Blog #2 Hooray!

1)   1)   I travel because I love the thrill of gaining new knowledge and experiences. While reading the essay I found myself agreeing more and more with Pico Iyer. When people travel their imaginations wander and the thrill of new things makes us feel different than our norm, which is why I love to travel. I get to step outside of my everyday life and see new exciting things, which, in turn, makes me appreciate my home even more.

2)      2) I believe this quote is saying that the act of “discovery” is more than just seeing new places. You have to discover these new places with an open mind and heart and the “new eyes” are just that. You need to see things with more than one point of view to fully appreciate it. I believe this relates to me in the sense that when I travel I always try to find the beauty in everything I see but at the same time I don’t always try to see things from different perspectives.

3)     3) This quote means that unless travel has a certain aspect of fear that you don’t experience elsewhere it will not reach its true value to the traveler. I believe that this relates to my journey because I feel that experiencing fear during the trip I will come to appreciate the thrill of a foreign place more.

4)   4)   I wouldn’t necessarily say that whenever we travel somewhere we have to go and teach others about our culture and have them teach us about theirs. What we learn from traveling comes from the experiences we gain. Others learn from us by observation not always directly from us teaching.

5)     5) “Abroad is the place where we stay up late, follow impulse and find ourselves as wide open as when we are in love”

I think this is my favorite quote because I feel as if when something as happy as love in your life you really open up to all possibilities. When you are traveling you feel this sense of possibility and wonder just as when you experience love. This quote really seems like the truth to me. Being outside our normal life creates many feelings that are often experienced in love and discovering a new place in the world.

Blog1-RAWR! (''') o^^o (''')

My name is Jenny Chelcun and I am a junior at Grayslake Central. I have two sisters and a mom. My dad passed away from cancer in December of 2007. We are a very close family because of what we went through. Because of this I appreciate more and try to always live life to the fullest even though I struggle with staying focused. I love gymnastics even though I dont do it anymore. I don't play soccer anymore but I still love to play on my own time. Hockey and U.F.C. are really the only sports I like to watch on tv. Football confuses me and anything else I find boring. I play the bass clarinet in band at school. I love marching band and I hope to pursue music education after college. music and band got me through tough times and i don't want to ever let it leave my life. My favorite class in school is AP music theory and Band. I love to read books and escape reality whenever I have time. My favorite animals are ducks you might say that I'm obsessed. Also it is my dream to have a ferret. I like math and physics, but I'm not the best with English, and history is a happy medium. I like to learn. I love anime and anything Asian cultured. I love to laugh and have fun, and I'm really excited for this experience.

   

1) I signed up for this course because i have the personal belief that you should embrace opportunities because you never know what you'll end up regretting. Also Australia is one of my dream places to go and to see. I was recently in a leadership program where I was really pushed outside my box. Because of that experience I grew as a person and I hope to do the same thing here.I feel that this trip will truly be the experience of a lifetime.

2)I hope to learn about the cultures of another country. I also hope to learn more about myself and how different societies co-exist. I also hope to learn more about the process of traveling and why it makes such a big impact on me and others. I want to learn why travel seems so magical even though were all the same and live on the same planet. Travel is important to society because it helps different countries better understand each other, because of this I will be able to learn more about the world around me.

3)Australia interests me because of the beautiful geography and of course the opera house. Honestly i know nothing about New Zealand besides it is beautiful and many famous movies have been filmed there. So I'd like to learn anything from there. I am very curious about the wild life because it is different all over the world. I am most intrigued by these countries because of all the different cultures these seem the most similar to ours. Yet I know they will be different. I want to find those differences.

4)I feel that learning more about a destination before going there can make the place more exciting and interesting. If you know about something you can say "Hey i know about that!" which in my opinion is pretty cool. Also I believe that if you know more about a destination will make the trip go more smoothly in the sense that we will have a better sense of how to handle ourselves and we wont feel as lost as we would if we didn't know anything. Knowledge is sort of like a guide to travelers.