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This past weekend, I spent 3 days near Lake Atitlán, a Guatemalan treasure surrounded by three massive volcanos. I first caught site of the lake as my bus came over the rim of the steep caldera that holds the lake. As we inched down the road,......Read More
At home, in New York City, I drink at least one cup of coffee a day. Drip coffee with my dad in the morning, a mid-day paper cup at school, sometimes a 4 pm decaf cappuccino from the cafe at the top of my block; these moments are some of my favorite......Read More
Today marks the end of my very first week in Guatemala! ¡El tiempo vuela! The adventure began with my flight in to Guatemala City. After a long approach, our plane ended up taking a massive lap around the city, before descending. Just as we began......Read More
When I bike home, I anticipate not my building— a nondescript, seven story complex on top of convenience stores and massage parlors— but the building across from it. It towers over mine twenty-five stories high, and two looming characters......Read More
I groaned as we hit yet another bump that sent a jolt straight up my spine. I didn’t remember the road leading up to Krishna Ranch, the farm on the outskirts of Udaipur where we had spent our very first week in India, being quite so rough. But......Read More
Hola a todxs! Cómo están? I’m sure you’re all very excited, preparing to leave home and start this trip in South America. I’m Paola and I’ll be one of your instructors with Zack and Cat. I’m writing this from......Read More
Dear Lola, Only three months ago we were sitting at a café in Amsterdam, eating ‘bitterballen’ and sharing the limited amount of information we knew about a Dragons semester. This was when you first heard you’d be travelling with all your......Read More
Thursday, December 5, Jakarta “Because here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only......Read More
As our course comes to an end, we had a chance to look back and reflect on these past few months. Having seen, experienced, and felt so much, it is hard to put our time following the Mekong into words. No matter how many times we cursed the......Read More
As most probably know or figured out, my Dragons journey ended a little bit earlier than everyone else’s. Due to some medical complications, I returned to Nashville (yeehaw) at the beginning of November. Leaving Morocco was the last thing I wanted......Read More
Where There Be Dragons—or Dragoncitos (little dragons in Spanish) as Randall likes to say—pays homage to ancient Chinese map makers who would draw dragons on the edges of maps for places they hadn’t yet explored. The wild, unknown, unconquered......Read More
Choquekiraw – Machu Picchu X-Phase Trek Log1 Day 1 11/22/19 Partly cloudy with rain in the distance Ate lunch at a small hostel overlooking Apurima2 valley. Hiked up to a stunning mirador with views of......Read More
It has been one week since we left our homestay in Sampela, the remote village suspended on dried coral reef and stilts over the ocean off the coast of the Wakatobi island chain. Like our students, this was my first time visiting this community.......Read More
When I was in sixth grade, I was picked to give a commencement speech at my graduation. I remember the excitement, the nerves, but most of all, the challenge of what to write about. How could I aptly summarize seven years of school? All the jokes,......Read More
Nearly ten years ago, I was preparing to depart Taiwan after a year-long study abroad experience. The transition time was tough and I ached to find ways that would allow me to reconcile with leaving. Returning to my life in the U.S. seemed......Read More
Dear Perú, I’m sitting here trying to figure out what I could possibly say that could express what you’ve meant to me over the past three months and I’m drawing a blank. If you’d told me a year ago that I’d be here in this situation, I......Read More
