Jake Curtis
I am an American by birth, a genetic Texan, call Arkansas home, always long to be back in the Rainbow Nation, miss Korea everyday and currently live in Italy.jhcurti27
Travel Blog Posts
December 14th 2011
this stupid website has messed up for the last time. while trying to submit my latest blog i found it nearly impossible to load the pictures I wanted to post. i immediately decided to move sites. so since you all have been following me I thought I should at least let you know where you can find my blogs. http://jakehcurtis.tumblr.com/ there should be a welcome note on that page to help you out with the layout, if need be. I am unsure if you can subscribe (aka follow) without creating a tumblr account but of course I could always post on here that there is a new blog up on my tumblr site. send me some feedback and we will get this figured out. thanks!... read more
December 10th 2011
This is a note I wrote myself to remember my first race. It took place in Korea in April of this year. It was a 22km hill climb on the east coast of Korea. Since I am in the middle of a 4 week travel binge I decided to post this before finishing my blog about Roma.. or Istanbule... or Budapest... Prague... the road trip to 14 different countries in 4 days. Hope this satisfies your blog fix. I haven't proof read this and I didn't originally intend to make this public so I hope nothing appears that I will regret? April 9, 2011 6:05pm Tomorrow I will race for the first time. My journey started 7 weeks ago as I started training after a 2.5 month hiatus. Training was not as good as hoped but ... read more
November 28th 2011
Trying to explain Thanksgiving to someone who has never celebrated it is a difficult task. For most Americans, the mere mention, smell, sight, or thought of anything that has anything to do with Thanksgiving will give immediate and satisfactory thoughts and memories about a holiday celebrated with family, food, and football (commonly referred to as life’s three greatest F’s). It is something that cannot be explained with words. It means too much. I have spent 21 Thanksgivings with my family. I have spent 3 Thanksgivings without my family. It may be harder than Christmas or any other holiday to spend away from family. But having spent the last three away from my family during Thanksgiving I have realized Thanksgiving not only can be celebrated without the most important F(amily) but it can be a huge success ... read more
November 22nd 2011
When I arrived in Korea I was put through an intense week of training (to be magically transformed into a teacher, while having no prior experience). Then I was put in a van, then a bus and sent to Cheongju, The City of Lights, my home for the following year and a half. I was put up in a love motel for a night and then Bethany and I were thrown into a closet that was supposed to be our apartment for a year. It was Renee’s apartment before us. Did you just read that? Renee’s… then ours. Emphasizing the fact that one person lived in the closet for a year and then my employer expected that two people would be happy there when one person barely was. They left us there. Before being dropped off ... read more
November 16th 2011
Disclaimer: This one is going to be long. Might want to read each ride as a chapter or bookmark it after reading a portion at a time. Good luck. Laura recently asked me, “So, how did you get into cycling?” I started saying a lot of things about a guy named Lance. Max noticed she wasn’t following so I started at the beginning. Back in October of 1996. When he was first diagnosed with cancer. I won’t give you the rest of the story since I hope that you know the rest. But the short version that bests answers her question is watching Lance climbing in the Alps during so many Tour de France. It was the climbing. It was the Alps. It was Lance. Easy as that. But then it became more and more of ... read more
November 13th 2011
This whole blog thing is a weird one. Its completely selfish and you hope that people care enough to read about your thoughts, your whereabouts, and your adventures. You also hope that it’s good enough that not only will people finish reading but people will also read the next one. But for me, there is more something that makes this even more interesting. And that’s the people that actually read my blog or at least those on my “subscribers list.” The interesting part of this list is the fact that in the 16 people that receive emails every time I write a blog, and three of them happen to be three of my favorite writers: Paul Gatling, The Rev. Roger Joslin, and my Mom. It is an honor to have your favorite writers read your writings. ... read more
November 9th 2011
Since its been a while I will refresh the readers of this on-going series entitled "Jake’s View." This is something I put together every-once-in-awhile to document how I see things and what I see. Some things are random and pointless but note-worthy, others tend to gravitate to my sociological mind that constantly sees people and how they work in an environment in which I am not used to. Keep in mind I am not trying to encourage stereotypes or want you to believe my sample size is big enough to judge an entire country or people on. It’s just one man’s perspective as he sees it, when he sees it. -There are a lot of dogs in Italy. Huge dogs. Not big dogs but huge dogs. Like people are walking around with their dogs like its ... read more
November 4th 2011
One third of the way into Eat. Pray. Love. I was hoping the movie would improve (a lot) (and sure I should read the book). Watching Julia Roberts scarf down a bunch of pasta didn’t do much for me in terms of entertainment or spiritual fulfillment. It was sorta gross and hard to watch, even with her mouth. It was the last two thirds that I loved. And truthfully speaking I have always viewed my time in Italy as the last two thirds of Eat. Pray. Love. I thought going to Italy alone would give me time to do things I usually don’t find time for, praying and meditating being two of those things. And of course reexamining love and how to go about doing that. It was going to be a fresh start spiritually and ... read more
November 4th 2011
I have a few tattoos. Three to be exact. But one is sorta big and attracts some attention. I enjoy the attention because I’m proud of it and what it means to me. Always enjoy explaining them to people. So, of course when Laura asked me about it I was happy to explain and have her then explain to her mother in Italian. Of course she was talking about the big one but I always refer people back to the small one on the inside of my wrist. I explained that the day my Dad dropped me off for college he and my mom wrote me a small card. I love my mom’s version of the story now in hindsight. She says that she bought the card and signed it and in doing so made sure ... read more
Tot: 0.091s; Tpl: 0.002s; cc: 15; qc: 80; dbt: 0.0627s; 1; s:notus w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.7mb
