This will likely be one of several nostalgic 2013 posts as the new year approaches. Today, I was looking through some of the photos I’ve taken this year and realized that I spent most of the big holidays and celebrations of 2013 outside of the country. Some of my favorite holiday/celebration photos are below. I … Continue reading
I left Boston on August 16 in the evening for my three flights to Pune, India. Bidding my family goodbye, I dove into the TSA ocean at Logan airport. The flight from Boston to Paris went smoothly–only 5 and a half hours. As we took off from Boston the sun was glowing red, casting reflections … Continue reading
Sitting on the couch, eyes transfixed on the flat-screen television in front of us, my younger sister repeatedly clicked the right arrow on her laptop keyboard–a HDMI cable connecting the laptop to the television screen so we could all see the image. She took us through her school trip to Italy and Croatia: down narrow … Continue reading
Besides the whole breathing-through-your-nose thing, I found there was one other strategy for pacing myself along our trek through the Himalayas. One of the best tips I can give to fellow unprepared, out-of-shape trekkers is to let your mind create a playlist each day for your hike. Some days the song will be the same, … Continue reading
I have hundreds if not thousands of words written out in curly cursive in my diary–filled cover to cover from this twp-week trip to Nepal–and even more words still waiting to find an escape from the confines of my brain through my fingers on the keyboard. But so much of Nepal is visual and you … Continue reading
The Helambu Trek we ultimately ended up climbing would take us one week to complete. Each night after a difficult day of hiking, we were overjoyed when the colorful paint of local mountain villages came into view and we finally came to a halt in front of new lodging. Each tea house was cozy and … Continue reading
After spending two weeks in Nepal, I’ve finally returned to the land of western toilets and electricity–where wifi is everywhere and planned, power, and outages are not words that go together. Before I left, I posted about my what-I-believed-to-be thorough preparations for this school funded trip to Nepal. I wrote about my reading list, my … Continue reading
Here I sit, 2-days until I depart for the adventure of a lifetime in the Himalayas. My outdoor gear is purchased, my hiking shoes broken in, and my paperwork sorted and filed into a plastic folder to withstand the upcoming monsoons in Nepal. I’ve read the books, the articles, and watched videos about altitude sickness, … Continue reading
Less than one week from today I depart for Nepal with my good friend and sorority sister, Ellie, for a trekking adventure of a lifetime. We received a grant from our college (the one and only Ohio Wesleyan University) to study the impacts of tourism on the Tamang people in the Langtang region of Nepal. … Continue reading
So one of the best parts about Ohio Wesleyan University is their Theory-into-Practice-into-Theory Program. TIPIT for short. The way it works is, some big donors give money to the school and students and faculty can propose research grants or service grants to use the money each semester. Last semester I proposed a research grant to … Continue reading
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