Hey family and friends,
We just arrived in the small town of Noosa, Australia. Our 5 day stay at the Chenrezig Buddhist Institute was a great place to clear our minds and relax which was much needed after the past week. Unfortunately we lost two group members our last night in New Zealand. We were all heartbroken saying goodbye and have been adjusting to the loss of their presence since.… Read More
This week was terrible. All I wanted to do was ride a rhino. Not only would they not let me ride one, they wouldn’t even let us pet them. Just kidding! This week went far beyond any of our expectations and believe me, you DO NOT want to get too close to these ginormous majestic beasts. Upon our arrival at the rhino sanctuary we had a brief orientation followed by… Read More
Hello family and friends!
After an amazing week in Cuzco we are headed into the Amazon for a week to do conservation work. It was a rough ride getting to the town we will depart from on a 5 hour boat ride to get into the Amazon. There was a spontanious hail storm that started right as we were leaving our hostel for the bus station in Cuzco and two… Read More
Blake is back, back again, Blake is back, tell a friend!
Hello again everyone, our Southeast Asia trip has moved on from Thailand and we are now exploring Cambodia. Less than a week ago we flew here not really knowing what to expect, but excited to be here nonetheless. We weren’t disappointed by what we found. A couple of days ago we took a bike ride to three magnificent ruins:… Read More
This is Benjamin, signing in to tell you a little bit about our time this past week…
Like a television signal descrambling itself to create a coherent picture while begging broadcasted from one place to another, we needed a slight adjustment of our group operating system to go from Free Travel in Jamez Springs and Santa Fe back onto the reservation life, this time in San Carlos Apache, where we… Read More
G’Day Mate!
This week has been our first week in the land down under. We have kicked off Australia volunteering with the CVA (Conservation Volunteers of Australia). We started our orientation at the CVA headquarters in Adelaide, where we found out our projects and where our work sites would be and who was going to which work site, at the deep creek site was Bea, Tera, Emily, Katelyn, Evin and… Read More
Alright, 45 minutes to whip this out. 3, 2, 1, GO.
First of all, this week the group split, our OE the one and only Mr. Robbie Frankle, took the lovely Anna away to Brookfield, a conservation park about four hours from the rest of the group. Two gone, six left to a different park called Deep Creek. Well, the six of us and Rick, the hilarious, dread locked Aussie… Read More
I woke up the morning of the third excited for two things: it was the first day of free travel and my eighteenth birthday. While other teenagers may wake up on their eighteenth birthday in a dorm room or resting at home, I got to wake up to the beautiful mountains in Jemez Springs. The cottonwoods were changing colors to a patchwork of gold and red. It was a very… Read More
How creepy would it be to walk into a room in which every wall bears numerous crucifixes with all the macabre grotesqueness of the Spanish Inquisition? That was my first experience when I entered the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, NM during our free travel week. And from a first hand perspective, when you have the eyes of dozens of bleeding crucifixion victims looking down at you while… Read More
Hey everyone!
We’ve just arrived in Njombe after spending the past 10 days at the Igoda Children’s Village in Mufindi, where orphaned children without extended family can live. During our time here, we got to know the children and their guardians through a variety of activities. During the day, we were split into small groups and took turns visiting Igoda Primary School, the Kindergarten at the Children’s Village as well… Read More
So we as a group wanted to blog about our special safari experience in Ruaha National Park about two weeks ago, so here goes!
As we were driving from Iringa Town to Ruaha (a two hour drive on an open safari truck) we could feel the staggering heat cloud down upon us. We drove along a long, bumpy, dirt road with the dust billowing behind us for about an hour… Read More
I woke up the morning of the third excited for two things: it was the first day of free travel and my eighteenth birthday. While other teenagers may wake up on their eighteenth birthday in a dorm room or resting at home, I got to wake up to the beautiful mountains in Jemez Springs. The cottonwoods were changing colors to a patchwork of gold and red. It was a very… Read More
This week, our eyes were opened to the majestic ancient world of Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya being the capitol of the Ayutthaya Kingdom that spanned from 351 to 1767. There were many ruins that included many Pegotas and stupas. The first day we arrived from an overnight bus and promptly rented bikes and were guided By blake to several ancient ruin’s including the famous reclining Buddha and three identical stupa’s that… Read More
Querida familias y amigos,
After a full 24 hours of travel, we triumphantly arrived in Cusco, Peru on Saturday afternoon. Our hostel is run by the one-and-only Mamma Cusco. She wasted no time with pleasantries and wrapped each of us up with a big hug and a smile, calling us “mi amor,” and ushuring us to come sit down and eat. It must be exhausting to pour so much maternal… Read More
Our time in Bodhgaya was delightful and a much needed rest stop for our group. During our three day stay, we visited the Bodhi Tree, the 80-foot statue of Lord Buddha, rode bikes throughout town, and spent a couple hours wandering around and looking at different Buddhist monasteries from around the world. It is an incredibly peaceful place and allowed us to re-group after a very busy week in Varanasi.… Read More
OM Shanti, Shanti, Shanti,
We are back in Rishikesh after a week of yoga, meditation, calm, and quiet. Before entering the ashram we spent a night in Rishikesh and celebrated Diwali the festival of lights, which is the most important holiday in Hinduism and also an important celebration for Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs. In Hinduism Diwai is associated with several events: Krishna defeating the demon Narakasura, the return of Rama… Read More
This is the view from the Tibetan monastery we visited in Gangtok. I’m not sure who those people are, but their silhouettes are so lovely. The temple itself was also beautiful.
At the monastery we got to watch a bunch of monks get ready for dinner, which involved chanting and playing instruments. They didn’t offer us any food, but we were kind of eavesdropping so I guess that’s only fair,… Read More
Kia ora, everyone! Shelby speaking.
We’re here in one of Christchurch’s finest jails–the historic Addington Jailhouse-turned-hostel, that is– saying our farewells to New Zealand and recovering from a week of nonstop kiwi adventuring. After hours of planning, booking, bargaining, and a little creative budgeting, we finally arrived at one of the most highly anticipated weeks of the trip– free travel!
We began our student directed travels in the coastal city… Read More
A traditional Irish song, “The Parting Glass” seems appropriate this week, as we’re preparing to leave beautiful New Zealand and all the lessons we’ve learned along the way! I’ve been charged with writing a farewell post, and while there have been many great writings about our time here, I’ll fill in some spots with what I know.
Our first few days in Auckland left us amazed – a huge city… Read More
