Adventures in Berlin
Last summer, I took my second trip to Northwestern Germany as an exchange student. Upon arriving, my fellow students and I were lucky enough to have our luggage left behind in Copenhagen when our...
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From Auschwitz to the Negev
Last summer I went on a trip that changed how I view the world. I traveled with NFTY (an international Jewish youth organization) with a hundred other teens to Europe and Israel for five weeks. The...
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Cruisin’.
For spring break my junior year, I went on vacation with my family, my friend, Sarah, and my brother’s friend, Blake. We flew out of the Hubert H. Humphrey terminal in Minneapolis, Minnesota....
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Orlando Extravaganza
On the morning of June 24, 2011 at 2:00 a.m., me and my church family boarded the bus and headed to Orlando, Florida. By 7:00 a.m., we were well into Georgia and everyone was hungry, so we stopped at Ryan’s...
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The laugh of a child is worth a million tears.
It was 3am Friday morning when I departed from Indianapolis on my way to meet up with my team before heading to Jacmel, Haiti. The flights themselves were nice and smoothe. The minute we arrived...
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South Heaven
On May 25thto May 29th 2012, I went to South Haven, Michigan. In this new city; I laughed and relaxed and was able to appreciate something more than just myself. I went with...
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An Adventure Out in the Wild
My junior year of high school came to a close and that meant that summer was finally here. To celebrate how the long hours of constantly studying for school paid off, my family and I decided to take a...
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A Place to Which I Will Never Return
There is a place in the world to which I will never return. I will never again wish to feel the heat of the sun there, never wish to feel the weight of the air there. Never will I choose...
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The Week-Long Turning Point
In every person’s life there are events that will change him forever. I had the privilege of experiencing one of these incredible events over the summer of my junior year. My week-long mission trip...
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On Belonging
You fit into me / like a hook into an eye / a fish hook / an open eye You Fit Into Me, Margaret Atwood Cultural immersion, the anthem of this year, played itself boldly across glossy...
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Into the Ocean: The Lantz Family Adventure in Maui
My stomach did somersaults. The plane was taking off, the destination: Maui, Hawaii. I had always wanted to go to Hawaii, but never had gotten the opportunity. So, when my Aunt and Uncle decided...
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Unexpected Milestone
My mother had asked another tourist to take a picture of our family. There I stood, waiting for the moment to be over. I was enjoying the trip, but the location was not the problem. While uncomfortably...
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My Trip to Nigeria
My trip to Nigeria would definitely have to be a significant experience that has made an impact on my life. My father always wanted me to see my heritage, and has always desired to introduce me to my family....
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Me, My Mom, and Her Dog – A Road Trip Through Northern Michigan
One August afternoon my mother and I were sitting on the deck in our backyard, enjoying the sun and relaxing. I was telling her about my plans to study abroad while in college, and my dreams to travel...
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A Vacation of Giving Back
My family trip to Kanab, Utah, was an amazing opportunity. Though the trip there and back was extremely long (1,600 miles and 25 hours each way), the life changing experience made it well worth it. We...
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The Land of Color and Culture
To visit your motherland is a life changing experience. I had the privilege of doing so in 2007 when I look my extraordinary journey to the beautiful India. As I took my first step into Ahmadabad, India,...
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The Land of Ice and Fire
Visiting another country is an amazing experience, especially when the country that you are visiting is vastly different from your own. When my family went to Iceland I was placed in another world. We...
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Ghosts of the Past
It was July 4th weekend; after driving nearly two days, we arrived at Washington DC right before the annual fireworks show. We were determined to have the perfect view of the display, and spent...
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The Warmth of Food and Family
Every three years I get the amazing opportunity to squish myself in coach seating between overly excited tourists awaiting their new adventure. As long and claustrophobic as these plane rides are, I would...
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Natural Wonder of the World
This isn’t just any blog about some type of cruise that oh-so-changed your life. Or some church missionary trip that has probably been repeated numerous times and just gets boring after a while. ...
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My True Love, Michigan
Whitehall, Michigan. A place where my instincts and emotions run deep. My roots are here. A town where my grandfather grew up…and then my dad, aunts and uncles…and now me. My family has a cottage up...
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Finding Your True Comfort Zone
When you are adhered to the same general vicinity for seventeen years, you develop an enormous comfort zone with a slight curiosity for the world around you. In my personal case, that curiosity is giant...
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An Unforgettable Chinese Experience
With 13 other high school juniors by my side, we all excitedly loaded the Delta Airlines Airplane. We were completely oblivious to the adventures we were about to encounter, even as we arrived at the Beijing...
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Milestones in Maui
It was the summer of 2008 and my family and I were concluding a vacation in Maui. Being a somewhat venturesome trio, we decided we would excursion to the less visited eastern side of the island, the...
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“What Are You?”
"You’re too dark, and your Chinese sounds too funny for you to be Chinese, you’re not fat enough to be American... what are you?” bluntly inquired the local six-year-old Shanghai boy at the Global...
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What I Want… Isn’t Always What I Need
The summer of 2011 to date, has been the most incredible summer of my life. Not because my family and I traveled to some upscale, fluffed up resort. Instead, a humbling trip to the island of Anna Maria,...
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How to NOT be a Tourist (and Love It Too!)
My very first kiss was with Mozart, and I did it WITHOUT a time machine. If that’s not talent, I don’t know what is (I’m kidding of course, I don’t think you’d want to read this blog entry if...
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A Life Changing Moment at a Football Game (Of All Places)!
Sometimes, short moments in someone’s life can influence them forever. It was my first Giants away game. It was a battle between the Giants and the Colts at Indianapolis: a sibling rivalry between...
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In the Unglamorous Side of Traveling, We Often Find the Remarkable
It was the scenery. The colors in the market in Otavalo to the sun just visible behind the peaks in Maccu Piccu. But it was also the food. Fish tacos in a nearly deserted restaurant on the shore...
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It Passes All My Understanding
As we neared the ground to Cusco, Peru I took notice to the beautiful mountains. Green. Not from the trees... It was an incredible view from above. The farm lands looked like a patchwork quilt of different...
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A Week with a Few Half Wild Elephants
I had always wanted a “real” volunteer experience and so, after three years of saving and a dream I thought would never be true, I was now sleeping in the jungle of Chiang Mai, Thailand with my sister,...
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Slices Of Life: Charleston, South Carolina
My momma passed a hand over her eyes the other night and mumbled, “I need to get out of town.” She’s an artist, you know – one of those pensive, sensitive types. She needs to keep her chakras in...
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An Agnostic in Paris
March 23, 2011 I'm not sure how to cleverly start this, so I just have to begin with the basic fact that I am currently on a speed train going through the French countryside. I've just spent two wonderful...
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Never Sea-sick – Our Baltic Adventure
Last summer I went on a family vacation that surpassed all my high expectations. My “frequently cruising” family announced that our next trip would be a Baltic Cruise by Celebrity, and prepared for...
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The Innocence of a Child: Mexico Mission Trip
As the shore approached, I reflected on the reason of my being here in Mexico. A group of 11 from my home church of House on the Rock had gathered with the shared goal of spreading God's love on foreign...
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Travel Teaches: What I’ve Learned about Diversity from Travel
You’ve heard: Everyone is “one of a kind”. No mat
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Deux Semaines a Paris (Two Weeks in Paris)
It is really quite a surreal feeling. My whole life I had been planted firmly in America, having no knowledge of the world outside of my confinements. When the massive airbus 380 touched down in Paris,...
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Change in the Canadian Rockies: Banff National Park
There are many Canadian national parks, but perhaps the oldest and most well know is the Banff National Park, located 110—180 km (68—110 mi) west of Calgary, Alberta. Its large area (6,641 sq km;...
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Feet in One World, Eyes in Many
Very early in a post-rainy morning when the skies remain gray and the streets idle, two young girls travel home. Returning back to the apartment house after spending a night at the country house (dacha),...
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A Piece of Me in NYC
Sometime at the start of my junior year in high school, I became obsessed with the idea of living in New York in a teeny apartment filled with more art supplies than living space. Forget the fact that...
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A Week in Alaska — a Twilight Zone
I step off the airplane and look around nervously; I scan the unfamiliar faces until I suddenly make eye contact with a graying-redhead. I smile, run over, and give her a hug of pure exhilaration. I check...
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Jazmine’s Trip
My trip was from Mexico to the United States, during the spring of 2009. It was my first trip without my parents. It took my aunt and me three days to travel from San Luis Potosi to Chicago, Illinois....
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I Grew Up
Funerals and burials in America seem so easy, simple, and closing. Once you step into another country, it’s completely different. Traveling to Dominican Republic for the burial of my grandmother changed...
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Homage to History
After a ten hour drive across California, Nevada, and into Utah, it is always nice to step out of the car and take in the fresh mountain air. At a quick stop, on the way into Salt Lake City to pick up...
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A very different summer vacation
When I was thirteen years old, I took a trip that changed my life. After a summer spent constructing awkward Spanish phrases I was ready to board the plane to Nicaragua. A beautiful country, Nicaragua...
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Rain Or Shine: A Family Intertwined
With a jolt, my family and I were awoken by the piercing horn of the ferry, signifying our entrance into Norway. To my mother, this was a melancholy reminder of the life she had left behind to raise her...
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My amazing trip to China
My trip to China was amazing. I miss China even more now than I did the day I had to leave. I was able to visit 6 different cities, Beijing, Xi'an, Guilin, Shanghai, Wuzhen, and Hangzhou. Shanghai was...
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