Attempts to not be a tourist.

Important Topic #1:
Isn't the world beautiful?

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=4HqcjgJCDuw

Important Topic #2:
16 Days until South Korea!!
Possibly even 15 if I have to ship out a night earlier in order to make it to orientation on time, (which I don't mind in the slightest, extra night in the beautiful San Francisco, heck yes!) :D

So on that note, I got a program manual for my upcoming trip and I'm getting even more excited than I thought humanly possible. It included a long list of tips for this trip, ex:

• Rigid guidelines to follow for our U.S. military arranged DMZ tour (eek!).
• Apparently S. Koreans aren't very fond of toilet paper in public bathrooms and we are supposed to carry it around with us wherever we go?
• Multiple ettiquette rules that we have to follow while at our homestay (note to self: must study to ensure I don't make Americans look like asses)
• And one that I'm most excited about is that they recommend bringing presents to our host families, so I'm going to try and gather some pictures from home & maybe something cute and Minnesotaish as a nice memory.
  Any suggestions would be much appreciated :)
  
  In the meantime I have three brutal mid-terms coming up so I'm off to live at the library till Thursday night and then am excited to spend a trip home w/ the family this weekend, watching my dad race his 20th Birkebeiner & celebrating my sister's 25th birthday!
  
  Over & out. P.S. Amy has been helping me practice :)

Holy Grail of Internships.

H'okay. So. I discovered this Travel Internship online just a few days ago and let me tell you, it was love at first sight for me.
88 days. 8 countries. 6 continents. Getting paid to travel, film and photograph everything you see.
Pinch me I'm dreaming right?
NO SERIOUSLY. IT'S REAL.

The catch you ask? It is probably the most competitive job in the world. To apply you compete with about 700 other applicants by submitting two different videos of your travel experiences, camera abilities and basically why you rock. It's a long shot, but seriously? What have I got to lose? I decided I'm going to apply 2-3 years from now and in the meantime continue to use my camera obsessively like I always do and get better acquainted with my video camera to start filming my entry video.
Check it ouuutt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8cwnRPhhBU

P.S. I feel entries are boring without photographs so here you go:Whistler, BC - Canada
The World...
Takes. My. Breath. Away.

A first of many...

Hey guys! So I decided to start putting a blog together just as a cool way to document travels and update people when I'm abroad (whenever possible). My next trip is coming up in 23 days to Seoul, South Korea and I'm BEYOND excited. If you're curious, here's a bit more info. on the program I'm going with:

http://www.ciee.org/southkorea/

I also have a European excursion to look forward to this summer! I'll be taking a photography course in Barcelona w/ my school from May 9th - May 23rd, and then after that staying on w/ my best friend since age 4: Jenna Johnston and eurorailing through France, Luxembourg, The Netherlands & Germany from May 23rd - 28th, visiting a friend of mine in Denmark for 5 days and then staying in Ireland with family until our departure back to good ol' Minnesota on June 7th!

Keep checking back here for travel updates, photos & videos! :)