Category: travel
-
Stir Stick
Every few minutes, I wiggle toes inside boots and slap hands against thighs. It’s cold — the kind of cold that makes hard work out of passivity. I’ve been standing outside for an hour reading signs, and I’m frozen to the marrow. January in Ukraine is serious business, the grey skies flattening landscape and mood,…
-
Highlights
We recently returned from a family trip to Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia — meeting up with Allegra, who’d already been traveling by herself for six weeks. We flew from Minneapolis to Sarajevo, and she took the bus into Sarajevo from Montenegro; easily, beautifully, shortly after we checked into our apartment the first night, she pulled…
-
A Three-Hour Tour
True story: about three years ago, on some occasion when we were staying in a hotel–probably during a gloomy soul-suck of a February–we turned on the television to enjoy a bit of that glamorous thing called cable. On a very fine network, one devoted to aspirational lifestyles, house flipping, and hanging bamboo “art” in Vermont…
-
Not for the Faint of Heart or Soft of Skull
Looks like Byron’s playing dress-up. Is he a coal miner? Hobo? George Michael circa 1983? Or is there another explanation for the state of his face? There sure is. Someone did this to him. His name is Denis, and he was assisted by a compact second named Henri. Denis and Henri led Byron–led all of…
-
Cocinar
There is a women’s cooperative in Leon, Nicaragua, dedicated to reviving and passing forward some dying indigenous history. Specifically, they are working to preserve ancient recipes. First, they draw upon their collective knowledge of recipes, and then they teach each other. After that, they open their homes so that they can teach interested parties, often…
-
Faces of Nicaragua
As a family who doesn’t draw energy from the holidays but twirls with hands to the sky at the notion of taking a trip, the choice was easy: we flew to Nicaragua for Christmas and New Year’s. So far, we’ve eaten plantain chips and yucca; tried the famous seven-year rum; felt the bottoms of our…
-
Get a Job
I slip into the high school classroom a few minutes late–hell if I could find Room 3031, tucked back there in the Foreign Languages suite. Since when do high schools have “suites”? Did the demise of the smoking lounge make way for the rise of the language suite? Most of the chairs are occupied already,…
-
I Bought from the Registry but Still Got No Invite
Nicki Hilton got married a few months ago to James Rothschild at Kensington Palace. Bewilderingly, my invitation went missing in the mail. The USPS, she flounders. It’s a shame my invite never plopped through the slot onto our front porch. Unquestionably, I would’ve gone. And if I’d attended, not only would I have kept a strict eye…
-
Two Weeks South of the Border: Part the End
The adventure continues and concludes in this installment, which ranges from ruins to Kaluha (words which also sum up my current existence). See how travel broadened this broad? ——————————————————- After a few days in Belize, my sister, some other Peace Corps volunteers, Cute John, and I rented a “taxi” to take us to Tikal, Guatemala…
-
Two Weeks South of the Border: Part One
Guess who not only has 50 research papers to grade in the next week but also has the honor of serving as a witness in a big ole lesbian wedding extravaganzapalooza this weekend? I even get to give a toast at the reception (something along the lines of “May you always wear the same…