by Wanda Medina My first taste of the pura vida began on Playa Espadilla in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica. It was there that I was able to overcome one of my greatest fears and truly understand what I was made of. I had always been petrified of waves, and an incident in Mexico years ago…
by Gigi Ragland In June of 2004, the Tour de France occupied much of my thoughts. The race—on its ninety-first anniversary—marked Lance Armstrong’s bid for a record-breaking sixth consecutive win. That same year, I was training for a cycling tour of my own. Yet whereas the Tour de France consists of twenty stages of grueling…
by Jennifer Anthony A few months ago, I purchased a book entitled 101 Things to Do Before You Die by British author Richard Horne. Though morbid-sounding, it’s actually a fun, cheeky book that contains an array of must-do activities, ranging from the feasible (“read all the literature ‘classics’”) to the rather silly (“meet someone with…
by Jordan Smedberg When I’d first tell people I was going to Africa for two months by myself, their faces almost always twisted into an expression of horror and awe, as though they couldn’t quite decide whether I was stupid or courageous. Granted, my follow up comments: “You know, because it’s Africa,” or, “Nope, no…
Scotland always seemed so damned romantic to me. I used to daydream about honeymooning in some deserted Scottish castle with my fantasy Scottish husband, who would inevitably look like Sting, Bono, or Val Kilmer. The castle rooms would be lit with beeswax candles on huge carved candelabras, heated only by our passion and the roaring…
by Jennifer Anthony Skydiving is both a stimulating and terrifying little sport. It can also be very heated and sensual and leave one trembling from a combination of exhilaration and excitement that will forever be irrevocably intertwined. A part of me has always wondered what it would feel like to skydive. A very remote part….
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…