Travel

My travel career began while I was in middle school when my parents had the brilliant inspiration to start planning yearly family vacations to (mostly) tropical locales as well as the occasional wintry holiday to appease my father. Early trips included beach-lounging vacations to the Caribbean as well as a serendipitous trip to Switzerland where we enjoyed only a few days on the slopes due to unprecedented amounts of snow that prompted avalanche slides to the left and right. Instead, we spent hours in front of the warm fire eating bread and fresh cheese and playing game after game of cribbage.

Our vacations slowly began taking on a new approach as my brother and I aged. In Belize we upheld our week of sun and sand, but then moved to the jungle for several days to enjoy cave tubing and sinkhole rappelling. In Costa Rica we rented a car and toured the country, stopping at colorful towns and taking every deeply rutted dirt road we could find. One dead-end found us before a sign comprised of fifteen to twenty arrows pointing north, south, east and west, each painted with city and town names. We rode horses from one side of a mountain to the other and galloped along the seashore while the sun set over the ocean. In Mexico we rented a courtyard villa in the artsy town of San Miguel de Allende. We were chased by barking dogs on our mountain bikes and complained of saddle sores after an entire day of horseback riding over hills, through rivers and along winding forest trails. At least we found time to take a relaxing float down a narrow river on brightly colored platoons while mariachis serenaded us from their boats.

The Dominican Republic showed us recklessness. After 24 hours of constant rain on Christmas day we were persuaded into joining a white-water rafting trip through waters that never should have been attempted. At one particularly gnarly section the muddy water gushed over a low bridge, causing us to get out of our rafts and portage several yards farther downstream.

These family adventures struck in me a love for travel and culture that I haven’t been able to shake. As a senior in high school I enrolled in an EF study abroad program in New Zealand. Five months of living with a host family, attending a Kiwi school, touring the sheep dominant country and making fast friends is an opportunity I believe all 16 year-olds throughout the world should experience.

Once in college, my desire to explore did not abate. The summer following my freshman year I spent three weeks in China with several classmates and a Chinese professor on a Freeman Grant funded entirely by people much richer than myself. We visited a number of Chinese hospitals and learned about traditional Chinese Medicine such as acupuncture, herbal remedies, and moxibustion, and talked to doctors and medical students our age. We also couldn’t waste our free trip by avoiding the tourist traps, so the last week was devoted to gawking at the Great Wall, being entertained at a Beijing opera, buying souvenirs, and of course, eating great food (although we did that all throughout the three weeks).

A major reason for attending St. Lawrence University was to participate in one of their numerous study abroad programs. I could have spent a semester in Vienna, perusing museums and eating rich European foods. Or Australia, surfing with sun-tanned hotties and snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef. Or even India, a country rich in culture, but plagued by problems such as overpopulation and pollution.

Instead, I chose Kenya. I reasoned that since I had my whole life ahead of me to see the world, I should pick a country where I might not be able to travel to by myself. As an environmental studies and biology major, Kenya’s landscape and human/wildlife interaction intrigued me and I wanted to learn more about this mysterious country. St. Lawrence University owns a compound outside of the capital city of Nairobi. We attended classes at the nearby YMCA and went on two-week expeditions to the national parks and met with local herders and farmers. It was a powerful experience and I didn’t want to go home at the end of the program. So, I enrolled in the School for Field Studies Kenya program and spent and additional six months riding around in Landrovers and counting elephants. I can’t put into words all the countless adventures and amazing things I saw. As cliché as it sounds, my time spend in Kenya greatly altered my perception on life and made me appreciate more, the opportunities I have been given.