~COSTA RICA~

"Costa Rica is a vibrant country full of incredible natural beauty where you can explore waterfalls, jungles, volcanoes, and find plenty of wildlife. A photographers dream location."

Costa Rica is found in Central America and lies between Panama to the south and Nicaragua to the north. It has a narrow Pacific coastal region including Cocos Island. An interesting fact about this country is that Columbus explored it in 1502. Their official language is spanish but many people speak english as well. 

Religion Statistics: Evangelical 14%, Roman Catholic 76%, other protesetant 1%, none 4%

Less known interesting facts about the country:

In Costa Rica, men refer themselves to Ticos and women refer themselves as Ticas.

Most people of the land respect it and they are known to be a very eco- green countries, 25% of the land remains protected.

They are the hummingbird captial, inhabiting over 52 different species of the bird.

10% of the worlds butterflies live in Costa Rica.

The country is bordered by both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

***Best time to visit is from december to April.

Costa Rica is very diverse. One day you can explore remote beaches, or pristine cloud forests, giant volcanoes and extreme wildlife. It is looked upon as one of the beautiful places in the world.

More Japan ---- significance to the cherry blossom tree

Japan has upon thousands upon thousands of cherry blossom trees. Cherry blossom trees symbolize the beauty of life and fragility to Japan. They have an old tradition where they have a flower viewing day each year where people hold feasts under the blooming cherry blossom trees. I think it would be pretty sweet to be out there when this event happens!

View image | gettyimages.com

~JAPAN~

For a long time I have always been interested in Japan, i don't actually know why but it just seems like a cool place to travel to. I got some information from my mom because she went to Japan for a couple months after high school. Its been really neat learning about the ways of their unique culture that they display to the world.

Japan faces the pacific ocean along the entire eastern and southern coastline. The korean penninsula is closest to Japan. To the north and west are the Sea of Okhotsk, Sea of Japan, and the East China Sea. Earthquakes are common occurences from day to day. Another eye catching fact is that they have up to 1,500 volcanoes! It is commonly known that in Japaneese culture they orient their lives towards the ocean, like its a part of them.

View image | gettyimages.com

Japan has become a highly urbanized society. Japan is growing in population because of their economic development, they are very up to date.

I wanted to highlight on their Religion(s). A big chunk of the population believes in Shinito. Shinito is a term for a system of Gods and beliefs about the relationship between the natural enviroment, the people of the land, and the state. Shinito teaches that Japan is uniquely the land of the gods. This type of religion has no scripture involved whatsoever. Buddhism also played an influence since it was introduced into Japan from Korea and China in the sixth century A.D. Ever since Shinito and Buddhism has existed in Japan they have influenced one another greatly. In the sixteenth century Japans religious life has also been influenced by christianity. When christianity was first introduced people had to hide their faith and be "hidden christians." It was a very intense time in history because a lot of people hid themselves in isolation. In 1870, the ban on christianity was lifted and everyone had a sense of freedom. Today only 1% of Japan consider themselves to be christians, it seems quite little but it is said that there are a lot of political leaders, and people that take part in that, that are christians they just don't like to admit it.

View image | gettyimages.com

~GREECE~

One of the many places I would like to visit at some point in my life is Greece. I have heard from friends and family that the pictures you see online of Greece (Deep blue skies and ocean, artistic white looking buildings, mountains off in the distance), is EXACTLY how it looks in person which tells me that Greece would be a prime place to travel to.

#173255209 / gettyimages.com

ABOUT/FACTS:
The land of the Greece is bordered by Albania, Macedonia, Turkey and the Cretan Seas. This beautiful country is known to have many islands. Over time 170 islands have been inhabited but still 2,000 more islands remain and are yet to be discovered! The weather out there is very HOT and there winters are rainy/cold (not freezing though). The currency is euro.

#459715359 / gettyimages.com

FOOD:
The typical greek diet on a daily basis includes grapes, cheese, lamb, olives, grains, fish and vegetables.  As a tourist you may have lots of greek salad, and their famous gyros (flat bread stuffed with vegetables, lamb or chicken, and sauce).

RELIGION:
Around 98% of the population are Orthodox Christians.

PLACES TO VISIT:
-Acropolis of Athens
-Acropolis Museum
-Parthenon
-Panathenaic Stadium
-National Garden in Athens

#144312678 / gettyimages.com

Both my parents, and my sister Holly (my mentor), have been to Greece and seen some of the places I've listed above. Its been neat to hear their perspective on what its actually like out there. One of my sisters highlights was visiting the Panathenaic Stadium because she got to sit on one of the actual podiums.

~AUSTRIA~

For the past few weeks I have begun to research the beautiful country of Austria. Austria is bordered by the czech Republic, Germany to its north, slovakia and Hungary to its east, Slovenia and Italy to its south, Switzerland and Leichtenstein to its west.

#aog62275 / gettyimages.com

FACTS:

-Austrias terrain is very mountainous because it is surrounded by the Alps. There is a known fact that 500% of the country is below 500 meters.

-The Alps cover over 62% of their land.

-Lots of Farmland in its rural area. (Farm houses are made usually of stone and wood) 

-The official language is German and the majority of people speak it.

-Known to be one of the richest countries in the world.

-Numerous villages that show their old traditions/ways.

-They have a european currency (euros).

-Very nice Architecture.
-The famous movie/play The Sound of Music was shot in parts of Austria.

PARTS OF AUSTRIA:

-Burgenland, Carinthia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Vienna.

PLACES TO VISIT (Tourist attractions):

-Vienna State Opera (Huge, stunning building)

-Salzburg Castle (Located on the top of Festungsberg mountain which towers over Salzburg)

-Grossglockner Alpine Road (A famous road that travels through mountain ranges with amazing views)

-Seefeld, Tyrol (Home to the the winter olympics where the cross country skiing center is)

FOOD:

For breakfast a typical meal would be coffee, bread, jam and usually a side of meat such as sausage. Austria has also has a tradition of having a mid-day coffee break. The main course of the day is lunch which would normally include soup and some sort of meat as well has a salad. Dinners consist of cold meats, fish, vegetables, cheese, wine and beer.

Since Austria has a lot of farmland local farmers grow a lot of fruit and vegetables. They grow a lot of grapes for wine making as well. Typical crops are grains, wheat, potatoes and sugar beets.

RELIGION:

The country has a freedom of any religion. Most of the land are Roman catholic. Another religion that is quite common is protestantism. In the many villages Austria has there are many cathedrals, churches, and synagogues.

#466697169 / gettyimages.com

IDEAS

Places I'd like to research/look into: Austria, Slovenia, Boston, Ireland, Turkey, Prague, Germany, India, Thailand, ect.

Things I will aim to research about:

-Cultures (Foods, Community structure, Religion.)

-Interesting facts that not many people know of about the particular place

-Top places to visit 

-Top places to stay

-Look into travel costs ($)

Other ideas i may plan to do: 

-Create a journal with maps + plans + writing

-Pin points of a physical map

-Talk to people i know about their own travels to get more of an understanding

-Work with my mentor (my sister)

Passion Project #2

So the point of this post is to let all you bloggers out there know that i am now in the process of starting a whole new Passion Project! This year i will be making a travel guide for myself. This project will include a lot of research of the places i want to go. So most of my blog posts will consist of the information i am learning about the places i'm interested in going. So if you are interested in traveling and exploring new places then follow my blog and message me if you have any questions/comments. :)

-Rach

Outcome Of Project

All in all i loved doing this project. When choosing my project i wanted to do something i could enjoy and it happened. I created things that i didn't even know i was capable of making. It was a challenge at times but this project was made to push you. This project also made me go out of my comfort zone by going in front of my whole Bible class and presenting my DIYs. I feel proud of myself of what I've accomplished as well.

MAP DIY COASTERS

So today i realized that i had some extra cork remaining from my last DIY project so i decided i'd look for a project with cork so that i could use it all up. I found this project on Pinterest. If you are a regular coffee, tea, steamer drinker this project is perfect for you :)

Things you will need:

-Cork (got mine from Dollarama for around $2.00.)
-Mod Podge
-Any sort of Map
-X-acto Knife
-Scissors
-Sponge/Foam

I found this project was very quick and easy to make. If you are planning to have a cup of coffee with a friend these coasters look wonderful and work very well.

So first i traced a circle on the piece of cork and then took out my X-acto knife and cut around it. Then i took my map and traced a circle and cut it out with the Scissors. I then took my Mod Podge (its a gloss/glue) and spread it with a sponge on the cut out cork circle. I then placed my map piece on top of it and put a gloss of Mod Podge over top of it as well to give it more of a shine.

 Things i could of done better:

When cutting the cork i wish i would of been a little slower and took my time cutting it with the knife because the cork made some rough edges. I also wish that i could put glass over top of the coasters but i don't have any source of how to cut glass..Other than that i am pleased with how they turned out.

My passion project so far has been really fun. I really enjoy making things and doing hands on type of work. It has shown me a different type of art that i wasn't use to doing before. I highly suggest you try out this DIY! Message me if you have any questions.

Mentor

So In the process of doing this project I selected a mentor. My mentor for my passion project is my mom because she has helped me throughout making different crafts/DIYs for my project. I chose her because she pushes me to challenge myself. She also helps me work on and finish different projects I've done.