After 17 days in the wilderness of New Zealand, I have finally returned to civilization. I had a jam-packed break, and skipped an extra week of class so I had more time to explore this beautiful country. My friend and I hopped into his van and started driving across the country. First stop: Castle Hill,…
Opportunity, Community, Ability: Australian Edition
“You know those ducks in that lagoon right near Central Park South? That little lake? By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over? Do you happen to know, by any chance?” I realized it was only one chance in a million.” -Holden Caulfield, The…
Identity & The Infinite
Is identity something that we are born with, an innate quality of our existence, or is it a malleable, ever changing byproduct of experience? There are some aspects of our being that I would suggest many of us understand as being constants in our life: a particular interest, a general aura, a certain way we…
Wicklow Mountains, Kilkenny, and Giant’s Causeway
Over the past few weeks, I took a few trips to the Wicklow Mountains to visit the old monastic site of Glendalough. Glendalough means “valley between the two lakes” and the view from the large lake was absolutely phenomenal. The monastic site had large historical significance as the monks used to live in the monastic…
Most Recent Adventures and Discoveries: Chelsea and Kensington
The past couple weeks have been a bit of a wind-down period for adventures and a wind-up period for revisions. My load is pretty easy considering I have only one exam on May 19th and an essay on the 4th, but with a recent hit of cold weather here in London, I am trying to…
Saint-Cyr-Sur-Mer, Montpellier, and Avignon.
Last week all IAU students were on vacation, giving us the opportunity to travel before the school year is over. My cousins from Germany drove down to AIX to spend some time with me, including Easter, which was nice. Having a car made traveling on the coast convenient, and each day we traveled to a…
The Royal National Park
Hiking The Royal National Park with my Outdoor Education class was a really cool experience. It was a rainy and gloomy day. However I think I preferred it to be rainy for a couple of reasons. First off, the river crossing at the beginning of our walk didn’t seem so bad, because getting wet was…
Spring Break!
04/20/17 Spring Break! Maddy, Brandon, and I are headed to the Cook Islands! If it were a straight shot its only 2,387 miles away, but instead we are driving to Christchurch, flying to Auckland, then flying to Rarotonga, a pretty long journey, nut definitely worth it. After Maddy and I were got deboarded from our…
Cathedral Cave Expedition
04/01/17 Nugget Point (Ahuriri Flat), Purakanui (Tarara Falls), Cannibal Beach Today me and some buds went for a journey across the Catlins. Our mission was to go to the Cathedral Caves which is one of the must see spots in NZ. On our way we passed a sign for nugget point and someone recalled it…
Mom Comes to Visit
03/11/17 Queenstown Again My mom came to visit! While she’s here we go to Queenstown and do every adventure packed event they have to offer. We conquered the rivers via jet boats and white water rafts. We beat the lake with a shark boat. We beat the mountain with a gondola ride and a few…