Saying Goodbye
I scuff at the orange dust with my flip-flop and stare at our cinder-brick house. It’s all packed up—my life stowed in Tupperwares tied expertly to the top of our Land Rover.The whole village has come...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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A Slice of Literature
Going back in time requires no supernatural powers, no new-fangled machines with walls of blinking buttons and levers—walking into an era long-gone can be achieved as easily...
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(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...
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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...
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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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Remembering the Coast
I crane my neck, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. Turn after turn in the road, I hope this one will reveal the never-ending expanse of water. When the ocean is finally...
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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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Towards Reason’s Horizon
The pungent smell of pine was strong in the air. The firm earth gave slightly as I ascended the slope. The trees towered up into the heavens and the lush canopy swallowed the velvety sky. It was...
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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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Becoming Something More
I’ve always considered myself to be African American. Never did I question the surveys or questionnaires that had that single bubble classifying a whole society into one large culture. I guess this...
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Jazz? Jubilee? Old Sacramento? Oh my!
"You have reached your destination." said the GPS. I looked excitedly out the window. "Ahh, Sacramento." You know, Downtown, in the middle of no where with Farms surrounding...
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Names and Faces
I reach to my collarbone and touch the small gold coin hanging on a worn leather strap. I look at the crested crane and the words “Bank of Uganda” and memories flood my mind. I hear their voices...
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Turning the Page of life (An Escape)
In the words of St.Augustine, "The world is a book and those who do not travel only read one page." This statement is one that symbolically expresses traveling quite well. This...
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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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Spending Two Weeks With Mother Nature
Never before have I been in a town with less than five-hundred people: two gas stations, two bars, and a Subway; accompanied by a mom and pop store and a hunting surplus which...
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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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Taking a Shower
We were warned. Miss Wood, the teacher who led the U.S. and Ghana Exchange Program, had spent months hammering Ghanaian culture into our heads. We watched documentaries, looked...
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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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Trash Talk
Tiptoeing quietly out of the thatched dwelling, I slowly navigated the winding dirt path in the dim light. Past the tropical fronds and under the curving trunks of the palms I walked. Noises of the Vietnamese...
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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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Tehran, Iran: My Story
Iran isn’t the kind of place that one might visit over summer vacation, but for my family, it was an ideal destination. My dad is Iranian and most of his family still lives in Iran. I had been to...
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Ayoba Time
Africa: not a Serengeti wonderland of lions and elephants, but a barren landscape of high grass and termite hills. Sawdust careened into my face, guided by petulant gusts of filthy air. Women walked down...
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Ruby Beach, Washington
Last July, the summer of 2009, my family took advantage of four free airline tickets and planned an impromptu vacation to the Pacific Northwest. We went gallivanting off to the...
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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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The Three C’s of Mount Kilimanjaro: Clear, Copious, and Constant
The most essential item for a woman climbing 19,340 ft Mount Kilimanjaro is the Sani-Fem Freshette Feminine Urinary Director sold for $22.95 on www.REI.com....
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