A year ago we sat in our Brookline apartment staring at a map of the world and plotted our extreme adventure of what we’ve now learned to call a ‘gap year’.  Being a big picture thinker this was the only way I could even grasp what we were about to set out to do.  Each night placing another push pin into a new exotic place we learned about during the day we came up with a rough itinerary.  One place that always made the top of my list was Africa.  I’ve always been drawn to uncharted territory and Africa presented itself with a world of unknown to me.  After having been here for six weeks it has over exceeded expectations of variety and we’ve only explored one country, Tanzania.  We’ve spent time in the hills (Mt. Kilimanjaro and Lengai), the highlands (and depressions of volcanic craters), the expansive sky of the Serengeti and pristine beaches of the Swahili coast. 
  One of the highlights of this portion of our trip was to be able to spend a month with my mother and we kicked off that time with a two week safari.  The animal’s performed as expected,  exceptionally well - to be able to join their world without iinfringing on their lives was truly amazing.  You just don’t see giraffes walking down Comm Ave.  It’s hard to imagine this becoming a bore for someone that’s lived here their whole life as we order our guide to stop the truck at the first sighting of zebras and impalas.  It’s a little clique to say our safari was a dream come true but it’s the only way to describe my stunned expression that lasted the entire two weeks.
  In comparison our trip up Kilimanjaro wasn’t even a desire until the morning we reached its summit.  I’m always willing and normally able for a new adventure but climbing Kilimanjaro wasn’t ever a life long dream or goal.  The enormity did however shock me as I witnessed the sun slowly shed light on all of Africa after climbing straight up hill for six and half hours in the darkness of this mountain.  Ryan’s most memorable quote from the journey came from the depths of altitude disorientation with such clarity, “how could they ever have thought the world was flat?”   We’d decided on a route and a guide in Arusha two days before we left and set out on the biggest mental test of our lives without ever questioning our gear, physical ability, or purpose.
  After safari my mother wouldn’t stop hounding us for a little beach time (easiest to blame it on her) so we followed up game drives and a rather grueling attempt at summiting an active volcano in the pouring rain, with one of Tanzania’s best kept secrets, Mafia Island.  I have a wise older brother that has pointed out the strong similarities between my mother and I and one that I’ve seriously developed is my draw to the water.  The water of the Swahili coast is the color of glacier ice but the temperature of a warm bath, wouldn’t you be drawn as well? 
  Having hit the tri-fecta of Tanzania we again realize that we haven’t really seen Africa but rather tasted a fragment of something much bigger and need to return.

With only a little over a week left before we had a flight out of Bangkok we decided to make the most out of our Thailand time. We were able to visit with some family friends, take a Thai cooking class, rent a moto bike for a Pai excursion (one of the most chill places on Earth) but the highlight for this chick was the day we spent as elephant owners. This is no elephant in a zoo or on television, this is your own personal elephant that you get to take care of for the whole day. It's a big job to care for an elephant. The day started with us checking to make sure they were healthy by inspecting their droppings to make sure it was moist enough and they were drinking enough water, their toe nails to make sure they're sweating and checking for dirt on their sides to make sure they laid down to sleep the previous night. Then we took them in the stream to scrub them up, they get baths everyday. After that we climbed up and rode them out to the river where they all took a swim and we jumped in too. It was so amazing! I've always felt that these animals are so large and graceful but also so untouchable, this experience brought us closer to them in an unthinkable way.