my name is CVCV CVCVCVC
today is june second two thousands thirteen
and i will be talking about travel
so my whole life our family has done a lot of travelingmy parents have never really bought us stuff
they would rather put their money towards experiences
so i've been to more countries than states and almost as many continents
so i'm very grateful for thatwhen i was in fifth grade
i don't remember if i was ten or elevenit's a little fuzzycause it was so long ago
but our family took a trip
our grandparents decided to take us on a trip down to the galapagos
which i think actually will be closed to tourism soon
which is unfortunate
cause it's so coolbut on the trip down there we joked that hey we visited texas
because we were in the airport
but my mom said it didn't countso whatever
but on our way down we stopped in the houston airport
and then we had another leg down to ecuador
and then from there we took a one hour flight out to the islands on this rickety plane that iwas convinced it was gonna fall out of the skybecause it was creaking as it was flying
and it was really freaky
but it was cool
we landed
and we didn't die
so it was ok
but when we got there
we all got loaded onto these little boats that took us to the main boat
i guess you could say
there were forty eight people
it wasn't really a cruise exactlycause when i think cruise
i think those big behemoth boats that are just ridiculous and hold a thousand people orsomethingbut there were forty eight of us
there were a few kids mostly adults mostly old peoplebut that was ok
cause i was young and i wanted to be friends with everybody
so i made friends with everybody
but when we got there
we were all exhausted
so we went to bed yada yada
the next day they took us ashore
and we went on a hikeand it was a lot of fun
and of course i got yelled atbecause i had the tendency to run ahead of everybody else and get lost
so they had to make sure i kept where i was supposed to
but one of the little girls she was about six
and she was really shy
but she got all excited
because there was someone who'd like to do active thingsand so she had her dad come up to me
he's like my daughter was wondering if you would be her friend
and i said oh yeah sure of course i'll be her friend
and so that was the start of a glorious one week relationshipit was awesome
we had a really good time
she was adorable
her and her family were from argentina
and so i was happy that i had a friend while i was there
because my brother is a little standoffish sometimes when he's with other peoplehe likes to pretend that we're not related
so it's okbut we get along sometimes
in any case there was also other set of siblings
and we spent a lot of time with them

they thought my brother and i were a little insane
cause we enjoyed jumping off the top of the boat
but that's alrightit was fun anyway
they were missing out on a good time
one of the things that i remember very clearly ironically cause it's about clear water but wasthat we would stand on the boat and we'd be in sixty to seventy foot deep water and you could
look straight down and see straight to the bottom
it was that clear
and it was amazing
you didn't actually get a lot of sunsets
while you were there
cause sunsets are created by the particles in the air blah blah blah
i'm getting my biology brain on again
but so while we were there
apparently we got really lucky
cause we got one sunset
and it was pretty spectacular
it was very very beautiful
another thing that was pretty awesome
because that's another great adjective
cause i don't know how to exactly describe it
but the animals there are not afraid of humans
because they haven't been conditioned to be afraid of humans per seand so you could basically walk up to the wildlife all of the wildlife
like you would get in the waterand the sea lions would swim to you
and they'd play with you
we have a video of my brother playing in the surf with one of the baby sea lions
it was so cooland when you snorkel
they would come up
and swim around you
while you were snorkeling through the waterand it was really coolon the other they have a tradition therethey have this old post office
it's not really a post office
but what you do is you go and you leave a card
you put your address
you write a little noteand then you go through all the ones that are there
and if you find one that is from where you live
you're supposed to take it
and then hand deliver it to the people that is addressed toso we left one
and we actually found one from there
which was cooli didn't deliver it
my parents did
but that was still fun
but we left one
and about a month later after we got home
we got it in the maila family in germany picked it up
and mailed it to us
and i think you missed the point of the experience
you're supposed to pick it up
but whatever it was ok
apparently there's a redman in germany which is where we live
and so they got all confused
but that's ok
we got our postcard backwhich was fun
a downside to the trip a little bit was that one of the guides who was there
he was best known for his penguin callthere're penguins in galapagos found the story
but he got kidney stones about halfway through the trip
and so they had to get him out of there really fastthat was unfortunate
cuz he was really nicei missed him

when he went
but while we were there
there was this guy who was taking a video of the trip and everything
and he made dvds for everybody
sometimes i still go backand watch it
and realize that i was a very awkward looking childbut that's ok
it was fun
i had this awesome pink bathing suit and with snorkels on
it made it awesome
but one of the other things that we did was we went to a wildlife preserve i think
and they had the last of his species
it was a giant tortoise lonely george
i think he just died a few years ago
but we got to visit him
and he was the last of his species
so he couldn't exactly make new baby lonely georgesthat didn't work that way unfortunately
but i'd say it was exciting
except for he didn't really moveso
as a ten year old it's a little hardwhen things aren't moving
cuz you want things to be excitingon the way back home unfortunately my mom actually my grandpa my mom and my dad andi all accidentally drank the wateron the way back we had managed to drink bottled water the whole time we were there
and then in the airport back we thought we were oki think my grandpa and my dad had ice in their drinks
and so we all got really really sickso the plane ride home was not a lot of fun
that's most of what i remember from that one
last summer i went on a school exchange to australia for three weeks
and i stayed with a family
while i was there

i know i went on my summer vacation to go to school for three extra weeks
but that's ok
it was still a lot of fun
and while i was there
it wasn't hard to adjust
but it was very very different there
you go to a new place
you're expecting oh the culture's really different obviously blah blah blahbut i'd never really been to a place
and lived with a family
or been with the locals i guess
to do what they do and see what they do
cuz when you go to a placeand my family's more of like we go to places and we're the tourist
which i wish wasn't as much of a thing
but sort of full places
so i didn't complain obviously
though i was there
i was sort of in the culture as opposed to watching it
and so i went to school with themand there were a lot of things that were very very different
most of what i noticed was at school
their school is a lot different than our school
and maybe i go to a odd school in terms of relationships with students and teachers
i'm very close with my teachers
but there it was a business relationshipthe teachers taught
and the students were supposed to pay attention
but they didn't
the girls i spent time with basically didn't do their homework everwhich was weird for me
because especially our class is sort of like let's do our homework and then somebecause we're just that over achieving
cuz it's hey it made me do my work
but that was hard for me to watch
because i'm like aren't you supposed to be doing thisbut we got there
and they didn't do their homework
they'd much rather be social
and be in bed by nine o'clock
and that's wasn't really something that i was used toso one of my biggest things was keeping my mouth shut about it
because i'm only there for three weeks
choose your battles
there were a lot of cultural things too that i was unfamiliar with
i'm sure they're here just in my small sheltered little community
we're all very open and everything
and so everyone's very accepting
and they're very can't think of the word right now
but anyone outside of their own little bubble
you're not white and australian
they make jokes about you
which was uncomfortable for me personallybecause i don't know our school is like everybody all in one place
and we're all pretty open about everything
so they would make a lot of slurs about things
which was me being all righteous
but it was hard for me not to say anything
and i probably should havebut i didn't
because there for three weeks
and i decided to be friends
instead of having oh that's the girl from america she doesn't approve of us or something likethat
which is probably good
because then the girl i stay with came and stayed with us for three weeks
so that'd been awkward oh hey that's the girl who doesn't like us maybe i don't wanna live withher
that would've been a problem
i actually got along with my host sister really welland she was really happy i was there
because she didn't quite agree with a lot of what her friends said eitherbecause she wishes
when she came to visit us at our school
she's like i wish i went to your school instead of mine because your guys are a lot more
accepting and you're actually interested in doing well in school and you're notthat was not a sentence
but in any case yes that was a very interesting experience for me
and yes that is my story