Tag Archives: Travel

Warm Glacial Memories: Friendship by food poisoning

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I’m one of those people who still use Yahoo! to get news. I know it is not the most worthy of news sources but for random stuff, they come up with some pretty entertaining tidbits. For example, last week they posted this video of one of the icebergs off of the Uppsala glacier in Argentina flipping over.

While slightly scary, the video actually brought back great memories of my all-time favorite trip to Argentina in December 2004. A good friend was living in Buenos Aires for the year getting a culinary degree so it was the perfect opportunity to visit South America for the first time.  The plan was for her to show me around BA and then we would fly to El Calafate to hike the glaciers and go horseback riding.

BA was awesome.  We ate the best steaks, saw Nora Jones in concert for my birthday, bought new leather jackets, and I even helped my friend celebrate Hanukkah with my own DIY paper menorah. The day came that we were going to fly south. But before we went, my friend had a sushi class that I was allowed to attend. At that point in my life I did not eat sushi.  However, I wanted to participate so I prepared it and my friend ate both hers and mine.  I mean it couldn’t go to waste, right?

This is the actual sushi I made…ok…I had a lot of help.

We rushed straight from sushi class to the BA airport, made our flight, and arrived at the El Calafate International Airport. We successfully picked up our shuttle which was to take us into the village to our hostel.  But about 15 minutes into our journey, we had to make an unexpected stop. The sushi ended up not agreeing too well with my dear friend and instead decided to bond with my shoes.  For the next 18 hours she lost her sashimi along with everything else in her stomach. We finally made it to our hostel (which thankfully had a bathroom in the room!) where she immediate went to bed and I left on the hunt for saltine crackers.  Please remember readers, I was an Italian major in college. My Spanish is pretty terrible. So I bumbled around town with a Spanish dictionary and filled in with Italian hoping that somehow I could get the point across. Fortunately it worked and I came back with dinner for me and sick food for my friend.

The food poisoning did subside and we made it for our glacier hike the next day. Wearing our winter gear in the El Calafate summer, we put on our crampons and trekked for a few hours. Considering her condition my friend kept up amazingly well but she did skip the shot of Jack Daniels they served at the top of the glacier. Despite a little food poisoning (and an eaten ATM card), El Calafate and the glaciers were spectacular! Almost 8 years later, it is still my favorite location I’ve been to.

But more than the amazing glaciers, what I loved most about that trip was the friendship that was sealed. What began as a trip to see a college friend, ended up being an experience the forged one of the closest friendships I have ever had.  Almost exactly two years ago this same friend was my maid-of-honor and toasted me at my wedding to this same story. Who knew that bad sushi in Argentina would be the catalyst for a life-long friendship?

I’m a serious hiker…look at my crampons.

Summertime at the Perito Moreno Glacier

Abroad Blog of the Week: Healing Pilgrim

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I’ve been reading through dozens of blogs this week but wasn’t finding anything that really stood out to me until I came upon Healing Pilgrim.  The blogger, Amit, writes from Bali where she volunteers, explores, and heals from a traumatic accident she experienced while cycling through Cambodia in 2009. She shares her journey of rehabilitation in a foreign country as well as the culture, travel and awakening she has experienced along the way.  She is detailed in her stories and explanations and her blog provides great insight into traditional and herbal medicine, the religious and spiritual traditions, and the way of everyday life in Bali. Browsing through the past few months of her posts, Healing Pilgrim reads as both a personal narrative but also a cultural guide to a beautiful part of the world. If you are interested in learning about non-Western medicine, Southeast Asia, or just are looking for something a bit different to add to your Google Reader, I would recommend giving Healing Pilgrim a try.

Abroad Blog of the Week: Soulshine Traveler

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If you are looking for adventurous inspiration, Soulshine Traveler is a blog you should definitely check out.  Taking a year off from the corporate world starting last October, Meghan is traversing the globe on the roads less traveled and serving along the way. Currently she is in the small city of Yaroslavl, Russia with Cross-Cultural Solutions (a great international volunteer organization!) working in the community for the next two months.  I’ve only been onto this blog for about 2 weeks but here is what I love so far:

  1. Soulshine’s photos would make just about anyone want to go to Russia.  Unfortunately Russia is usually not on the top of someone’s travel bucket list but I think Meghan’s photos may just be the nudge someone would need to add it to the list. For example (wow, right?):     
  2. Each week on Soulshine Traveler, Meghan shares a variety of online resources she has stumbled upon pertaining to her interests, travel, other blogs, etc. Check out her most recent Dose of Soulshine – the Diary of Foreign Language Class Clown is a good one.
  3. Meghan is an excellent storyteller. I have never been to Russia, however, when I read her last post I could imagine myself in Yaroslavl. Her travel stories are a fond reminder of my own independent global adventures and are truly a delight to read.
  4. But what I think I love most I found out last night in a message from Meghan. She shared with me that she never studied abroad but that perhaps this year of traveling is making up for that.  I have so many students that think once college comes and goes, their chance at seeing the world is over.  I think Soulshine Traveler is indication that this simply is not true. It serves as a good reminder to me (and I hope you) that the world is only a decision away.

Abroad Blog of the Week: Fluent in 3 Months

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I came across Fluent in 3 Months this past week when a friend posted on his Facebook 29 Life Lesson in Traveling the World 8 Years Straight. The blogger, Benny, has been traversing the globe for (you guessed it!) 8 years and learning new languages along the way.  His blog is funny, insightful, and he brings in a variety of guest bloggers to spice it up.  I thoroughly enjoyed this Life Lessons list and think there is a lot to be appreciated from his experiences.  All 29 are pretty good but these were the ones that resonated with me the most:

1. Everyone everywhere basically wants the same thing

100% true

5. Seek out people with different beliefs and views of the world to yours and get to know their side of the story

It was actually at Emory University as a college student that I learned the value of this principle.  Having grown up in a sheltered suburb of Atlanta with little diversity, I started college incredibly closed-minded.  Surrounded and forced to interact with students who were of various faiths, sexual preferences, socio-economic statuses, and ethnicities, I finally was able to realized how really we are so similar and my role is to love, not judge.

15. Modern foreign culture does not have to satisfy your stereotypes

This one and number 5 go so hand-in-hand. I find it is so easy to stereotype other cultures and try to fit a whole county into a nice little box. Not only have I succumb to this abroad, but I’ve also been guilty here in the U.S. Think about the common stereotypes we have in the U.S.: people of certain ethnicities can’t drive; people from a certain country are here illegally; or this certain people group is lazy. If I take the time to get to know people, the likelihood that I will try to fit them into a box severely decreases. 

20. Wear sunscreen

Of course I have to agree with this one…my hubby is a dermatologist

23. Making new friends is easy and so is appreciating your current ones

This one reminded me of a recent experience.  I was at a wedding a few weeks ago by myself and the woman next to me befriended me.  We had little in common – I knew the bride, she knew the groom; we were probably 20 years apart in age; she’s a nurse, I’m a study abroad advisor; the list goes on.  But despite our differences, she saw a young woman on her own and decided to pull me in her circle. I cannot express how thankful I was. It made me really think about how I act when I am in the position of comfort.  Do I invite outsiders in, especially those of different cultures? I’m not as consistent as I would like…but I do hope to improve.

Abroad Blog of the Week: My Embassy Letters

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I love themes – theme parties, theme parks, and of course theme posts!  Since I can’t travel abroad right now, I enjoy living vicariously through others’ blogs as they galavant around the world.  Thus the theme – Abroad Blog of the Week!

Although I follow a good number of abroad blogs, not many have brought a smirk to my face like My Embassy Letters.  The blogger, Barbara, went to Jordan this past fall and though her blog is no longer active, it is still one of my favorites.  First, Barbara is extremely witty and brutally honest – both make her blog entertaining and worthy of being added to my Google Reader.  Second, I don’t know much about Jordan so I’ve learned a lot from reading My Embassy Letters and thoroughly enjoyed the stories of living with a Muslim Jordanian family.

But my favorite post is Barbara’s last with a list of thoughts on going home.  I connected with so many of these from my own study abroad experience, expect I think Barbara probably says them much more eloquently than I would have at age 21.  Anyway, here are some of my favorites:

  • You can’t run away from life.  Life follows you.  Sometimes you can put it on hold for a very short while, but it will still be there.

    This is not Barbara

  • In light of above, you can use struggle and hard times to get stronger.  Sometime you can feel yourself toughening up.
  • Maybe devices that save time and labor are not all they are cracked up to be.  There is a beauty in work.
  • Language is beautiful, and powerful.
  • All cultures have good and bad things about them; some should be loved, some should be scorned. America is not as bad as I thought it was when I left.
  • Sometimes I wonder if coming abroad teaches you more about a foreign place, or about the place you left.
  • There are too many problems to fix in the world, but we have to keep trying because there is no other option.

Thanks to Barbara and My Embassy Letters!