You do not have to have travel insurance purchased at this point in the trip process.
You can put down that you plan on purchasing insurance when you fill out the Insurance Letter form.
Remember that all trip paperwork and the $100 deposit check are due by 3pm this Friday.
Paperwork due 5/28
Written by Josh Seamon
Friday, 21 May 2010
The trip paperwork and $100 deposit are both due by Friday, 5/28 at 3pm. All materials should be handed off to Mr. Seamon in SV21.
The STJA admin group is meeting on 6/1 to approve trip participants. Only those people that have submitted paperwork and a deposit check will have their names submitted to the group for approval.
Payment Schedule
Written by Josh Seamon
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Everything that is currently known about the payment schedule for the 2010 trip to South East Asia is now online.
The Next Steps
Written by Josh Seamon
Friday, 14 May 2010
If you are interested in participating in next year's trip to South East Asia, here is what you need to do:
1) Make sure you have signed up for the email list.
3) Fill out and hand in all of the paperwork by Friday, May 28th.
4) Submit a deposit check for $100 made out to St. Johnsbury Academy by Friday, May 28th. This deposit will be fully refundable until September, 1.
5) Pay close attention to your email. Many important updates will be sent out in the next two weeks.
6) Talk the trip up to all your friends!
All paperwork and checks should be handed to Mr. Seamon in Severance 21 any time during conference period.
On the evening of May 28th I will be submitting the list of names to the Academy of all of the students who have submited their paperwork and deposit checks. The Academy will then vet each student for approval to participate in the trip. The vetting process should be complete by the second week in June at the latest.
If you have any questions please contact me (
) or Dr. Sayarath (
).
Next February break, Dr. Sayarath and Mr. Seamon will be leading a group of St. Johnsbury Academy students on a 17-day tour through Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. All trip information will be posted on this site.
There will be an important informational meeting on Thursday, 5/13 from 7-8pm in the Black Box. If you're interested in participating in the trip but cannot make the meeting, see Mr. Seamon or Dr. Sayarath.
If you are interested in participating in the trip or would just like to keep informed about trip updates, please fill sign up for the General Interest Email List.
Last Updated ( Friday, 14 May 2010 )
Peru Photos
Written by Josh Seamon
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
If you want to download a Peru picture: 1) Find the picture you want to download in the Peru Collection.
2) Go to the photo's individual page.. (Here is one.) 3) Click on the "All Sizes" button directly above the upper left corner of the photo.
4) Select the photo size you want to view/download. Your choices should be square, thumbnail, small, medium, original. 5) Click on "Download the _____ size" link located directly below the words "Available Sizes"
Feel free to download as many photos as you want this way. Once you
have the files you can bring them to any photo printing location and
make your own prints.
The largest photo size I uploaded to
Flickr should make decent 4x6 and 5x7 prints. Prints larger than that
should come out okay, but they won't be too sharp.
In order to help people easily purchase prints, I created an online store of the Peru Pictures right here.
I uploaded the highest quality versions of each picture that I have to
that gallery, so the prints will be as good as possible. You won't be
able to download the files from that gallery, but the site will handle
all sorts of photo and merchandise orders.
When you're looking in a gallery look for the "Buy" button in the upper right. Click on it and go from there.
Let me know if you have any questions,
Photos
Written by Josh Seamon
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Photos from the Peru 2009 trip can be found right here. I will be uploading more photos in the coming weeks.
3/4 and 3/5: A map and a journey
Written by Josh Seamon
Friday, 06 March 2009
Hello everyone,
Pre-Columbian Art. Peruvian beef medallions. 6am sprints in Miami. Back in the USA.
3/4 - 3/5
It took me more than a week, but I finally figured out that an added bonus to getting up early was that I'd get a very warm shower. After a bit more packing and sorting, I blasted out the latest email update and relaxed over another breakfast of toast, jam, tea, and juice. I watched the cars go by on the busy morning streets and knew I would miss Cuzco. I headed out into the city to complete a few errands and by 9:30 we were all gathered up in the lobby for our morning check in. After going over our plans for the day, and putting our bags in storage, we headed north west, through the main square and a couple blocks north to the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art (MAP). As was the case for 99% of our tour, the sun was out and there was no rain. (It CAN rain while the sun is out in Peru.)
By 9:50 we were in the MAP and the kids were set off to move at their own pace through the museum. The MAP is rated as one of the top 10 museums in the country, and after 10 minutes of being in the place, it was clear as to why. The place is fabulously arranged with gorgeous pieces from all over Peru. Pottery, stone work, gold, silver, and wood work was spread across around 10 rooms centered around a two story courtyard. At around 10:15 everyone had made it through and was lounging in the central courtyard soaking in the sun.
At 10:45 Karen and I went back tot he main square to meet up with Nevers for our lunch. Nevers was under the impression that it was going to be just the three of us at lunch. We walked him back to the MAP courtyward where we surprised him with a whole-group lunch at the MAP Cafe. Now, I know the name of the place sounds a little... touristy, but it is rated as the best place to eat in all of Cuzco. The entire restaurant is one glass room in the central MAP courtyard. We feasted on incredible dishes like shrimp ceviche, goat cheese salads, pesto stuff Peruvian chicken, beef medallions in red wine kinwa reduction, and creamy soup. We downed some more Inca cola, and then topped off the meal with a chocolate cake we had ordered for Nevers. During the meal we gave Nevers three gifts: A cropped picture of our entire group laying on a hill, signed by everyone -- a t-shirt labeled "Super Nevers" signed by all of us -- and a picture of all of us at Machu Picchu with our twop 12 Nevers moments written on the back. It was a fantastic party.
By 1pm we were stuffed past capacity and on or way back to the hotel. Back at the hotel the kids were set free for an hour to do last minute errands. At 2:30 our two busses showed up (one for our gear and one for us) and by 2:40 we were on our way to the airport. At the airport we joined the fray and after dealing with some "fresh" (as Nevers put it) airline counter attendants, we had our boarding passes and we cleared security. By 5pm we were int he air over Cuzco and by 7:20 we were comfortable seated in the Lima airport food court. The kids were then set off for an hour to food up, in what was a very America mall-like area. At around 9pm we checked into our flight and had an extended goodbye session with Nevers. Many hugs later we headed up the escalator and through security to our gate.
The flight from Lima to Cuzco ended up taking off about 40 minutes late. The flight itself was smooth and one that I don't remember much of. I fell asleep about 10 minutes into the flight and woke up about 15 minutes before landing. In Miami we got off and begin our trip through the America ringer, aka the American border. We made our way briskly to customs and while the kids cleared the line, Karen and I attempted to stay behind and wait for all of them to get clear. Some of the (many) agents let us stay, and others were quite grumpy with some teachers waiting for their kids. (Grrr). I ended up taking the first group down the escalator to the baggage claim where soon after all but one of the kids appeared. The last one didn't do her customs form in pen (whoa!) so she had to do it again which kicked her to the back of the line. It actually didn't slow us down since our luggage was the last to appear. With everyone's bags in to we made it through the last customs gate and threw our bags at the security scanner station.... then began our run. It was 7:00pm and our flight was boardign at 7:05.
We started our run which took us about 1/2 a mile through the airport. I guess we were lucky we had some high altitude training in the previous week. We made it to the plane with about 5 minutes to spare and crashed in our seats. Soon after we were in the air over Florida and I finished up devouring my pulp fiction book. I then balanced the trip bills and crashed for the remainder of the flight.
About 10 minutes after landing in Boston we were at the baggae claim. Very soon after we had all of our bags and by a little after 11am we met up with our bus and were headed north on 93. We stopped briefly for food in NH by a little before 3pm we were cruising up the hill back onto the St. Johnsbury Academy campus.
The kids unloaded from the bus and scattered. Karen and I did a last check and then did the same.
A few notes:
- Over the next couple weeks I will be balancing the trip budget. From my early projections it looks like each trip participant will receive a small refund.
- I'll be posting many more pictures and videos in the coming weeks.
- I'd love to get a copy of everyone's pictures to add to the online gallery. You can bring your memory card to SV21 any time. (You can also bring me burned CDs and DVDs.)
- How many of your would be interested in a trip hooded sweatshirt? (Logo on the front with everyone's name on the back.) Let me know.
- Josh
Last Updated ( Friday, 06 March 2009 )
3/3: Riding through a eucalyptus forest
Written by Josh Seamon
Wednesday, 04 March 2009
Hello everyone,
Horses. Inca ruins. Bright sun. A warm breeze.
We started off the day with no wake up call. We thought that by this time the kids could wake up on their own, and that they would like the freedom to wake up late and coast into breakfast. Kinda like during school, right? At 9am I headed out to run some errands and by 9:45 we were all gathered in the lobby for our group check in. A passport check, some reminders, and a few jokes later, we were packed into a couple cars and on our way to the horseback riding facility.
Our 20 minutes ride took us up into the hills near Saqsawaman. We unloaded from the cars into a very bright, breezy day. From where we unloaded we could see the back end of the Saqsawaman ruins, the ones we first explored when we arrived in Cuzco -- the ones we had passed during transport several time since. The man who coordinated the riding met us and walked us up a hill to the horse holding area. In about 10 minutes we were all on horses and riding up the trail.
We were divided into two groups of 7. I was in the front group enjoying the incredibly scenic walk up the mountain on my rather calm horse. (All of the horses were really calm.) Each group was accompanied by 2-4 guides who walked next to us, giving us directions and prodding the horses along when necessary. Our initial climb up the narrow path had us facing away from the view. When we got to the top of the trail and turned.... WOW! I found myself looking over the entire Cuzco valley, from the back of a horse! What a feeling.
We moved over grassy, muddy, and rocky trails, across flat, steep, and curvy paths, all the time moving at a nice, slow comfortable rate. I saw the other group start up about 100 yards back as we turned across a field. With the help of our guides we crossed a road and then turned right into a eucalyptus forest! What a totally surreal experience. At this point I was leading the way as I had figured out how to get my hose to trot. Through the trees we could see rolling green hills and the houses on the upper slopes of Cuzco. Part way into the forest, our second group passed behind us into the open green hills. We continues to meander through the trees and emerges about 20 minutes later.
The other group was a couple hundred yards in front of us. They had dismounted and let their horses roam for food and water. We caught up, got off our horses and enjoyed the expansive view. It turned out the other group had managed to pass us by trotting in the open trail. Everyone was having a wonderful time.
Our stopping point put us at the base of a large archaeological site, the Temple of the Moon. We hiked to the top where we had a 360 degree view of the area. Wow. Once we were all on top, a guide met us and gave us a 20 minute tour of the site. We learned about many carvings and then went inside the large rock facility, into a very old fertility temple. Outside the solid rock structure we saw some of the ruins that has been unearthed and then walked back around to the front to gather up our horses.
Some horses had wandered a little ways away, but soon we were all headed back to where we started, this time along a different trail. The ride back was as amazing as the ride to the ruins. Ms. Alexander was riding a horse that was followed by it's 1 year old foal. Way too cute! We crossed a couple fields, the eucalyptus forest, some mud, some rocks and more green grass. Back at the horse corral we gave back our horses and walked down to the meeting site. What an experience!
15 minutes later our cars arrived and we packed back in. We were dropped off in the main square at around 1pm and after a quick check in everyone was set off into the city for lunch. Karen, a few kids, and I went to the same Cafe we went to yesterday and enjoyed another round of juice and grilled sandwiches. Karen and I then went off to do a few errands but immediately ran into Nevers so we went to a cafe and and relaxed for a while. After talking for a long while Karen and I headed back to the hotel. On the way we picked up a couple large Cuzco city flags and by 3 we made it back to the hotel.
I packed a bit and then rested for a while. At 5pm we had a group check in and then all the kids were set to pack up as much as they could. From 5:15 to 5:45 I did rounds checking on the packing and found that it was going quite well. At 7pm we were all gathered for our walk to dinner, about 6 blocks away at the fancy castle-like restaurant with all the artwork that we had eaten at last week. By a little after 7:30 we were seated and all talking about how much fun we had had on the trip. We had a great avocado and vinaigrette starter, followed by a main course of either Peruvian beef and potatoes, pasta, chicken, or a veggie omelet. After dinner we had a nice dessert of fruit ice cream while a band started playing. After a very animate dance performance we walked home and made it back by 8:45.
At 9:30 we had a group check in to go over the plans for the next day. By 10:45 everyone was in their rooms and by shortly after 11pm I was sleeping.
It's now a little after 7am on Wednesday, 3/4. The wake up call went out a few minutes ago and by 8:30 all of the kids will be downstairs with all of their bags. At 8:45 we're walked to the Precolumbian art museum and then at 11 we are going to have very fancy lunch. After lunch we are gathering up at 2:30 for our bus ride to the Cuzco airport -- the first step in our journey home that will end when we arrive back in St. Johnsbury around 3:30pm tomorrow afternoon.
Quiet and calm, busy and frantic. I love this city.
I started off my morning rather early after going to bed very early on Sunday. After sending out the email update, uploading a bunch of pictures, catching up on my world news (Not so uplifting! Sub 7,000 Dow? Nice.), and relaxing over yet another solid breakfast (Peruvian tea is wonderful), Nevers, Karen, and I met up for our foray into Cuzco refund excitement.
We walked north east from the hotel about 12 blocks to the main train station. Along the way we noticed how the whole city was rather quite and there wasn't very much traffic. It was also raining which Nevers explained would slow down any protests since lots of people would have to transport themselves into the city from the surrounding areas. By 7:30 we made it to the very quiet train station and took a number. There was about 20 other people in the whole station and it looked like they were pretty much all tourists. About 2 minutes later we were at an agent and with the info Never had gathered and put down on paper for us, Karen was able to explain the situation and the refund process began. The agent collected our passports and said we could sit down. It would only take 10 minutes he said. In the next 50 minutes of waiting we say our passports lap us around the station twice, he another great conversation with Nevers, and a very fun (re: terrifying) conversation with an American (?) businessman who thought that the local subsistence farmers would see the long term benefits of globalization once they "just saw the big picture". Very sensitive man.
After receiving our full refund (yay!), we headed back towards the city center to the bus ticketing agent and then the Machu Picchu ticketing agent. Both encounters were pretty much the same: no refunds are ever possible. Nevers explained that since the bus and Machu Picchu ticket agents are government run, they can't bend policy, and have very rigid policies to begin with. Nevers is going to try a few crafty tour guide tricks to see if he can get us any sort of refund on the tickets, but it doesn't look likely. Through the whole process Nevers has been utterly amazing. He has gone far, far beyond the call of duty in assisting us. After being shot down on refunds two and three, we headed to the hotel.
Back at the hotel I rested for a bit and then at 11am Karen and I went out to check on the city. We found everything to be calm, soaked in some time in a cafe over looking the square, and then headed back to the hotel for our noon group meeting. At the meeting Karen and I explained that the city was calm and that everyone would be set out for an afternoon of free time in the city. We went over our game plan for the next couple days and then set out.
Karen and I headed north to the square to scope out a possible last day lunch location, which turned out to be perfect. We then had a very nice lunch of grilled sandwiches and big glasses of fruit juice smoothies. Yum! On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a local artisans market and found the large Cuzco flag I had been looking for. We made it back to the hotel at 2pm where I went off to relax, read, and zone out.
At 5pm we checked in with the group who had had a wonderful time exploring the city. We're now all very comfortable with the atmosphere of the city and the kids had been exploring far and wide. After our 3213123123th passport check, everyone was sent out into the city again. I headed out to do a little wandering of my own. I took pictures, enjoyed some time in a cafe, and watched the sun go down from a second story balcony.
Back at the hotel we all met up for our 8pm dinner of beef, alpaca, curry veggies, or chicken. I scarfed down more tea and then we did the final head count on tomorrow's activity -- horse back riding! Nevers has arranged a wonderful morning/early afternoon excursion for us that we are all very excited about.
By 9:15 we were all done with dinner and by 11 everyone was fast asleep.
It's currently 7:45am on Tuesday, 3/3. We're going to meet up in a couple hours to take a bus to the riding facility. After that we'll be enjoying our last full day in the city.
