Zach's Reflections

This trip was a blast! I especially loved our last day in Malaysia where we went on a gondola ride up a mountain and walked across a sketchy bridge over a beautiful view. We then proceeded down the mountain to go on a 6-D roller coaster and went to a 3-d art museum, all followed up with a great lunch. This was just the 4th of july though. In Singapore, we got to see a merlion (half lion half mermaid) and do some great shopping, along with some spectacular food. Bhutan was also amazing and the fact that we are of few people to visit it just blows my mind. We did the famous tiger's nest monastery which was exuberant, even though the hike up there about killed me. We also got to see another retired fortress that has been turned into city hall and is huge. Bhutan also offered us a pretty lit-tastic tour guide and a very comfortably close to each other bus ride. I learned that the national sport of Bhutan is archery and we got to see them compete on their 145 meter course, very cool. After Bhutan we went to Malaysia and had so much more fun. My highlight of Malaysia besides the last day was the white water rafting with my amazing team and our tireless work ethic of saying, “stroke”, every single time we rowed down the river. Melvin, our tour guide, took us to a karaoke/dance party dinner after we went to monkey beach, and yes there were a lot of monkeys there. One of us even had an unwanted encounter with a jellyfish ̇cough ̇ Oscar ̇`cough˙˙ that was about 50 pounds. All around though I had a fantastic trip.

I want to give an appreciation to the teachers first who have taken me on almost all 4 of my trips, Mr. Brookhart has been there for it all but Mrs. Berry, and Mrs. Soto have been amazing the last 3 years. They took care of me when I was sick and checked on me frequently even when I was feeling better. I also want to appreciate Raymond who has helped plan all of these trips over the 4 years and done an amazing job. I also want to appreciate Dr. Conlin for telling me great stories of all his endeavors and being in a can-do attitude during all of our activities. I also appreciate all of the kids for making me laugh and swimming with me and having a great time and not complaining. And Alex Hofstadter of course for making me laugh and being a real joy to have around. And Flynn for being my roommate twice and being my partner for most of the activities. I had a fantastic trip.