The past week has been full of exotic jungle and inspiration. We also bid farewell to Junior, as he had to jet off to meet the Pope in Rome. Despite our dwindling numbers-there are now only two students- we were kept in good spirits by the incredible people we encountered. Our week in the Daintree began with meeting John Rumney, a major contributing force in protecting the Great Barrier Reef,… Read More
Scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef: it’s on everyone’s bucket list, and something we were lucky enough to do this week. Five days ago we met our scuba instructor, Louis, at Cairns Dive Center., and began our training. We spent two days alternating from the pool and the classroom, learning cool hand signals and blowing bubbles. We tested our skills in the shallow and deep end of the pool… Read More
Hello from India! once again this is Kenya, i have been given the bittersweet honor of writing the last blog post from the India Shanti 2016 crew.i was so fortunate to have traveled around northern India with a group of 9 phenomenal people who i can proudly call a part of my family. This last week we found ourselves back in McLeod ganj, a beautiful city in Dharamsala home to… Read More
Hello to all our dearly loved ones!
We have finished up our time at the absolutely beautiful organic farm ran by, the equally beautiful, Rana family. For five days we worked in the farm and learned farming techniques and the ways of living pure and completely organic. We were welcomed and embraced to their home, philosophy and glorious kitchen table. It was the perfect place for our group to relax,… Read More
Hot, humid, and happy. These are the words that I would use to describe our experience at the turtle project in Costa Rica. We stayed on an intimidating hill off of Playa Honda, Playa Real and near Playa de Nombre de Jesus. This would be where we spent the rest of the week volunteering with Kuemar, a local organization whose mission is to increase the population of the decreasing sea… Read More
“IN THE LIFE OF CARPE DIEM”
(UGANDA BLOG #10, WEEK 12)
Six months later and the mind is still eager to discover and learn more…
If you want to live a short life, live quickly. But, if you want to live a long life, live slowly.” —Señor Rony de Guatemala
“Timshel— thou mayest.” —John Steinbeck
“It’s all about perspective, and it is only you that has the power to either… Read More
Red rocks towered over our heads as we swam through a canyon in the center of the desert. It was our fourth day in the outback, and our guide, Mark, had taken us to a special spot that few tourists had visited called Redbank Gorge. We made our way through rocks tinged with purples and oranges, only seeing the sky through the cracks between the two sides.
On the first… Read More
After a mentally and physically demanding stay in the rural village of Patacancha, the INTI team headed back to Ollantaytambo for the first night of student directed travel. We stayed with the same families as the week before, and re-grouped at 9:00am in the Plaza de Armas to begin our long 3.5 hour journey to Lares. On the drive we went over the Lares mountain pass, and saw: extensive ruins,… Read More
Xin chao (hello in Vietnamese) world ! It is I, George Ruiz, ready to let the world know what the Southeast Asia group had done this past week. As student directed travel week continued, the group and I did made good planning with a ton of teamwork to have an awesome and successful Student Directed Travel. We started Wednesday morning in Dalat, Vietnam hyped up for the Crazy House. Yes,… Read More
Well the Shiva group has quite the week. We just completed our nine day stay at a sustainable living community called Dharmalaya. While we were there we did a variety of things from pugging mud with our feet to masonry with adobe bricks (my personal favorite!). It was a tough experience for each one of us in a variety of ways but everyone was able to take something away from… Read More
A hike from Patacancha to high alpine lake Ispa Cocha Learning to spin yarn Making a friend at the yoga retreat Learning to make adobe bricks… Read More
Hello Friendis!!
Georgia at the blog again for a second week (woot woot!)
Where to begin?! We kicked off our student directed travel by going to the Beatles Ashram in Rishikesh. This is a seven acre abandoned Ashram where the Beatles stayed in the late 60’s and produced most of the “White Album.” The Ashram has become a shrine to the Beatles with incredible graffiti everywhere. We spent our time… Read More
Hola a todos desde San Juan del Sur,
Our last blogger, the eloquent Sayaka Kikuchi, left off the blog on the mystical dual-volcano island of Ometepe (which means “two peaks” in the indigenous Nahuatl language). We spent our last afternoon on the island making jam from freshly picked starfruits and cayenne – Yum!
We took the ferry and a bus from Ometepe to the Mariposa Language School in La Concepción,… Read More
A crowded bus.
A bumpy road.
A washed-out casino, built with a grandeur that doesn’t quite penetrate beyond the faded sign, splashed like an afterthought across the front.
An unknown woman, clad in a white t-shirt and a skepticism-inducing aura, whose English knowledge appears to be limited to “give me your passports, now.”
A high stone archway, and a rush of humid air as the bus doors close behind our… Read More
During the process of completing my FVP, I think I have become the ultimate mother figure. Well…A mother figure to about fifteen to twenty (depending on the day), screaming, filthy birds. I spend most of my work days in a very small, hot room, and watch my children, catering to their every need and desire. Every one hour, I sit on my tiny stool, and force dog food, or fruit… Read More
This has been the fastest year of my life. I honestly can’t believe it’s coming to an end after I’ve been thinking about this year since my junior year of high school. I’m not ready for it to be over in some senses (traveling, adventure, different culture, my carpe friends and community) but in some ways I feel more prepared than ever to take on college and go forward in… Read More
The true start to our smaller, reinvented semester began with tree planting, vegan smoothies, cute shops, and ocean pools. Newcastle was the perfect small town respite that we needed after the emotional rollercoaster that was Fiji.
We were welcomed by Elise and Kaz, two members of Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA.) The last five of us were overjoyed to spend the week staying in a house with a full kitchen and… Read More
