Blogs from North America - page 9701

The history of California makes for a fascinating story. Who would have thought the world's eighth largest economy was formerly part of Mexico? The US took control of several border states formerly in Mexico at the conclusion of a triumphant war, yet the enormous influence of their Latino neighbours to the south is still prevalent in California today. Continuing from the previous journal my American friend and his buddy offered to drive me down to Baja California for a weekend away from San Diego. Mate, the furthest I'd travelled before going overseas was the to the border with Queensland, and here I was preparing to visit Mexico as my second overseas country. How exciting is that?! We piled into the car, dear reader, and drove the twenty kilometres from downtown San Diego to the border. The ... read more

This would be our second home leave after moving to Brussels. This would be first time that Tamara, who was born on 26 January, would see the rest of her family in the States. She had met her grandmothers; both Linda and my Mom's right after she was born, as they had come in sequential visits to help Linda recover from walking pneumonia shortly after Tamara was born. Tamara had seen Uncle Tom in April on our visit to England with him. Tamara had seen her Aunt Carol who had moved to Brussels and was living with us. Now she would see the rest of her uncles and aunts and cousins. 2 August 1986 Saturday. We flew into Washington Dulles and stayed with friends Jim and Linda who had been co-sponsors of the senior high young ... read more

Geo: 39.3628, -74.4265ghi... read more

Geo: 39.3022, -90.4068abc... read more

February, 1986 My father was working for an Exxon-affiliate in Colombia and he was transferred to Boise, ID. I know, of all places we get shipped to Boise. Everyone always makes a weird face when I mentioned I lived there. I really don’t have much of an opinion of it, as I was very young; I just have very vague childhood memories. My mom says she liked it a lot; it was a nice, quiet town. It only had one shopping center, and the first mall was being built when we left. I guess I can say this is when and where I learned English. I was two-and-half years old when we lived there. I have some memories of pre-school, a neighbor’s dog, toys, parts of our house, and thanks to pictures, snow. For some quick ... read more