Traveling the world

“Last summer, I went to China on a service trip with my sister.  I volunteered at a panda conservation camp. I helped clean out their cages and I fed them too. We also went up to a mountain to learn more about the culture. We said Chinese prayers while using traditional flags and the experience was amazing. While I liked taking care of the pandas, I didn’t really like the country itself. It was fine for the first week, but then it got to be boring as I was there for almost a month. The pollution was probably the worst. The people were nice, but they always skipped us in lines. On the streets, there’s no respect as you would see here. People would always spit on us and push us. Most were nice, but there were also many mean people. Also, I went to South Africa, over winter break. We went swimming with sharks and also went on a safari. The best part of going there was seeing all the animals. We got to see a lion eating its prey. And, we got to see a bunch of elephants from up close too.” (Tali Starrett, sophomore)