Tellus

My semester in South Africa was one of the hardest and most exciting times of my life. I learned so much, but some of the most valuable lessons I learned came from difficult experiences. While many students who have studied abroad talk about their experience as an enjoyable and fun semester, my semester [...]

http://Upon-Returning.deviantart.com/art/Alive-In-Vietnam-152108186

There I was, on the border between Zambia and Botswana, with the two best friends I made in South Africa. We had just finished a safari in Botswana and were returning to Livingstone, Zambia where a few days earlier we had seen Victoria Falls. The African sun was beating down on us as we looked [...]

Not only was it literally difficult for me to find my breath living in Quito, Ecuador at 9,000 ft. altitude, but learning to breathe, walk, live, and interact with Ecuadorians was a five month long journey that I will never forget. I can compare this journey to a much shorter one I took during my [...]

I was sneaky, very sneaky, with my photo-taking during an excursion to the Saturday market in Otavalo. Not wanting to draw any more attention to myself than my pale skin and blue eyes already did, I held my camera at the level of my waist, out of view of most everyone around me, and [...]

When I would tell people, before leaving for Granada, Spain, that I was going abroad, they all told me how lucky I was to be able to have such an exciting and life changing experience. I of course knew how lucky I was, but I could never really imagine how my experience could be life [...]

http://jamieslonaker.myphotoalbum.com/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album01&id=img_4521
This picture was taken at our last road trip destination in Sydney, Australia. Everything that could possibly go wrong, went wrong on this road trip including losing car keys in the ocean, renting 4 separate vans to drive down the entire west coast of Australia, cell phones not working/dying, getting separated at night in Brisbane [...]

When I woke up it was still dark, but the lightness of the snow made it seem so much brighter than it was. At this time of year, where I was living, there were only 3 hours of sunlight per day. I gathered my warmest clothing, bundled myself up and walked out to a bridge [...]

I’ve always loved a city with a nice butte; a place to leave behind the troubles of the city, while looking down on them… reflecting. Or partying… Either way, the best cities of my life have had buttes: Eugene (Skinner’s Butte and Spencer’s Butte), Portland (Mt. Tabor), and of course, ol’ Paris (Montmartre). Since I [...]

After the first four days in Quito, Ecuador living with my host family in one of the busiest intersections i have ever seen, i was more than ready to fly to the Galapagos Islands for a week. As an environmental science nerd, I was almost too excited to see the islands that Charles Darwin studied [...]