We went for a school trip to Singapore and Malaysia. We did some sightseeing, but mostly shopping. In Malaysia we spent some time in Kuala Lumpur, and then took a cable car to the mountains to visit Genting Highlands, which was a very Las-Vegas type of resort...complete with Casino, haunted house, lots of shopping, Ripley's believe it or not, and a theme park. [View Full Entry]

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On the afternoon of April 4, 2008 six of my School Year Abroad classmates and I boarded one of two buses headed for the Western Academy of Beijing to participate in the first Asian delegation of the Global Issues Network Conference. I didn’t know that the next three days were to permanently change my life. The First Day “You not only can make a difference, you must make a difference.” -J. F. Rischard After a confusing and loud registration process where we received ‘Earth’s Hope’ T-shirts, bracelets, lime green tote bags, a program, a [View Full Entry]

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He stands there, obviously instructed not to move but finding this very hard to do. Every day a guard, a small man in a green-grey uniform, stands watching the entrance to my school. His hat doesn’t quite fit on his head - it’s a little small. If he turns his head too quickly it might fall off. Sometimes I hope it will, so I can see what he’s like when he isn’t the permanent statue fixed to his green stand. The stand is shaped like a wedding cake, two-tiered. Atop it stands the lone figure in a very standardized uniform. Maybe [View Full Entry]

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Bandos Island Resort in the Maldives. It was absolutely beautiful! One of those few, untouched places. SCUBA diving was great, with a wide variety of fish. The only sharks were small back-tips, though. We did a night dive and got to see the plankton lights - if you've never done that you should; it's amazing! [View Full Entry]

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Our friend, Zhou Huajian, is a Taiwanese singer, so we went for a weekend in Singapore to catch him in concert. Most of the pictures are from Sentosa Island, and for the rest of the time we basically explored the city! [View Full Entry]

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In Phuket we stayed at a little resort on the beach. We went to the FantaSea performance - which was kind of like a theme park with lots of shops and games, dinner, and then a performance with dancers and animals (a LOT of elephants...my favorite). It was interesting, I would definitely recommend it. We also went to a little farm and got a demonstration of how the monkeys work to get coconuts down from the trees. We got a chance to take a quick spin in a bullock cart, and visited a rubber farm. We visited Phi phi island, which [View Full Entry]

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Spent the days leading up to Christmas in the town of Lahaina on the island of Maui, Hawai'i. Rented a car and drove the road to Hampi...stopping along the way for some much-missed Mexican food, and to take a peek at a beautiful botanical garden. [View Full Entry]

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We stayed in a small lodge in Kabini and went on safari for a long weekend [View Full Entry]

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Quick trip to Mysore to see some old palaces and forts, and even a stop off at the Bombay Circus (it wasn't very good, I wouldn't recommend it...but I couldn't resist). [View Full Entry]

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Quick getaway from Bangalore to the beach of Goa - a lot of time to hang out and do nothing! [View Full Entry]

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