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 […]

Cambodia and Thailand – Us vs. Monkeys of the World

By Julia / February 21, 2019

Everywhere in Cambodia, whether it’s the temples of Angkor, the caves of Kampot, or the countryside of Battambang, if you see tourists gathering with cameras while the locals are rolling their eyes, it can only mean one thing – monkeys.  Macaques are cute and photogenic.  They are also vicious assholes […]

Cambodia – How to Cross the Street and Live

By Julia / February 19, 2019

On our first morning in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, we were standing on the corner of a busy intersection, unsure of how to cross.  The interweaving flow of scooters, bicycles, motorcycles, cars, tuk-tuks, and occasional trucks never slowed and never stopped.   There were no marked lanes, they didn’t […]

Cambodia – Cooking Class, Insects, and Vegetarians

By Victor / February 17, 2019

To avoid being “templed out”, we split our three-day Angkor Wat pass into four days.  Two days of temple visits, one day of rest, and the last day of temple visits again.  On the day of rest, we decided to take a Cambodian cooking class that included a market visit […]

Cambodia – Table Manners

By Julia / February 16, 2019

A week after traveling Cambodia and trying every Cambodian dish we found (except fertilized boiled eggs, we could not bring ourselves to eat duck embryo in an eggshell), I suddenly looked around and asked, “Why do all restaurants have forks and spoons on the tables, in addition to chopsticks?  This […]

Cambodia – Highlights

By Victor / February 14, 2019

We didn’t know what to expect from Cambodia.  We haven’t met other travelers who have been to Cambodia (outside of Seam Reap) and didn’t know what to prepare ourselves for.  Was it going to be just like Thailand, and we would spend two weeks in a perpetual state of deja […]

Cambodia – The Way We Travel

By Julia / February 13, 2019

I was lounging in a round wicker chair in a pretty courtyard of our little guesthouse in the middle of Seam Reap, chatting with our charming young hostess, Fara. “So, where are you going after this?” asked Fara, with only slight traces of a Cambodian accent in her fluent English. […]

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