An American in Ned Kelly Country: Discovering the People’s Outlaw
Ask any American you encounter if he has ever heard of Ned Kelly, and you’ll likely be met with a blank stare. Well, almost any American.
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Ask any American you encounter if he has ever heard of Ned Kelly, and you’ll likely be met with a blank stare. Well, almost any American.
Whales!” someone shouted, and everyone on the boat jumped out of their seats. We strained our eyes to catch even the slightest glimpse of the magnificent beasts.
Recently my travels took me to the Big Apple where I was able to witness the wonderful spectacle that is “The Colbert Report.” Getting tickets is not as easy as you might think. The Twitter account Spiffomatic64 (I have no idea where the name comes from) gives you automatic updates on the tickets available for “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.” I kept the Twitter page open in my tabs and it still took me weeks to get a ticket. You have to act really fast because the tickets are free! But I finally succeeded in getting two tickets, one for me and one for my boyfriend for the night of Thursday, Sept. 27.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a column outlining a 5-day visit to Sydney, Australia, but I left out a key part of the experience: the bars! Like it or not, drinking is a pretty big part of Australian culture. So here’s a list of some of my favorite bars in Sydney.
Las Vegas. Sin City. Rack City. All of these names are more than appropriate. That’s because Las Vegas is not a single-faceted place. Are you surprised? Because I sure was.
Welcome back to school everyone! I hope you all got to do a bit of traveling this summer! I spent two months studying Travel Writing in Sydney, Australia. Appropriate, no?
After spending the majority of the semester talking about Asia, I want to shift gears and move to South America, specifically Ecuador. I spent about nine days in this beautiful country over winter break, although for the majority of that time I was on a boat in the Galapagos. My best friend, Christina and her boyfriend Austin who both go to Brown, were in Ecuador right after I left, and were able to give me the lowdown on their favorite parts of mainland Ecuador. Both Christina and Austin agree that their favorite part of Ecuador was a place called Banos, a tiny, somewhat touristy town in Central/Southern Ecuador that was filled with young, college-age travelers. Banos has lots of fun outdoorsy activities. You can go white water rafting, hiking, rock climbing, and even zip lining! The town is famous for its hot springs and beautiful waterfalls. Aside from the outdoor activities, there are also lots of bars and nightclubs and some really great restaurants. The capital of Ecuador is Quito. I spent a day there before getting on a boat to explore the Galapagos, and the old section of the city is quite charming. I was only able to visit a couple of churches and see the view of Quito from the top of a mountain next to a giant statue of the Virgin Mary (I didn't think the view was all that great, but Christina says that it was her favorite thing in Quito so I guess you'll just have to go and make a decision for yourself). Christina and Austin on the other hand spent a few days in Quito, and they told me about the best things to do on the weekends. During the day they had fun hanging out in the main square because there were tons of people around and lots of street performances to watch. For dinner they say you absolutely must go to an area called La Calle Ronda. On Friday and Saturday nights, officials block off the streets from cars and lots of restaurants on the first floors of people's homes open up. The ambiance is supposed to be great - lots of music, cobblestone streets, lots of locals and great local food. After my day in Quito, my family and I had to take two flights to get to the airport on San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos. When we finally arrived, we got on dinghies and were taken to our boat, La Pinta. My sister and I felt really seasick that first night, and I was worried that I was going to feel that way for the next seven days, but I woke up in the morning feeling fine (thank you Dramamine). Our schedule everyday on the boat was some variation of the following: a hike in the morning, snorkeling, then another hike in the afternoon. The islands were much bigger than I had expected, and I kept wondering to myself how Darwin had been able to notice the differences between the species on the different islands. He was clearly much more observant than I am. My favorite animals were the sea lions and the blue-footed boobies. We saw sea lions on basically every island that we visited, but they were just so adorable (especially the babies) that I was excited every time I saw them. One very unique feature of the Galapagos Islands is that the animals, by and large, are not afraid of people. This means that you can get really close to them and they won't run away (although they might try to attack you if you come too close to their young). Since I have never been in such close proximity to animals, I never realized just how complex their behavior could be. There are no words to describe the experience of snorkeling with sea lions. They would appear out of nowhere and then almost dance with you. It was incredible. The blue-footed boobies were great because they were just so funny looking. They are probably the second most famous bird associated with the Galapagos, after Darwin's finches. There were lots of other awesome animals in the Galapagos too. There were penguins, iguanas (they were funny because they would all pile on top of one another), frigate birds, sharks (yes I saw some while I was snorkeling, and no it surprisingly wasn't terrifying because they were swimming way below me and they weren't more than 5 feet long), turtles and orcas. Yes I said orcas. One of the most amazing experiences that we had was when we were in the dinghies on our way to a walk on one of the islands, when all of a sudden one of the guides spotted an orca. When even your guide, who sees most of these animals on a daily basis, gets excited, you know you are witnessing something extraordinary. All four of the dinghies (there were 40 people on our boat) rushed over to get closer to the killer whale. We followed that whale for a full hour and a half. It would appear above the water for a short time and then dive under, then resurface somewhere far away a few minutes later. One time the orca jumped out of the water just a few feet away from my dinghy and we all screamed at the top of our lungs. It was terrifying. We knew that if he had been just a couple of feet closer he would have capsized us. But after the initial terror had passed, I felt exhilarated. Despite my close encounter with the orca, I hope I have convinced you that Ecuador is a great place to visit. When it comes to the Galapagos Islands, the best way to see them is by staying on a boat, because the islands are pretty far apart and you would not be able to see many of the further away islands if you just tried to take day trips on a small boat. Hopkins offers an Intersession program in Ecuador and the Galapagos in which you get to visit both the islands and the rainforest. I have friends that have done this program and I highly recommend it. You'll never get the opportunity to take advantage of such a reasonably priced trip to the Galapagos again, so what are you waiting for? Sign up!
As promised, this week I will be talking to you about the Pearl of the Orient, otherwise known as the island of Penang in Malaysia. Penang is most famous for being the home of Georgetown, a small colonial city known for its charm and delicious street food. I was skeptical that a place could be so well known for its street food, because after all, how hard is it to fry something? But then I met an Australian woman on the plane who was traveling with her family and told me that whenever she is in Asia, she always flies over to Georgetown for the weekend, solely for the food. Well there you have it folks!
To continue on the Asia trend of the past couple weeks, this week I will be talking about Malaysia. Malaysia is the definition of multi-cultural. Though technically a Muslim country, Malaysia is made up of large numbers of Hindus, Buddhists and Christians. Sitting on the subway in Kuala Lumpur, the country's very modern capital city, you will find yourself sitting with an Indian woman wearing a sari, a Buddhist monk, a woman in a colorful headscarf and long dress and a teenage girl wearing a tank top and shorts. You are also very likely to see Arabian Gulf women in full abayas that cover everything except for their eyes. Many of these women are most likely vacationing with their husbands and sons to escape the often-smothering restrictions placed on daily activities by Arabian Gulf countries.
After being in Beijing, the capital of China, I was assuming that Hong Kong would be similar. Surely a country can't have cities that upstage the capital, right? Wrong. Hong Kong is an extremely modern city that reminds you of New York, except a bit cleaner. Unlike Beijing, there were no glaring signs that this was still a developing country. The people were all smartly dressed in Western high-fashion looks that you might see on the streets of Paris or London, and there were no rickshaws on the road.
If you want to see something truly indescribable, go to Machu Picchu in Peru. One of the seven wonders of the world, Machu Picchu is an Incan city that remained unknown to the Spanish conquistadors and to outsiders in general until it was "discovered" (I use this term loosely because the local people knew of its existence) by Yale professor Hiram Bingham in 1911.
This week I would like to talk about sophomore Bayly Winder's experience traveling to Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates, Israel and the Palestinian territories with the Ibrahim Leadership and Dialogue Project and Professor Steven David.
The News-Letter sat down with sophomore Richard Skelton to discuss his recent summer trip to Uganda through the international nonprofit organization, Building Tomorrow.
What's cheaper and more exciting than backpacking through Europe?
Looking for an exciting place to visit or study abroad? Look no further than the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (or just Jordan for short, but that's less fun to say).
As the 2010-2011 school year comes to a close, you may have noticed that the campus has been inundated with pre-frosh. They are the school’s current focus and will be joining us next fall, representing the face of this fine university.
It’s that time of the year again — spring has arrived in Baltimore! And while Spring Fair and the cherry blossoms have already come and gone, you still have a few months left to enjoy the new spring fashion trends for 2011. I have compiled a list of eight major trends of the season to try — be adventurous and have fun!
Over Spring Break, my family and I traveled to Spain, where I found inspiration for this latest column. Everyone knows that the Europeans are naturally fashionable, so I thought I would share some of the valuable new trends I observed.
So you’ve decided that you want to study abroad and the next question is, where?
Spring break is fast approaching and many of you are probably heading off to warm places, whether it be back home to Florida or California, or a trip with your friends to Mexico or Puerto Rico or to some far off exotic place with your family.