Blog

Embracing Italia: Adventures of the Terra Group Begin!

Written by Italy & Greece Overseas Educator, Ariana Agrios The Terra group is off and running! We landed in Rome on Wednesday and made our way to Passignano Sul Trasimeno where we’re staying at Panta Rei, a sustainable living community in the hills of Umbria. This week we’ve enjoyed hiking to and from town, exploring the beautiful landscape, making pizza and pasta from scratch, and getting to know each other… Read More

Exploring Xela: Spanish Classes, Hot Springs, and Thrift Store Finds!

Written by Central America Students, Danny Evans & Cleo Miller This week we’re located in Xela! We are starting one-on-one Spanish classes with the beautiful teachers at PLQ. We attended the many events put on by PLQ including a student soccer game and a trip to the hot springs. We stayed in Casa Siebel and made many trips to the Central Park. We also had a blast at the local… Read More

A Day In The Life: Protovillage

Written by Bitsy Bond-Perez, a student from our non-profit partner Carpe Mundi February 29th: From February 25th to March 3rd we are staying in Protovillage! “A prototype of a resilient rural community.” And by rural they mean that, in the state of Andhra Pradesh we are 25 minutes away from the closest village. We are surrounded by all types of trees and plants in mostly flat farmland. Besides the houses… Read More
we are staying in Protovillage!

We’re Getting There

Written by Kailash Biswa and Lucas Barrera, students from our non-profit partner Carpe Mundi Since we came, we’ve been to a lot of places, seeing new things. Temples, shrines, new land…We visited the moon, the sun, and the earth. While we were flying across Russia, 18 hours, 13,000 Kilometers away… We’ve been very busy, going from place to place. Chai shops, watermelon stands, and the loud, busy city of Bangalore.… Read More
feeding time for a koala joey

Beautiful beaches, beautiful animals and beautiful people in the land down under! 🌏 Kyla’s Latitudes Year

Written by Kyla Wendel, 2023-24 Latitudes Student Experiencing the Beauty of Port Douglas Having been in Queensland my last semester, I thought I was prepared for the sheer beauty that is Port Douglas but I was mistaken. Already a month into my stay and I’m still in awe of my surroundings. The beautiful beaches and the tropical trees that surround them are jaw-dropping. I’ve been able to appreciate the natural… Read More
Kora enjoying traditional local cuisine

Kora the Explorer! Latitudes Year in Ecuador

Written by Kora Battleson, 2023-24 Latitudes Student Experience in Camarones, Ecuador: My experience this semester in a small town called Camarones (shrimp) along the coast of Ecuador has been incredible. One thing I love about the work I do is every day is different with some sort of surprise. My week typically begins and ends with a hike through the reserve which usually takes about 4 hours to monitor monkeys.… Read More
Students admiring wall mural

From Cob House Builds to Ancient Mayan Ruins: A Sustainable Adventure in Comalapa!

Written by Central America Students, Ari Cochrane & Jess Solit Greetings from our team’s latest adventure! We ventured to Comalapa to collaborate with Long Way Home (LWH), an organization dedicated to sustainable living and community development. Here’s a glimpse of what we’ve been up to: Learned about sustainable living practices Worked on a retaining wall made out of tires Helped build houses out of cob (dirt, sand, water, pine needles)… Read More
Ariana basks in sunlight on Castelnuovo di Garfagnana's walls

Buongiorno from the Terra Overseas Educators!

Written by Italy & Greece Overseas Educators, Ariana and Megan Buongiorno from the Terra Overseas Educators! Ariana and Megan have enjoyed connecting with each of you over this past week in preparation for our European adventure, and we hope you’re as excited as we are that we’ll soon be on our way to Roma! Bellissimo! A few fun facts about your fearless leaders: Irish Dancing Bookworm and Cat Lover Ariana… Read More
Smiling students pose for a group photo against a colorful wall in Antigua

Hola from Antigua: Adventures, Team Building, and Scavenger Hunts!

Written by Central America Overseas Educators, Jasmin & Malcolm Hola a nuestras familias y amigos! We’ve had a great few days in Antigua, one of the larger cities here in Guatemala. Our groups flew into Guatemala City and we made our way to Hostel Hopa, our home for the next few days. Our group was finally together when the LAX crew pulled up and joined us for breakfast after a… Read More
Two individuals ascending a wooden pole together

Greetings from the Shanti Overseas Educators!

Written by India & Nepal Overseas Educators, Soumya and Andrew Greetings earthlings! Here we are in rainy Portland, just returned from a rambunctious scavenger hunt through the hallowed halls of Forest Park. Along the way, we got to know each other as co-leaders, enjoyed a delicious meal of red curry and vegan cheesecake, and spotted some really cute woodpeckers. Soumya’s Discoveries of Andrew: Andrew was once attacked by an owl… Read More
Two people in front of a mural

Hola from the Quetzal Overseas Educators!

Written by Central America Overseas Educators, Jasmin & Malcolm Hola chiques! We hope everyone is getting as excited for the semester as we are! We’re here in Portland, Oregon at Carpe Diem Headquarters reviewing our program itinerary, policies, curriculum, and more to fully prepare for our time together. This being the first time we’ll lead a trip together, we’ve also been getting to know each other and learned some fun… Read More
students and leaders in the airport on their way home

A Final Letter from your Quetzal Overseas Educators

Written by Central America Overseas Educators Malcolm and Jane Happy end of program to our wonderful students, and to all of their parents and family and friends waiting to greet them at home! This semester simultaneously feels like it flew by, and it feels like we’ve been together and known each other for so much longer than just 10 weeks. We have just enjoyed our last couple days in Costa… Read More
students final airport photo meraki

Final Week in Italy with the Meraki Overseas Educators

  Written by Italy & Greece Overseas Educators, Tara & Ariana  We embarked on our student direct travel pizza mission in Napoli! Eating pizza, island hopping, and visiting mystical ruins. We maxed our selves out with pizza and pastries. Clocking 30,000 steps a day trying to soak in the most of the days we had left. Leaving Napoli we were back in Rome, and smelling the end course. We started… Read More
students walking with backs to the camera raincoat

Scuba Diving, Friendsgiving, & Corcovado National Park

Written by Central America Student, Sophie N.  This was our last full week as a group, we spent it in Drake Bay mostly scuba diving. We met great directors that guided us along the way and met our needs while diving. On Thursday, since we wouldn’t be spending Thanksgiving with our families, we decided to plan a Friendsgiving in which everyone was split into pairs and asked to make a… Read More
group photo on the porch

A Final Letter from your Walkabout Overseas Educators

Written by South Pacific Overseas Educators, Soumya & Forrest To my beloved superpoopers, We came together like the Daintree River and parted ways many moons later like its many tributaries. Along the way, we lived and laughed through seventy beautiful, challenging, sweaty, hilarious, eye-opening, wild and wonderful days. There are so many moments I look back on… a befuddling, chaotic few hours at the Sydney airport when we realized we’d… Read More
looking into distance mountains clouds

A Final Farewell from your Overseas Educators: Terra

  Written by Italy & Greece Overseas Educators, Meg & Mary And that’s a wrap! The Terra group has officially come to the end of its journey. This past week we stayed at Re-green, an amazing village nestled in the mountains of Akrata. The volunteers and village members that live there practice and promote permaculture principles, and were generous enough to let us into their community for a week. Our… Read More
group pic at the rancho

Micro Ecosystems of the Maztatal Farm

Written by Central America Students, Lily & Matilda This last week we rode, climbed and scrambled up the steep Permacultures farm sides of Maztatal Ranch! From herbal tours to chocolate adventures, night walks, and even cooking with our host family, it really feels like we did it all! But that’s so broad, so what did we get yo to? In more specific terms: We started off fighting the brutal sun… Read More
students in a group after cave hike

Caving, Hiking, & Sea Kayaking: Whenua Iti

Written by South Pacific Students, Madeleine N. & Treavor O. Our group traveled to our last contact, Whenua Iti. We spent the next 9 days caving, hiking and sea kayaking. With our leaders Joe and Michael, we participated in many group bonding activities; we learned more about the Maori culture through these activities. What have been the three highlights of the week? 🪨 Caving – We went to a cave… Read More
students hiking

Student Directed Travel from Wellington to the South Island

Written by South Pacific Students, Asa & RJ We drove from Raglan down to Wellington over a few days while doing a practice run of our student directed travel. We spent a day in a very culturally significant museum in Wellington before we departed towards the South Island. What have been the three highlights of the week? 🌎 The first highlight of the week was on our first day of… Read More
thanksgiving meal by meraki group students

B-Link, Thanksgiving, & Olive Harvests in Matera

  Written by Italy & Greece Students, Katie M. & Conrad I. Since the last blog we’ve moved away from the city of Rome and have been staying at a farm right outside of the city of Matera. For the past week we’ve been working with volunteers from the organization B-link, olive harvesting, visiting the local primary school, and learning about different duties on the farm like cleaning up after… Read More