#FIRSTSTOTALSOCIAL - My First Trip Abroad

Today I am participating in my first link-up as a blogger. Yay! And it just so happens that the theme of this months #totalsocial hosted by Helene and Sarah link-up is firsts. What a coincidence! So I am going to tell you all about the first time I traveled abroad.

When I was 14 years old I was lucky to have an opportunity to travel to the  beautiful country of Australia, with People to People Student Ambassadors. People to People is a travel service that offers international travel opportunities to students in middle school and high school. The student ambassador program specifically offers trips that are educational and aimed at increasing global awareness.

I traveled in a group of middle school students from Maryland and California. We spent three weeks traveling the east coast of Australia from Cairns all the way down to Sydney. I had been fascinated with Australia most of my youth and the fact that I had the opportunity to travel there at such a young age was incredible (and mostly due to my parents. Thanks Mom and Dad).  I swam in the Great Barrier Reef, visited the Whitsunday Islands, see and hold koalas at an animal reserve, stayed a few nights on a cattle ranch in the Outback, had a home stay visit in Brisbane and toured the Opera House in Sydney.

*sorry for these sunglasses, they are truly awful. What was I thinking.

This trip is truly what gave me the travel bug. Ever since then I couldn't sit still, taking every opportunity possible to get out and see new places, mission trips, study abroad, Peace Corps, you name it. There are so many places to see in the world and so little time, so you have to take advantage of it.

Where was your first trip abroad?