On the majority of ski trips I’ve been on in the past, we’ve stayed in kitschy 80s-style cabins or big chain hotels or, in the very rare case, a multi-room family condo, as we did in Mamm...
While the island was a foot under water both times we ventured to Roatan, we made the most of it and decided to spend our days, well, underwater. Due to the heavy rains, the surface was churning, whi...
Our very last stop on our trip around the world with Semester at Sea wound up being a place with which I am very familiar: Florida. I spent my Spring Breaks growing up at my parents’ condo in O...
We had our frustrations in Japan, sure, but overall, I am enamored with the country. I’d go as far as to name it in my top 10 favorite places visited, if not top five. Here are some of the quir...
While I had a blast at Snowcial in Tahoe last month, I’m still dreaming of days spent tearing down the slopes as my time on skis was limited this past trip. We hoped to hit up Park City this wi...
Somewhere in between China and sailing across the Pacific, we made a five-day stop in Japan. It was rainy, and we had booked a room in Kyoto, so the first order of business was taking the train there...
After Costa Rica, following a day cruising through the Panama Canal, our Semester at Sea voyage made one final stop before docking for good in Fort Lauderdale. Originally, we were slated to visit Hav...
On the last day of our whirlwind tour of New England last summer, we drove the hour from Providence down to Newport. I’d done the same thing about six years earlier while living in New York and...
I nearly didn’t go to Snowcial this year. There was the little issue of getting out to Tahoe from Tennessee for just a weekend, though mainly my ambivalence was due to the fact that I had just ...
When we were headed toward Central America last month, we originally had planned to do a vacation home rental in Costa Rica with a handful of our ship friends from Semester at Sea. But due to the fac...
I’ve ridden camels. I’ve pet sharks. I’ve been thrown off an ostrich. I’ve had my lunch swiped by a monkey. But up until my visit to Cambodia, I’d never actually sat on ...
I grew up a very sporty kid. My parents had me in tee-ball and soccer before the age of 5—on boys’ teams because there was no such thing as all-girls leagues back then—and I played ...
Many of you have asked me aside from work (the staff) and classes (the students), what exactly does everyone do on board the Semester at Sea ship 24/7, particularly on sail periods that span three we...
I never did much coverage of our 2008 trip to Guatemala, primarily because neither of us were wild about the destination. We found Antigua too touristy, the Puerto Quetzal area too run down, the rain...
We’re all set up here in my parents’ house in Tennessee, unwinding from the last year and turning our sights to the next big thing. SVV actually didn’t wait five days after our retu...
Rith was only six years old when he was taken from his parents and sent by the Khmer Rouge to the fields to work as a laborer. He wouldn’t see them again until he was 11. He was moved to eastern Camb...
Tomorrow marks the anniversary of when a Vietnamese army toppled the Khmer Rouge regime from Phnom Penh—a topic I will write about in greater depth next week—so I thought it fitting that ...
If you recall, I sort of struck out when packing for our six-week road trip last summer. Since space was at a premium on the M/V Explorer, I put a little more time and effort into what went in my two...
Some of the most fun SVV and I had during our Semester at Sea voyage was getting wardrobes custom-made in Vietnam. That should come as no surprise, as I sort of love clothes, not to mention worked in...
The last stop on the Asian leg of our Semester at Sea voyage was in Japan. We docked in Kobe, but SVV and I immediately hopped a train from there to Kyoto for the night (about $10 each and a 45-minut...
2011 was meant to be “the year I stayed home.” After going round the world and back a handful of times in 2009 and 2010, I was ready for a break. And then…things happened—pure...
There are two things for which the area I’m from in Tennessee is universally known: Jack Daniel’s and Bonnaroo. However, just five miles down the road from my actual home is the man more ...
The whole four days we were in Shanghai, a curtain of cold and gloom hung heavy over the city in an ominous sort of manner. But at night, it was a different story. This fog only served to enhance the...
With little Internet access and a need to be laying horizontal each night after dinner following long days in the office, I read A LOT of books on our Semester at Sea voyage. Seriously—how grea...
We’ve been through with our Semester at Sea voyage for six days now—though I gather it’s an experience I will think about daily for years to come, if not the rest of my life—a...
Jumping ahead in time a bit to the near end of our Semester at Sea voyage, we docked in Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica for a very brief 36 hours. SVV and I headed straight for Alma del Pacifico, down alo...
When we landed in Shanghai, the weather was so bad, there was sideways rain and menacing clouds set against brown-gray skies—not the kind of conditions in which you want to be bopping around th...
Throughout our four months on the M/V Explorer, I have heard various reasons why students chose to study abroad on this particular program: “I wanted to travel.” “I wanted to see the world.” “I’m gra...
While in Hong Kong last month, we went on a Semester at Sea FDP with Professor Jim Huffman and took the hour-long bus ride over to Lantau Island, the biggest of the Islands District isles and home to...
We haven’t stayed in a whole lot of hotels since setting sail with Semester at Sea, primarily because the ship often occupies a better location in the city in which we’re docking than any hotel we co...
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