Tellus

My heart pounds as I take the plunge on the Nevis in New Zealand, over 134 meters above a little creek at the bottom of a canyon. This was one of the most exhilarating moments of my trip.

Now I know it is completely nerdy, but I love Harry Potter. So when the opportunity to go to the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 arose, I jumped at it. And while a movie premiere does seem a likely place to have a significant international experience, it was absolutely amazing! […]

The volume and variety of noise was astounding. We had spent an amazing night listening to the sounds of the forest and absorbing our first clear view of the Milky Way, and awoke the next morning before the sun rose in order to be out in our canoe as the Amazon Rainforest woke up. In […]

It’s hard to say what the first thing you’ll notice about India will be. It might be the traffic – all noise and chaos and confusion. The lanes are nonexistent, cars and motorbikes and rickshaws weaving in and out of each others paths with no apparent logic or sense of safety. The drivers honk their […]

This is a photograph of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. I took this picture during the tail end of a weeklong adventure to Cape Town with several close friends, one month before I would hop on a plane and spend 44 grueling hours traveling home. It was an exceptionally cold and windy day […]

During my first few weeks in Scotland, Pope Benedict XVI visited. Several days before his arrival the streets were cleared and barricaded. I am not at all in touch with the religious world but was interested in participating in the event for the experience. This image shows the hundreds of bagpipers that played for the […]

Fútbol is most definitely the national pastime of Uruguay. A small section of the national stadium’s upper bleachers, this photo is from a game called el clásico, a match that happens once a year between Montevideo’s two most rival teams: Nacional and Peñarol. The crowd’s energy fills the stadium, at this game and at all […]

Quito, Ecuador This picture is of the Old Town district in Quito, Ecuador.  In this area of Quito one can see clearly the remnants of Spanish colonial rule. One of the main lessons I took away with my from Ecuador is the fact that big cities are not as different around the world as I […]

This photo was taken in August 2009 on the South Island of New Zealand.  A group of international students and I headed west from Dunedin for a long weekend trip to hike and tour Fjordland National Park.  At the end of one of our hikes, we ended up on the shore of this lake, Manapouri, […]

I had the pleasure to live with the most wonderful host family; a couple in their eighties who called each other “mon/ma chéri(e)” (my dearie) and called me “mon mignon” (my cutie) or “ma petite” (my little one). Everyone joked that the Thibaults and I were the perfect match because I was the first student […]

Quilotoa, Ecuador: 13,000 feet above sea level. Apart from the bitter cold (who knew it could be cold on the equator?), the town consisted of 100 residents, a couple of hostels, and one of the most spectacular views on the planet. When I first climbed the crest and peered down into the crater, all I saw was a dense cover of clouds. Within minutes, the clouds evaporated to expose a 2-mile wide crater lake, as if it appeared out of the sky. I felt so isolated and at one with the world, in the Andes mountains 4,000 miles from home.

This is only one of the multitude of mental images from Ecuador that I will always keep with me. Everywhere I turned, from cloud forests to the Galapagos to the Amazon rainforest, I was surrounded by a natural beauty unsurpassed by anything I’ve ever seen. These experiences will always remind me of the diversity of beauty in this world, and will never allow me to settle and stop exploring this rich planet.

(This poem is in response to the returning from study abroad final assignment) Hier, dès le crépuscule : Riverside Angers, La musique brûle. Face-painted French peers     ( Et pourquoi cette brosse à dents ? ) Pressés comme les feuilles ( Et pourquoi derrière son oreille ? ) At the foot of the stage, Pieds nus, […]

http://rmkrowboniske.blogspot.com/2010/08/desensitization-and-discomfort.html This blog entry captures some of the feelings that seemed to be recurring throughout my stay in South Africa. Struggling with my need to push myself to actively engage outside of the Rhodes University “bubble” and my common feelings of discomfort shaped my experience abroad and helped transform the way I think and engage […]

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I think this was one of the most representative blogs I have from my trip to Spain, especially concerning the language barrier but you are more than welcome to look at any other blogs I wrote. I used my blog as a mainstream way to communicate the major events in my life while abroad to family and friends. My experience abroad, right at your fingertips- Enjoy!

Throughout the preparation in being able to study abroad, it is always made clear that studying abroad can be and is a life changing experience for some people. To me this photo is of a street I always crossed to catch the bus that was part of my everyday commute routine, and brought my emotions […]

Ok.  I thought I put a description in, so if this appears twice, I’m sorry. This was probably the most terrifying thing I have ever done in my entire life.  I signed up for it almost on a whim, I had heard other people speaking positively about it, so I decided to give it a […]

These two photos were taken while on a hike into Welsh countryside, during my last week at Aberystwyth. I had spent the past three months catching the sun rise from this hill, nestled between the sea and the small town, and watching it disappear into the hill eight hours later. It had been a wild three months abroad, much of it spent traveling away from Aberystwyth. Unfortunately, days like this, which supplied the time to pause and sincerely reflect on the magnificent beauty of the countryside, were rare. Hiking constitution hill was a box that remained empty on my checklist for the duration of my program and after the climb, it was an activity that I had wished I had done on a weekly basis. On the hike, my three classmates and myself were joined by a girl finishing a program outside of Mumbai, where she had spent much of her fall ill and dealing with witnessing the violent murder of her first host family’s handicapped servant. While none of us were able to relate to the girl’s tragic experience, the account of her hardships were moving. We spent the day swapping tales of our sojourn, living the highlights vicariously through one another. True, I experienced the Welsh culture but that is not what I’ll remember from my time in Wales. With nearly 1000 internationals, Aberystwyth is truly an impressive agglomeration of world cultures. With total population of nearly fifteen thousand, I felt as equally influenced by the cultures, world views and thoughts of the Polish, Germans, and Finnish. The sight before us only complimented my reflection of the camaraderie that had been built. I’m not a very religious person but the level of breath-takingly pure tranquility captivating us there, several hundred feet above the Atlantic, subjected me to recognize a higher power. The moment was surely made for Kodak.

{Post 3 from blog} Ok, so I left off explaining some of the cultural differences that I have seen so far in Prague along with a brief overview of what I had been doing. I am now settled into my flat and it has been a blast! My flat mates are hilarious and we have […]