every direction, into steams of hot baths and scorching hot spring water....
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Traveling for Freedom from Ignorance
It’s no secret that America is the queen of affluence, if not the self-proclaimed queen of all she knows. Affluence is one sin, but far worse is ignorance, and narrow mindedness....
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The Great Wall and Beyond
It all started on June 10, 2009. I had just loaded my luggage onto the bus and said goodbye to my family. It was finally time to start on our voyage to a new and unknown world. The...
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Bella Italia
I have dreamed of traveling to Rome, the Eternal City, for years. I always longed to...
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My Northern Michigan Paintball Trip
In the final weeks before our senior year, my friends (Jon, Phil, Denton, CJ, and Jeffery) and I decided we needed to celebrate the close of summer...
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My Paradise
What do you think of when you hear the word paradise? Do you think of lying on a beach in Hawaii? What about taking a cruise to Jamaica? Before, when I heard it, that’s what I thought about,...
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HBCU Tour
The best trip I have ever taken was on a tour bus going up the southern east coast. I went on it when I was a sophomore in High School....
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Cabo-The Many Sides
This past summer my family and I decided to get away from town and vacation to Cabo San Lucas located at the tip of Baja California. When I arrived I expected it to be like any other happening vacation...
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A Trip For Someone Else: Puerto Peñasco
I knew what Mexico looked like. It was beautiful, rich with culture, and flowing with a language that made the soul dance. I also knew that a fun time could be developed by everyday accessories. I knew...
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My Trip To Australia
Going to Australia was a chance of a lifetime. I was there this past summer of 2009 for five weeks. I am really glad...
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Travel essay
My name is Michelle Norden and I love taking road trips. One of my favorite ones is when I was in volleyball and my team had to go up to Gillette for a tournament. We had to be...
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Guatemala Mission Trip
In the Bible, Philippines 4:13 says " I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength." This verse has impacted my faith and my life in so many ways. During the summer...
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Trip to Turkey
I have always said that some families buy nice cars or some families buy big houses, but my family, we travel. I have been to more than half of the United States, Mexico,...
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Chicago Connections
As soon as I stepped out of the car the fumes and smog hit me. I was no longer in the suburbs of the mid-western state of Iowa, my hometown. Squinting through the sun and smog, the...
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The Other Side of the United States
Coming from Idaho and never traveling farther east than Utah, I could just feel in my bones, this was going to be a whole new experience. There were five of us all together and we were headed to see...
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