by Kyra Riste-Pater It started with an offer I couldn’t refuse. My friend Tina invited me to St. Thomas for a last hurrah at her parents’ exclusive villa, which they were planning on selling soon. Our biggest obstacle was Hurricane Dennis, which was set to rampage the Caribbean. I was determined to go, but Tina…
by Callie Silver and Stephanie Block When actress and activist Angie Ruiz is not rubbing elbows with the likes of Richard Gere, she opts to explore the Egyptian pyramids and to volunteer in East Africa. An officer, a gentleman, and King Tut? Why not! Angie makes it a point to imprint the world with her…
by Katherine Losse I ended up in Australia by mistake. I was supposed to go to London for the semester, but due to some anonymous, last-minute bureaucratic incompetence, I ended up bound for Sydney instead. I told myself I was game for anything…right? Arriving in Sydney I boarded the plane to Sydney with a backpack…
by Nancy Davis Kho I was a college exchange student studying in Vienna, and had planned to meet an American friend in Florence so we could explore Italy together during Spring Break. But when I reached Florence I got word that due to a boat strike, my friend was stranded on an idyllic island in…
by C.J. Weshinskey National Geographic hosted a seminar in Paris, the focus of which was photography and travel, my two favorite things. I had always wanted to see Paris: the romance, the mouth-watering delicacies, the architecture. Before my father-in-law died, he told me, “Everyone should see Paris at least once.” And I was going. I…
by Gayle Mak Tokyo has one of the densest, if not the densest, subway systems in the world. An estimated two million people a day pass through the city’s main Shinjuku Station—which, with its labyrinth-like network of underground tunnels and shops, is possibly the liveliest in Tokyo. Taking the chikatetsu, or subway, is a fascinating…
by Mary Sanford I am having dinner tonight in Fremont (a Seattle neighborhood nicknamed “the Center of the Universe”) at the 35th Street Bistro with a group of local forty-something singles. I order the fresh halibut, which comes topped with a stunning rhubarb concoction and a side of fresh asparagus spears. Our group sits at…