Sore Feet Saturday, September 2, 2017: Tel Aviv, Jaffa Shalom! Here we are in Tel Aviv, Israel. Our feet have carried us for 29 hours in this exotic city. My first impressions of this land: The sand is hot, the sun brilliant, the skin leather. I feel as if our foreign presence is obvious. We....
RADICAL EUROPE: The Journey Home
We arrived in Berlin on Sunday evening聽and began our city exploration the following morning. During our time in Berlin, we visited Wittenberg to see the home and church of Martin Luther. However, more important than the places we visited is the idea of the Cross Cultural program itself. On our final night in Berlin, we....
RADICAL EUROPE: Free Travel Explorations
Free travel has been the part of this cross cultural I have been so excited for since before we left! Three of my peers and I were originally going to go to Geneva, Switzerland, but there were a sudden change of plans. So, we decided to go to Lyon, France for our 3.5 days. We....
NAVAJO NATION: Homestays
Our cross-cultural (CC) group split into three smaller groups for five-night homestays with local Din茅 (Navajo) families on the reservation. All three homestays were in Leupp, which is a very small town near the reservation border. My group consisted of six guys who stayed in a modernized off-grid hogan. Hogans were a traditional round housing....
BOLIVIA: That language barrier can’t stop this: we keep making new friends
RADICAL EUROPE: And Up the Alps We Go
Since we’ve arrived in Europe we’ve caught glimpses of some mountains. The more we’ve traveled, the more of them we’ve seen. I’ve grown up around mountains, and I’m quite familiar with them, but the Alps are an entirely different story. At the bottom you’re hot and burning up in the 80 degree weather, but you’re....
RADICAL EUROPE: Cross-Cultural: Extreme Follow the Leader
As a child, I played follow the leader. I mimicked the actions of others for fun. As a college student, I find myself in a very similar situation. This cross cultural is an extreme game of follow the leader. Our leaders, Kim and Seth, model how to function in contemporary Europe. They guide us through....
Reflections on Life in Europe
I started off this cross cultural thinking that I had a leg up because I had traveled out of the country to Europe before, but I was sadly mistaken. Last time I was with my group of 20 something people carrying huge suitcases and matching backpacks, moving like a herd through towns with a tour....
Week Two: Vienna
Ilse Friesen has been a great connection for us here in Vienna. Because of her, I feel like we have been able to immerse ourselves more into the culture than we would have otherwise. On Sunday, she invited us to her apartment for a proper cup of Viennese coffee and tea. It was great for....
NAVAJO NATION: from our visit to the STAR (Service To All Relations) charter school
STAR (starschool.org) Today was a wonderful experience at the STAR school. My favorite part was playing basketball with all of the kids. I was blown away by how well they got along with one another in the game. Joe, Kyle, Griffin, and I talked about how all the kids were extremely close and have an....