Krissy's Travels

Krissy. Senior. Grove City College. kinkajou505

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finally going through my pictures from my two weeks in the Dominican Republic… I’m only like 2 months behind, not bad right?

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Almost time

I’m up in Butler PA just north of Pittsburgh for the night. Tomorrow we leave for the airport before the crack of dawn… Approximately 3am! I know that a lot awaits me in the Dominican Republic and I’m so excited! While this is my first international mission trip, I’m pretty psyched rather than nervous. I’ve been on mission trips before and I’ve been abroad before and I’ve heard so many wonderful and amazing things about the DR and MGM - the mission group that’s hosting us! In too few hours I’ll be up again and off to adventure and serve! Not sure what I’ll be able to update - check out our group Facebook page if you’re wondering. www.facebook.com/gccicodr2014 I’ll be posting at least one of the updates :)

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I'm going to the Dominican Republic!

Joining 28 or so students from Grove City to help Meeting God in Missions in Hato Mayor.

January 5th-19th

I'm fully funded through the wonderful support of friends and family. I over-achieved my goals and all the extra money goes to fund more of my teammates and the mission organization. YAY

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reflections (2)

I left this final reflection completely blank in my drafts folder...

seeing as my class is fully over and trip long done with i really have nothing more to add 

new name for this tumblog - Krissy's Travels.

who knows if i'll post anything more ever. maybe

sorry. bye

[krissystravels-blog]

reflections (1)

This trip was amazing in so many ways and I wouldn't hesitate one second if I had the money and the chance to go back.

While we experienced a different culture and amazing vistas one of the main purpose of our trip was to learn.

At Grove City College everyone, no matter their major is required to take the class Science Faith and Technology. I wasn't particularly psyched about this prospect because I'd felt like I'd already been exposed to many of the issues and debates on the topic because I am a Biology major at a Christian college... So when this opportunity to travel for the class as well as have altered assignments (namely no paper - but hey, a blog!) I was all for it.

And while I don't think much has changed in my ultimate opinion there are many many things I got out of this class.

For one I absolutely loved one of the books that was required reading - The Language of God by Francis Collins. It was extremely well written and well thought out. Francis Collins presents ideas that I'd had at some point or another and synthesizes a perspective similar to theistic evolution called BioLogos that makes magnificent sense to me, personally. Reading those sections, there was just something that clicked for me and made my perspective feel so much more valid than it had whenever I attempted to explain it to others - evolutionist or creationist alike.

This was the only required book that I read cover to cover voluntarily (we only had to read certain sections of most books) over the past summer and thoroughly enjoyed.

It had great implications for me in this fall semester as well, as I took Advanced Genetics and Biology Contemporary topics which both touched on some aspects of evolutionary biology and in genetics we discussed the Human Genome Project - which Francis Collins was in charge of for a long time.

The biggest thing for me was legitimate validation of a perspective I have come to understand myself and validation from a well known scientist that stepped out to say what he believed and how there really was no conflict or turmoil necessary between creation and evolution.

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Day 10

January 17th, 2013

We had a super duper early morning flight out of Quito this morning - our gate wasn't even open for us to sit in for like the first hour after we got through security.

I got a couple final purchases from the airport; pretty much all chocolates, which I am super excited about! There was a cute and strange chess set that we spotted too - it was Incans versus Conquistadors!

The mountains appeared on fire as the sun rose before boarding our flight - wishing us a fond farewell from Quito

Uneventful flight into Houston and a ridiculously long 5+ hour layover until our flight to Pittsburgh. Got into Pittsburgh on time and our bags had gotten there first - why couldn't we have snagged that earlier flight?

Drove back to GCC, getting just a tad lost/turned around on the way back for good measure. Collapsed on my bed in my dorm room thinking about how I needed to leave for home the next morning before noon if possible. The 5 hour drive turned out to be worth it for a little weekend with my parents, boyfriend and favorite small children before the grind of the new semester started afresh...

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Day 9

January 16th, 2013

another morning, a goodbye from our pool deck animal friends

a short walk in the drizzle to see the ginormous volcanic craters in the middle of Santa Cruz

Plane ride back to Guayaquil and then onwards to Quito

A traditional and classy Ecuadorian meal with musical serenades by Hispanic and Native American groups

a bit of sleep before heading out at like 3am or something ridiculously early

while I enjoyed the evening I would have preferred to have compacted all of our travel as much into one day as possible... once we were done with the Islands and didn't have any major exciting plans left I just wanted to be home, even if that meant spending more than half a day on a plane. For me, personally, it would have been preferable to having downtime in the afternoon/evening and such a disgustingly early flight out the next day...

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food #2

we had a lot of fish, but a lot of variety and new things to try as well

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Lots of delicous food was eaten on this trip :)

YUM YUM YUM

Delicioso!

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day 8 - leaving Isabella

Jan 15th, 2013

As we left the Island of Isabela it was quite a gorgeous day and so many animals were out enjoying it with us. This anchored boat was somewhat Noah's Ark-esc  in that is had a pelican who looked like he might be in charge and several sea lions also aboard, yet no human inhabitants.

We also had a glimpse of several sea turtles mating. not quite as awkward in the auditory division as tortoises but they did look a bit silly, especially when the male seemed to slip off his mate's shell and couldn't balance again, like a person attempting to get back on a raft or inner tube, but failing miserably. I can imagine many things that would be more difficult with a shell... balancing on a mate's back is definitely now at the top of that list.

The boat ride back to Santa Cruz wasn't too bad, we were all just dead tired from so much going on today! What a great way to finish out our island excursions :)

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day 8 - cont'd

Jan 15th, 2013

On the dock waiting for our taxi out to our main boat and then heading out to Puerto Ayora again, we caught sight of some extremely playful sea lions - seems like they had finally gotten enough rest or gotten hungry enough to actually chase some fish rather than laze about on the boats, docks and beaches. One silly and curious sea lion kept jumping up to see what was in this barge and get in/on it. He was pretty entertaining.

My good man, mister Pelican was also very intent on the late afternoon fish that the sea lions were stirring up. He kept his distance for a while but then saw the perfect opportunity to swoop down from his lookout over the dock and snag a mouthful of the tasty morsels.

We were just about to leave, being summoned to get on the boats, when I chose to say a small prayer and cross my fingers that we'd get a treat of seeing a penguin on our way out. And literally RIGHT THEN, a penguin swam up next to the pier. It was just magnificent :) He poked his head up, swam a bit on the surface, then dove in for his share of the the little fishies snacks. It was absolutely perfect to see him right before we headed out. [though now that I got my first glimpse of wild penguin I'm itching a bit to go see his lovely, yet much more southerly cousins...]

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day 8 - cont'd

Jan 15th, 2013

We went to another tortoise breeding and research center on Isabela and this time actually caught some tortoises currently mating. Not quite a pretty site, or sound, but honestly, still quite fascinating to me. Apparently the male often has to chase the female around until he can finally corner her - can you picture that low speed chase?

There were of course some finches flitting around and this little gecko guy who seemed to keep a very close eye on all the baby tortoises - maybe he's a research center employee? Or maybe he's hoping to snag some free food and water from the little guys... yeah probably

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day 8 - cont'd

Jan 15th, 2013

Today was a day that had a lot of activities going on and different experiences on the island and I only realize just how busy we were when I'm posting these... Day 8 has had like 5 posts already and I'm only halfway through the day!

We went snorkeling in the main bay/harbor of Isabela and it was sweet, but not quite so super exciting as the other two times we went. Maybe because it wasn't such a novel experience anymore. I still totally enjoyed it and since the sun came out almost as soon as we got in the water it was refreshing and fun to explore and swim a bit.

We ate lunch and it was delicious fish and fresh lime again. Honestly, I haven't got tired of the seafood yet, despite its frequency in our meals this week!

After lunch we a a bus ride to two different locations to see some flamingos. I can't get over how crazy flamingo necks are - they just bend like pipe cleaners, or rubber bands, or balloon animals (something really bendy okay!). They're crazy sweet and really pink, plus some other birds were hanging out with them in their grotto

I finally saw a Male Frigate Bird with his red throat pouch blazing as he flew away from us, his paparazzi. It would have made my day to see him perch and puff up that pouch to attract the wandering eye of a passing female, but alas, he was a shy one and didn't quite want our attention at the very least. Then there was this ducky, he was all about showing off for my telephoto lens as he got clean - look at him practically walking on water, haha :)

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day 8 - cont'd

Jan 15th, 2013

So we hiked along in the the Lava fields and totally continued to meet some awesome creatures :)

Like this Marine Iguana being all awesome and serpentine in the water.

And this lava lizard showing off for my camera, acting like a little prince with an inferiority complex.

And this bright little yellow finch who was just too damn quick to get a super awesome pic so I'm pretty pleased with this view of his backside. The little yellow ones were a favorite of mine but for some reason that made them way harder to capture well.

And this other lizard who may or may not be helping the iguana by eating his shedding skin... like I think that's whats happening but I don't specifically remember.

Animals are just so awesome... have I mentioned I was in bionerd heaven being in the Galapagos? Its such an amazingly unique and wild place.

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day 8 - cont'd

Jan 15th, 2013

Isabela had some more unique features to it, at least compared to what we were already exposed to on the other islands. (they each just have different things about them that were cool or important)

We hiked around in a lava field that was a lot of 'A'a lava and home to many critters - Galapagos grass hoppers, white tipped sharks, lots of Marine Iguanas and more crabbies! The white tipped sharks liked to use the lagoon and some surrounding fissures as nursery areas to raise their pups. They were pretty sweet and we had seen the tails of some when we were snorkeling yesterday, but it was cool to see them close up yet separate a bit ;) The first crab pictured here is not really a crab but a crab's discarded shell - they shed their exoskeletons just like insects do or like snakes shed their skin - so it seems like its a dead crab, but there's no festering meat in it or much harm to the shell itself. SUPER COOL! The other crab pictured is indeed alive, I just absolutely love his coloring and the contrast with the green sea plants all around him; oops, my artistic photog side is showing...

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day 8

January 15th, 2013

We started the day off with a good breakfast the same as day 6, with a couple animal friend on the pool deck - a sea lion just chillaxing and a heron that seemed perplexed by the lack of fish in the swimming pool.

Then we had a ride on the same boat and with the same guide as day 6,  but to a different island Isabela. It was an hour or more - I'm not entirely sure how long because I fell asleep, repeatedly... Dr. Graham actually complimented me on my innate ability to fall asleep in practically any circumstance and he wasn't even partially offended when I mentioned how I had slept in his freshman Huma 101 class ;)

Isabela has a fairly shallow area by the docks so we anchored out deeper and were taxied onto shore on the flat bottomed boats. It wasn't initially very nice weather when we landed on Isabela, a misty drizzle was upon us, but there were still lots of animals out, like this eagle ray swimming in the shallows and this sea lion pup nursing and sleeping on a taxi boat.

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day 7 - cont'd

Jan 14th, 2013

At the top of the peak of Bartolome we got the treat of a Galapagos hawk landing on the rocks to look out from some prey and preen. I thought he/she was pretty cool and it didn't seem the least bit bothered by us or the other tour groups traipsing up near its post.

Later on the beach after snorkeling there were bird tracks and sea turtle nests YAY. and since we didn't get to see any baby turtles of our own some members of the group build a sand turtle :) We were also graced with the presence of a stalking heron and a basking sea lion before we left the beach for lunch on the boat and our trip back to Santa Cruz.

I was disappointed that we didn't get to see any land iguanas - they aren't supposed to be on this island naturally but the guide said that there were some introduced on accident- but more importantly no penguins... I guess I'll have to hope and pray for my last chance of seeing them tomorrow.

The boat ride back was magnificent. Lots of fun out on the bow getting splashed and discussing evolution and dispensing some of my bio knowledge when appropriate, then time relaxing in the cabin and stern before our return to port.