In a way Chicago is my second city, or maybe it's Cleveland. I'm not sure yet. There is something about revisiting a the city where I grew up (figuratively) that makes me wonder. I'm not sure if it's just the water, or the fabulous food at brunch or the awareness of it's people. Chicago reminds me of me. In a way it's not reality. Everyone is pretty fabulous in Chicago. There are too many great restaurants, cool stores, beautiful and accepting people, ample public transportation, that doesn't happen everywhere, I know, I have been/lived many "where's" This is a combined blog [View Full Entry]

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9 days in Honduras. Hours of waiting. Wrong turns. Upset stomachs. Undetermined bug bitters. Roosters crowing at every nighttime hour. interesting roommates. Sometimes I wonder why I travel. As I learned, it's not because I have excess money. Mary and I felt cheated paying $40 a night for a hotel room, but as soon as I got back to america, spending $10 at Wendy's somehow felt normal and acceptable. I think I travel to be frustrated, to be tired, to be challenged. “To be a real traveler you must be willing to give yourself over to the moment and take yourself [View Full Entry]

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As my mom will tell you, there are a vast number of things that I don't know for sure. "Can you use vegetable oil when the recipe calls for canola oil?" or "Is it ok if I bake zucchini bread with a glass pan? Why did you always use metal pans?" and still "Pecans or Almonds, or wait, what about walnuts, which one should I use?" and that is just in one evening whilst trying, slightly successfully to bake a loaf of bread that I have watched her bake over 100 times. It seems that as I get older, the things [View Full Entry]

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Home. I have called several places home. I have filled out the box for one’s home address with more than 15 different locations. I had a home in 4 different time zones, traveled up to 24 hours to get home and lived with over 12 different people. I have started over more times than I can remember. I have favorite coffee shops in D.C., favorite shops in Chicago, favorite bars in Dayton and favorite restaurants in China. I have met the most amazing people in every place that I have called home. I have cried, laugh, gotten lost, and locked out [View Full Entry]

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I leave today, leave China for who knows when. I, of course, tell my teachers that I will be back as soon as I can. But my history tells me a different story. I still have not returned to Italy after 7 years (and I loved, loved it there). As I leave, I wonder if I will return. Will time away from China make the heart grow fonder or will the lure of toilet seats and signs in english make me curse life in China. Even as I dream of not playing the grocery shopping guessing game, I still find my [View Full Entry]

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Finally after months of anticipation and seemingly endless preparations (passports and visas to apply for, plane tickets and luggage and appropriate travel clothes to buy, camera batteries to charge, PTO to save and work coverage to arrange...) I went to China. I'd never been anywhere. But thanks to Mandy's (or Amanda's depending on what phase in her life you met her) encouragement, I decided to start big. So I flew across the world (literally via the North Pole), wandered around what felt like a whole other world for a few weeks and then came back. I've been back in the U.S. [View Full Entry]

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is like lunch without four scoops of rice in every chinese person's bowl. It is like walking down the street and no one is staring at you and no child is peeing on a tree. It is like waking up to the sound of your alarm clock instead of the sounds of construction, street sweeping, or kids screaming. It's like ordering a chicken dish and not receiving the chicken head on the plate at garnish.....It's all just not right. So here, after 11 months Mary is home with English TV and homemade cookies and I am still in China, playing tourguide [View Full Entry]

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As time begins to come to the end we never believed would actually arrive, everything becomes bittersweet. The cost of drinks in Hong Kong is still bitter, but the dancing with 20 friends on the streets into the wee hours of the night is so sweet. Going out to dinner proves to be the last time for our favorite dishes, but our minds are filled with visions of papa johns, large salads, and menus we can actually read. As we squeeze in final trips to our favorite beaches we are sad to say goodbye to the sandy days, but vaguely remember [View Full Entry]

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Because we hadn't been and because it is so close, and mostly because couldn't let ourselves watch Nip/Tuck for another 24 hours....Mary and I headed off to the neighboring island of Macau. We had separately been there previously, but only to the airport. We had heard people only loved it or hated it. The latest review came from Jaime and Eli who raved about the food and cheap wine....That pretty much sealed our fate...we were off to Macau. Macau was not only the first European settlement in Asia, but is currently the ranked the second most populous country/province just behind Monaco. [View Full Entry]

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what its becoming hard to wait for. [View Full Entry]

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