Note: I wrote this December 24. Just a little late putting it online. Read as though it’s last week. 🙂 I arrived to a stormy Portugal. Clouds and rain continued with little interruption for 3 days straight. Three days passed so quickly, yet felt like much more time than it was. I explored Lisbon (as…
A neighbor and I decide to venture out for a drink at Gladys’, a neighborhood… “bar” (it’s really a small shack of a store with a table, chairs, and beer) whose owner is Gladys. She’s closed so we turn back and walk to the next shop-with-alcohol, just a little ways down the street. We notice…
Just like any international educator, now that I’m all set in my apartment, school has started, and I have some free time, the first thing I do is look at flights for my first holiday! I search “anywhere” during the dates of my weeklong October break and begin exploring the nearby options (and not-so-nearby options…
I’ve been in Accra, Ghana for 3 full days now. It’s the cool season so it’s only about 30C daily… yeah. Except for a little uncomfortable daytime sweating, the weather really is quite lovely. There’ve been a few clouds and threats of rain, but I’ve yet to see rain (I think it’s the rainy season…
I wrote this shortly after my return… but never posted it. Tomorrow I’ll tell you how I feel now – almost three months later – with regards to “fitting in”. I’ve been “home” for about 2 weeks now, and it’s been quite a ride. I’m adjusting to wonderful things like people always holding doors for…
I thought it’d be really cool to document my transition back into the western world, into my home city and country. Then weeks went by, and I hadn’t blogged. And more weeks went by – still blog-less. And here we are, almost 3 months post touchdown, and I still haven’t taken action. I’ve had ideas,…
There is a space in the world where I belong, where I’m not weird, where I’m challenged to grow, to question, to be not what I’m told to be but rather what I will become. There is a space in the world where adventure awaits, each day is unknown, anything is possible. A place where…
I found the Colombian Starbucks. It’s called Juan Valdez and, while it’s a lovely spot with nice spaces for working and socializing, I dislike it for the same reason I dislike Starbucks: They’re wasteful. Oh, so wasteful! Unless otherwise requested, these cafes serve every.single.coffee in a disposable cup. They serve every.single.snack on a disposable plate.…
I had this thought yesterday that, when I was in school, I felt like I should study but actually, I wanted to do anything else. Isn’t that the way life is? You should study. You should work. You should do that thing that’s responsible but you don’t actually want to do. These days, all I want to do is…
Medellin, Colombia is often judged for its history. Shared here are 8 reasons Medellin is a modern city with a good quality of life for its citizens, and why it should be your next travel destination!
Drinking beer and blowing up little packets of gunpowder. Could you ask for a better night, playing the local national sport?
The sun shines, light clouds set on a bright blue sky. I take my sweater because, “Oh, Mother Nature, you can’t trick me this time!” I know this is a tease, those clouds aren’t far away. I head out, sweater in hand. I go to my favorite cafe. And today, I realize that the baristas…
I don’t know when it started. Could have been when one of my students asked if he could stay in during recess to practice “Scratch” (a simplified coding program intended for kids) and I saw how much fun he was having. It could have been when I met a guy who was doing freelance programming…
I’ve been busy. I began to write this a few weeks ago, when I first arrived in Colombia: Colombia – the only South American country to border both Atlantic and Pacific coasts – have proven itself to be a lovely country thus far! Well, I guess it’s really just the city of Cartagena so far,…
Yesterday and the day before, I went to the same cafe, around the same time. I liked their atmosphere, the sturdy table, the big open doors and airflow, the people-watching and lack of people bothering me. I liked that people would come and go, but the place was never crowded, never uncomfortable. Here, my brain-hampster…
WanderLaur 