Travel Blog Posts
July 13th 2008
Hello everyone!! Well, I'm back in Houston already. I can't believe that it's all over. But I can't tell you all what an amazing experience it all was. Mom arrived safely in Madrid where I picked her up :) We explored Madrid a little and started our way back to the Camino. It was so great to have her there with me. There are so many times when I travel and think, " man, I wish my family was here to see this." And for the first time, mom was with me!! She and I joined back up with the crew that I had been walking with the whole time to continue on to Santiago. The last 100 miles was all through the Spanish "state" of Galicia, and it was beautiful!! The trails wound through the ... read more
June 18th 2008
Hello everybody!!! So here I am in a little city called Carrion de los Condes in the province of Leon, Spain. Tomorrow will be my 14th day on the Camino, and it has been amazing so far!! Ok, so much to say! I´ll try to organize info a little bit so I don´t ramble... The walking crew... Ok, so I have to admit that I was a little bit nervous arriving alone and walking 500 miles by myself, but I met the best group of people on my very first night, and we´ve been walking together ever since. There are 5 of us...one Italian named Valentina who is hilarious and uses the word beautifu labout 100 times a day. She´s great! Then there´s Tilde from Denmark who is probably laughs more than anyone I know. Loreto ... read more
June 4th 2008
I'm finally here!! After a lot of planning and worrying and buying and packing, I finally have started this thing. My journey to Madrid could not have gone more smoothly...I was expecting lost luggage or a missed connecting flight. Everything was perfect. I arrived in Madrid at noon here, got my luggage which arrived with me and headed over to Teresa's house. Teresa is the host mom that Adrienne and I stayed with when we studied aborad here. Anyway, she made me a delicious lunch, I left some luggage that I won't be carrying with me at her place, and I was on my way!! I walked around the now familiar streets of Madrid for a bit before checking into my hostel for the night. Bright and early tomorrow I'm off to Pamplona and then on ... read more
Back at home...after some desert adventures
Published: March 3rd 2006North America » United States » Georgia » Lawrenceville
March 3rd 2006
Here I am, back at my house in the burbs. Although I can't believe that my Chile experience is over, I am glad that I'll be back at Furman tomorrow to begin my last term there. Woah. I heard some good news this week...I have an interview for Teach for America. woohoo! It's the next step in the application process, and I really want to be a part of that program so we'll see what happens. free-travel adventures: February 15th: Angela Hanor, Laura Whitesides, Suzanne Prak, and Morgan load the bus (called a "bed bus") for the 24 hour trip to San pedro de Atacama February 16th: 30 hours and two buses later, we are still on a bus. Turns out that there was a big storm and the highway was closed in some places. We ... read more
February 14th 2006
Feliz Día del Amor!! So last night was my last one in Viña del Mar, and we didn't waste one minute of it sleeping. We started the evening with a dinner at the program director's house...Easter Island dancers came to do a show for us; the pisco sour and Chilean wine flowed like water; we watched slide shows of the trip with sappy background music, and did group dances until we dropped. Then dancing till 6...one more outing with Gabriel and Eduardo, our two wonderful Chilean teaching assistants/hired Chilean friends. Fun! I guess it's been a few weeks since an update...let's see what I can highlight 1. Trip to Santiago! Stayed with Adrienne! Man, so good to see her and catch up. On Friday, we toured the American Embassy...sadly, it's a big ugly building in the ... read more
mountain climbing, karaoke, and more...
Published: February 2nd 2006South America » Chile » Valparaíso Region » Viña del Mar
February 2nd 2006
¡Hola a tod@s! Guess what I did this weekend! I climbed a mountain from bottom to top. I was a little nervous about the whole trip mainly because of the little piece of metal in my little bone that has been such an annoying problem. But I decided to do it, and man, it was a great decision. We began our ascent at 9:15 and the first half of the trail was like any other trail that I've seen in Georgia or South Carolina, and then we "bouldered" for a few hours to reach the peak. Walking/Jumping/Crawling up the boulders was so much fun. My group arrived at the top at 2:30..having taken our time chatting, taking water breaks, and eating fruit cake (yes, someone lugged a 4 pound fruit cake up the mountain). From the ... read more
January 26th 2006
It's about time for another update from sunny Viña del Mar... Last weekend the Santiago group came to enjoy the beach with us in Viña, and you know what that means! Adrienne! She stayed with me with my host family and we had a blast. Friday night we explored some of my neck of the woods in Viña and then of course we went out dancing. I don't think I've ever had more fun dancing in my life than that night (well, maybe some nights in Madrid with Tia rival it). amazing! Our late night was followed by an early morning; most of the Vina group headed to a girls' home about 15 minutes away in Vaparaiso where we played for a long time...reading, joking around, jump roping. What an experience. These girls (about 40 live ... read more
¡Un beso para todos!
Published: January 16th 2006South America » Chile » Valparaíso Region » Viña del Mar
January 16th 2006
Hey everyone!! it has almost been two weeks since I arrived in this beautiful country and I can't tell you how wonderful and relaxing it has been....but I'll try :) My familia chilena is great and I feel like it's home, which I guess happens when you live somewhere for a while. My madre is Sonia and her job is hosting students like me. Her sons, Tito (22 year old medical student) and Rodrigo (19 year old Kinesiology student) are both enjoying their summer break from classes, but spend a good chunck of their days working. We live in a cozy apartment in downtown Viña del Mar, a tourist city that has successfully maintained its small town charm...the huge casino down the street doesn't detract from the plaza and little shops near my house. The first ... read more
set to go!...I hope
Published: December 31st 2005North America » United States » Georgia » LawrencevilleDecember 31st 2005
Happy New Year! Welcome to my blog...my first one. Exciting! Just wanted to keep you all up to date about my adventures in the next few weeks...let me know how you are doing as well, please :) Well, here I am getting ready to go on another journey out of the good ol' US of A. This time I'm heading south, way south...to Chile, one heck of a long country. Although I've never been, I hear that where I am going is quite beautiful...right on the beach in Valparaiso. I've been reading up on the Spanish used there... maybe somehow I will be able to magically skip the difficult language acclimation period...hmm, yeah right. Well, hopefully I'll get into the Chilean swing of things quickly. And I read a book by Isabel Allende called My Invented ... read more
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