Favorite Country & why |
|
| Hayes | New Zealand. Beautiful, friendly, educated, and relaxed. And everything works. |
| Rachel | New Zealand because the air was clean, the people were sane, and the land is striking. |
| Anika | I cannot name my favorite country, so many of them were so amazing, but here are my top 3.
1. New Zealand – The first place we went was New Zealand. It was amazing in so many ways. The air was clean, the people so nice, lots of animals, and I would most definitely recommend this to anyone and everyone who loves travel. This country was very easy to travel in for a family, and by yourself because it is western, but also because every place you can go there is amazing. You can’t do New Zealand wrong. 2. Spain – We stayed in Spain for 1 month. Most of the time was in Sevilla. I loved being able to walk everywhere I wanted to go, and get everything there. Part of why I loved Spain was the amazing houses we stayed in as well. 3. Kenya – The first day we were in Kenya we were in the city. This was the only time we were there. I love animals, and we went to a baby elephant orphanage, and a giraffe sanctuary, so this was very special to me. For the rest of the time, we were in the desert, on a safari, and I saw more animals there than I probably had in my whole life put together. I am not sure if I would recommend Kenya as a country altogether because I’ve seen so little of it, but it is still one of my favorites. A few honorable mentions: Israel – Isreal was smack in the middle of our year. This is my second favorite country for food, and also one of my favorites for the people, experiences, and the time I had there in general. France – I have been here twice in my life, both times to Paris. This one is on the list because my friend Sierra joined me, and we had a stellar time. Turkey – I was actually a little bit scared of going to Turkey. There are so many articles stating against Turkey, however, I was very pleasantly surprised. It had lovely weather, people, and the best ice cream ever! (Maras.) India – I am actually not listing this one because it is my favorite country. I loved the experiences there, but it was a bit too crowded and quick for me. This one is for the food. My favorite cuisine is Indian, through and through, and I loved the food there. Columbia – Christmas! This was one of the reasons I chose Cambodia. I did not love the country that much, but this holiday, along with the arrival of Ella, Matilda, and their parents is what made it onto the list. |
| Paloma | My favorite countries have been:
New Zealand – It is beautiful with hills and kind people, and they speak english! India – It is so different from anywhere I have ever been. People are malnourished, and unhealthy, but they still work and go to school as much as possible. The food is also amazing! It is colorful, and bustling, and I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed it until we left. Israel – The people are so kind, and are always coming up with new inventions. The food is also amazing, and I love the falafels and hummus. Kenya – We went on a safari and it was amazing! We saw so much wildlife, and I enjoyed driving around in the jeep seeing baby elephants and lions, and it was so vast so I could just enjoy the country without making small talk. Spain – I loved the food, and the people don’t bother to speak English with you, or even try. They like their language and aren’t about to go out of their way to speak someone else’s language. Also, the AirBnB we stayed in the first two weeks felt very much like a home, and I got used to it. I also love the jamon iberico and the manchego cheese with membrillo. |
Least Favorite Country & why |
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| Hayes | Mongolia. Amazing people, but it’s sort of a lost land without much there. I am quite glad we went to the Golden Eagle Festival, for no other reason than the photos are amazing. I also loved how connected people are with their land, horses and birds, and how trusting they were with complete strangers to share their animals, and even have us in their homes. It felt like a lost tradition of hospitality and trust. |
| Rachel | Egypt because I never felt completely safe. |
| Anika | Egypt – Not many of the countries this year were ones I didn’t love, however, Egypt did not fit this description. The people were nice, but the experience I had was not amazing. Since there is a war in one of the places we went, the government requires that when out, we had to have two bodyguards on us at all times. It is very uncomfortable to have people with a gun in their holster in your car, but also it was dry their, in the environment, and alot of what we did. I did really enjoy learning about the history and seeing the runes, however, so as this is my least favorite, I still loved it. |
| Paloma | Mongolia – Although I know I will never visit Mongolia again, it was interesting to see the combination of russian and chinese. It was too smokey everywhere we went, and every warm room smelled like I was sticking my head in a bag of coal. The air pollution is terrible, and it is way too cold!
Egypt – It was boring. There were too many people guarding us at all times and it felt unsafe just because of that. The feeling in the back of my mind that part of the country was being bombed as I peacefully walked down the beach, many miles away was unnerving. It was interesting to see ancient Egypt, and I liked seeing the carvings, but it was too much of the same things, and I didn’t find any of it very interesting. I did enjoy seeing the pyramids, but just because I had been hearing of them since I was 5. I enjoyed seeing the 4,000 year old mummies in the Cairo museum. |
Favorite Cooking Class & why |
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| Hayes | Vietnamese cooking on the rice paddies. Excellent food. Great teacher. Surprising to make the rice papers over the steaming pot ourselves, and I learned something about how to make bone broth soup (pho) by roasting the bones on the grill, and then rinsing them in boiling water before putting them in the stock pot. |
| Rachel | Panna Tiger reserve because the food was delicious and the cooks were so mellow and interesting. |
| Anika | My favorite cooking class was in Morocco. This was partly because our instructor was so kind and amazing at cooking, and also because the food was so good. The main reason why is because of the environment. We stayed at a towering castle of a house, her house, on the second floor. I shared a cozy little room with my sister, and we stayed there for three days, along with the woman who ran the cooking class and my parents. The kitchen was on the bottom floor, and that is where we cooked every day. Just a block away there was a market, and we got all of our yummy food there. Along with the homey environment, this amazing woman had a cat named Tiger. Tiger was the highlight of my time there. So this might not all be related to the cooking class, but those are the reasons why this was my favorite. |
| Paloma | I enjoyed…
The cooking demonstration in Sarai at Toria, India, mostly because the food was so good! The cooking class in Vietnam where we learned how to make rice noodles, a mixture of rice and water poured onto a cloth above a steamer, and then chopped.I also loved how they char the beef and vegetable before dunking them into boiling water for a few seconds to cleanse them. The cooking class in Jordan where we made an amazing rice dish, delicious appetizers and some Jordanian drinks. Morocco we stayed at a cooking school run by a british woman. We stayed in her home which I loved, and we shopped at the local market right outside of her house. We saw her favorite vendors and ate a goats head. (A little bit of hair in the meat!!) We learned how to make Moroccan dishes with the ingredient we had bought from the market. She taught us a little bit about Moroccan cuisine, but didn’t go on a rant about it. We also went to a goat farm where we played with baby goats and milked the goats. With the milk we made cheese which we combined with a Moroccan classic dish, a tagine. It was goat cheese and fresh herbs melted over the big fire. Israel – We did a Druze cooking class in Israel and we made stuffed zucchini (yum!!!) and for dessert we had the best dessert of the year. It was fried outside kind of like bread, and on the inside there were two options: a goat cheese and honey filling or a nut and cinnamon filling and they were both AMAZING! Colombia – We cooked with a michelin star chef who worked for Gordon Ramsey! We learned how to make a delicious fish soup and coconut rice, and we also got to make ceviche and learn how to break down a fish! |
Least Favorite Cooking Class & why |
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| Hayes | Egyptian Nile cruise. Not a class at all. Just “watch us cook now.” |
| Rachel | None were bad. |
| Anika | In Egypt we went on a cruise for 5 days. It was a very large boat, and very comfortable accommodations. |
| Paloma | Egypt – On the beach we had a very informal cooking class where we learned how to make pizza (which we already knew), french fries, and a delicious eggplant dish that was like a layered tomato lasagna.
Cape Town – We did a cooking class in a woman’s house which was fun, but it was mostly fried bread. We did go to the Persian spice store across the street which was awesome and I got powdered coconut milk. None of the cooking classes we went to were ‘bad’ but these were not my favorite ones. |
Favorite Food & why |
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| Hayes | Indian food is so delicious, and I enjoy veg food more now – and they are experts. |
| Rachel | Californian because it is comfort food. đ Also, I loved the purple potatoes of Hawaii, and all of the flavors of India and Israel. |
| Anika | India! – Indian food had just the right amount of spicy and sweet and salty. All of the components are there, and fit into just the right places. India is also by far the best place to be a vegetarian. All of the food that has meat is amazing, but the vegetarian options blow your mind. I am not a vegetarian myself, but in order of trying not to get sick, we didn’t eat meat there. The Indian restaurants I have went to at home are also good, but if you want to get the real deal, you have to go to India. |
| Paloma | Spain – I love the tapas! I love how there are legs of ham everywhere, and anywhere you go you can get some sliced off. I also love the combination of manchego and membrillo, a spanish favorite.
India – This may be my favorite cuisine of the year. I loved it because even if you got gas station food, it was still delicious. I love all of the spices and flavors. There is also no such thing as bad food. We had the airplane food and it was delicious! Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Palestine – I love the Mediterranean cuisine, and how there is a perfect combination of fried falafels and fresh tomato and cucumber salad. I also love the fresh hummus and tahini, and how you can go to a market in Jerusalem and watch the tahini you buy be pressed from the sesame seed. |
Least Favorite Food & why |
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| Hayes | Mongolian food – kinda heavy and boring. Egyptian desserts – waay too sweet |
| Rachel | There is not much food that I don’t like. |
| Anika | The worst food I have had this year is airplane food. From rotten strawberries to rock solid muffins, you can probably see why. There is usually at least one food that I like, and I usually eat most of it, even if it is bad.
A few honorable mentions: There are two airlines that I remember that had good food. One of them was Spice Air, and another one Qantas. Neither of them were stellar, but they were good enough. |
| Paloma | Mongolia! – Mongolian traditional foods are just fried bread, curdled cheese, salty milk, and rock hard cheese bricks. Every single traditional Mongolian food I tried was disgusting. |
Favorite Activity & why |
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| Hayes | Oooh, tough one. I loved hiking in Bhutan with Anika…beautiful and good bonding time with her. |
| Rachel | Safari in the Mara of Kenya and trekking on Maria Island in Tasmania. |
| Anika | I cannot name one activity, but my favorites were in New Zealand. From rolling down the hill in a human sized, water filled hamster ball, to cuddling sheep, I loved everything we did there. |
| Paloma | Cooking classes, seeing local village life, doing charity projects, playing with babies!!, and eating local food |
Least Favorite Activity & why |
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| Hayes | Nile cruise. Boring, felt a bit captive. Guides were mediocre. |
| Rachel | Visiting the Taj Mahal because the lines were long, the air was toxic, the temperature was squelching, and we had arrived late the night before only to wake very early for touring. |
| Anika | I have a few in mind, but over all, my least favorites were the ones where we didn’t do anything. Watching tiles be made is cool, but when you are slowly being roasted in the sun, and don’t get to do anything, it is a little bit disappointing. |
| Paloma | walking around cities. |
Favorite Hotel & why |
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| Hayes | Zhiwaling in Bhutan. So beautiful and peaceful. |
| Rachel | Boatshed in NZ and Zhiwa Ling in Bhutan. |
| Anika | My favorites are:
New Zealand: The Boat Shed on Waiheke Island. This accommodation was one of our firsts, and that may be part of why I loved it so much. But it was definitely also because of the nice beds, view, food, and very cute dog. It was so comfortable there, and I enjoyed it so much. New Zealand over all had awesome accommodations. I loved pretty much every place we stayed. My 2nd and 3rd in NZ are the Fiordland Lodge, especially for their dog Mazy, and Eden House for the lovely chocolate and room, however those are not in my favorites over all. Israel: The Arthur hotel. The Staff were amazing, the rooms clean, the location of the hotel great, but in my opinion, the best thing about The Arthur Hotel is the food. From hummus to cinnamon challah, this breakfast makes you fall in love with Israeli food, and makes you want to stay there forever. |
| Paloma | wildwood, nz – amazing cookies and super nice people, almost like grandparents
boatshed, nz – honeymoon place with amazing views vietnam – one by the river with nice people and yummy breakfasts israel – jerusalem had amazing breakfast and nice rooms spain – my favorite of the trip. it felt like a home peru – the nice one we stayed in with the tea tour and bear watching. the rooms were huge and nice. they had a private hot tub |
Least Favorite Hotel & why |
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| Hayes | The airport hotel in Cairo was a low point. We were ready to unwind, but it was cramped and not so clean. |
| Rachel | airport hotel of Delhi |
| Anika | I cannot choose. None of the hotels were actually bad. I either loved the hotels, or I liked them. |
| Paloma | the airport hotels everywhere – they are usually kind of dirty and not nice |
Favorite Apartment & why |
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| Hayes | Probably the first AirBnB in Seville – so peaceful to be there and relax, and the place was big, beautiful, and had a well equipped kitchen. The apartment in Queenstown was great too. |
| Rachel | Queenstown. Amazing view, ample space, large tv for watching Lord of the Rings, and great laundry machines. |
| Anika | My favorite apartment we stayed in was in Seville, Spain. We were there for two weeks, and it was amazing. As well as being in a safe neighborhood, and able to come and go as I wanted, we got the whole building, with it’s 3 stories to ourselves. With 5 bedrooms, and and 4 bathrooms, my family got 2 extra bedrooms, and each got a bathroom to ourselves, a luxury we never have. It was in the perfect location, and I could walk to everything. It was a cozy home, and though big, did not overwhelm me. I loved this Airbnb. |
| Paloma | seville, manly, cape town, because they had nice kitchens and they felt like real homes. |
Least Favorite Apartment & why |
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| Hayes | That flea infested place in Sydney, for sure. Awful hosts, and we got so bitten up. |
| Rachel | Manly. Bedbugs, fleas, broken heater, and a host who lacked integrity. |
| Anika | My least favorite was a Airbnb we stayed at was in Manley. This had amazing rooms, a great kitchen, a backyard to make slime, a laundry machine, and comfy couches. The flaw in this magnificence were the bugs and the owner. There were bed bugs, fleas, and wow did they itch. by the time I left I had at least 100 bites. It wouldn’t have been quite as bad if when we told the owner, he didn’t deny it. As well as not owning up to the bugs, he claimed we broke his already broken stuff, and therefore, had to pay for the damage we did not make. Luckily, Airbnb was very empathetic and kind, and helped us with our problems. |
| Paloma | israel tel aviv – location was nice and hotel was simple
barcelona – too big and it felt like unnecessary money, things were not in convenient places |
Favorite Airport & why |
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| Hayes | Beijing airport had that nice water feature with seats to do work. Peaceful, quiet, beautiful. |
| Rachel | Wellington in NZ. Spacious and clean. |
| Anika | My favorite airport is most definitely Sydney, or SYD. Along with great food options, comfortable seating and nice staff, you have easy security, and stocked up stores. The gates are very easy to get to, and there is either a store, a coffee shop, or a smoothie bar outside each of them. All over the airport there are tables with high chairs that you can sit at, and charge . your device in the provided outlets. There is also WiFi that works, and you can access it anywhere in the airport. If you leave something in any place of the airport, or on a airplane, they are also people you can put your trust into. I left my computer on the airplane once, and it was 15 minutes before I realized my mistake. I went back to the gate, and it was waiting for me. They handled it very responsibly. They made me give them my user name and information before they gave it back to me, to prevent people from stealing it. My dad’s credit card allows us access to at least one lounge at every airport we go to, but at SYD, we thought that it was so nice in the main area, that we sat there instead. |
| Paloma | geneva, all the airports with priority pass lounges |
Least Favorite Airport & why |
|
| Hayes | Not sure. Cairo was a blur, maybe not so great. |
| Rachel | Ulgii, Mongolia. No working toilet. |
| Anika | This is not my least favorite airport, but the place I had my worst experience. Here I was only with my mom, and it was our trip to London right before we left CA. We got into the airport, and everything was going smooth. When we got out, we had a taxi take us to a very nice hotel, and we had a awesome week. We were heading home on a Sunday, and it was a normal transition for the first part. The problem were the staff. Most of them were polite and kind as usual, but when we got to the baggage scanners, it sort of went downhill from there. We were only allowed to put one thing in each bin, and that was a little confusing for us. The problem was, the lady behind the counter was mean. She kept on yelling at us, and then when we still couldn’t get it, she marched up to us and did it for us. The bags went through, and we were relieved to get away. Then we got stopped. At the end of the line, a new lady (thank god) told my mom to open her bag. She opened it and did as the woman told. London is a fashion city. My mom bought a lot of new makeup and creams there, to bring back home. She took out all of her liquids, and laid them down. There aren’t the same rules as other airports. In this one, instead of not being able to have bottles over 3 ounces, but here, you just had to be able to fit everything inside of one small bag per person. My mom tried, but could only fit about half of her stuff. This woman was only doing her job, I knew that, but she was also being kind of mean about it. In the end, my mom had to throw away half her makeup. Our flight was leaving in 30 minutes, and already boarding, so we ran. To get to our terminal, we had to take the train. We arrived just as one was leaving. We got on the next one 6 minutes later, and took a 5 minute ride. When we got to the other side, we sprinted to the gate, which was pretty far away. We had given ourselves 3 hours of time. You are only supposed to come 2 hours in advance for a international, and usually have extra time still. We were the last people to board the plane, and it took off 3 minutes after we boarded. Nothing completely catastrophic happened, but it was a close call. |
| Paloma | the one in indonesia because we had to stay outside in the heat for two hours |
Favorite Airline & why |
|
| Hayes | Spice Air, on account of the surprisingly delicious veg Indian food that emerged from the tin-foil covered tinfoil tray. “Veg or non-veg?” they asked. Haha. Love it! |
| Rachel | All of them for getting me home safely |
| Anika | My favorite airline is Virgin Air, and their mixes. As well as great entertainment, their seating is comfortable, staff kind, and their first class is actually better than economy. |
| Paloma | bhutan air because we got emergency aisle with lots of legroom, qantas air because there was lots of space and pretty good food, and spicejet because the food was actually good! |
Least Favorite Airline & why |
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| Hayes | American is probably the worst, with old planes, no entertainment centers (even though I don’t use them anyway) and occasionally grough staff. |
| Rachel | Iberia nickels and dimes the customers. I wIsh the tickets had just cost more upfront. |
| Anika | There was this one budget airline in Asia, and I can’t remember what it was called, but I remember that the seating Was so small, you could barely fit your luggage through the aisle, and they were trying to fit as many people on the plane as possible. |
| Paloma | egyptair, iberia air, they were dirty with tiny seats |
Favorite Drink & why |
|
| Hayes | Fresh coconut water anywhere in SE Asia. Also, that choco-avocado smoothie at the roadside restaurant in Flores, Indonesia was amaaaaaazing. |
| Rachel | Clean, spring fresh water from New Zealand. |
| Anika | Water. I have drunk at least 1000 bottles of water with the help of my family this year, if not more. The bottled water is great, but my favorite was when we were in Switzerland. The tap water there came straight from the Swiss Alps, the same place Evian comes from. It was clean, germ free, and tasted amazing. |
| Paloma | The icy lemonade in colombia because it was soo hot and the ice cold colombian drink with some special red fruit and honey. |
Least Favorite Drink & why |
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| Hayes | That milk tea in Mongolia was not sooo bad – especially when paired with the equally bizarre cheese curds – but I don’t want to drink it again. At least I can now say I’ve had horse milk, camel milk, and yak milk. |
| Rachel | Camel milk. It’s probably an acquired taste. |
| Anika | Camel Milk. It wasn’t disgusting, but it needs a acquired taste. |
| Paloma | mongolian tea! It’s disgustingly salty |
Favorite Person we met & why |
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| Hayes | So nice to see Charlie and Gil, who made Rachel smile so much. I also have great memories of our guides in S. Africa and Zimbabwe, and especially liked Thabo in Johannesburg. |
| Rachel | Margaret in NZ was so generous and welcoming. |
| Anika | I loved everyone. One person I had in mind was A Muilder, just because she seemed so happy and content, and was my little 5 year old birthday treat. |
| Paloma | dick from mongolia, sofia from new zealand, hannah from australia, the other guy from mongolia whose name i can’t remember. |
Least Favorite Person we met & why |
|
| Hayes | Probably the airbnb hosts in Seattle and Sydney who lied to us. |
| Rachel | |
| Anika | Grumpy Paloma. She is mean, does stuff to tick me off, and tries to as well. |
| Paloma | |
Favorite Guide & why |
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| Hayes | Thabo (Johannesburg) was so honest, forthcoming, and engaging – especially with the kids. Ahmed (Jordan) was a warm and open guy who grew on me as the week progressed. |
| Rachel | We had many, many extraordinary guides. I can’t think of a favorite. |
| Anika | I cannot choose, so many were amazing. |
| Paloma | Australia brothers in tasmania because they did enough work with still letting us cook. peru guide, cambodia guide, mongolia guide, shlomi in israel, jordanian guide, south africa guide, |
Least Favorite Guide & why |
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| Hayes | The A+K guides in Egypt were not good. Especially the guy on the boat. The others meant well, but the dictatorial government and constant security patrol made it so they did not speak openly to us, so I felt we were too protected from reality there. |
| Rachel | Nile guide in Egypt. He seemed inauthentic, but to his credit, he tried hard and was always smiling. |
| Anika | This guide was very nice, knew a lot about the the history of Turkey, and I liked him, I did. The only thing was that he was so close minded. He was religious, and that was okay, but he thought everything was connected to god. It may not have helped that my family is so stubborn, but it was annoying and embarrassing to have a god/no god conversation. |
| Paloma | all of the guides in india treated us like we were a higher class and i don’t like that. |
Favorite Driver & why |
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| Hayes | Our quiet but helpful Indian driver was awesome. I like that he was Sikh and glowed at our appreciation of his religionâs approach to public service to the needy. |
| Rachel | Jordan. He was a complete neat freak. Cambodia. Probably because we were with the Haney-Foulds family it seemed like car time was always a party, |
| Anika | My dad. So many reasons why. |
| Paloma | our driver in peru, i can’t really remember the rest |
Least Favorite Driver & why |
|
| Hayes | None of them was truly awful, but I did get carsick a lot this year. |
| Rachel | na |
| Anika | A few years ago we went to Europe for a month during the summer, and we had just gotten out of the airport, and got into a taxi. There were four seats for us, but only three of them had seat belts. My sister got the seat that didn’t. I assume our driver was drunk. He could have and something else, but he drove like a mad man. It was horrible. |
| Paloma | na |
Favorite Community Service (school, service project) & Why |
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| Hayes | Although we didnât do much, I enjoyed visiting the Juanfe Foundation (Colombia) who helped teen mothers. And I enjoyed visiting project Soar (Morocco) who helps teens stay in school and be feminists. |
| Rachel | Biodigester in Zimbabwe. Actually, I have a long list here. We were very lucky to connect with SO many amazing people and organizations doing great work in their communities. There are a lot of inspirational people around the world. |
| Anika | When we got to build a bathroom wall for a school in India with me to we. We had gloves and basically just slapped on wet cement and rocks. It was really fun, and it made my day to know I was helping the community and also having fun. |
| Paloma | Me to We building a foundation, Bio-Digester in Zimbabwe, Seeing babies at the JuanFe foundation in Colombia |
Least Favorite Community Service (school, service project) & Why |
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| Hayes | Biogas was fun to do, but I felt not a good value in terms of social impact / $ spent. That tech is just too expensive, so I felt the impact / cost was too low. |
| Rachel | Kumbhalgarh, India broke my heart but the Me to We program is actually quite impressive. |
| Anika | |
| Paloma | na |
Favorite Type of Activity |
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| Hayes | Cooking Classes, Learning from Locals, Hiking |
| Rachel | Walking Tours, Learning from Locals, Hiking, Visiting Schools, Service Projects, Chillaxing (day at leisure) |
| Anika | Chillaxing (day at leisure) |
| Paloma | Cooking Classes, Learning from Locals, Fishing, Hiking, Visiting Schools, Service Projects, Chillaxing (day at leisure) |
Least Favorite Type of Activity |
|
| Hayes | Chillaxing (day at leisure) |
| Rachel | |
| Anika | Walking Tours |
| Paloma | |
Is There Anything Else? |
|
| Hayes | That’s it! |
| Rachel | Our ten months of traveling around the world was the most intense experience of my life. 8 am to 8pm of non-stop learning, exploring, traveling, helping, doing, and connecting. I learned that Paloma is the most positive person I have ever known, Hayes has more energy and drive than I knew plus he is an extraordinary father, and Anika has a deep love for animals and an amazing ability to lose herself in books. I missed routines and my pillow desperately and am so, so grateful we returned alive. The year felt a little like giving birth or taking a class that was way above my skill level. I am fundamentally changed and somewhat traumatized by the experience but also richer. Meeting people around the world was a humbling experience for me. I think it will take me a while to fully digest and process our experiences. |
| Anika | These are answers of what I can remember, or what is most true. Not everything is on here that is in my mind, so I am sorry that you do not have the complete version. |
| Paloma | Nope. |
