E-portfolio

Hello and welcome to my travel blog! I've included places I've been, fun things I want to do when traveling and places I want to visit while highlighting some of its history. In my e-portfolio are projects from Mcom 63, such as the banner, Indesign layout, and the website url. For the audio and video podcasts I did a mock Update News show. Enjoy!

Video Podcast


Banner



Indesign



Audio Podcast:

Website

7 Wonders

Landmarks all over the world attract people of all ages to visit. The Swiss corporation New7Wonders Foundation, the group that creates the "7 Wonders of the World," announced the winners after 7 years of campaigning and 100 million votes received. The world’s first-ever global vote was announced on July 7, 2007 (07.07.07) in Lisbon, Portugal. The show at the “Estadio da Luz,” (the stadium of light), was in front of an audience of 50,000 people and millions of television viewers throughout the world. The seven wonders below were the ones chosen out of the hundreds that were nominated. The Wonders of the World are constantly being updated. The newest list of 7 wonders will change in 2011.

Wonder
Great Wall of China, China


Petra, Jordan


Christ the Redeemer,Brazil


Machu Picchu, Peru


Chichen Itza, Mexico


Roman Colosseum, Italy


Taj Mahal, India


Great Pyramid (Honorary Candidate), Egypt



(Sources: http://www.destination360.com/asia/china/great-wall-of-china.php, http://www.iipt.org/worldpeacetravel/images/lost-city-petra-jordan-big.jpg, http://www.indiafolder.com/indian-monuments/img/Taj%20Mahal.jpg, http://www.ecotravelmexico.com/imagenes/RuinsChichenitza.jpg, http://dismanibus156.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/machu-picchu.jpg, http://www.ecotravelmexico.com/imagenes/RuinsChichenitza.jpg, http://www.ccahs.net/images/coliseum.jpg
http://www.hartransom.org/hart_ransom/7_wonders/7wonders_stewart/Christ_the_Redeemer-lge2.jpghttp://image30.webshots.com/
31/0/85/72/237708572lwAFVH_fs.jpg, http://blog.ratestogo.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/great-pyramid.jpg)

Africa

The continent of Africa provides so much to do for any vacation or business trip. The various activities make it a wondrous place to travel. Safaris are a popular tourist attraction, as well as camel trekks. If I visited Africa, I know would make sure to do both.





In 2010, the World Cup games will be held in South Africa and attract not only soccer fans but also other people who want to enjoy the experience.


There are 54 countries in Africa, including the island groups and the Western Sahara. So, each place to visit offers different stuff to do... the possibilities are endless.

(sources: http://followchingyin.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/helencamel.jpg, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qea24yjjYY, http://usoccers.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/logog2511_468x530.jpg)

Flying

Wherever my travels take me, there are certain things that I want to accomplish while I am out and about. One activity I definitely plan on doing in my life is sky diving. I'm actually going to put the tickets to go on this years Christmas list.

Keeping up with the in-the-air activities... I also want to take a ride on a hot air balloon. It would be a cool opportunity to be able to sight see from the aerial angle.

I also plan to zip line, also called, "flying fox," which a pulley is suspended on a cable put on an inline and using gravity, you traverse to the bottom of the incline. A lot of jungles in Costa Rica and South America offering zip lining. It looks like a really fun experience.

Through creating this, I've realized I might not be a land person after all because all of these actives involved being off the ground.
The great part about a lot of the places I want to travel to, offer these things to do. If not, they have other fun things to do which I am interested in trying.

(sources: http://www.christianpf.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/sky-dive.jpg,http://www.khanya.co.za/blogs/images/hot_air_balloon_lake.jpg, http://whitneymcd7.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/costa-rica-zip-line-small.jpg, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfM3x3yoRwA&feature=related)

Greece

The place I want to travel to most is Greece. Everything about this country is so fascinating that I want to not only travel there, but live there for a while and submerge myself in the culture. So, I plan to study abroad for the next academic year in Athens.

I will have a rich cultural experience in the birthplace of Western civilization.

There is so much to see and learn in Greece at any given time. The history throughout the country is something I look forward to learning about in the future.

The school has so much to offer, including a scuba diving program for which you receive physical education credits for.

Obviously, I love to travel so I will take advantage of the fact I will be in Europe and on weekends I plan to see the Greek Islands travel throughout other countries over Christmas break. As of now, I am counting down the days until I leave for my excursion!

(sources: http://odyssey.uindy.gr/index.htm, http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/images/europe/greece.jpg, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103744881)

London

A place full of history and culture, London is a wonderful place to hit up all sorts of attractions. From The London Eye, to palaces and pubs, there is always something to do. I visited two years ago and spent my time totally engrossed in everything the city had to offer. The great part is that it's a timeless city. I plan to travel there again in the future and can't wait to experience the city all over again. The endless museums, sites to see, and places to dine, London offer an enjoyable vacation as well an educational experience. Seeing Van Gogh master pieces and the crown jewels in person and learning about the king and queens of history was such a wonderful and unique opportunity.
(sources: my pictures)

Running of the Bulls

The annual Festival of San Fermin, known as Running of the Bulls, is 9 days in Pamplona, Spain from July 6th through the 14th. Six bulls are released from a corral then chase people in the streets in a sectioned off course. This festival is a tradition and is an exciting part of the Spanish culture. In just two months, the exciting pandemonium will begin.

(Source: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/07/running_with_the_bulls_in_pamp.html)

It is around an 800m course, but the runners get a 50m head start, and they lead the bulls to the bullring in Plaza de Toros. It became an official celebration of San Fermin in 1591, although it had been a tradition dating back centuries ago. This dangerous festival has claimed the lives of 14 people since 1910 and injuring between 200 to 300 people every year.
However, this celebration attracts tourists from everywhere to come participate.



(Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFKy6Ld9gU8)

Aurora Borealis

(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/karenlynn/62037112)


The Aurora Borealis, or the Northern Lights, are collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth's atmosphere at high speeds. They are seen in the magnetic poles at both southern and northern hemispheres. They are known as 'Aurora australis' in the south and as 'Aurora borealis' in the north. The lights are seen in the zone over the northern part of Scandinavia, southern part of Greenland, over Canada and Alaska, as well as the coast of Siberia. They show in shades of red, yellow, green, blue, and violent. The most common colors are pale green and pink. These lights are such a beautiful phenomenon that I look forward to one day witnessing.


Time-lapse display of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, in British Columbia, Canada.
(source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIXs6Sh0DKs)

Time-lapse display of the Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights
(source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icugqEEOgkg)

The Parthenon

This the ancient building lies on Acropolis, the hill above Athens, Greece. This building was constructed around 440 B.C. and was originally a temple to Athena, one of the Greek goddesses.
The architects were Iktinos and Kallikrates and the sculptor Pheidias (who made the massive chryselephantine cult statue of the goddess).
(source: http://www.plutonicdesign.com/eaw/images/EAW_parthenon_exterior1.jpg)

The Parthenon is a a large structure. It has a rectangular floor plan with a series of low steps on every side, and columns extending around the outside of the entire structure, or a Doric peripteral temple. The room, the naos, housed the cult statue and the other room, the opisthodomos was used as a treasury.

Here is a floor plan:
(source: http://academic.reed.edu/humanities/110Tech/Parthenon.html)

It was built to replace two earlier temples of Athena on the Acropolis. One of these stood south of the Parthenon and hardly has any remains left.

The other was on the same spot as the Parthenon and was being built during the time of the Persian sack in 480.

The Parthenon receives attention from archaeologists, historians, architects, painters and poets. Also, from many tourists who come to learn about the Greek culture architecture.

(source: http://kbagdanov.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/the-acropolis/)

(sources: http://www.sacredsites.com/europe/greece/parthenon.html,
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/The_Parthenon.html, http://kbagdanov.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/the-acropolis/)

Stonehenge

(source: my picture)

Stonehenge a national icon that stands in the Salisbury plain in Wiltshire, England, two miles west of the town of Amesbury. Archaeologists have said the stones were erected sometime between 2400-3000 BC. Stonehenge itself is managed by English Heritage and owned by the Crown, the surrounding land however, is owned by National Trust. No one is positive what the stones were created for, but theorists have concluded that the Druids, Greeks, Phoenicians, and Atlanteans may all have been involved. It is a landmark that attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the world. I visited Stonehenge is May 2007 and had a wonderful time. it was amazing to see this landmark in person. It is one of the many places in the world I have always wanted to go, and one of the many wonders.

(source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36pA0xTl1yg&feature=player_embedded)

Challenges and Opportunities

Blogging offers many challenges as well as opportunities. Learning the blogging capabilities is the first step. Once that's taken care of, a person can use blogging as a chance to share their thoughts, ideas, and work with others. There can be blogs for personal use as well as business. You can showcase your work and also inform others about what's going on. Blogging is a great opportunity for those interested in public relations, advertising, and journalism. Enhancing the means of communication is another pro to blogging.

The challenge bloggers face is to have people visit their blog. Many people might not blog themselves, but if a blogger can get those people to look at their own, then they can communicate to the masses. Another challenge of blogging is that is lacks accountability. Anyone can blog about anything and it might not be true. Unlike journalists, blogger don't have to tell the truth. This enables them the ability to say what they want.

Blogging allows people to communicate and share their thoughts and ideas creatively. Both the challenges and opportunites offer a person a chance to express themselves.