Blogs from Ames, Iowa, United States, North America

Well, now that I've attended the 2nd of 2 TCU road games in a row, the ostensible reason for my Great Plains road trip is at an end. But that doesn't mean I intend to go directly back to Athens, GA (a.k.a. home). I'm planning on taking a circuitous route of sorts, so while I won't be in the Great Plains anymore, the road trip will continue a few more days. I saw the first familiar face in about 10 days this morning - Beth, a friend from my days of working summers at Camp Westminster, and who also attended McAfee School of Theology with me. She had seen my blog a few days back and asked whether we could work out to meet up since I would be coming to Iowa. I was happy to ... read more

To start off this blogging adventure I need to be honest. What is written below was posted on a different blog site on Aug. 22nd. It is now the 13th of September and I am just now adding my adventures through France, Italy, and Ireland. Please bear with me as this will be a very interesting journey for everyone. First things first- I, Kristin Brodie, am studying abroad this fall semester. Hence the point of this blog. I cannot and I will not promise to update this throughout my entire stay. Mostly this blog is to keep family (MOM) at home from worrying about me. :) I'm leaving Aug. 25th (3 days!!) from Minneapolis airport and will land in London the 26th. From there I will travel with my good friends Joshua Rivenbark and Josh Johnson ... read more

Hello, Bonjour, Ciao, Hallo! As promised, I am delivering my first post - and it's not even Sunday yet. Or has only been Sunday for about an hour. I think for this first attempt at writing in quite a while I'm going to keep it simple. I'm a little tired at the moment, so I'll save my profound thoughts and witty humor for later updates and just stick to a basic overview of everything I'm doing on my trip abroad. I've been reeeeally busy lately trying to get all the details worked out - making hostel reservations, deciphering train schedules, decoding foreign websites, etc. Sometimes I feel like it's too much work and I should just fly over and wing it, but then I decide I would just be setting myself up for countless problems that ... read more

Hello from Iowa, Two leisurely days on the road from Tulsa. Sunday I discovered I would be driving right by “The Little House on the Prairie” where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived for a year. So I took the couple of mile detour to check it out. The gift shop/museum didn’t open until the afternoon so I just wandered about for a few minutes. I know the log cabin is a replica of the one they lived in. I’ve not had the opportunity to research the authenticity of the other buildings located at the sight. Here's a link to the website. http://www.littlehouseontheprairie.com Monday I encountered quite a bit of rain, heavy at times, but otherwise the drive was uneventful. I arrived in Story City, IA about 5:30. I had an enjoyable visit in Atchison, KS touring ... read more

It's time already to pack for the big trip! We're trying to figure out exactly what we need... it's hard to know at this point! We've learned that Peru has the highest number of different climates within it than any other country, so packing the necessary clothing into a limited amount of space is tricky. We'll be carrying everything in big packs so that we can be very mobile. Right now our gameplan is to get to the Hilton in Lima and stay for a few days, figuring out what to do for the remaining 7 1/2 weeks! We hope to go to Bolivia, and maybe Chile and Argentina. We've found some places that house volunteers, mainly orphanages and missions. Very exciting! ... read more