Kochi: it’s not a city, it’s a feeling. Kochi: a tropical, coastal wonderland full of culture, food, and fun. This whole trip, I’ve never felt so at home as I’ve felt in Kochi. Every one of us has a chance to take classes on varying topics and stay with wonderful host families. Every day, we would wake up and have breakfast with our host families before going to our own… Read More

Written By Sydney & Alex After a 4 day track through the cold, dry Himalayas, a week of yoga and exploring Rishikesh was just what this group needed! It’s easy to understand why this place is regarded a sacred! Lush, green forest stretches from the mountain tops to the shores of the Ganges. The smells of incense fill the town and you can hear the insects wherever you go. Teaming… Read More

We started our time together surrounded by the towering, barren, and snowy mountains in the Himalayas in Leh, Ladakh. On arrival, we spent a couple of days acclimatizing to the extreme altitude of 11,000 feet. A few of our group members started to feel the symptoms of altitude sickness, while others begin to battle the slowly spreading flu. Even so, the excitement about the new climate and the upcoming stay… Read More

The past few days, we’ve been treated to a lavish smorgasbord of religion. On Tuesday, we began the day by attending a lengthy meditation service with an English-born Tibetan Buddhist monk. Rather than talk about religion, he spoke to us about the environment, saying that everyone needs to learn to “settle for less” – a very Buddhist statement, even though his speech could equally have come from the mouth of… Read More

Greetings from the Shanti Group! We are pleased to report that we have had a great first week in India, full of new sights, sounds and warm connections with our local hosts. After nearly 48 hours of airplane and airport time, we hit the ground running with two full days of orientation in Delhi. Highlights included: exploring the beautiful Lodhi gardens with tombs from the 14th and 15th century, tasting… Read More

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We started our journey in the market, the first thing we found was food for the other group members for the long train ride. Once we gathered snacks and fed ourselves with some Gongala. We found a convenience store across the street food place that sold toilet paper for 15 rupees. When interacting with the store clerk we noticed he spoke decent English and with the addition of his age… Read More

The first week of each September, all of the Carpe Diem leaders gather in a cozy house-turned-hostel in Portland, Oregon to prepare for the upcoming semester. For leaders, it is a time to meet new staff, reconnect with old friends, better get to know our co-leaders and program directors, and set goals and intentions for the next three months. Throughout our ten-day training, in addition to studying our budgets and… Read More

Written By Rebecca & Adam Ahh! The time has come to say our final goodbyes. This has been an amazing journey and it has been so nice to share it with all of you. As leaders, we are grateful for the individuals that you all are and it has been an honor to be a part of this trip of transformation and discovery. We are excited to stay in touch… Read More

Written By Charlotte Hello everyone this is Charlotte from the Shanti group and I’m going to be walking you all through our last couple of weeks in India! As our journey has been getting closer to the end the group has been soaking up every last bit of India that we can. For starters we finally landed in the beautiful Himalayas and spent a week staying in Bhagsu in Himachal… Read More

Written By Georgia Namaste friends and family! This is Georgia, writing to you all about our time in Amritsar. After a long train journey (from 5pm to 7pm the next day) we got to our hostel tired, but excited to explore a new city. The night we arrived, Charlotte and Amiah decided to cut their hair! Charlotte asked Owen to cut her hair with a dull pair of scissors from… Read More

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Written By Olivia Hellooo again, Namaste, and greetings from India! It’s Olivia, here to rehash our past few days in Udaipur, and to let you know that we’ve just made it to Amritsar! The first day in Udaipur we woke up early (6 am ish?) to go and play Frisbee with the Flying Foxes! We did jumping exercises and Amiah and I learned how to actually throw a Frisbee! Everyone’s… Read More

Written By Olivia Namaste! This is Olivia, it’s my turn to write the blog for this week, and to tell you about our most recent adventures in beautiful India! So, after our classes ended in diversely magical and superbly creative Jaipur, we found ourselves headed with Rishi-Ji and Kiran-Ji onto another train, this time headed to Udaipur and the Jhadol desert village. We tried our best to sleep on the… Read More

More photos of the group in action.     [ezcol_1half]   [/ezcol_1half][ezcol_1half_end]   [/ezcol_1half_end]… Read More

Group photos from their time in Jaipur   [ezcol_1half]     [/ezcol_1half][ezcol_1half_end]     [/ezcol_1half_end]  … Read More

Written By Owen Namaste! We have just wrapped up our time in Rishikesh with a peaceful six day yoga retreat at the Phool Chatti Ashram which is located on the breathtaking banks of the Ganga river. Our week at the ashram was packed full of yoga asanas, nature walks, meditation, chanting, and delicious vegetarian meals. After we got used to the 5:30 am wake up time, the long days left… Read More

Written By Kari Namaste! I am Kari, from Portland Oregon. I have been given the job to share our cool Agra experience with you wonderful people! While in Agra we had a very educated guide that knew everything there is to know about this city and was willing to tell us about all the places we have visited. His name is Arif Ji. Our first day in Agra, we got… Read More

Check out these photos of the group in action…      … Read More

Written By Amiah Namaste to all you parents, friends, pets, and other miscellaneous mystery readers! My name is Amiah and I have 18 years under my belt, soon to be 19 years during our student directed travel week in April. I’ll be your blogger for this week, and by the end of our Kolkata experience I will update all of you on our final days here since we’ve been here… Read More