Jaimeta
Jaimeta Joined: February 26th 2008
Logged in: January 20th 2012
Logged in: January 20th 2012
“When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in.” - D. H. Lawrence
Travel Blog Posts
Postcard
In my childhood, Sundays were dedicated to completing chores, finishing homework, and I often found time in a mess of stickers and stationary to write to my pen-pal, Cheree.<span><span> In the background, my Dad would blast his great 70s and 80s music through indestructible speakers from his college era.<span> The song that really made him belt it out was Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young “Southern Cross.”<span> Appropriately, I had this song ready to jam through my IPOD at any time.<span> Really, the song is about a break-up, but throughout this adventure I couldn’t get that song out of my head. <span>After leaving Arilie Beach, I badly wanted to call up my Dad and tell him that I’ve just spent two nights under the most brilliant group of constellations, including the Southern Cross. <span><span><span><span><sp... read more
Octo & Shark
In the 6th grade, I didn’t know what a bucket list was, but already it had begun.<span><span><span><span><span> Mostly, the mystic of the Great Barrier Reef made the idea so attractive.<span> I hadn’t the slightest clue of the vastness, the danger and the satisfaction of adventure, but my love of animals and nature including turtles, fish, manatees, dolphins, whales and reef life made the goal of visiting the GBR easy to implant from a young age.<span> I remember the laborious effort that consumed my 6th grade scrapbook assignment, including gluing a picture of a diver to my Australia page.<span>My heart bursts with pride and love towards an elementary memory that foreshadows one of the greatest accomplishments in my adult life. Hostel Recommendation Of all the hostels in Cairns, I chose Dreamtime, a q... read more
Oz
The Northern Territory in Australia, also known as The Outback, spreads through thousands of vast miles. This intriguing land boasts sparse populations of approximately 1-5 people every square km throughout the outback. Much of the population are spread throughout small towns, ranches and Aboriginal land reserves. Because the population is incredibly spread out the education of ranch children, farmers and students living on land reserves differs from the traditional educational setting. Alice Springs School of the Air (ASSOA) is based in Alice Springs and provides a means of education by communications technology to rural children living as close as eighty kilometers and far as thirteen thousand km away from Alice Springs. The school serves 120 students from age four to fourteen (preschool to seventh grade). The children live in remote areas, including ranches, roadhouses, aboriginal... read more
We Meet!
Ms. Johnson began our pen-pal writing project with the Australian class half-way through my 6th grade year. I imagine our writing skills were proficient enough at that time to begin a pen-palship. Since the sixth grade (11 years old) I have been exchanging written letters to Cheree . During the middle and high school years, the letters were copious and we wrote books to each other, dozens of times throughout the year. We have slowly tapered the quantity of writing over the years, but now at least two to four letters are exchanged per year in our adulthood. However, even if the letters are fewer each year the quality of letter has only improved. From the early years until now, when we write snail-mail, the envelope always arrives in an eye-catching envelope covered in bright stickers ... read more
Opera House & Circular Quay
The second day in Sydney started with more adjustments of the Aussie culture including traffic rules, nuances in English language differences and coffee ordering experimentation. Because the long black seems too strong, and I'm not a big fan of milk, getting the right amount of espresso to milk ratio challenges the baristas here and takes some back-and-forth when ordering. Coffee culture is Sydney is literally black or white. From my masters program at the University of Colorado at Denver (UCD), I have learned a lot about myself, my family history. Hanging with my Aunt Stacey in Sydney provided further lessons and insight about these important topics as well as some important shopping discussions and tourism. As several of my readers know, my devoted boyfriend, Dain, and I have been together for almost five adventurous years. We ... read more
"Scrubs"
One of the many creative and hand-ons projects I remember Ms. Johnson assigning her 6th grade class was called, "Around the world in 180 school days." For the project I forced my mom into the local Hobby Lobby for me to purchase an actual scrap book with sturdy 12"x12" pages. Other students settled for loose sheets of construction paper stapled together, but I wanted my project to stand out. As our teacher took us around the world studying the different cultures of each continent, we made a scrapbook page with hand-drawn pictures, cut-outs from magazines as well as infomation captions displaying our learning. I took the project home and worked until each page was immaculate. My very first impression of Australia happened in 6th grade through this fun assignemnt. Departing my native land, Colorado, 16 years ... read more
Things We Will Miss from Argentina 10.Sundays 9. Bakeries 8. Mullets 7. Pancho Toppings 6. Proveleta 5. Cafe Cortado 4. Shopping ... read more
Rainbow play
What can I say about Iguazú that hasn't already been said? In Iguazú National Park, the magical views are equally as stunning as the sheer power of all the water moving from hundreds of feet above into a collection somewhere down below. Rainbows play on the warm sunlight combininb with the mist coming from all around the falls, butterflies kiss your cheeks and if it weren't for the hordes of people moving in and out of the park on a daily basis, a human might be able to find real sanctuary here. For Dain and me, this was the last of our 6 month stint in Argentina. It was a good place to conclude an exciting and challenging 6 months. For us Iguazú brought an important realization. Compared to where we began 6 months ago we ... read more
Valle de Encantada
Tuesday, August 6th, 2008 Salta to La Poma Usually, I'm inclined to invest more quality time in one area rather than see a quantity of sights as fast as possible. However, because Dain and I wanted to see so much of this part of the country, it was our last 2 weeks in Argentina, we reluctantly abandoned our multi-day backcountry plans to rent a car and get to as many hot spots as possible. We agreed that no better way to get around on our own time and schedule than with a rental car. Of course, after hearing the anemities of our small car we were pleased to be renting. The rental company promised air conditioning, raido, CD player and maps of the area, quite an upper class promise for this part of the country. As ... read more
On the ridgeback
Hi Everyone! Right now Dain and I are at the front desk of our hostel in the city of Salta waiting for our car rental to show up, its already a half hour late. We are going south to visit the cities and national parks south of the town of Salta. First we will head towards Cachi, making a stop halfway to trek and explore. Then we´ll move towards Cafayate again stopping at a halfway point to get a good look around. After Cafayate we head north back towards Salta stopping to see the dam. We have the car for 3 days and will make the most of it, I´m sure. What´s been going on up to this point? We´ve had some lucky adventures getting from place to place. Of course, any travel in Argentina doesn´t ... read more
