Hello, Glimpsers!
My name is Christian Riley, and I’m a Spanish teacher at American High School in Fremont, California where I’ve been working since 2010. Ashley and I will be your GGLs on our trip to the Dominican Republic this summer.
This will be my second trip with Global Glimpse – I went to Riobamba, Ecuador in 2019 – but I’ve never been to the Dominican Republic, so I’m as excited as you all are!
I’ve got quite a bit of travel experience. Growing up in Boston, my family would travel every year south along the East Coast to Florida (twice to New Orleans), and sometimes up through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. I’ve passed through or visited probably about 30 U.S. states, as well as five provinces of Canada.
Outside the U.S., I’ve traveled a lot as well. I’ve made two trips each to Spain and Portugal, and one trip to Italy. As for Latin America, I’ve visited Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. I’ve also studied in Granada, Spain, at the Casa de las Américas in Havana, Cuba, and spent a year enrolled at the University of Chile in Santiago. Many of these countries, I’ve visited on multiple occasions!
The people I have met, the experiences we’ve shared, and the many things I’ve learned in my travels are invaluable to me, and have made me who I am today.
In addition to traveling, I love languages (I also speak Portuguese and Italian – OK, I may be a bit of a language nerd!), art, music, food, hiking in nature, or even just walking around the city. I enjoy having new adventures and come into each new place I visit, humble, and ready to learn from the locals. I’m always excited to make connections with people in other parts of the world, and to share authentic experiences with them.
As you all prepare to embark on this trip, remember to keep an open mind, stay humble, be curious, but always respectful – we’ll be guests in another country, and should consider it a privilege that the Dominicans have agreed to share their experiences with us so that we may learn from one another. Get ready for a real eye-opening adventure, as fun as it will be challenging!
-Christian Riley