Adventures and Fun Stuff

"Adventure Activities" class in college

January - May 1997: During my senior year in college, I took a class called "Leadership and Adventure Activities". Over the course of the semester, the class went indoor rock climbing, went rappelling down a cliff face, did a ropes course, went hiking on the Appalachian trail and went rafting on the Lehigh River. This was an inspiring class to me because it sparked my desire to push myself to do things out of my comfort zone and to frame new challenges as exciting new experiences.

swimming with dolphins in key largo, florida

August 10, 2002: On a trip to Miami for an academic conference, I went swimming with dolphins in Key Largo with a colleague. In hindsight, I really regret doing this and wouldn't participate with swimming with captive dolphins again. While it was an interesting experience at the time, it wasn't ethical and that was a huge oversight on my part. These dolphins should be free in the ocean and not used in this way. (A place in New Zealand does a "dolphin encounter" experience where you can swim alongside free dolphins in the ocean. I'd have to research it a bit more, but that would seem to be a better option than this.)

teaching on Semester at sea

January - May 2007: In 2007, I was awarded a semester-long sabbatical for the spring 2007 semester when I taught at Pine Manor College and during that time, I traveled around the world as a visiting lecturer on the Semester at Sea voyage. On the 14-week voyage, I taught classes called Intercultural Communication, Cinema & National Identity and Mass Media Systems Around the World as the ship visited the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Brazil, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Malaysia, Vietnam (with a side trip to Cambodia), China, Japan and Hawai'i. During the trip, I got to see Brazil during Carnival, go on a safari in South Africa, visit the Taj Mahal in India, see the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia and hike along the Great Wall in China - along with many other great experiences! Archbishop Desmond Tutu was also on board the entire time!

paragliding and jet-skiing in malaysia

2007: Penang, Malaysia

skydiving in hawai'i

2007: North Shore of Oahu, video from my camera strapped around my wrist

TV Tapings in New york city and Los angeles

1993-2014: Over the years, I've been in the TV audience for tapings of shows like "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (twice), "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (twice), "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," "The Colbert Report," "Live with Kelly and Michael," and "The View."

sailing class in sag harbor, ny

August 17-18, 2013: I took a two-day sailing class in Sag Harbor and got my Basic Keelboat Sailing certification.

hang gliding in new york state

June 7, 2015: New York State

indoor skydiving

May 31, 2016

WHITEWATER RAFTING ON THE LEHIGH RIVER

July 29, 2017

hot air balloon ride in bucks county, pa

September 23, 2017

zero gravity flight

May 20, 2018: A ride on the "Vomit Comet" aka a "reduced gravity" flight - 15 parabolas in a plane with about 22 seconds of weightlessness when at the top of each arc as we fall toward the earth. With only approximately 15,000-20,000 people having done this in the history of humankind, this is inarguably the coolest, most unique thing I've ever done! (...and, no, I did not vomit!).