If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might remember my very first blog post. In it, I wrote about a carnival that I went to with my mom and the spur of the moment rollercoaster ride that reminded me that I get my sense of adventure from my mom. If you haven’t been reading my blog for… Read more →
Tag: adventure
Greece: Older, But Not Necessarily Wiser
There’s something about returning to a place that makes you think about who you were the last time you were there. I don’t love repeat travel, because to me there always seems to be somewhere new that I want to go, and I can’t justify visiting somewhere again. But this month, I went back to Greece, a place that mesmerized… Read more →
Andorra: Wait, Where Is That?
Be honest for a second, no one’s going to judge you. Do you know where Andorra is? What language do they speak there? There’s a good chance that you did not know the answer to those questions, and that’s okay. I didn’t until I studied abroad in Spain three years ago. Ever since hearing about it, I have wanted to… Read more →
Weekend Trips: Córdoba, Salamanca, Santander
I used to have a “go big or go home” sort of attitude towards traveling. If I needed to be back at work on Monday, I came home at 4am on Monday morning and went straight to work in my travel clothes. I always tried to maximize my time away, but as I have gotten older and more prone to… Read more →
London: Traveling Alone Again
All through childhood and adolescence, I was an introvert, drawing my energy from solitude. It’s only recently that I have come to identify as an extrovert. I don’t know what exactly caused this change, but now after a long week and stressful week I prefer to talk to or meet friends for dinner or coffee instead of retreat to my… Read more →
Fulbright: My First Week of School
I know that this will sound classist, and it is. I was raised by a slightly classist father for whom being a nurse or paralegal was not enough. I had to be a doctor or a lawyer. This is part of the reason that I never considered teaching as a profession. I was raised with the mentality of “those who… Read more →
Fulbright: Cultural Discomfort in Logroño
So I forgot a few things about Spain, cultural things I mean. It’s strange, but I am experiencing a more noticeable culture shock this time around than when I was studying abroad in Madrid two years ago. Perhaps it is the fact that now I am living in Logroño, a small town compared to booming Madrid, or maybe it is… Read more →
Fulbright: Regresando a España
I’ve never been one for inspirational quotes. I find them tacky and usually a little bit like a false epiphany, but I have recently come to feel the meaning behind one of John Lennon’s most famous lyrics. They are words that I have seen all over Tumblr, Pinterest, and on random prints in TJ Maxx, strangely enough. In his song,… Read more →
AmeriCorps: The Sierra Nevada and The Last Hurrah
Heat. We were back to the heat. When we had found out that our last project would be working in the Sierra Nevada at a Quaker Outdoor Education Camp (don’t worry I will explain), I felt an immense relief. Surely, in Nevada City, at the base of a large mountain range, we would benefit from chillier weather. This was not… Read more →
AmeriCorps: A Midwestern Girl in the Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest = Love? Back when I first started this blog I wrote an article titled “Love Is A Bonus.” It was about how there are many different kinds of love and how we tend to put romantic love on a pedestal and expect it to make up for all other deficiencies in our life. I argued that you… Read more →