Pottery for Pets
I woke up the next morning with my heart fluttering. It was the first day of my pottery retreat. I threw on older clothes I didn’t mind getting dirty with clay and hurried outside. I hadn’t really seen the courtyard the night before. We arrived after dark, when little was […]
First Lesson. Rishton.
It was late evening, and we had just arrived at the pottery studio of one of the most famous ceramic artists in Uzbekistan. We were exhausted and sweaty and weren’t sure if our long day of travel was over or if we would now need to look for alternative accommodation. […]
Getting There. Rishton.
I’ve been talking about doing a pottery retreat for a long time – somewhere I can learn new skills, work with different types of clay and glazing techniques, get some fresh ideas for my craft. It was always “one day” and “wouldn’t it be cool” type of idea. I might […]
A Long-Overdue Affair: The Wisconsin State Fair
Last year, it finally happened. I went to the Wisconsin State Fair! Although I had lived in the state for over a decade, for whatever reason, I’d never made it to the festival grounds in West Allis until last year. Ironically, it took me to move out of Wisconsin to […]
Chicago: Keeping the Blues Alive
Today is a special day in Chicago: Buddy Guy celebrates his 90th birthday. Although we are currently busy writing posts about Uzbekistan, this milestone-and America’s 250th year-makes it the perfect moment to celebrate one of the country’s greatest musical traditions: the blues. At his birthday bashes, Buddy Guy usually tells […]
Mind The Gap: The Gap of Dunloe
After so many years of traveling, I know how to spot a problem in the itinerary. “Let’s talk about the Gap of Dunloe hike,” I said to Victor. “We have three hours to hike 11 kilometers through a mountain pass? Exactly three hours or we miss the boat that takes […]
Pub-Hopping, Pub-Crawling, Pub-Learning: The Truly Irish Experience
Although we repeat that we rarely drink, we finished almost every day of our recent trip to Ireland in a pub. We drank in pubs, we danced in pubs, and once we even slept above a pub. Our travel philosophy of adapting to the customs of the place we visit-and […]
All Aboard the Coffin Ship!
We stood in the queue at the Embarkation area, clutching our boarding passes. Through the windows, we could see Dunbrody, a three-masted sailing vessel, moored at the quayside, its wooden sides gleaming in the sun. A woman, dressed in a dark shawl and clutching a large bag, rushed past us, […]
In The Skies Above Medellin
On our final full day in Medellín, we met the car and the driver at the trendy El Poblado neighborhood, as scheduled. We got there early enough to eat breakfast and for Victor to buy a few bags of coffee beans at Pergamino Coffee Shop. As we climbed into the […]
Un Poquito De Español
Start with Part I: Why I Decided To Learn Spanish. While in Guatemala, we came across numerous schools where visitors can stay with a local family and take Spanish classes for 4-5 hours a day. These immersion programs are popular with foreigners, allowing people to learn or improve their Spanish. […]
No Hablo Español
When I was 22 years old, I made an unusual promise to myself. I decided that by the time I turned 40, I would speak Spanish. I don’t know why I made this promise. At that time, Spanish was irrelevant in my life. I had no exposure to the language […]