Welcome to our forum for courses in the field. The Yak Board is a digital group journal where students and staff share photos, stories, reflections and group updates while on course. Check out our Featured Posts below or explore Yaks by program by clicking on the icons above.
Want to follow a program in the field? Click on the Subscribe to Updates button to receive one email a day if new content is posted.
As we write this, we’re listening to the discordant harmony of sounds descending from the heart of the Pariamanu Amazon. The calls of unseen birds and unrecognizable insects fill the air and echo reminders of the past two months filled with the......Read More
It was probably only our third day in Nepal, though I already felt worlds away from the life in California I’d just peeled myself away from. Sitting in the classroom of the Nagarkot farmhouse with my new family, my sangha, for the next three......Read More
Here are some photos from our gorgeous sunrise hike when we were on trek! 🙂
About two weeks ago now, we left our second and final homestay to begin our final month of travels in Morocco. Departures are always bittersweet. We spend weeks living with families, integrating ourselves within small communities, and then we leave......Read More
During the group’s mini x-phase, a visit to the Yves Saint Laurent Museum was planned. Michelle was given the task of creating an assignment for the group related to our visit there. Here it is: The exhibit at the Yves Saint Laurent Museum......Read More
Back home in Urubamba it is a drizzly Friday morning and I sit with my mate to contemplate our recent adventure to the Amazon. I never thought I would be able to go to the Amazon again after my journey to the Ecuadorian Amazon when I studied during......Read More
(This yak was written a few weeks ago in La Paz, Bolivia.) Something that has characterized my semester is the crazy amount of love and gratitude I have for my friends and how much easier they have made my transition away from home. When I try to......Read More
Entering a rural village with limited knowledge of the language or culture is a terrifying feat. While my first 24 hours—spent hiding out in my room, silently staring out into the field of marigolds, and failing to maintain any conversation that......Read More
I’ve been thinking a lot about lightness on this trek – what it means to “pack light,” and on the flip side, the things that make life heavy. Sometimes heaviness is an illusion, merely mild dehydration kicking in or the......Read More
To put it mildly, I’m not the best with directions. One of my biggest worries about spending three months in Urubamba was spending three months without the assistance of Google Maps, which has always been my guiding light, whether I’m driving......Read More
Humble me again I ask of Kunming, as I bike through its crowded streets and vacant railroads. Remind me of the person there is still to become before I forget. Teach me of patience I ask 老师. Knowing that time will continue impatiently until we......Read More
Salam Yak. This Badr, the third instructor for the 2019 Morocco fall semester. I may not have been posting on yak under my name, but that’s because I am someone who likes to express himself and his feeling in a non-writing way. This fall, my......Read More
The first night we arrived in Jomsom, Mustang I was thrown into introspection. When nightfall came and we walked outside, we saw the clearest stars of ours lives. I knew this was my first chance to take a time lapse of the stars and I had to take......Read More
This morning I woke up at 5:20 am to walk down to the village center with the rest of our Dragons group. Upon arriving, we sat just outside of a village home, waiting and watching for something to happen. At 7:00 am, we saw as the villagers brought......Read More
The group is doing well on trek, and is incredibly grateful for everyone who makes this all possible!
On Understanding: A Reflection on the Azrou Homestay By: Lauren I’m not sure what I expected my homestay to be like, but nothing could have prepared me for the first question out of my homestay sister’s mouth: “Have you heard of BTS?”.......Read More
