Grassland (Steppe), outside Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Far Eastern Fantasy
My trip to Asia was one of many firsts and being out of my comfort zone. The biggest thing about this trip is that I made it on my own. While I was in China, I was a lone traveler; while I was in Mongolia, I was with my classmates for our masters course. But being over 5000 miles from home, in a new country and continent with a language I couldn't even begin to understand was a true adventure. While I was in China, I experienced much of ancient Beijing - including the Temple of Heaven, Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Olympic stadium. The highlight of my time in China was spending the night on a remote part of the Great Wall of China built during the Ming Dynasty (mid 1400's to mid 1600's). After leaving China, I went to Mongolia to meet up with my class. The night before and after class, I stayed at a guesthouse. And that was a real experience. Basically, it reminded me of an apartment with three bedrooms. My room was just me - I had a full size bed. The other rooms had 3 bunk beds each - sleeping six in one room. I met folks from all around the world in the short time I spent there. My entire trip is highlighted in the video.
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The video below covers my entire time in Asia, both China and Mongolia. It's all about me! :) I had the video planned out (kinda) before I got there. I knew what kinds of shots to get - go Selfie Stick!
This video features my classmates from the Project Dragonfly program through Miami U. in Oxford. This was the Mongolia 2015 Earth Expedition. Thanks to everyone who participated in its creation!
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I Wish
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This is another installment of music videos. It is something a little different - I tried doing a rap song. This trip is the Senior Trip to New York City; my second trip as chaperone. We did a chaperone video and a student video. This is the chaperone video. I think the change of style turned out well!
This time in NYC was about the same as last year, except that the show we saw was The Phantom of the Opera. It was an amazing production, as Wicked was last year. We did, however, change things up a little and decided to split up; one of the other chaperones and I took some of the students for a ride on the subway. it was fun and the students thoroughly enjoyed the change of pace. Speaking of change of pace, we ended up getting three inches of snow the first day we were in the city - go figure! |
Moves Like Jagger
One of my little hobbies is making videos of my trips. Before I started doing this, my pictures of the beautiful places I visit would often sit in a shoe box in the bottom of a closet or the like. If it was a really cool trip, the photos might actually make it into a photo album - where they would sit until they were so old and forgotten that they would end up stuck together. Once I have made them into a video, I will actually drag them out and watch them at least two or three times per year.
This video was made while in Belize for my master's program through Miami University's Project Dragonfly. The people in the video, rockin' the Moves Like Jagger, are my classmates who were also in the program. I give each and every one of them props for putting up with me sticking a camera in their face and drilling one song into their heads for a whole 10 days! |
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Counting Stars
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Ready for New York City? This was my first time chaperoning an overnight, traveling Senior Trip, but not my first time in NYC. I will say, I greatly enjoyed the trip with all the activities we got to do. We saw a Broadway show, "Wicked," went out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, went up in the Empire State Building, were on the Today show (as part of the crowd), and so much more!
This was my first attempt at the whole lip syncing deal, and I think it turned out pretty well! You will have to watch near the end of the video. As I am dancing on the sidewalk, a lady walks past me and drops $1.30 in my hat. How funny! |
International Dash |
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During the month of July, 2016, I began on a trip that took me around the globe. Leaving on July 3rd, the first stop was a layover in Canada...a little longer than expected since our plane was "broken" and the airline had to fly in a replacement. Sucks for the five-hour delay, but at least I didn't fall out of the sky. The first city on my itinerary was London, England. After arriving in the city, I took the train from the airport into the city. Then, after getting my Oyster Card (public transit pass), I made it to my hostel. This was a small place; the bathroom was barely large enough for me to turn around. But I only needed the hostel for a place to crash at night and to keep all my stuff while I ventured out into the city. Of course the weather was cold and a little drizzly on July 4th, but that didn't stop me from visiting Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye. The next day was much nicer - all sunny as warm - so I took a river boat tour on the Thames River and went to visit the eerie Tower of London.
After touring around London as much as I could in a few hours, I headed off to catch a train to Amsterdam, travelling through France to Belgium. In Brussels, I caught a connecting train to Amsterdam. (The military presence in Brussels was a little eerie after the terrorist attack on their airport a few months earlier.) Arriving kinda late, I caught a cab to my hotel and settled in for the night, ready for a big day of exploring the city ahead of me. Over the course of the next three days, I took in as much as I could of what the city of Amsterdam had to offer...Dam Square, Heineken Experience, a canal boat ride, a few eateries, and, of course, the Red Light District. It was an easygoing few days - and I much needed those few relaxing days. After spending a few days roaming around Amsterdam, I started my series of two flights that would take me to New Delhi, India. However, I did have a huge layover in Moscow. I ended up staying 17 hours in the airport. Fortunately, there is a small hotel inside the airport that I could stay in without having a Russian visa. I would have loved to see some of Moscow, but the visa was quite expensive for just a few hours, plus I had to have an in-country sponsor. Hopefully, I will be able to make it back to Russia and be able to spend some time checking out the cool things there. I arrived in India late - like around midnight or so. And that is where my trip got scary. I took a cab that was supposed to take me to my hotel, but it didn't turn out that way. I appeared that the police closed parts of the city off due to a religious holiday. The cab driver and his little buddy took me down some dark alley, complete with throngs of homeless people cooking dinner on the sidewalk and street. In one of the buildings along the alley was this "tourism board" office. Very sketchy. It was brightly lit, but nothing about the situation felt right...I was getting nervous. After telling the man in the office that I just wanted to go to my hotel, and by refusing to just sit and wait until they "figured it out," I went back outside to the cab. The cab driver refused to take me anywhere, but demanded payment and told me to take the motorized rickshaw to a hotel. The rickshaw driver took me to another dark alley and to a "tourism board" office. The man at this office wanted me to go all the way to another city that was 3 hours away. No thanks. I demanded to be returned to the airport. They tried to talk me out of that. I eventually went back out to the rickshaw and told the driver to take me to the nearby hotel I had found on my cell phone. He did, and I was able to check in. I was on the brink of freaking out, but kept my composure and it did work out safely. The next day I walked around near my hotel - which was not the one in which I had a reservation, but still very nice - and decided that Inda was a big, overpopulated toilet. My last day in India brought my opportunity to ride down in a private car to Agra and see the Taj Mahal. Gorgeous place, but not as big as I thought it would be. Then, I was back to the airport and off to Malaysia. Malaysia was a beautiful place...hot and humid, but beautiful. Some of the things I did while I was there included planting a tree in the effort to re-forest the rainforest, watch wild orangutans and gobs of other wildlife, sweated profusely, lived with a Malaysian family for 4 days, used a radio transceiver to find slow loris, visited the famous Gomantong cave, wore a customary sarong (like a men's dress thing), and went on night hikes in the jungle. (There is more about Malaysia on my blog page.) After leaving Malaysia, I had a brief layover in Taiwan, then off to Tokyo, Japan for about 4 days. I stayed in one of the capsule hotels...this was quite the experience. You literally stay in a tube, just big enough for me to sit up straight and lay down flat. It was just wide enough to stretch my arms out, but bent at the elbow. In Tokyo, I basically toured the city a little. I went to see the Tokyo Tower (the red and white tower thing in the picture in the bottom right), the Flower and Rainbow Ferris Wheel, and, well, that's about it for Tokyo. There was a huge park nearby in which I spent much of my time in addition to just walking around the city. On my way home, I had a connection in Mexico City...because Mexico is on the way between Japan and the United States. Hmmm, geography much? That was cheapest, so that's what I did. I then went on to Atlanta, where I arrived late because of a flight delay. Then, I eventually got to my hotel with only a few hours before my next flight - the hour and a half flight to Cincinnati. BUT, I overslept and missed my flight. Of course, the shortest and last flight of my entire trip and I missed the damned thing. So, I ended up catching the next flight to Philadelphia, and then home. But, at least while I was in Philly, I grabbed myself a delicious Philly cheesesteak at my favorite spot - Jim's Steaks on the corner of South St. and S. 4th St. I think it's funny that I have a favorite spot in Philly - I don't even live there. I arrived home August 2nd. |