Welcome to the Jungle!
“Welcome to Jamaica! We got fun and games!” bellowed my fellow team members as we bumped down a dirt road. I only paid half my attention to their Guns ‘N Roses parody, for...
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Back to the One I Love
Last summer, my mother, sister and I took a 14 hour long flight back to our roots in Guangzhou, China. The last time I visited China was three years ago and the wait was long overdue....
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Two Weeks, Two Visits, Two Families
My family has always been one that enjoys traveling, however, in all of the vacations we have taken, our trip to Spain is the most interesting adventure. The vacation started,...
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To Grandmother’s House We Go
Every few years, my family packs the car and we head to my grandmother’s house for the holidays. My grandmother lives in a small farm community just west of Chicago, called...
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No’ar Hadash Summer 2010; Discovering My Second Home, Israel.
It is July 13th, 2010, local Israeli time, 7:15am, I am on an ElAl flight from Newark, New Jersey to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. I am with a Reconstructionist youth...
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My Hut Is Your Hut
Pitch dark, ten degrees hotter than outside, a stench of manure. I can barely make out the outline of a woman, or rather a girl of twenty, who sits in silence as she feeds her...
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Who Can Get The Closest?
It was reckless. It was reckless, stupid, and dangerous. But, it was just the rush I was looking for in my Yellowstone vacation. Standing outside of the Gardiner, Montana Gateway...
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Getting to the Penny
When my guidance counselor suggested that I visit colleges before applying, I don’t think that this is what she had in mind. There were six of us-my mom, aunt, brother, sister,...
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My Life Changing Experience
Fall 2009, I was chosen to be on the leadership team at my high school. I was put in charge of a Christmas shoebox drive for Haiti. I was excited to help collect shoeboxes...
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Christmas in Italy—10 Days of History, Art, & Culture
There I stood, a child of just 13, gazing up at Michelangelo’s majestic David, still not believing I was actually in Italy. As I glanced around the room, I couldn’t recognize any other works...
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Marble in the Rockies
The beauty of the mountains surrounding the tiny town of Marble, Colorado is astounding. Sitting on the deck outside our room at Beaver Lake Lodge, I can see one of the many sparkling...
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Parlez-Vous Français?
Adrenaline pumped through my veins as I glanced out the airplane window preparing to land into Nice, France. My first glance of the French Alps lining the sparkling Mediterranean...
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Surprise!
“Okay kids, we’ll go ahead and tell you. We are going to take a weekend trip to Atlanta, Georgia next weekend!” Mom said. ...
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Breaking Latina Expectations
I have in my deepest memories the times that my father went deep-sea fishing and arrived home with few fish. Since age seven, I dreamt of holding a fishing pole and reeling in...
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Nicaragua’s Next Top Model: The Real Deal
I take my first step into a world that, until a few years ago, I never would have conceived knowing. The humidity shocks me, giving my straight, smooth hair a new, un-appealing...
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My Alaskan Expedition
It is cold, there are mountains surrounding me, the sky is overcast, yet the sun seems unaware that it is after midnight; this is Alaska in the summer. Two years ago my family decided to take...
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A Williamsburg Trip With Many Misadventures!
The blistering sun beats down upon the beautiful, yet old-fashioned décor while a trumpet and the pounding of drums fill the air with an intense feeling of patriotism. Such a...
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An Afternoon at St. Peter’s
I happily pulled a less-than-ideal-in-100-degree-weather black cardigan over my shoulders and gazed up 450 feet to the world famous dome of
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Farm Fresh
This summer, my family and I traveled to another world! The people were strange, the water tasted weird, and I had the time of my life!
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Road to Lonavala
Mumbai has two temperatures; hot and hotter. Especially during the summer months, the city can be nearly unbearable. The traffic, the incessant push of humanity, and the raw poverty that fill the muddy,...
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South African Bush: An Untouched and Invisible World
I awoke to clamoring sounds on the rowdy bus. It became increasingly evident we were approaching our intended destination, as the scenery was devoid of familiar architecture. We were surrounded by...
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Jazz, Chocolate, Spaghetti, and Unity
The trip began as multiple performances but ended as an eye-opening experience. I sat quietly in the Chicago Airport—a reserved 14-year-old girl high school freshman awaiting...
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A Hellas of a Time
Each summer, my family and I travel to Serbia to visit our relatives in Belgrade and Leskovac, the former a vibrant capital city and the latter a charming town rooted in tradition....
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The Greatest Gift
They came from all over by the thousands. They traveled for miles. Some of them even came from neighboring countries. They walked, rode motorcycles, piled into the...
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A Requiem for Hope in a Forlorn Nation
A thick blanket of humidity and heat surrounded my mother and me. We had arrived to the rendezvous point where our Haiti Medical Mission Team would assemble before departing for...
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The Roman Equation
As the saying goes, “Rome was not built in a day.” Therefore, being able to explore all of Rome and its treasures in a day alone is a highly impossible feat. To make this equation...
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Peace, Love, and Ducks
I woke with a smile on my face and more energy than I could imagine. It was the summer of my sixteenth year and the first time I had left the United States. The beauty...
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A City on the Edge
The taxi pulsed with cool air that taunted the domineering sun above, as if it was coyly escaping its relentless blaze. Seeping into the pores of the local people outside, the sun’s rays crawled into...
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A Ray of Hope
The summer after my sophomore year in high school I went on a family vacation to Maui. I had heard so many wonderful stories about Hawaii that I had no doubt my vacation would...
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Pore, Croatia.
This summer I went to Pore, a little town located on the west coast of Istria Peninsula in Croatia. Pore is almost 2,000 years old and it has a population of approximately 17,000....
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Nashville and Gatlinburg: A Great Family Adventure
Our amazing vacation started with a long car drive from Missouri to Tennessee. Upon arriving in Gatlinburg, we were fascinated by the brightly-lit shopping strip in the middle...
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Up to Mackinac Island
Interesting family vacations are no stranger to my family and I. We have traveled all around the United States, Maine to Florida to Wyoming, and accumulated many great stories...
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OHSET State Trip
Hey everyone! I am from Elmira, Oregon and am heading up to Redmond in a couple of minutes. That means I have sit in the truck for three hours. And listen to my mom and a couple of her friends talk, boring....
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Lost in Nature
In today’s society getting away from all technology is a hard thing to do, even when you travel the technology, like cell phones, is still a temptation for most teenagers. In...
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Journey to Nicaragua
During the summer, I discovered a lot about my father's homeland of Nicaragua. As a teen, my father and his family barely escaped the Sandinista Rebels, sadly leaving...
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The Land of Melancholy
In but a few hours, I had managed culture shock of the highest degree: I had traveled from the wintry Milwaukee airport, full of businessmen typing on laptops, college students...
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My friend, Tortuguero and My Pre-Historic Adventure
It was a very early morning in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, a modern community of resorts and upscale residences. I was up early. It was, after all, my first morning in beautiful Nuevo,...
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India 2010: Family, Food, Fun, Fantastic and Family…Again
I could start this essay the ol' fashioned way. You know "the days were hot, the nights were cold," yada, yada, yada. The days were hot and the nights were hot but not as hot. What would you...
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Eye Opener
The exhausting 22 hours plane ride, unusual bed times and powerful aches are all bearable for a vacation to Nepal, my home and one of the third...
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Next Year in Jerusalem
"Next Year in Jerusalem," said my dad as he stared at me with eyes full of pride. The phrase used to end the Seder ceremony during Passover was finally about to come true for me. In just a matter of...
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My Internal Journey
Ever since I was fourteen years old, the same routine has always occurred. Each morning, I wake up at the break of dawn, and I see my parents getting ready for another day of work in the fields, full...
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Sin Cuenta
Our group of high school juniors and seniors stayed up until midnight at Las Tortugas, a turtle reserve in Limón, Costa Rica. The night before, we patrolled for four...
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Shoes for Haiti
My trip to Haiti this year was a completely unexpected miracle that expanded my view on the world. This year the family trip was supposed to be a three week fiesta in Europe - "exploring the world"...
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The Other Side of Costa Rica
I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel all over the country. By age sixteen, I had visited New York, Hawaii, Florida, and many other states. However, I had never...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Memories from Scotland
A trip to a foreign land never fails to leave everlasting footprints along the shores of your memories. New experiences and encounters with foreign cultures embed themselves in your memories and, without...
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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,...
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