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 [...]

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 had [...]

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 [...]