¡Otavalo!

Archive South America- INTI
Hello from Otavalo! We have safely arrived in the beautiful city of Otavalo. We had a nice late drive last night, and were able to see a bit of a sunset, I think the first since we have been here! We woke up this morning, and had a nice start of the day by walking around the HUGE, market. I think a few of us are slow trailing things behind… Read More

Bodhgaya – birthplace of Buddhism

Archive India- SHIVA
Hey everyone, Chrys here, reporting for blog duty. We’re currently in Bodhgaya, but before I get to that, there are some highlights from the rest of our time in Varanasi. Nina, Ben and Desmond did some fire=dancing with actual fire! A bunch of the girls made rings in jewely making class. We went on a sunrise boatride on the Ganges and on another day, took a boat ride across the… Read More

¡Huevos Rancheros!

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Today is our last night in Ecuador, we are going to go put our Salsa Dance Moves to the test. Hopefully all goes well, Haha . We have spent the last couple of day finishing up our last week of Spanish School. Learning all about past tense verbs, it has been a difficult week, if I might say so my self. On Sunday the group, went to Mitda Del Mundo… Read More

Sticks, Ducks, and Reggaeton

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
Hello from San Andres!I am proud to introduce to you all the ninth member of our group: Patito the duck (pato being the Spanish word for duck). To recap, after we left Finca Ixobel we were assigned to our first homestay families. We were warmly welcomed into the community, and to ease the transition we stayed with another group member. We also ate our meals together as a group, which… Read More

Coffee makes me crazy, but I have to make an exception here..

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Hello all! Emily here. We are now in Mbale, Uganda and are staying at an inter-faith coffee co-op called Mirembe Kawomera. We’ve been learning about how the coffee is grown and harvested and have gotten to take part in the entire process- picking the berries, pruning the trees, shelling the berries, etc. The farm is totally organic and the coffee is shade grown with many other plants, such as banana… Read More

Varanasi…

Archive India- SHIVA
So we are in this amazing city called varanasi, oh yeah! lots of bonding and good laughs flowing. To start this blog off, “bridey” has officially changed her name to willa rose, which is awesome. There have been to recent hair stylings, thanks to our own willa rose, that have left the girls a bit short on the head (hillary and graham). As you may well know our beloved friend… Read More

el panecillo & the basilica

Archive South America- INTI
Standing so close to El Panecillo, the angel, the virgin mary, who looks over all of Ecuador brought us all closer to the city and it´s energy. The statue is amazing, standing tall above our heads, we strain our necks to look up at her halo of stars. She stands atop a serpent, holding it´s neck with a chain. Certainly majestic, she watches over a magnificent view of the city… Read More

Salsa!

Archive South America- INTI
After spanish classes for three days, we´re all beginning to sound a little more like South America. Yesterday, we had the chance to walk through the huge market with our spanish teachers. Though only around ten in the morning, the smells of delicious Ecuadorian food made us all a bit hungry. It was hard to concentrate on the names of all the fruits and vegetables that were stacked together. Piles… Read More

First Day in Quito

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hola familia y amigos! Last night we arrived in Quito! After a bus ride in the rain, watching Samuel L. Jackson movies in spanish, we came into the city, passing the equator monument, to get into taxis to go to our new homes. Excited and nervous, we arrived to meet Rosa, the director of the language school, and mom to Tessa and Amanda. Tired, we were grateful for generous meals,… Read More

blog numero uno

Archive India- SHIVA
hello everyone,sorry for the tardy post, but rest assure everyone is more than happy and healthy. We are currently in varanasi, the city lights, and kicking off our internships and hindi classes. Hindi is definitely a challenge, but we’re getting the hang of it slowly… ie practicing on the roof top with the monks across the street. The internships include fire dancing (nina, bridey, ben and desmond, classical indian singing… Read More

Queens of the Nile!

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Today we went whitewater rafting on the Nile and let’s just start by saying it was INTENSE. Jinja is famous for the grade 5 rapids pretty much all the way down the strip of river we rafted. The 7 of us girls were in one boat and Marshall went in another boat full of guys. We are VERY proud to say that the girls boat flipped only one time! We… Read More

Here and having a blast!

Archive Central America- QUETZAL
Hello friend and family and welcome to our blog!It all began in the San Francisco airport. One by one we found our way to the TACA counter of the international terminal where Nick and Amanda (our incredible, fearless leaders) told us to meet. Once we’d all arrived we said goodbye to Ethan and a few parents who came for the send off, and made our way to the gate to… Read More

atempt #2

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After a previously failed blog attempt, onyx and I (karen)are out to actually post our regards to all the fam an friends back home. we have come to realize that our espanol es horible y nosotros necesitamos practicar mucho, mucho, mucho mas! all is well in the world and Mino is a completely lovely place. Onyx is fellin swell and says hola partir de Ecuador y yo entrigo mi miros.… Read More

Greetings from Mindo!

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Hey all, Amanda and Tessa here reporting in from Mindo, Ecuador.. in the cloud forest! It´s been amazing so far. Yesterday, after some group dicussions and activities, the group hiked up to a zip line company near the hostel and we spent a few hours enjoying 13 different zip lines, letting us fly over and through the amazingly gorgeous canopy of the cloud forest. Later we got to enjoy time… Read More
Archive South America- INTI
Nuestro grupo en Mindo! Enjoying life (and sunshine) in the cloud forest. Off to Quito mañana. Hasta pronto.Con cariño,Heather, Adam, Jenn, Paul, Tessa, Amanda, Onyx, and Karen… Read More

First Day in the City

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Hey guys, this is Paul and Jenn. Its our first day in Mindo, we are currently doing a scavenger hunt around town for some fun. It has been raining alot but it still very warm. It is a beautiful day today partly cloudy with some sun. Yeserday the group ziplined through the cloud forest, on 13 different zip line courses. It was beautiful veiw from that high up, it rained… Read More
Archive East Africa- KIFARU
OLYOTYA! Greetings from Kampala!Uganda is da bomb– since everyone else explained today’s scavenger hunt, we’ll fill you in a little about what life’s been like the past couple days.Our hostel is sweet, one of the rooms is open-air with bunkbeds and moaquito nets. last night was our first african rainstorm, that was an experience. lets just say no one was kidding when they said it rains hard in Africa! it… Read More

Kampala Scanvager Hunt!

Archive East Africa- KIFARU
Whats up?! Its Miriam and Emily and we are posting from Kool city internet cafe in Kampala, Uganda. Besides checking this off our list, we want to shout out to the carpe diem office as well as friends and family for all their help and support. Kampala is nuts- in a good way. People are all over the place selling things, calling us mzungos, helping me (Emily) when I almost… Read More