ταξιδιώτης

I've been so lucky to have traveled extensively throughout Europe thanks to my parents. My dad is from Detroit and he's basically willing to drive anywhere for hours on end as long as the family is all together in the car so we've done some really long journeys.

In the summer of 2011 after we had first moved to Stockholm for my dad's sabbatical here, we did a long car trip through France and Germany and Luxembourg, We dubbed it the "Cathedral Tour" because we just drove from one beautiful cathedral to the other. The car rides were great because we discussed so many different things as a family.

In 2012 we traveled to Athens and saw many of the ancient monuments. At the time I was in 4t grade and reading a lot of Rick Riordan so seeing the actual Palace of Athena and the Acropolis was so cool. That summer we went to the beautiful island of Skopelos in the Northern Sporades of Greece. My mom had spent every summer on Skopelos for 10 years in her youth in the late '80s early 90so. She wanted us to experience the magic of the island too. Back then when she was there it was a relatively unknown, quiet island. But once Mama Mia movie came out that was the end of that! But we found a beautiful retreat that a friend of hers had built and we were able to enjoy to exquisite Aegean Sea.

In 2014 we went up to Kiruna at the Arctic Circle and visited Absiko (68.3495° N, 18.8312° E) during a moonless weekend in January. It was one of my most amazing experiences ever.

In the 2015-2016 school year I lived in Montpellier France where I did 7th grade (half in French). They have a great system there: every 6 weeks they have a 2 week vacation so we got to travel a lot! One time in early October for my mom's birthday we hopped onto a train to Barcelona and spent the weekend there. Another time my dad drove us to Andorra, then down through Spain and back through all of southern France along the coast to Italy because my parents had a meeting in Florence. It was so amazing to drive through all those places I had heard and read about.

My travel goals have been put on hold with this pandemic but one day I hope to visit Antarctica by boat maybe as part of a marine science project. Next year I might travel to Japan with my dad who is giving a talk there. I really want to do Semester At Sea in the Pacific for my spring semester of my sophomore year because it's an opportunity to study marine science over a 3-month period. And the Pacific Ocean is a vast body of water that is very different from the Atlantic ocean and Baltic and Aegean Seas that I have experienced thus far. I would also really like to visit Bimini's Marine Science station so that I can experience SCUBA diving in nice warm clear waters of the Caribbean.