Havasupai Thrills
“I’ve done it before, I can do it again. Easy!” Never before in my life have I been so utterly proved wrong by my own self. The last time I hiked the eleven miles through...
Read More 3 min read
Who’s Really Got It Figured Out? Us or Them? Trip to Vernazza, Italy
The anticipation of finally arriving at your vacation spot seems to grow as the month, week, day, hour, minute & second near. I won't forget the way the way I felt and the...
Read More 3 min read
Back to My Homeland
The Philippines – it is my hometown, my birthplace, my childhood. And yet, before the Spring of 2009, I only remembered bits and pieces of it. After eight years of living in California, my mom and...
Read More 4 min read
Climbing Cadillac Mountain
Four years ago, in July of 2007, right after I turned 13, my family and I drove up the east coast of the United States and back down it again. We traveled from Chesapeake,...
Read More 2 min read
Trip to India
It took me years to recognize the importance of diversity and customs. As a girl growing up in two cultures, I found my own tradition something to be ashamed of. I was just a little innocent four year...
Read More 2 min read
A Trip to the Land of My Ancestors
There I was, an American born Indian boy, from the Texan suburbs, in the middle of rural India. I lay in a cot outside in the humid muggy air staring up at a dark star strewn sky, feeling strange, out...
Read More 3 min read
The Kingdom for Friends
The morning shone bright, the trees swayed in the wind, and the laughter of a charter bus of teenage students filled the air. After six hours of traveling from Austin, Texas to...
Read More 2 min read
Mother Nature’s Teachings
Scampering through the vast plantation, the toes of a young girl embraces the warmth of the earth underneath. The mass of trees encircling her, surrounding her with the sweet scents of the flourishing...
Read More 2 min read
(N)everchanging
Every two years, my family would save up enough money to travel back to our roots: Hong Kong. In the August of 2009, I returned back to my homeland. It was different this time around compared to the...
Read More 2 min read
The Journey: Be A Man
After stuffing suitcases, duffels, chairs, and an assortment of other odds and ends onto the short bus, the 17 of us climbed in. The trip we had been looking forward to for weeks...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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;...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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....
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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,...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 4 min read
