Blog

Arrival in Crete

Hooray, the Meraki group has arrived safely in Crete. After a long day (and night!) of travel the are making their way to their accommodation where they’ll have some dinner and get some rest before they dive into their orientation tomorrow. They’ll post an update for them early next week to let us know how their first few days go. We look forward to following along on their journey!… Read More

And they’re off!

We’re happy to report that the MAYA students have all safely arrived to LAX! They are finally together as a group and are looking forward to starting this adventure together. We’ll post another blog here tomorrow once we hear that they’ve arrived safely in Guatemala. Buen viaje, MAYA group, we look forward to following along on your journey this semester!… Read More

All together!

Our QUETZAL group is all together! Everyone has arrived safely at the Hilton Newark Airport Hotel and they are settling in, starting to get to know one another, and eagerly anticipating their departure to Costa Rica tomorrow morning. We’ll post another blog here tomorrow afternoon once we’ve heard that they’ve arrived safely in Costa Rica. Let the journey begin!… Read More

And they’re off!

The TERRA group is finally together! All students have arrived safely to JFK and the group is getting ready for their flight to Italy. They are already enjoying getting to know one another and we are so excited to follow along on their journey these next few months. We’ll post another blog here tomorrow once we hear they have arrived safely in Bologna. Buon viaggio, Terra!… Read More

Off to Greece!

We’re happy to report that the MERAKI students have all arrived safely to Newark and the group is getting ready for the flight to Greece! They are already enjoying getting to know one another and we are so excited to follow along on their journey these next few months. We’ll post another blog here tomorrow once we hear they have arrived safely in Greece. We wish them safe travels tonight… Read More

Hola Grupo Quetzal!

Hola Grupo Quetzal & friends & family! This is your Overseas Educators, Rachael & Ryan, writing from Portland, OR where we are in the midst of training. We started out camping with the other OE’s and HQ staff at the gorgeous Trillium Lake under Mt. Hood where we spent a lively and lovely couple days getting to know each other, learning about Carpe Diem stuff, swimming in the lake, and… Read More

Team Aloha!

Aloha to our Carpe Diem students joining us this Fall 2021 in Hawai’i! This is Rachel and Nathan, your Overseas Educators, and we are so excited to be joining you on the beautiful islands of Maui and the Big Island for the next few months. We are currently in Portland, Oregon, home base of Carpe Diem Education, where we have been training for our upcoming program. We’ve taken a deep… Read More

Hello Meraki Crew!

Hello Meraki Crew and all who will be following and supporting us on this journey! With the excitement of our semester just around the corner, we are so excited to be writing this first blog. Although the students will be the usual voice on the majority of the blogs throughout our adventure, you will be hearing from us periodically too. So, who are we? Enter Adam and Mara, the Carpe… Read More

Greetings Team Terra

Greetings lovely Terra Italy & Greece group! It’s your trusty OE’s here – Lauren and Sheldon. We are currently out here in Portland, Oregon making plans for orientation and getting super psyched for our journey that begins in just a few short days… we can barely believe it! We encourage you (and are also trying ourselves) to linger in these last moments of having little idea of what’s ahead –… Read More

Hola Team Maya!

Hola everyone! Soumya and Matt here, your Overseas Educators for this semester’s visit to Central America! We’re here in Portland finishing up some final logistical preparations, but we’re excited to soon be all together in the land of tortillas, toucans, and volcanoes! As we approach the start of this semester, we are both feeling all the usual emotions: excitement, nervousness, anxiousness, joy, restlessness, just to name a few. We expect… Read More

Organic Farm & Eco-lodge

Written By Veronica, Latitudes Year ’21 Ecuador I am currently living and volunteering on The Rio Muchacho Farm near Canoa, Ecuador. The organic farm and eco-lodge was founded in 1992 and is dedicated to practicing and teaching about sustainable agriculture and tourism. As a volunteer, I help carry out the agricultural work alongside the locals employed by the farm. I work in the morning from 8:30 until 12:00 and again… Read More

Ohana Gratitude

Aloha Ohana, We want to extend one final thank you to everyone who made this spring semester possible, including families, friends, HQ staff, and the amazing folks we crossed paths with throughout our time in Maui. The past eight weeks were so full— full of community, culture, sunshine, learning, friendships, whales, ice cream, hikes, farming, weeding, music, poems, dancing, journaling, silence, meditation, stretching, sharing, stars, and much more. As we… Read More

One Last Aloha

Written By Lauren & Amanda On our last day in Hana, we got lunch at the Thai food trucks and met Lipoa at the ‘ili she is working to protect. Lipoa was so generous in sharing her stories with us, and we feel so lucky to have the opportunity to visit such a special place. The next day we stopped at food trucks for lunch and transferred to Waihe’e Refuge,… Read More

Kipuka Love & Hana Magic

Written By Louise & Eli Our last week at Kipuka Olowalu and our few days in Hana were filled with so many tiny moments of pure joy, laughter, adventure, love, and deeper appreciation, not only for each other, but for the amazing contacts we’ve had the opportunity to work with. Having spent two weeks at Kipuka, we were able to gain a better understanding of Hawaiian culture and practices while… Read More

Mahalo for a Magical Time

Dear team Aloha, What a journey these two months have been with you all! It hasn’t taken us long to start missing you all. We are packing up at Olowalu, right where everything began and ended on our wild ride, reminiscing on some of our favorite memories from our time together. It was only a few days prior to your departure that a few of you finally figured out your… Read More

A Wild Whirlwind!

Written By Mackenzie & Clare Continuing from where we left off last week, we’ll start with last Sunday! The group hit the beach for a dip and played around in some super fun waves! On Monday, we worked in the greenhouse and garden before our tour of the bamboo farm by Rich, one of our hosts. After lunch we learned about how they had managed to turn the initially empty… Read More

Reflection Time & On To The East Side!

Written By Lachlan & Gemma Aloha, Its Lachlan and Gemma from the aloha group! This week was one of introspection and self discovery. We went to the Sacred Garden to do our meditation retreat where Danielle, who we spent time with previously at the organic farm, led the retreat. Deep meditation and yoga starting at 7 am, then six hours of reflection, finished off by another meditation at 6:30. It… Read More