My Trip to the Moon
The bus took us to many impressive sights that day; geysers spraying water and steam like enormous earthbound teapots, thundering waterfalls cascading into fresh, pure rivers, the cavernous crack of the...
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My India
Fear. Bombs. Blood. Screaming. TERROR. This was all I could see, hear, and think about while visiting one of Mumbai, India’s exclusive malls. All I could do was watch the people in the mall, with...
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The Becoming of Appreciation
My buoyant ambiance is dampened...
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Worlds Apart, Closer than Ever
It was a 24 hour flight from Maryland to Ilo Ilo City, Philippines. It was how my family and I spent our Christmas, which was also my older sister’s birthday. But it was a dream we had all shared since...
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With Clouds Beneath My Feet
I stood in front of a small wood building that almost blended into the alpine landscape around it. An overstuffed backpack dangled off my shoulders, full of rented mountaineering gear that I though made...
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Most Cars Don’t Come Back: A Final Trip to Croatia
The airports in Germany won't allow you to take rented vehicles into eastern Europe. This puzzled my parents and I, because in two weeks we were about to take a road trip to Croatia. We...
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The Other Side of Jamaica
A perfect picture: a palm tree on a deserted beach, a starlit sky, the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. I dig my toes into the sand trying to take in every inch, every sound, and every scent...
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Niagara Falls
A family of three is going for a boat ride down the Niagara River. They are enjoying themselves when suddenly an unthinkable thing happens. The motor on their boat quits working. Normally this would not...
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If Thoreau Went Backpacking
The second night was much like the first. I stripped off my pack, this time remembering to clear an area, and I even had time to cook dinner before crawling into my mobile grave. I felt a short-lived...
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Costa Rica
It was Costa Rica, a vision of crowded, colorful houses and flat tin roofs caked in flaky, thick rust, and hillocks of kaleidoscopic litter cascading down the dirty streets. It was the sun, the blistering...
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My Jamaican Heart
On February 21, 2008, I boarded a plane for Montego Bay, Jamaica, excited for what God had in story for me. Little did I know that I would leave part of my heart in Jamaica. During the eleven days that...
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Girls Trip: Massanutten, VA
Girls Week Out. No dads allowed, no boys, just females in all our high-maitenance glory. One week at a ski resort in Virginia: five girls in four rooms, two stories, two kitchens,...
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Southern Africa
During months of anticipation, I knew Africa would be life-changing...
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Luvianos
We were to depart from Dulles International Airport, at 5:00pm, and arrive at Mexico City International airport at 9:30pm. Those were the simple instructions given to my eight year old sister, my eleven...
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Discovering the Roots of My Personality
In Memoriam On August 19, 1692, Martha Carrier of Andover was hung as witch in Salem, Massachusetts. She is one of the witches about whom many people know nothing. To me, she is the most interesting...
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An Unexpected Opportunity
Nigel no Monogatari (The Story of Nigel) On the humid evening of August...
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N.O.L.A. and Me
The last week of August 2005, a natural disaster struck the southern United States and impacted millions of lives. Hurricane Katrina caused grief, tragedy, and despair. But for...
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The Experiment In International Living: Turkey 2007
I pushed a seed...
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7,000 Miles Away But Right Next Door: My Trip to Beijing
Orange, blue, red, yellow signs touting the taxi cabs, the restaurants, the money changing stations lined the airport terminal. The air, an acrid, foreign aroma filling my lungs, left me with an indecipherable...
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A Climb Up Mount Tai During Our Summer Vacation in China
The eighteen flights of precipitous, stone steps soar upwards, a 5000-foot ladder into the clouds. On overcast days the effect is eerie: just yards ahead, the path is hidden in swirling mist. There is...
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Yup, I Brought My Calculator
There's no way around it. I'm a math nerd. It was the night before my first trip out of the United States, to the distant land of Egypt. I was soon to discover a realm of striking poverty, ancient architecture,...
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Hope in Times of Helplessness
Sometimes we may feel we are hanging on by a thread, and often that thread is the one thing keeping us connected to humanity. On December 3, 2004 as I walked into Dairy Queen I already had a premonition...
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A Bunch of Really Old and Really Tall Trees: Sequoia National Park
When my parents first informed my brothers and me that our summer vacation was going to be spent at Sequoia National Park in southern California, I was disappointed. We were going...
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Amazon
Yeah, sure I'm in IB Biology and my mom is a conservation biologist, but I'm not quite the rainforest type. As a seventeen year old, I prefer our nocturnal sleeping schedules as opposed to the early jungle...
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Auschwitz
By the time November comes around in school, the band room is buzzing with rumors of what the next band trip will be. Last year, countries like China, Italy, and Spain were coming out of the mouths of...
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Unbreakable in New Orleans
My mother collects Christmas ornaments. She buys them everywhere we go. Every vacation, road trip, journey -- each place we visit becomes a decoration to hang proudly on our tree....
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The Forbidden Island of Kaho’olawe
Kaho'olawe; also known as Kohemalamalama'okanaloa, is translated as "the holy genitals of the Ocean God Kanaloa" and is the only island throughout Polynesia to be named after a God. The following are my...
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My Not So Audrey-Hepburn-Wind-Blowing-In-Your-Hair-Roman-Holiday Kind of Experience
St. Augustine once proclaimed that "The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." With blistered feet, rain-drenched hair, and aching bones, my first introduction to the European...
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College Collage
One summer. 10 colleges. The summer before my senior year of high school was an ongoing trip, visiting colleges all over New England and upstate New York. From sweltering campus tours, to the same speech...
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Tennessee Perspective
It came. I knew it would, even before I exited the flight. The small plane had just landed at the Knoxville Airport in Tennessee, and my apprehension had already escalated to a sizeable amount. The seatbelt...
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Bright Angel Trail
Sweat poured down my face as we passed under an arch. The path was dangerously narrow here and a daring look down the edge showed us a steep seventy-five foot drop hampered only by a couple of shrubs....
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The River Captain
Like so many things, security is an invisible asset. When we have it, it empowers us to go boldly, to take chances that actually endanger it. But when it is threatened, or worse, gone, you realize how...
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The Magic of Morocco
This past summer, my dad and I took our second trip to Morocco to see more of the wonderful country, drawn back to the North African paradise. Morocco has a magic about it, stemming from its architecture,...
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New Orleans
The streets are wet. The rain is still puddled in some of the ancient cobblestones, tho the air is clear and dark. Neon signs flash off of dripping asphalt, the whole street is...
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My Eye-Opening Cab Ride in Israel
On Saturday mornings in Jerusalem, there are really only two sounds to hear -- silence and prayer. As I walked up the paved road of the Goldstein Youth Village to catch my 8am...
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Around The World, In One Stop
When you think of Las Vegas, Nevada, the first thought that comes to mind is gambling, right? Well, that is partially true of this city of lights, but there is a much bigger Las Vegas I visited over the...
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Why College? Cause I Would Die as a Roofer
It's the middle of a hot summer's day. Ninety-six on the ground, one hundred-fifteen on the roof. The humidity is hovering just over ninety-eight percent, as I'm told it always does in southern Louisiana...
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The Eternal City
The calendar date is July 17th, 2005, but for all I see around me it may be over nineteen hundred years earlier. That's because Pompeii is a city lost to time, oblivious to or defiant of the continuous...
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The Alluring Mystique of Ohio Woodcarving Museums
I let my forehead hit the window of our family's giant blue Suburban. I could not believe that we had sunk so low as to visit a wood-carving museum. I had gotten used to Ohio, but a woodcarving museum...
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Chile
I climbed onto the moon; I had been sick early in the day, but I still trudged up the sand dunes, climbing steadily in search of the perfect view of the sunset. I found it sitting...
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Discovering the Real Mexico
'The diversity of Mexico will appeal to your sense of discovery,' reads the Apple Vacations website and I have to agree. The Mexico I visited three years ago was indeed diverse. Of course, as my mother,...
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Trip to Israel for Jewish Olympics
In the summer after my freshman year, I participated in the Maccabiah games, which is a worldwide gathering of Jews, in an Olympic style competition, that happens every four years. It was a three week...
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It’s a Different World After All
Each year my father, mother and I go on vacation. Sometimes it is to the beach, sometimes it is to visit my oldest brother in Arizona, but this family vacation was dedicated to visiting the colleges I...
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New York City
Many families take vacations across the county and around the world, to places new, exotic or simply relaxing. People travel for many reasons, but I believe mine is the best. My mother and I travel to...
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The Halfburger Trip
When it comes to our annual family trip from Texas to Colorado, my dad doesn't believe in modern technology. No Ipods, no airplanes. No TV in the car. Cell phone for emergencies only. I'm surprised...
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Riding Away from Cairo
At the end of every 'Indiana Jones's' movie, Jones and his team ride off into the sunset. If chance has ever taken you on an adventure, you would know how Jones's feels, speeding home towards the sunlight....
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