Why Tourists Shouldn’t Be Tourists
I knew from the beginning that my itinerary would not consist of sunny days spent lounging by the pool, coconut slushy in hand and sunscreen smeared sunglasses perched on my head. Despite my frequent...
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A Muggy, Mesmerizing Madness: Airports
I am not an avid traveler. I fly occasionally--once or twice a year, sometimes not at all. I wish it was more. My family always drove wherever we went, enduring the cramped car trips to cut expenses....
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The Touch of Magic
As soon as I walked in, I immediately regretted it. Cobwebs were dangling off broken chandeliers and spooky music hummed in the background. Dim lights gave the room an orange glow, and everything looked...
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The Sovereign Joy
I couldn’t daydream in Kampala. Getting somewhere required all my concentration, patience, and if I failed to stay watchful, too much money! The clammy streets of Uganda’s capital city were ringing...
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Where To Find Me
The most free twenty four hours I ever experienced in my life were spent on a cramped train barreling along the coast of Vietnam. I, and fourteen other teenagers, slept 4 to a car with our luggage as...
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Mockingbird’s Call to Humanity
It was blasted cold, and being the Texas girl I am, I was bundled in layers of thick jackets and mittens. After having waited in a long line outside and then confronted by a picky squad of security, I...
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Cleveland!
As we traveled across the sleepy Ohio landscape, no one imagined the history we were about to encounter. We made our way through the tree lined streets till we were greeted by Alan Canfora, a self proclaimed...
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Shoebox Campout – The Things A Person Will Do When They Are Hungry
There is an annual boy scout campout my troop does every year called Shoebox Campout. Of all the trips that our troops does in the year, this is one of the most challenging. For one weekend,...
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Lost in Iceland
One year ago I had the opportunity to journey to Iceland with my father in hopes of finding an adventure. Beside the island’s infamous volcanic eruptions and music from Bjork, Iceland is home to a...
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We Are the Lucky Ones
Growing up in an indian family, traveling the almost 20 hour journey to India, was always sought out as a long and tiring one. As a child, my sister and I would dread the journey to the motherland because...
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Solace on a Roller Coaster
Here I was. The moment I had always dreaded, but simultaneously looked forward to - riding a roller coaster. Before me was Expedition Everest, Disney’s behemoth of a coaster, situated in a mountain modeled...
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The Blessed and The Ravaged
As an American, I am extravagantly blessed with comforts most of the world cannot even imagine. I often find myself hiding from this world inside an impenetrable bubble, a bubble...
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Small Ship Cruising with Families
I have been on three cruises: one with a traditional, large cruise line and two with small ship companies. Yes, big ships offer swimming pools, rock climbing walls, and teen lounges. But...
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Sunshine, Sand, Seaturtles, and Summer Fun!
My small hometown in the Sunshine State is the perfect place to visit throughout the year with its perennial temperatures averaging a perfect 75 degrees. The town originally began around the late 19th...
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How Oleleshwa and Kisaruni Changed My Life
On July 20, 2015, 17 American, Canadian, Ecuadorian, and Irish students departed from Washington DC with imaginations running wild over what they would experience in the Maasai Mara region in Kenya...
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Yaquina Head: A Journey Never to be Forgotten
The vast ocean lay in front of me, a massive blanket with no end in sight. Overhead, streaks of cirrus clouds graced the pale blue sky like the wings of an enormous Trumpeter Swan. Beneath my feet lay...
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A Rose in the Desert – Serenity in Damascus
Damascus, Syria, a city at the heart of a bloody war. A city that itself is a juxtaposition where life thrives only kilometers away from heavy conflict and war. After years of waiting, a turbulent flight...
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Leave No Trace
The Adirondack Mountains, located in Upstate New York, hold forty-six High Peaks above 3,790 feet. One of my favorite vacation activities is hiking some...
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Dragon Army’s Adventure Legacy : What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Our Memories for Ever
Nostalgia. Nostalgia. Nostalgia. I can still recall the crisp, rushing wind as it grazed my face from every angle. As we twisted and turned so rapidly, the darkness of the night was engulfed by the...
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Death on the Bridge of Life
Calm waters shift slowly on one side. Driven, velocious cars journey on the other. A living form of juxtaposition. I feel the shadows of those who marched on the Edmund Pettus Bridge beside me. Heads up,...
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Hope in the Midst of Despair
The building looked innocent enough from the street. With its greying stone, plain rectangular structure, and uniform windows, it looked like simply another old office building that you could walk past,...
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Italy: The Path of the Gods
The narrow, serpentine road hugs the hillside, rocks and vegetation to the left, a sheer drop to the Mediterranean to the right. We’re taking the Sita...
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Breakthrough
Bzzz! We were constantly swatting away persistent mosquitoes which craved our blood, dehydrated from the sweat pouring off our bodies, and sore from the backpacks that felt like a pack of elephants....
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The Way That Water Washes Over
If I had to pick one thing, for-sure, that I love most about Thailand, it would be the rain. Where I'm from (San Francisco, I tell everyone I meet, because it's close-by anyways and far more well-known),...
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Of Heat and Humanity
The heat slipped into Los Angeles, catching us unaware. Was that the inkling of a coming heat wave, or just a warm breeze? Were those clouds in the distance? Surely, the morning fog meant a mild day? By...
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Climbing to New Caledonia
The American flag waved above me as I paraded across stage with forty other Americans all wearing red white and blue. We were surrounded by the reds, whites, greens and yellows of twenty-six other flags...
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Setting Foot in a Nation of Faith and Resilience
A blank computer screen… This is the scholarship applicant’s dreaded nightmare, yet at the same time, the cherished dream of countless poverty-stricken Filipino sidewalk dwellers. Gratefully exchanging...
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A Final Night to ‘Never Forget’- The Journey Between Summer Camp and Auschwitz
My whole life revolved around summer camp. I would dream of climbing onto the bus and taking off for another summer spent lakeside with my best friends at Emma Kaufmann Camp. The school...
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Pompeii Dreams
Young and hopeful, I dreamed of seeing the places from my "Who Was" books and History Channel documentaries. I wrote stories of going to Egypt and discovering King Tut’s tomb for myself. I wished...
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Dance is the Universal Language
I stood center-stage in a colorful costume and stared out into the crowd eagerly filling the cobblestone square. Beyond, the Sudety mountains stood proudly before a glowing sunset. The music began,...
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New York Two Ways
The air is sharp, like the people who glance at our mini-man for but a second before discerning our place as outsiders looking into their world. The pale, yet colorful, cynical,...
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Pilatus: The Dragon’s Mountain
LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND. 1421. It’s summer, when the snows have finally receded back into the fang-like peaks of Mount Pilatus. The small lakeside village rests peacefully...
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Fifteen Cent Priceless Glossy 4×6’s
I can still see myself standing in the middle of the Budget parking lot, basking in the scent of rental cars, trying to imprint the moment in my memory for the rest of my...
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An Evaluation of Public Transportation or, That One Time I Went to New England and Couldn’t Rent a Car
1. Airplane We arrived at the airport at approximately 4:15 the morning of November 11. My mother, my sister and I were taking a couple days to visit some colleges. We were flying into Laguardia that...
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Uprooted in Gold
It was that night by the gas station when I felt it. A liquid, a lightness, kind of like the golden air over my shoulder as I sat on the curb. For a moment it was stretched out soft, carrying me with...
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A Different Bird
I had been counting the days, then the hours during the plane ride. Finally I am in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, my home, the place I had been longing for the past year. And yet, back in the city, I feel...
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The Secret Behind the Twigs
When I looked at the island on the horizon, there wasn’t anything pretty to look at. After all, it was very small, like a child had stuck a small group of leafy branches into the middle of a puddle....
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One Ola at a Time
Waving goodbye to my chaperones and fellow exchange students, all of the excitement that had built inside me on the 12-hour plane ride to Costa Rica turned to dread as I realized that my classroom...
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An Unfortunate Day on the River
Skin blistering heat. River water moving as slow as an act of Congress. Disappointment after every turn from hope that we would soon reach the end. Our family’s much anticipated white water rafting...
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God Was Having A Good Day When He Made Alaska
Alaska is more a humbling experience than anything else. There’s something beautiful in every direction you look. My dad knew this when he planned our day in Juneau....
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Battling on the Courts: A Dallas Story
Red, white, and blue. Patriotic colors fly through the sky as we celebrate America’s independence. Scurrying out the door to enjoy the fireworks, the phone echoes through the empty house. Usually...
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Memories Are Amusing
I remembered serenity: crunchy, sweet and sour bowls of chaat in outside cafés, aimless walks down busy streets admiring lavish storefronts, gentle, white flowers, tumbling from trees above. Memories...
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The Boardwalk Where Footsteps Align
The way Coney Island is, you can never pinpoint how exactly it’s supposed to feel; it’s different every time. On the last day I visited it felt especially gritty, from the way the gray overcast...
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Looking Through The Conch
The soft whir of the air-conditioner permeates the small study room as I lay on a bamboo mat, staring up at our makeshift mosquito net with my sister breathing...
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More Than a Postcard
Contrary to popular belief, there is more to the Hawaiian Islands than what is portrayed on a postcard. I myself had been to Hawaii before, but at the time I too was mesmerized by the commercialized...
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The Universal Language: Ice Cream Cones and Crayola Crayons
My eyes grew sleepy as winding hills consumed my view, sloping gently into the background with no sign of relapse. I watched as sunflowers danced in the wind and wildflowers mingled haphazardly; the colors...
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The Big Blue
I have visited thousands of places, dozens of countries, lived through marvelous adventures, but nothing will ever compare the amazing experience I had in Polynesia. I was sixteen, I loved swimming...
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When in Rome (Or Assisi)
There are those vacations that leave you with fond memories, and there are those that leave you forever changed; my trip to Assisi was of the latter. After enduring a grueling five-hour layover, a turbulent...
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