Category: Uncategorized
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We’re about to finish two weeks of our first-ever Workaway stint. A German/English couple are hosting us in southern France, in exchange for 25 hours or work per week. We pointed three old stone walls, sanded and painted a large ceiling, weeded their garden, burned the remains, and we helped with changeover service for their holiday cottages. The work is often demanding.…
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Originally published on August 19, 2016. I’m re-publishing posts I’d had on this blog that, due to some glitch of the internet, got scrubbed. No editing has been done. “People love to talk about how ‘life-changing’ studying abroad is,” Kalindi said. Her long fingers curled into air quotes around the idea of life-changing to emphasize her disdain. “But I don’t…
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Originally published on August 3, 2016. I’m re-publishing posts I’d had on this blog that, due to some glitch of the internet, got scrubbed. No editing has been done. Paris is beautiful. It’s wonderful, romantic, exciting, and delicious. It’s also really hard. I didn’t expect that. I’ve been to Paris several times before. When Mike and I planned…
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Originally published on July 29, 2016. I’m re-publishing posts I’d had on this blog that, due to some glitch of the internet, got scrubbed. No editing has been done. We were tourists in Iceland. In Ireland we became travelers. We were devouring our breakfast in the weak Dublin sunshine when I first wondered if we counted as…
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Originally published on July 19, 2016. I’m re-publishing posts I’d had on this blog that, due to some glitch of the internet, got scrubbed. No editing has been done. Dramatic, sweeping vistas of volcanic rock fill your vision as you hike through the Icelandic hills. You turn a corner to discover the wild luxury of a geothermal…
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Originally published on July 17, 2016. I’m re-publishing posts I’d had on this blog that, due to some glitch of the internet, got scrubbed. No editing has been done. We were drunk on the magic of the plains. That’s the only way to explain why we ignored all the warnings. Mike and I spent the first morning…
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Originally published on July 2, 2016. I’m re-publishing posts I’d had on this blog that, due to some glitch of the internet, got scrubbed. No editing has been done. It’s here, it’s finally begun! The next chapter that Mike and I have been planning, our big step into The Rest of Our Lives. We’re choosing the Pacific…
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Originally published on May 16, 2016. I’m re-publishing posts I’d had on this blog that, due to some glitch of the internet, got scrubbed. No editing has been done. Anywhere but the middle. When I was applying to colleges, that was my one rule. I looked at small east coast schools, big California schools, but nothing in…
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Originally published on January 25, 2016. I’m re-publishing posts I’d had on this blog that, due to some glitch of the internet, got scrubbed. No editing has been done. There were a lot of reasons I was going 100 mph that waning summer night. It was a bucket list moment. But that’s not why I…
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I first met my grandfather at his funeral. I stood in the airy white Minnesotan church, uncomfortable in my funeral clothing and my surroundings as a minister led hymns I didn’t know, about faiths I don’t share. Once we were young and warriors. Once our wings beat strong to carry us to the high places…
Once 