TravelBio

After the school year in China, and after traveling to England and Ireland, it would be nice to relax for awhile. I flew back to Ohio on the 21st of July, happy to be home and to see my family. I didn't have much time to unwind though, because on the 24th - a day after my birthday (28) - I was back in the skies. This time my parents, sister Anna, and I were all flying to Las Vegas! Vegas isn't exactly the first place that comes to mind when I think of destinations to go with my family, although it was a fun trip nonetheless. My parents aren't teetotalers, but they aren't wild late night people either (and I'm glad about that...who wants to party on the Strip with their 60-year-old mom?). So in other words, I expected the trip to be low key. It was laid back - we spent a good chunk of time exploring the strip, playing video poker, and hanging out in our room. We stayed at the Jockey Club, next to the Cosmopolitan, in an apartment with two bedrooms, a living sp...

My flight back to the States actually left from Dublin - I'd booked an award flight on American Airlines and the additional taxes out of London were $200 more, out of Manchester an extra $100 - so I figured why not make a stop in Ireland? Dublin has a reputation for good bars, live music, and late night fun - maybe too much, since room prices over the weekend were crazy expensive (I couldn't find a hotel for two nights less than 200 pounds, and Airbnb wasn't much better). So I ditched the weekend idea and booked an Airbnb apartment for the following Monday and Tuesday. Instead of flying directly to Dublin, I went Manchester to Belfast that Saturday, where Trevor and his mom met me at the airport. If you read my China posts his name might sound familiar; Trevor was the school's PE teacher and was home for the summer with his mom, who lives a town outside Belfast. She agreed to host me and even chauffeured us around the countryside Sunday. That Saturday when I ...

  The school year is nearly over; I feel like a kid again—yeah, summer break! The students will be in school until July 4 th , but I’m finished on the 29 th of June. So, what’s on the agenda? Earlier this year I had a bunch of different ideas in my head as to what I could do when my contract was finished. Maybe I’d travel in Eastern Europe. Maybe I’d have another job lined up. Maybe I’d visit home and then go traveling in the fall. I hadn’t given much thought to coming back for another school year, and when Sisley, my boss, asked me I initially said I wasn’t interested. Sisley even said I had the option of coming back for a semester, but by that point Mike had invited me to travel with him to India for a rickshaw race in January (more on that later), so I told Sisley I had plans at the beginning of 2017. She surprised me with an offer to stay through December, basically for the fall application season. This spring Joanna and I have also grown close, and I hoped that ...

  On our way to the holiday apartment we stopped for snacks and drinks at a local convenient store. As soon as I stepped out of the shuttle van and got smacked by a cloud of hot, humid air I was reminded just how far south we’d come; it was after midnight and the temperature was still close to 30 (over 80 Fahrenheit). After getting past the momentary heat shock, I looked around and noticed streetside food stalls, bright buildings, shirtless guys playing cards, and tanned skin—it seemed more like Vietnam than China to me. Streets of Sanya After the three day weekend for Labor Day in early May we had one more holiday before summer vacation: the Dragon Boat Festival. I’m still not sure what the holiday is for, but I ain’t complaining about an extra day off. Originally the vacation was scheduled from Thursday, June 9 th to Saturday the 11 th (then we’d be back for work on Sunday; those weird schedules again!). But as it turned out the main campus was hosting the Ch...