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Los Galapagos

rtaylor — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 02:16:08 +0000

un lobo marina y dos pinguinos

As a high school student, I reluctantly took Biology class. The only moments that I loved taking that class was when I learned of the different ecosystems around the world. I remember learning about the Galapagos Islands and thinking “I would love to go there someday”. Through studying abroad in Ecuador the first semester of my senior year, I was able to live my dream within a week of landing in Quito, Ecuador. While I was in the Galapagos Islands, I was able to see a variety of different ecosystems in one area of the world and on various islands. I was able to take this photo to the right while I was on a dinghy, bobbing up and down in the middle of the ocean. Can you spot the two penguins and the sea lion?

Who would've thought these would all be in the same place?

While I was in the Galapagos I was fortunate enough to have an experience that most people I know have not. I was able to be in an environment where in the same ecosystem there was a lake, shrimp, pink flamingos, hardened lava, cacti, and a very distinguishable sky line in the midst of the ocean. I was so utterly amazed that there were flamingos and lava in the same place, on an island in the ocean. I had to take a picture including all the elements of this amazing environment.

My trip to the Galapagos Islands was a great start to my adventures in Ecuador.

La laguna en la cumbre del mundo

tstarr — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 06:28:59 +0000

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.

Aberystwyth: Constitution Hill

kjackson — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 19:13:45 +0000

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.

Avocados and Fallen Umbrellas: Stand Watchmen and Wait

Alice — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 21:23:26 +0000

{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 a lot of fun together. It has been quite the experience living with four other girls whom I had only known for three days… but it has been totally worth it I have even cooked my own dinners (and have fallen even more in love with salads – tomatoes, avocados, bell peppers, cranberries, cheese …. yummm)!!

During our week of orientation, I was able to visit the Prague castle, which was beautiful! I got to see the St. Vitus Cathedral and the beautiful stained glass windows.

Also as part of our orientation, we toured the Jewish Quarters in the Old Town where we saw four different synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetery. The cemetery was the only place the Jews were allowed to be buried between 1400- 1700. Tombs were piled on top of each other and people will leave pebbles (flowers of the desert) atop some of the tombstones, which parallels back to when rocks where piled on top of the sand graves.

{Photo taken by Arianna}

We also got to tour Prague from the Vltava River. It was wonderful! It was so nice to get away from the city and be on the water.

I have started school. I am still going to my intensive Czech language class. During my last class we had to go to the grocery store and find different items and figure out how much they were. It has actually been a really fun class…despite how terrible I am at the language. My lips just don’t want to make the sounds that are necessary. People here have been pretty gracious. I am getting good at asking for stamps I also started one of my art history classes and my walking tour/history of Prague class. That one was a blast! We are basically going on tours all of the city for three hours once a week. This week we learned about the famous Charles Bridge and St. John of Nepomuk.

St. John was thrown off of the Charles Bridge apparently because he wouldn’t reveal the Queen’s confessions to the King. I stood at the spot where he was thrown over.

If you look above his head, you will see five stars. Legend has it that when St. John died in the river, five new stars appeared in the sky. Interesting to say the least. If you stand in site of the statue, there are two plaques below it, each with its own scene. One is of St. John being thrown off the bridge and one is of the Queen confessing to St. John. People come to touch the image of St. John and kiss their fingers for good luck. The funny thing is they generally touch the wrong thing. On the plaque of him being thrown overboard, most people touch the woman on the shore rather then St. John’s tiny image being thrown off the bridge and on the other plaque, many people touch the dog in the forefront — ironically the dog is an evil character, seeing as it was one of the King’s hunting dogs that killed the Queen.

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Seeing all these “beautiful” things, I have been thinking more about beauty — especially that of a foreign place — and I have come to a conclusion. Yes, buildings can be beautiful – you wouldn’t believe some of the architecture here and the history behind it is even more amazing. But beauty goes much deeper than that. In terms of being in “beautiful places,” what makes a place beautiful and magical isn’t the buildings or architecture – but the people who you experience that (and life) with. That is what makes it beautiful.
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Since I have been here in Prague, I have been taking a lot of time to think. About life, about God, about friends, and about myself. God has been answering so many prayers and I can’t wait to see what else He will reveal. It is amazing how being here, so much “noise” that surrounded my day to day life has receded to a whisper or nothing at all…and I have been reveling in the silence. Being thrown into a world of unfamiliarity has caused me to stop and think about everything! My feelings, my thoughts, my actions… It is showing me things that are truly important in my life and the things that are not. The last few weeks have been hard. Really hard. I remember on one of the rainy days I saw tons of discarded umbrellas, fallen on the street and broken from the wind. I felt like I could relate to them… tired, wet, alone, overwhelmed, broke down…and in a sense I could. But I am learning to take the focus off myself and look around and above. I am learning to turn to the God who I love and I am learning to depend on Him more and more. I have been understanding more and more how much God has done for me and for the world through His Son. I have been blessed with so much freedom (in Christ). My identity is not in myself, or the world.. but in Jesus Christ. I am learning what it means to STAND in Christ. I am learning that I COULDN’T stand with out Him. Without His love and mercy, where would I be? Psalm 130 says:

“Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. ”

I am standing in the Lord and He is my rock. It makes me think about Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress and the burden on his back. When he goes to the cross and repents, the burden falls from his back, never to be seen again (I realize that this isn’t necessarily what the Psalm is talking about, these are just where my thoughts took me). Christ has taken that burden away — He was victorious and was not crippled by it — and through Him we do not have to be crippled by it either.

Finding New Zealand

msunada — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:25:55 +0000

Sasha Fegan
Queenstown, New Zealand
I spent my first four weeks in New Zealand cooped up in the city of Dunedin trying to figure out where the natural beauty that all of my guide books promised was hiding. I left the city for Queenstown in the afternoon and arrived there in the middle of the night. After spending the night exploring the tourist mecca of a town, I found myself feeling like I had made a mistake in coming to New Zealand because it felt very superficial and over hyped. After spending the night bunkered down in a poorly insulated, miniscule room, enjoying myself with three of my flat mates nonetheless, I realized that the people I had met in my first month had made studying abroad worthwhile. The next morning, we woke up to a gorgeous lake view and made it up to the mountain where we saw this scene. This picture reminds me of coming to terms with expectations I had, coming to appreciate my experiences even thought they differed from my expectations, and eventually being rewarded with the view in this picture.

The City that Changed Everything

msunada — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:26:05 +0000

Vienna was not what I was expecting. Although, in hindsight, I don’t know what I was expecting. I knew it would be different and adventurous, but I never expected to come out on the other end of study abroad feeling the way I do now. If there is one piece of advice I could give any Willamette student, it would be to study abroad. Go anywhere. Any program… the experience lends itself to benefitting you in the long run, no matter how bizarre the circumstances. I lived in an apartment with two men, also participating in the same study abroad program with me. I had no idea who they were, and to put it lightly I was less than enthusiastic about being placed in an apartment with them. This week I have talked to both of them on the phone three times. We have plans to see each other at Christmas and next summer, and I can’t express enough how lucky I feel to have been able to become so close to them. The adventures had in our apartment and galavanting around that gorgeous, ancient city were indescribable. I fell in love with every part of Vienna and Austrian culture, and was in no way ready to board my plane in May and come home. I can remember one breezy spring day when the winds were whipping down out of the Wienerwald (Vienna Woods) making the windows slam intermittently against the façade of our pre-war apartment. My roommates and I hiked up to our favorite vantage point above the city, and with a view of almost the entirety of Vienna we spent the afternoon in a meadow with a bottle of wine and nothing but each other and conversation to pass the time. It was one of those afternoons that is perfect simply because of where you are and who you’re with. We reminisced about the weeks that had already passed and dreamed about what might be to come in our short time left in Europe. It was the fastest semester of my life, full of ups and downs, but what I know now is that on the plane back to my home I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by how much better I knew myself, and how I would have given absolutely anything to turn that plane again and stay for another ten years.

msunada — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:58:55 +0000

This photograph was taken mid afternoon of Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands of the coast of Galway, Ireland. We were standing in Dun Aengus, a prehistoric fort built right up to a cliff edge with a sudden and severe drop into the ocean. This photo, taken from that cliff edge, demonstrates the unsettling and constantly changing lighting of being so far north. It is both beautiful and unsettling, particularly in the winter when the days are so short and the sun stays close to the horizon. It is that beautiful and unsettling feeling that encompassed my stay in Ireland.

The Secret Garden

msunada — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:31:38 +0000

After heading back from exploring an abandoned castle on the Corrib River (in the outskirts of Galway, Ireland), I came across this forgotten shed in someone’s backyard. It really struck me that something so plain and unremarkable could transform into something so beautiful. I loved how the gate had become so tangled with the overgrowth that it had actually rusted open. Even with the way the shed’s door had been left ajar, everything was just so inviting and welcoming. It was particularly touching to me because I had come to Ireland expecting to see the countryside, not the big cities. I was leaving in about a week and really hadn’t seen much of what I had assumed would be commonplace. I had walked this way with a friend before, but I didn’t really notice this area; we were concentrating on finding our way to the castle and back without getting terribly lost (or terribly soaked). It’s funny how something can be completely hidden one moment and suddenly appear in front of you the next.

Fields of gold in Wanaka, New Zealand

msunada — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:18:40 +0000

When I heard that the Queen’s Birthday caused classes at the University of Otago to be canceled on Monday, 1 June, I knew I wanted to use the extended weekend and travel somewhere in New Zealand I’d never been before. I’d already visited Queenstown, the country’s mountain-rimmed adventure capitol on the shores of stunning Lake Wakatipu, but I’d never been to Queenstown’s smaller and less touristy sister an hour’s drive away, the town of Wanaka. Using Queenstown as a base, I hopped a shuttle to Wanaka early Sunday morning, arriving at the information centre in town completely by myself with no idea what to do. However, with the help of a few suggestions from the centre and a map in hand, I ventured out to hike Mount Iron, the highest point in town. New Zealand’s weather forecast had been unreliable in the past, but this time it served me well: a day that was supposed to include snow showers turned sunny and warm by late morning. As I reached the summit, the sun broke through the clouds to fall on Lake Wanaka below, the surrounding Southern Alps, delicate red berries, and feathery dry grass. Whichever direction I turned, delighting in the joy of independence and adventure, all I could see was beauty. I was walking in fields of gold. This was New Zealand.