Greetings all from this wonderful European café I stumbled upon called "Café Fleming-Marino" It is just so wonderful - one of the owners, Bryan, picked me up from the station around 8:30 last night and even paid for my taxi to the Guest House. We enjoyed a wonderful meal and conversation before retiring to the blow-up double bed for the evening! I'm now sipping on my coffee and enjoying the sights and sounds! It is almost like I never even left the country! Oh wait - I NEVER LEFT THE COUNTRY. NOT EVEN BOSTON. Yesterday [View Full Entry]

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Well, the clock is ticking...pretty soon I'm off to Logan. Somehow I've managed to cram my entire life into one backpacking backpack, a carry-on suitcase, and a backpack. I don't know if this image is working out what, but I currently feel like vomiting and need to finish clearing out my room. I'll figure it out once I'm settled across the pond. Tata for now! Next update will be from Spain! [View Full Entry]

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“Hey Evan, how about this” I said. “Next time you go to your dad’s house, spin the globe. Wherever your finger stops, that’s where I’ll go.” He looked up at me with those big brown eyes, and a knowing smile lit up his face. He seemed to understand: my life is wide open at the moment. The possibilities are infinite. That blank page before me is, to steal a line from a song, unwritten. Two weeks later, a telephone call and a sweet 10-year-old voice revealed my potential destination: “Auntie Emily, I spun the globe! You are going to… ([ [View Full Entry]

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For the first time in my young adult life I've not left the United States in a year. I still mark the years more by the school calendar, rather than the Gregorian, since school tends to align my compass and makes me feel like a kid. Regardless, it has been a year of remaining stateside, which is significant considering the wanderlust of years past. Having been to some places, I sometimes felt "guilty" to be so privileged to get up and go to another country, places where most host nationals are without the reciprocal ability to visit my country (one that [View Full Entry]

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I tried to update right before leaving Peru but the website went down, so I'll just recap my last week there. I flew to Lima with no problems on Monday, dropped by the ministry to tie up some loose ends and headed to Mira Flores. I met Conrad and Alli there, and we bussed out to Ica that night. It was a long bus ride with some really weird movies showing, but eventually we made it and took a taxi to Wacachina. We stayed at La Casa de Arena Dos, the house of sand two. It was nothing great, but it [View Full Entry]

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Today we had Nautical Science Olympics! They were really fun, we competed with our watches and in total my watch won! Our categories were boxing the compass, putting up a main sail and taking it down, putting on our emergency suits, knot tying, charting, and trying to keep a tin foil boat to stay afloat and hold the most weight. For each competition your watch does one of the activities while other watches do other activities. Each watch does it, then the best person from our team does each of the activitites in the final round. We won in boxing the [View Full Entry]

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Today we went to the Salt Marsh. It is a big green tall grassed area with water everywhere. I wore my boots and got some "battle wounds" because they rubbed against my legs. I was in a group with Jen, Maddy and Minerva, my classmates. We tested the chemical composition of the water with a tool called the YSI Probe. It measured the temperature in degrees Celsius, Oxygen in milligrams per liter, and salinity by parts per thousand. Our temperatures ranged from 28-30 degrees Celsius and our amount of Oxygen was usually 6-8 mg/l. The water here is a lot [View Full Entry]

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8/5/09 The Final Blog -- Family --- Today we made the final journey back home. More to come…. --- The remainder of Romania consisted of seeing the "real" Dracula Castle in Vidraru, Romania with a setting up in the Transylvania Alps foothills (see photo). We next visited the Black Sea, a summer spot for much of Romania and part of Europe. --- Last stop was in Romania’s Capital, Bucharest. This is an amazing city. The previous ruler, Cecesceau, bulldozed huge sections of the city to build enormous structures of cement with very wide boulevards. Some buildings such as t [View Full Entry]

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Our last full cruise day was spent, mainly, lounging and trying new foods. It was our final “fun day at sea,” and the weather had been much more tanning-friendly. The top deck was congested with sunbathing families, making the lower levels a place of quiet refuge. We sat in the café, sipping on lattes. As I typed some of these blogs on this Asus net book I attracted the attention of three different technophiles (all of them from Asian countries, in fact), including a cruise employee, all of whom asked excited questions about its various components. I should, as I reflect [View Full Entry]

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Pues como os iba contando, llegamos a Boston el jueves 30 de junio, después de un viaje en autobús de cuatro horas y media en las que sólo paramos durante unos quince minutos para comer (es un decir, más bien para engullir un trozo de pizza en el típico bar estadounidense de carretera, en el que es imposible conseguir algo que no sea comida rápida). Del paisaje entre Nueva York y Boston os puedo decir bastante poco: bosques y mas bosques a los dos lados de la autopista y pocas ciudades en el recorrido. La recompensa después del viaje en autobús [View Full Entry]

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