Tin Lizzie's Updates to her blog

So, where did I meet Ms. Fabuloso?  Well, here's our background.  I met Tin at work.  We were both college counselors some years ago, in suburban Chicago.  We'd spend day in and day out speaking to university students about their ambitions and what inspired them to go into a particular field or route in life, and to perhaps try another.  We spoke to them about the abundance of efforting in life; the need to keep striving.  It was then that I found out that she'd traveled half-way around the world already, having visited some 25 countries while still in her 20's. Impactful.  Thrill-Seeking.  Loving the Adventure.  All of these. Then, in 2012, Tin wrote that infamous piece of hers, "You never know until you try," and this is the one definitive piece that will catapult me onto my trip to Newfoundland this summer, walking the 80 miles of the East Coast Trail.  I'll be whale watching & enjoying my coffee and Cambazola.  Oh, you know the story, but it's just so darn classic, my becoming a Newfie.  It's life altering and I just want to relive the moments leading up to this transformative event.  There will be plenty to write about, to share during the course of stories of moonlight dinners with friends.  There will be postings of hundreds of photos for which I know right now, I won't be able to prioritize which ones deserve more of an astonishing beauty credit than the next.  But not to worry.  I will have every detail of the journey to Newfoundland right here for my readers to relive and enjoy. But here is my one true hope.   

My one true hope is for every less than high caliber athlete, for the novice of low self-esteem, for every space cadet, every self-absorbed lover of the Kardashians, to come back down to earth.  Over the ham radio: "Earth to celebrity: were you actually thinking of spending the summer with the Kardashians?"  Forget about it.  (Deep dish, Chicagoan dialet).  Forget about the money-making media. Look into your heart, find someone, some thing that truly motivates you.  Study this person/thing. Analyze it ad nauseam.  Become that person in this lifetime, and start living the adventure.  Tin Lizzie has offered that to me, and I am eternally thankful for her amazing feats, for her friendship, and to her astonishing efforts in impacting humankind.   

Gia Benigni Di Borgo
ESL Carnival Academy

May 6, 2015

Hello New, Returning, & Future ESL Academy Students:
My name is Gia Benigni Di Borgo, and I am the headmistress for ESL Academy.  I felt it necessary to formally introduce myself at the very start of the new year, especially after having January flash past most of our eyes very quickly.
  
I'm very excited about 2015, since so much of ESL learning, international traveling, and meeting new students is happening. Hello to new and prospective academy students!  The Academy looks forward in sharing many, many, superlative English conversations with everyone.  

Out of the gate I'd like to announce what's going on in the news about the academy and myself.  I am highlighted in the news on the wonderful WritngWalkingWomen.com website. The WWW group is all about some 35 or so women that will be walking the NewFoundland TransCanada Trail in 2015. It is a nearly 100 mile pilgrimage of successful women travel writers and writers of other genres who will be embarking upon the adventure of a lifetime. Feel free to travel over to the WritingWalkingWomenwebsite and learn about the very first time that I traveled alone.  I traveled to Mackinac Island.  I ventured to the far off territory in upper peninsula Michigan where only horses gallop on cobble pavements and where merchants have erected shoppes that seem to harbor some of the most exceptional, eye-catching and nostalgic, most magnificent beachfront property ever. Mackinac Island sports the most passionate and endearing, timeless island beauty of an old fashioned village.   You must pay this spawling island retreat a visit in your lifetime!

Additionally, I look forward in sharing....

My Mackinac Island Summer, to you all.  If by chance you have the festive occasion to travel to this illustrious city, port, and over to the island, don't forget head on over to the Cupola Bar at the extreme top of the Grand Hotel.  One can take in the astonishing views of the hotel grounds, main street, via the Shepler's or Starline ferries making their way across Lake Huron.  The Grand Hotel opened in 1887, and it is the largest summer hotel in the world. And guess what?  You can still marvel in all of the splendor of yesterday since motorized vehicles aren't allowed on Mackinac Island.  Bicycles and horse drawn carriages are the usual modes of transportation!  You can travel from the mainland via either the Shepler's or Starline Ferry services here and here.  

Mackinac Island Tourists Websites:

•   Lots of Great Mackinac Island Photos
  
•   Another Great, (not lake), but Seaside Resort
•   A Wordpress Blog on The Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, Michigan
•   Working on Mackinac Island and Year-Round Housing
•   The Starline Ferry of Mackinac Island
•   Mackinac Island Statelists
•   Mackinac Island Fall 2014 Schedule
•   Halloween on Mackinac Island & Events Throughout the Year
•   Another great Mackinac Island Blog

•   More!  Area Links to Mackinac Island
•   A Great Antique - The Northern Michigan Journal
•   Websites, Food, and Mail Order

Enjoy Pure Michigan!
ESL Carnival Academy