Beautiful People

My bike....minus space

"Do you know what you're doing?"

 I laugh, "not really, do you have any idea how to screw this derailleur in?"

And without a second thought, he left his bike to help me reassemble mine. Over an hour, and a fascinating conversation later, we said goodbye to the guys at the shop and biked into downtown Berkeley.

I'd never ridden my bike outside. In fact, I'd never ridden a road bike of any kind outside, and as for city riding, well, Stowe Vermont is the closest place to a city that I've ridden through in the States. But miraculously, biking through Berkeley was a breeze, in great part because I had some one to follow. A stranger, who had no reason to be kind to me.

Flying into Oakland...

And it wasn't just that guy in the bike shop who went out of their way to make a difference in my life. There was the woman in the airport, who told me about her childhood growing up in Montreal and waited so that we could walk to our connecting flight together. And the guy from Michigan who had never been camping, but who nevertheless took great interest in everything I had to say about biking and Kroka. And there is the girl from UC Berkeley who has taken me into her home and who went rock climbing with me last night. And her friend who went for a gorgeous bike ride with me this morning. I feel like I could talk to her forever, philosophizing about life, society, and the universe. What's more, I was lucky enough to talk to a young man from Vermont who did two long tours last year. My conversation with him made me even more excited about biking and helped me get a better sense of what I'm getting into.

A training ride just outside of Berkeley.

I am blessed to meet these wonderful people. They inspire me, and teach me, show me new perspectives. This is why travel is awesome. You meet people, you see things, and you are forced to see the world through different eyes. It's uncomfortable at times, terrifying even, but that is what makes it amazing. Because making it through the hard times gives you more joy than always being comfortable ever could.

As I prepare to head out on Monday, I look forward to learning from all the people I come across on this adventure. I've got a hella nice bike, as the guy from the bike shop said, sage advice from many cyclists, a little too much gear (I promise, I'm sending stuff home!), great maps, the love and support of friends and family from home, an insatiable sense of adventure, and a world to explore. Life couldn't be better.

The first thing I notice about a place is the trees.

And Berkeley has some pretty cool trees! 

Yeah, this is winter in Berkeley!

Art on the walls in the co-op I stayed in at Berkeley.

They like bikes in Berkeley too :)

Bike, Teach, Learn: My Cross Country Adventure

The Spa...

Lulling, gentle music, 70 degrees and fluffy bath robes are not my element I have decided. My loving mother has generously treated me to a spa day before I head off on my biking adventure, but as I sit in this luxurious room, I smile to myself, because I know that next week I'll be lying on the cold ground in a campsite on the California coast, shivering in my sleeping bag and trying to ignore my sore legs. That is the life I live for, adventure, fresh air, exercise, love, and challenges.

Vermont Sunset

Perhaps you haven't heard the plan yet. In less than 48 hours, I will be on my way (by plane unfortunately) to Oakland, California. My bike is already on the road and I can't wait to catch up with it! Upon our reunion, we will begin a long journey together starting at UC Berkeley and ending, if all goes well, back here in Vermont. I am meeting Quinn, from the Kroka semester, in San Francisco and he will bike to San Diego with me. After San Diego, I will be on my own until El Paso where my dad will join me for two weeks or so. Then I will be on my own again, biking through the rest of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and Vermont. So, it's a long trip, but I have until June 10th (I want to go to my high school graduation) and I'm not going to force myself to keep biking if I get completely worn out.


Where are you sleeping? How far are you biking? What are you eating? Are you crazy? You're thinking, and the answer is, well, yes. However, I am taking plenty of precautions and there are a great deal of resources at my fingertips. Warm Showers, a free hosting organization for bikers, is one of these resources, and I am hoping to find places to stay/camp through this organization throughout my trip. My daily budget comes out to $19.03 per day for food and lodging, so Warm Showers will be extremely helpful. Otherwise, I will be staying at campgrounds and eating cheaply.

Gear, gear and more gear. 

But why? you ask, should I put myself through all this pain, danger and discomfort? Firstly, for the adventure. Kroka has fully awakened my insatiable sense of adventure, and I intend to keep that sense of adventure for the rest of my life. Secondly, I applied to a lot of colleges all around the country, and I want to visit as many of them as I can without burning anything other than calories. I first thought about this trip on my two day solo during Kroka Expeditions' Ecuador Semester this fall. I sat by myself in nature for two days straight with nothing but a bottle of water and clothes. The solitude gave me space to contemplate my life after Kroka, and before I could stop it, the seed was planted.

Molly's sign!

Kroka Expeditions has been an important aspect of my life for the last few months, and the growth I have seen in myself and my classmates has inspired me to dedicate this trip towards raising money for Kroka's scholarship fund so that more young people can have the opportunity to learn outside of the traditional classroom, travel, live simply, and be a part of a community. Despite its challenges, or rather, because of its challenges, Kroka Expeditions' semester program is an invaluable experience and I hope to help this program continue to offer financial assistance to families in need. To the right is a sign my friend Molly designed which I will have on the back of my bike. Follow the link to check out the website and contribute www,kroka.org!

Love, Peace, and Bicycles,
Sonya

Ticket to Ride!

"...We were inspired by you. We are reaching out to you asking how you got the money? What kind of fundraising things did you do? The cost for us is pretty high so we will need to do a lot of fundraising. Thank you for the help." A young girl from Richford middle school wrote to me in an email a few weeks ago.

This inquiry, so simple, and yet, so profound, has created it's own inspiration for me. I was starting to feel like the $500 I had to give back to the community which has supported me so generously was too small of a sum to have much of an impact. I had sort of resigned myself to giving the funds to one young person to help them pursue their dream. But any solution you have to resign yourself to is far from its potential and I knew it.

So when my friend Hila Shooter's mum suggested I buy copies of the book her daughter wrote to pass on the gift, I jumped at the opportunity. Ticket to Ride is an incredibly well written, to the point, and useful guide to fundraising for teens which Hila wrote after her experience fundraising for the same semester program I participated in this fall. It is a truly phenomenal book and I am honored to have the opportunity to pass it on.

Thus far, I have given the book to three young people from the area and I look forward to continuing to give them out to people who need them. I have opened a bank account to pay for shipping the books, and I am hoping that eventually the project will be able to sustain itself if people who can afford to spend the $15 to buy the book contribute to the fund and help those who can't have access to the book.

If there is a ticket you don't have the resources to buy, or if you know someone who has been dreaming of an adventure they never thought they could manifest, please send me an email by sending me a Ticket to Ride book request on the left side bar. I would be happy to send you a copy and help edit fundraising letters, plan events, etc. Just send me a brief message explaining your project and your address, and I will send you a book!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me,
Love, peace and inspiration,
Sonya

PS. Check out the book through the link below! 

http://tickettoridebook.com/Ticket_to_Ride_Book/Home.html

Semester Photos :)

If you've been dying to see pictures of the semester, and haven't been able to see any yet, here you go! There are definitely way more pictures on this slideshow than you would ever want to watch, but just in case you are the kind of person who can look at hundreds of pictures, Dan, one of the parents of semester students, created a slideshow with all of the photos from the semester which he kindly shared with us.

Enjoy,
Sonya

ps. You'll need a password to watch the slideshow-it is ESP2013

https://vimeo.com/82831438