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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