A Place Never Forgotten
Towering, white historical doors awaited us on the other side of the glass windows of the bus. Peace met us at the doors along with our tour guide. Two steps and there I was...
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Lessons From Tiananmen Square
Although nothing special at home, walking in a large group through China's streets, we Americans learned what it was like to be celebrities: people stopped in the middle of their daily activities...
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Uncharted. Unknown.
It was in third grade when my classmates and I learned in-depth about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. From learning about the foods that sustained them to the Native Americans that cared for them,...
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My Spectacularly Unspectacular Summer
Last summer I went on vacation with my family. Our trip was not some huge ordeal; instead, it was a trip to Utah in order to drop my brother, Taylor, off at BYU. On the way, and once we arrived,...
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Smell the Roses
Airplane food. Though often the butt of many an unfortunate joke, this scoffed-at cuisine stands alone in my mind, not because of its flavor or its lack thereof, but because of its sentimental value. That...
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Le Reve Francais!
The opportunity to attend school and live in the French Alps for a year was too good to pass up. By the time packing was finished and farewells...
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Footsteps in Argentina
I had a blast in Argentina meeting new people, experiencing new things, and learning about a different culture. First, my classmates and I went to Conte Hotel and checked in. Afterwards, my...
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March Of The Living
We visited Auschwitz, and saw rooms filled with shoes taken from the prisoners. I saw pictures of babies who were tortured and glass exhibits filled with human hair. We visited Treblinka, a camp completely...
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Gateway to the West: Legacy Revealed
Kansas City, Missouri: A city just about 4 hours drive from the incredible Gateway Arch in St Louis. A true city of The West. I had never been to the state of Missouri prior to this...
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Building character through judo
I stare with awe as I enter The Grand Amway Plaza Hotel with my dad and sister. As my eyes dart in all directions while I take in the hotel’s overwhelming size and grandeur, I laugh at how...
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Building Schools, Passing on Education, One Brick at a Time in Malawi Africa 2012
Did you know that 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world are not in school?! It shocked me because in America, every child has access to education. Due to my outstanding...
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The Five-Minus-Three People You Meet in Europe
Anxiety filled our spirits as we waited for the mail to arrive to our house. In two days, my mother and I would be flying across the Atlantic and our Eurail pass had not yet arrived. This pass would...
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Charleston, SC: A Journey Back In Time
When my mom announced travel plans to Charleston, mounds of negative things ran through my head. I contemplated “Why are we going to Charleston? South Carolina has the exact same...
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Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
“How do you see Cameroon?”, the natives would ask me. An entire countryside of peaks, hills, and divots, lathered in a patten of brilliant green and deep brown rendered words insufficient...
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A Well-Hidden Secret
Walking through the concrete roads, ignoring the shouts of the vendors surrounding me, and ducking around the leaking air conditioning from the apartment four floors up, I stepped out of one world and...
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DeVante Williams’ Trip to Washington, D.C.
Our trip to Washington, D.C. was one of the most memorable and informative family vacations we have ever taken because of all the fun and eye opening experiences. We visited the Lincoln Memorial,...
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First Trip in the United States of America
My family moved to the United States in 2007, indeed that was one of my exciting moments in my life. Before we moved to the United States, my family lived in a little valley on the countryside in...
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Exploring Europe During the EuroCup!
When I stepped through the automatic doors of the airport in Lisbon, (or Lisboa, pronounced Leesh-boa, to the locals!) I knew that a trip of a lifetime was about to begin. I had arrived in Portugal...
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The Knights In London
You mean me? In London for 12 days? And it’ll be only Raenell and I?
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Costa Rican Summer
Thirty passports, thirty exhilarated students, one AeroMexico plane (of course including the complimentary six hour layover in Mexico City), a yearlong awaited trip, and one month of total Costa...
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Lens Free (My Journey Through South Africa Without a Tourist’s Best Friend)
I lost my camera the moment we stepped foot in South Africa. This wasn’t an ideal start to my trip, especially since this was the Culver Academies 2012 Spring Break in Mission where our group...
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An Unfortunate Event Turned
Rain, rain, go away. Come again some other day… I. Was. Devastated. Upon entering the KOA campgrounds, my family had high hopes of enjoying a lovely, once in every two...
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From Fear to Triumph: Cancer Stories from the Detroit River
This is not the story of a travel far from home, but of the journey to a new and improved spiritual state. Every year for the last thirteen years on the second Wednesday in July, the Lance Armstrong...
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My Soul Search in the Himalayan Mountain Range
The benevolent and unselfish nature of Mother Earth has given every human being something to cherish and worship. In India, the concept of displaying one’s devotion to a natural force or existence...
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Getting Dirty in Costa Rica
This past summer, my high school took a group of students to volunteer in Sitio de Mata, Costa Rica, where we stayed in the homes of the local people. There are two major things that I realized during...
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Destiny Across The Sea
It all started on an early morning on December 3rd, 2011, I woke up to the voice of a loud, anxious, yet excited mother yelling, “RISE AND SHINE TODAY IS THE DAY!” In reality, I...
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Best Friends: Around the World and Back
Upon graduating from 8th grade, I had the opportunity to travel with my best friend, a few classmates and teachers/chaperones to Europe. Through Educational Tours, we traveled to London, Paris and...
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3 teams, 3 stadiums, 3.3 million citizens, 1 city
"Ole Ole Ole, Cholo Simeone!" the crowd chanted loudly in unison as their home team ran up and down the pitch. It was a Sunday afternoon, no clouds in the sky and it was just the right...
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Visiting the True Americans
From July 7th-13th, I had the privilege of meeting the true Americans. My church youth group went on our annual trip, and this year our destination was the Pine Ridge Reservation...
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There’s Something Missing
This summer I had the opportunity to travel with a choir group to a remote and desolate part of Africa. I saw a land of wild beauty and grace with a touch of devastation that seemed...
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1st Trip To Europe
On a recent trip to Europe, I saw and experienced many wonderful aspects of European culture. My mother and I went on a Globus bus tour with 20 other Americans. We traveled from Italy up through Switzerland,...
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High Stakes at Stokes
Living a fast paced, new age life style is no easy task, and my family prides itself on our ability to keep up with the demands of everyday living. We own the carpool route like it’s nobody’s...
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Becoming A Family Far From Home
“She was right there.” The venerable old woman pointed a crooked finger toward the flowerbed in front of her. All four of us stared into the little bed that was brimming with golden chrysanthemums....
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The Creation of a Great Vacation
Day 1 – Tuesday In the beginning, there was no fun in Arkansas. The weather was hot and the heat was unbearable. So a mother...
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Wake Up
“Marie, wake up. Wake up.” Early morning calls to the San Gabriel Mountains on sunny summer days wasn’t exactly how I thought I’d be spending my summer, but now...
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Vietnam Under the Setting Sun
The gray roads slid by monotonously as the shuttle hurtled down the road to the airport. Twenty-two hours later, the green oceans, looming mountains, and clear skies of Saigon appeared outside of...
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My trip to Mars (Indio)
Last summer, my cousins decided to call us up and take us on a road trip. “ROAD TRIP!” we shouted as we began packing up our things. Our uncle told us that he had a time share at...
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An Atmosphere Change
As I walked out of the airport all I could feel was the overwhelming humidity in the air of New Orleans, Louisiana. I sighed in relief as we finally arrived at the cool, huge Hilton hotel. My church...
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Trip to Roaring Gujarat
In the summer of 2011, my parents, my sister and I took a trip to India to visit our family. It took about 16 hours of flying time to reach Mumbai, where we waited overnight for the morning...
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Big Things Come in Small Packages: The Island of Barbados
My trip to Barbados in the summer of 2011 was without a doubt, one of the best trips I have ever experienced in my life. Barbados, the birth country of super-star Rihanna, the well-known cricketer...
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Chicken, Rice, and Beans in the Dominican Republic
“Bienvenidos a la Republicana Dominican!”—Welcome to the Dominican Republic. I had been anticipating for over a year to hear those words and when I walked into the Puerto...
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Immersion in Nature – Yellowstone National Park!
As a teenager I vehemently protest any attempts whatsoever to get me out of bed before 11:00 A.M., I consider this a longstanding tradition that I have upheld since...
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Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
Of all things, I am happiest to have inherited my father's 'travel gene'. His tales of traversing the European continent with his own father instilled in me a powerful wanderlust, an...
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With Travel It’s Always a Surprise: A Camping Adventure in the Smokey Mountains
The senior project is a period before graduation that is allotted to the seniors of Columbus Academy to design a project, complete it, and reflect on it. Sitting in the chemistry room, we listened...
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The Big Apple Break-Up
My oldest sister once told me that young women in Japan idealize France to such an extent that when they eventually visit, they are most disappointed since it could in no way live up to their expectations....
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The Wholeness of Purpose
It was early spring of 2012 and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, the lawns were lush, and the sun was warm. We had traveled to D.C. for WAMUNC, a four-day Model United Nations conference at...
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The Will Of The Weeds
The air in Guilin is scorching hot, and temperatures have climbed to over a hundred degrees. Although we’ve escaped from the city to the countryside, we can’t escape the heat. Even the...
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