Adoption from China
Last summer I had an awesome experience that I will never forget. It wasn’t just any other trip, I went to China! Our purpose in going was not like most vacations. I went with my parents to pick up...
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Santa Fe: Spain in the Heart of America
Bright colors, festive music, and delicious smells greet me as I step into the plaza. An old man in a serape leans down and speaks in Spanish to a young boy, who is showcasing his wooden handicrafts...
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IT”S A TRIP TO A GOOD LIFE
Seeing the crowd lined up at the cruise-ship terminal in Venice, I wasn’t sure whether my mother booked a family vacation or an extended stay at...
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“Travelers on a road”.
I once heard an ancient proverb that said, “only he who has traveled the road knows where the holes are deep”. As these words slowly echoed across my mind, neither a sense of inspiration nor understanding...
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California Family Vacation
After spending a week visiting our relatives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, my family and I boarded a plane to California before going back to our home state of Alabama. Sight-seeing California was a much...
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The Power of the Pen
It is amazing what the power of the pen can do inclusively, it granted me the opportunity to go on an expense free trip to New York and Washington D.C
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Two Weeks in Turkey
From the thirtieth of July to the seventeenth of August 2009, I was in Turkey, or more accurately the city of Istanbul. My mom’s childhood friend Orhun Ãtavdar founded an art museum. Half of my time...
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Beauty of Simplicity
“Gracias” I replied, as a dinner of unknown fruits and vegetables rolled in a banana tree leaf was placed into my timid hand. I flashed a reassuring smile as the native Ecuadorians anxiously...
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My European Adventure
Our parents were saying goodbye and crying like we were being sent off to war. I could not stop smiling. THIS IS IT! The sophomore class Euro trip was finally commencing. It was almost unreal. Take...
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The Pennsylvania Hills
I learned to measure milk in a half an eggshell, found doppelgangers exist, fell in love with rollercoaster-like land . . . and decided family reunions had possibility. I truly tried to avoid my...
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The Piece of Puzzle Found in Japan
Stepping into a room filled with nakedness, I wondered to myself just what I got myself into. Japanese ladies were walking in every direction, into steams of hot baths and scorching hot spring water....
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Traveling for Freedom from Ignorance
It’s no secret that America is the queen of affluence, if not the self-proclaimed queen of all she knows. Affluence is one sin, but far worse is ignorance, and narrow mindedness....
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Learning Adaptation, European Style
In America, we are lucky enough to have more opportunities and more freedom than many around the world. However, this often leads us to have a near blinding air of superiority and lack of understanding...
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Sacrifices For Others
After 40,000 houses flooded and 1,400 people lost their lives, a coach bus filled with 32 eager passengers left a church from the small town of Melrose, Wisconsin on June 10, 2006. I was one of these...
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My trip to Costa Rica
At age 14, I was chosen to attend the Costa Rica Rainforest Outward Bound School (CRROBS) Girl Scout’s Service Challenge (http://www.crrobs.org/courses/itinerary_gs_sc.html). The 15-day expedition...
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Donkey Nightmare in Greece
In 2008, thirty-six California Central Valley teenagers stepped off a ferry into a new adventure. There was Greece, the country...
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The Epic Youth Group Camping Trip
From June 26-28, 2008, my church’s youth group went camping at Sturgeon Lake. We stayed at a private cabin owned by our...
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Obama’s Inauguration
It was January 19th, 2009. The countdown had begun. A group of thirty students, myself included, had arrived in Washington D.C. the day prior to the inauguration. Everywhere there was talk...
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Oh Canada
"Welcome to Canada it's the maple leaf state, Canada, oh Canada, it's great! The people are nice and they speak French too..."
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Nigeria
It's quite difficult for someone so young to understand why a place they have...
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The Spirit of South Africa
This summer, I received an opportunity quite unlike any I could have ever imagined. Discovery Education is launching student adventure tours to various countries all over the world, and I found myself...
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Foreign But Warming Experiences In Istanbul
I was selected to participate in a summer exchange program to Turkey through my mother's company, Evonik, this past summer. When I arrived in Ankara, my host family was so warm, and my Turkish sister,...
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Everything is Not What It Seems
A couple of hundred miles off the west coast of Ecuador, the Galápagos Islands are little pieces of paradise situated in the Pacific Ocean. As my family and I left our cruise ship, “The Ambassador”,...
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Three months of reality
George Bernand Shaw once wrote, “the reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.” Up until the summer of 2008, when...
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Peruvian Glue
Daydreaming of trees filled with birds of every color in the spectrum and the prospect of encountering exotic, undiscovered species, I and thirty others from my school ventured into the Amazon, thrilled...
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In the Mountains of Colorado
While the rest of the world took exciting trips to London and Paris, my mother decided it would be more fun to stay within the United States. Colorado was the place she had always wanted to visit. I...
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A Glimpse of Madison, Wisconsin
My alarm clock’s nagging and monotonous beeping blared at six in the morning on Labor Day this year. Getting up eagerly, I exhibited a deep contrast to my usual routine of hitting the snooze button....
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Unexpected Paradise
It was the summer of 2006. My parents decided it was time for another family vacation to Mexico, and yes, I was going, no exceptions. See, every time my parents plan a “family vacation,”...
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