Skip to main content

Jaspers Abroad

Search This Blog

Japan Through Religion and History

Posted by Yusuf Yassin on May 22, 2026

Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Welcome to Hotel Porvenir (Guna Yala, Panama)

Welcome to Hotel Porvenir! (Gula Yala, Panama ) (Biidub, a beautiful island in San Blas Islands, Panama) It never occurred to me that electricity is a first-world luxury before coming to El Porvenir. El Porvenir is the capital of the San Blas islands or Guna Yala. One of the 5 Panamanian indigenous territories (or comarcas in Spanish), Guna Yala is a territory governed by the Guna peoples . The Guna are one of the many indigenous tribes in Panama. Many Guna are bilingual, speaking Spanish and the Kuna language. An estimated 50,000 Guna live in Guna Yala. During my week-long stay in San Blas, I met local Gunas and learned about their unique culture. You can reach El Porvenir by boat or plane. We took a very wet boat ride through the Caribbean to reach our destination. Luggage and backpacks were hauled into giant trash bags to protect our belongings from the sea! This is one of our super friendly Guna guides. Catching fish, cooking fo...

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi

السلام عليكم (Hello/ Peace be upon you ) from Abu Dhabi! On the 6th day of our trip, we departed from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. On our way to our new hotel, we stopped by one of the largest mosques in the world, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. One of the many things I learned over the past few days in Dubai is that UAE is considered as the "Center of the World." That is why this country is very rich in different cultures. So, it made sense when Lourdes, our tour guide, told us that Sheikh Zayed invited the best talents, materials, and techniques from all over the world to build his Grand Mosque. In fact, his slogan for this construction was to “unite the world.” Unfortunately, Sheikh Zayed passed away before the construction was finished, but his body is buried next to this mosque. After a short walk under the tunnel from the entrance, we were welcomed by the beautiful white marble building. Sheikh Zayed used white as the main color as white symbolizes purity. You...

Spring 2020 blog contest: Deirdre Heavey (First-Place Winner)

I woke up on Friday, March 13, in sunny Barcelona, Spain, to a notification that the Spanish Prime Minister had declared a state of emergency. The country would be going into lockdown at midnight, meaning no one in Spain would be allowed to leave their homes for any nonessential reason. That morning, my housemates and I sat around the table on our balcony as we debated whether or not we should book flights back to our home countries. We cried and we laughed as we questioned how we were going to leave the beautifully blissful city of Barcelona. For the last time, we sat around the table and enjoyed the presence of people who we probably would never see again despite living under the same roof for months. Later that evening, my three best friends that I had met in Barcelona came over for dinner. We prepared dinner together, making use of the food I had stockpiled earlier in the week when I thought there was nothing that could make me leave Barcelona. We sat around the table on my b...

Powered by Blogger