I’m not currently in the middle of traveling anywhere. I’m at home. Normally this would really depress me, but my home situation is actually really adorable right now (just to give you an...
During my time as one of the Communications Strategies interns at the hostel in downtown Chicago, I’ve gotten to partake in something I’ve wanted to experience ever since my love affair w...
Generally I’m not much of a TAG YOU’RE IT person — the whole concept of “tag” stressed me out a lot as a kid. It took a lot of things I couldn’t really do and forc...
The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway “I may not be as strong as I think,” the old man said, “but I know many tricks and I have resolution.” “But are you strong enoug...
Pre-Travel From your childhood on, you will equate buses with freedom, because buses will mean one thing, and one thing only: field trips. School buses are novelties when you’re growing up, see...
You know that point at the end of the trip right before you’re supposed to board the plane home and you suddenly realize how completely exhausted you are, but instead of actually admitting how ...
*reposted from last year. I KNOW, but give me a break, February has been kicking my ass. Now, in honor of Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, I have decided to show you pictures of all the ways I have been ...
Breakfast at Tiffany’s Truman Capote “Maybe the older you grow and the less easy it is to put thought into action, maybe that’s why it gets all locked up in your head and becomes a ...
I have a slump routine. This routine is pretty much the same drill no matter what caused the slump: getting dumped, being unemployed, having nowhere to live, missing my cat, finishing a TV series on ...
Excerpts from “Your Feet” Pablo Neruda When I cannot look at your face I look at your feet. Your feet of arched bone, your hard little feet. But I love your feet only because they walked ...
As a rule, I am scared of almost everything — boats included. When the movie Titanic came out during my formative 9th year of life, it solidified that fear (as well as my love for Celine Dion)...
“She liked Gibraltar. It was her third visit to the strange rock that housed an absurdly densely populated English town on the Mediterranean. Gibraltar was a place that was not like anywhere el...
“Laughter” Stuart Dybek “I knew a girl who laughed in her sleep.” photo of Martha Gellhorn, from here More books & travel: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers A...
A welcome home poster that my friends Allison and Lauren made for me upon my return from my first travel adventure in high school, a People to People excursion in France and England. Still hangs on t...
I don’t think I’d ever been to a green house before. Green houses aren’t really “travel destinations.” But for whatever reason, when I opened up my Lisbon Card info pack...
“As soon as anyone starts telling you to be ‘realistic,’ cross that person off your invitation list.” John Eliot Tagged: inspirational quotes, paddle boats, prague photos, t...
2012: I think I’m setting you up to fail. I’m starting off January with the following awesome itinerary, and there is absolutely no way that the rest of the year can compete with it: Toda...
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Jonathan Safran Foer “I imagined dozens of homes, some were magical (a clock tower with a stopped clock in a city where time stood still), some were mundane ...
[This is my 201o New Years post. I am reposting it because other than the fact that I now live in Chicago, not much has changed. After my trip to Europe, I am going back to Chicago with no job and no...
Last week my sister took one look at these pictures and sighed. “You are so hipster,” she informed me. A few minutes ago she walked into the room, read that on my screen, and confirmed. T...
1. Jump off the train and cough. You have forgotten what fresh air feels like. 2. Take a shower. A long shower. Shower for so long that you can sense the scowls of conservationists across the world. ...
Later this afternoon, my train from Chicago, IL to Portland, OR will set off. My bags are haphazardly packed. I have checked my purse at least a dozen times within 2 minutes to make sure my passport ...
I have spent more time than is necessary clicking on every “Traveler’s Wish List” that pops up on Twitter. Everyone loves these lists even if they won’t openly admit it —...
When I was studying in France a few summers ago, my class was given a tour of the chapel that Matisse designed for a convent of nuns in the French Riviera. This chapel was meant to show his appreciat...
In January 2011, I moved across the country from Los Angeles to Chicago for no real reason. I had no friends here, no job waiting for me, no concept of winter. Most of my friends were living in Calif...
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman P.D. James “The photograph told Cordelia nothing except, that for one recorded second at least, he had known how to be happy.” “Cordelia enjoyed clothe...
I love the Olympics. I want to go. That won’t be happening this summer, and so I am pouting. When I pout I often find myself on Google image search looking up whatever it is I can’t have,...
*part of the Memorize Earth series I’m a looker. I don’t mean that as in, “wow, that girl’s a looker!” but more like “wow, that girl looks at things a lot.” ...
I want a giraffe. [cartoon via The New Yorker] Tagged: giraffes, the new yorker
My efforts to improve my French language skills have finally coincided with the hobbies I’ve mastered during my unemployment — specifically, with the hobby I like to call “eating my...
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