NEW WEBSITE: http://ecuadorandthegalapagos2010.webs.com/

HELLO!!! WELCOME TO MY PAGE!!!

I am quirky and awkward, but in a good way. I have lived in four states, three of which I love, one of which I have problems with. So I just moved from Center Valley, PA to undisclosed town, Georgia. And I hate to say it but I hate it here. Who knew parts of the US could be so different. I am definitely a different person than some of the people I go to school with. While they gossip and talk about other people, I rather go and just have fun before I have to go out in the real world, sometimes it is good to just let loose (not in that way I know what you are thinking, haha, I don't drink). But what I mean is just step out of your shell and show who you are, be yourself and have fun with it.

Anyway, I have a passion for Marine Biology and I plan to major in Marine Biology with a minor in film and photography. Then my dream is to go to Scripps Institute for Oceanography to get my graduate degree. I want to either work in studies to help preserve our marine wildlife (specifically coral reefs) or do underwater film and photography. Give me a camera and some water and I am good to go!

My life though was changed after I saw a great documentary, it won an oscar for best documentary. The Cove documents a small down in Japan were every year 23,000 dolphins are brutally killed. The meat is then sold, sometimes disguised as whale meat. It was even given to students in schools in Japan for awhile. Little do they know, that dolphins are filled with mercury and many people there don't realize it but they have mercury poisoning. That isn't even the half of it. Besides the fact that this is going on all over the world, this place in Japan also sells dolphins to places such as sea world and other places like it. In the great words of Rick O'Berry, the once host of flipper the tv show now and activist against dolphin captivity, "The dolphins smile is the worlds greatest deception." Dolphins do not belong in captivity along with other marine mammals. Dolphins are used to swimming up to 50miles a day in the open ocean. Not in a cramped fish tank. In fact places like sea world starve the dolphins only giving them food when they preform tricks correctly. Then we have the stress they go through. Dolphins have sonar, when they are in a tank, alone there sonar bounces off the glass walls confusing and stressing them. They you have the roar of cheering crowds shaking the tanks messing them up. If you were to go into a back room at a dolphin tank you would see medicine to stop stomach ulcers. Well could go on about this forever, it is something I feel very strong about.

So I traveled twice with people to people so far and my last trip will sadly be this summer. I wish I could become a leader but I don't plan on being a teacher. But I went to England and France on the Exploring England and France in 2008 and in 2009 I went to England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland (boy that was a lot). And finally (drum roll please) ECUADOR AND THE GALAPAGOS!!!! I am so excited words just can't explain, I mean come on its the Galapagos! HELLO TURTLES!!!!! Haha.

I definitley think that people to people has changed me for the better. I love every moment of every trip and would never change what happened. I learned so much and grew up as a person. I experienced things I may have never experienced in my lifetime. People to people has opened so many doors for me. Because of it I got accepted to go to Oxford, England over my spring break with my school. What can you say about something so amazing besides that it is amazing. People to people is by far the best thing that has ever happened in my life, besides the release of Harry Potter books, haha, jk, but no really the books are awesome! But I always remember coming home from a people to people trip and thinking to my self, "why couldn't I have found out about this in like 5th grade!?" I really truly wish I could have traveled more with this wonderful program and I think the Galapagos is going to be a great way to end my trips with people to people. But just because I stopped traveling with them will not mean I will never come back. I plan on staying on this website for a long time, helping new ambassadors over and over again.




"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace." - John Lennon